Mormon Hate of 19th Century U.S. Presidents
Note: Brigham Young proclaimed that President Pierce and Mormons were both alike in that they were devious.
I understand that New York is yet standing in the same place, also the
cities of Philadelphia and Washington still flourish, also the old Bay
States, with the Northern, Southern, and Western States, are all there
yet, and Franklin Pierce is President of them. That we guessed would be
the case, last year. But if the Whigs had had half the cunning that men
have here, they would have beaten that party, and Franklin Pierce would
not have been President; but they do not know enough. JD 1:109, Brigham
Young, May 8, 1853
Note: Brigham Young proclaimed that President Zachary Taylor was damned and in hell.
When a man professes to be my friend, and the friend of this people, he
will take my counsel, instead of stirring up strife, and practising
iniquity. I dislike the wilfully corrupt, and by and bye I will come
out thunder-like, as I have done upon others when practising iniquity;
and as I did upon a certain individual when he made his glorious
speech, and insulted this people, from the highest to the lowest. I
chastised him, and he ran off and reported as my sayings those which I
did not say. It was told him, while he was on the plains, that
President Zachary Taylor was dead and damned, and it has gone through
the States, from side to side, that I said so. It was first given out
that the "Mormons" said so, and then that Brigham said so; well, I
backed it up, because I knew it was true. I have just as good a right
to say that President Taylor is in hell, as to say that any other
miserable sinner is there. Was he any more than flesh and blood? I have
as good a right to canvass him in a religious point of view, as I have
to canvass the peasant upon the dung-hill. He has gone there, and so
have many others; and the Lord Almighty is removing the bitter
branches, as foretold in the Book of Mormon. JD 2:183, Brigham Young,
February 18, 1855
Note: Brigham Young became nervous about Mormon depredations becoming public.
What is now the news circulated throughout the United States? That
Captain Gunnison was killed by Brigham Young, and that Babbitt was
killed on the Plains by Brigham Young and his Danite band. What more?
That Brigham Young has killed all the men who have died between the
Missouri river and California. I do not say that President Buchanan has
any such idea, or the officers of the troops who are reported to be on
their way here; but such are the newspaper stories. Such reports are in
the bellows, and editors and politicians are blowing them out. JD 5:78,
Brigham Young, July 26, 1857
Note: United States troops were sent to restore law and order to the Utah Territory.
Well, do I suppose, when I reflect, that troops are being sent here
without President Buchanan's permission? No, not for a moment: he has
permitted it. We are a poor, isolated people, driven over one thousand
miles from our native land, and many of us have been driven and broken
up five times; and he and his coadjutors have acknowledged it and have
said pointedly there could nothing be done for us as a community: and
here we are, after sending forth our men, the Elders of Israel, and
redeeming this land from Mexico. They are now designing to come with
troops to break us up and to kill our Prophets, and our Apostles, and
our Elders. JD 5:131, Heber C. Kimball, August 2, 1857
Note: Mormons hated President Zachary Taylor with a passion.
God knew that Zachary Taylor would strike against us, and He sent him
to hell. President Fillmore was the next man who came on the platform,
and he did us good. God bless him! Then came President Pierce, and he
did not strive to injure us. We hoped that the next after him would do
us justice; but he has issued orders to send troops to kill brother
Brigham and me, and to take the young women to the States. JD 5:133,
Heber C. Kimball, August 2, 1857
Note: President Martin Van Buren did not know about provocative Mormon scripture such as D&C 52:42.
Who are the transgressors? Are we? Martin Van Buren, the then President
of the United States, acknowledged the injustice done to us when he
said, "Your cause is just, but we can do nothing for you." And we
endured it. JD 5:151, John Taylor, August 23, 1857
Note: Mormons hated President James Buchanan for having restored some order to Utah.
Uncle Sam - I won't call him uncle - he is likely man, but his children
have degenerated most awfully; and one of his sons who sits in the
chair of state, Mr. Buchanan, is most awfully adulterated and sunk in
degradation, that he would permit an army of 2,500 or 3,000 men to come
here to enforce officers upon us contrary to the Constitution, and to
enforce a Governor upon us, when we have got one of our own choosing.
JD 5:174, Heber C. Kimball, August 23, 1857
Note: Brigham Young inflamed Mormons to murder culminating in the Mountain Meadows Massacre less than a week later.
I will say, in reference to President Buchanan, that, for his
outrageous wickedness in this movement, he shall wear the yoke as long
as he lives; he shall be led about by his party with the yoke on his
neck, until they have accomplished their ends, and he can do no more
for them; and his name shall be forgotten; and "Old Bright," as brother
Kimball calls him, shall be free. I am persuaded that for their
horrible, wicked treatment to this people - the only loyal people in
the United States - the only people who know the worth of the
Constitution - they will be sorely punished. JD 5:212, Brigham Young,
September 6th, 1857
Note: Mormon hierarchy had turned Mormons into murderous religious fanatics.
I have said for years that never - no, never again will I be subject to
such cursed scoundrels as the United States Government have sent here
as officers. I say, in the name of Israel's God, I will not. [Voices:
"Amen."] James Buchanan now occupies the chair of state. He and his
counsellors, his coadjutors, his cabinet, and Congress have met and
planned the destruction of this people - of brother Brigham and his
associates in particular; and the priests of the day say amen to it;
and they exhort the people to say amen to it; and the whole people of
the United States are under condemnation. They consented to the death
of Joseph, Hyrum, David, Parley, and lots of men, women, and children.
The ground is planted with men, women, and children, from Nauvoo to
this place; and the world have consented to it, and they say it is
just. The Government, the President, the heads of the military
departments and of all the governmental affairs have consented to these
things. JD 5:253, Heber C. Kimball, September 20, 1857
Note: Mormon hierarchy made numerous false statements during this period.
Mr. Buchanan and his coadjutors are striving to oppress Utah and
deprive us of our constitutional rights. They have taken the Eastern
mail from us, and they will endeavour to take away everything they have
given us, and will make their heaviest efforts to destroy this people.
But if this community will entirely cease to do any evil and will
unitedly live their religion, God Almighty will so confound their
enemies that they cannot bring an army into this country. He will do
that, if you will do as you are told. JD 5:277, Heber C. Kimball,
September 27, 1857
Note: Wilford Woodruff was a false prophet since the United States was not destroyed.
Would President Buchanan have sent an army here to lay a foundation for
our destruction, if the eyes of his understanding had not been
darkened? No. If he had been enlightened by the Holy Spirit and could
have foreseen the reward he will meet, he would sooner have suffered
his blood to have been spilled; and it would have been better for him.
The nation does not know what they are doing, not comprehend the
fearful results of the course they are pursuing. They are turning the
last key to rend the nation asunder, and they will be broken as a
potter's vessel, and cast down as a nation, to rise no more forever.
For whenever the rulers of any nation trample their own constitution
and laws under foot, and oppress and destroy the weak, because they
have the power and the people love to have it so, they sow the seeds of
their own dissolution, and the will reap their own destruction. JD
6:121, Wilford Woodruff, December 6, 1857
Note: Joseph Smith was a false prophet as the end of the world did not occur beginning with South Carolina.
On the 25th day of December, 1832, the Lord spoke to Joseph Smith, and
said - "Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars that will
shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion of South Carolina,
which will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls.
The days will come that war will be poured out upon all nations,
beginning at that place." The Democratic party found it necessary to
call a convention of delegates to nominate a successor to President
Buchanan. No place but Charleston, South Carolina, could be agreed upon
as the place for that body to assemble in. A most unlikely place,
indeed! - entirely out of the political centre - a small town of about
twenty or twenty-five thousand white inhabitants, accommodations very
limited for such a body of men, and at a half-dozen prices. But to
South Carolina they must go; for the prophecy, twenty-seven years
before, said that the serious troubles of the land should begin at that
place. The Democratic party of administration fell upon that stone of
present revelation, and, according to our Saviour's words, they must be
broken. They had to go to Charleston to break. They did go there, and
there they did break into several pieces - split asunder. It was said
by the ancient Prophet - "Out of Egypt have I called my son." Joseph
and Mary took the young child by night and fled into Egypt to elude the
cruelty of Herod, and God called his son out of Egypt. It was
necessary, equally, that the Democratic party go to South Carolina,
being urged there by a silent prophetic influence; and though they had
hearts to understand, they understood it not. They had eyes to see, but
they saw it not. There they broke - there the trouble began, "which
will eventually terminate in the death and misery of many souls." They
sent their army to fall upon this stone – to fall upon God and upon his
people and upon their policy. They sent their corrupting influence –
their demoralizing principles and practices - among us; and God will
make the nation heirs to the penalty for all these offences. "It must
needs be that offences come," but God grant us grace that we may endure
manfully to the end. JD 8:236, Orson Hyde, October 7, 1860
Note: The Mormon Battalion was the means for Brigham Young to eliminate extra men and be paid for their services.
Did Thomas H. Benton aid in gathering the Saints? Yes, he was the
mainspring and action of governments in driving us into these
mountains. He obtained orders from President Polk to summon the militia
of Missouri, and destroy every "Mormon" man, woman, and child, unless
they turned out five hundred men to fight the battles of the United
States in Mexico. He said that we were aliens to the Government, and to
prove it he said - "Mr. President, make a requisition on that camp for
five hundred men, and I will prove to you that they are traitors to our
Government." We turned out the men, and many of them are before me
to-day; among whom is father Pettigrew - a man that ought to have been
asked into the Cabinet to give the President counsel; but they asked
him to travel on foot across the Plains to fight our country's battles
against Mexico. We turned out the men, and Mr. Benton was disappointed.
He went to his grave in disgrace, and shame covered him. Was he a man
of influence in his last days - in the latter portion of his career in
public life? When he could not be President, nor be returned again to
the Senate, after much exertion he succeeded in being elected a member
of the House of Representatives, and at the close of his public career,
because the hands of the clock in the Representatives Hall were turned
back, and the hands of his watch did not agree with it when at twelve
o'clock, said he, "Mr. Speaker, I am not a member of this legislative
body." The Speaker said, "Sergeant-at-Arms, show that gentleman to the
door," and there was scarcely a man in the House that so much as turned
his eyes to look. The ground he walked on was disgraced by step, and
his acquaintances shunned him: and so it will be with others. JD 8:336,
Brigham Young, February 17, 1861
Note: Brigham Young lied for years about the Mormon Battalion in published sermons.
Delegate Berahisel, in a letter to President Fillmore (December 1,
1851), replying to a charge by Judge Brocchus that the 24th of July
orators had complained of the conduct of the government in taking the
Battalion from them for service against Mexico, said, "The government
did not take from us a battalion of men, the Mormons furnishing them in
response to a call for volunteers. " Aside from the opportunity
afforded by General Kearney's invitation to send a pioneer band,
without expense to themselves, to the Pacific coast, the offer gave the
Mormons great, and greatly needed, pecuniary assistance. P. P. Pratt,
on his way East to visit England with Taylor and Hyde, found the
Battalion at Fort Leavenworth, and was sent back to the camp with
between $5000 and $6000, a part of the Battalion's government
allowance. This was a godsend where cash was so scarce, as it enabled
the commissary officers to make purchases in St. Louis, where prices
were much lower than in western Iowa. John Taylor, in a letter to the
Saints in Great Britain on arriving there, quoted the acceptance of
this Battalion as evidence that "the President of the United States is
favorably disposed to us," and said that their employment in the army,
as there was no prospect of any fighting, "amounts to the same as
paying them for going where they were destined to go without."
Millennial Star, Vol. VIII, p. 117
Note: Brigham Young thought Breckenridge was a better choice for president than Abraham Lincoln.
What will Abraham do? King James says that if Mr. Lincoln takes the
oath of office, and enters into the administration of the Government
with as great pleasure as he resigns his official duties, he will be a
happy man. If I could advise King James, and have him take my counsel,
it would be to resign tomorrow morning, and let Mr. Breckenridge be
crowned king for three weeks, that another king might come before King
Abraham to see what the administration of that king would be. I do not
know of anything better that I could advise him. JD 8:324, Brigham
Young, February 10, 1861
Note: Brigham Young proclaimed that Abraham Lincoln was a corrupt man filled with iniquity.
Our present President, what is his strength? It is like a rope of sand,
or like a rope made of water. He is as weak as water. What can he do?
Very little. Has he power to execute the laws? No. I am an
American-born citizen - born under the Green Mountains in Vermont, from
whose summits you can look down upon the Atlantic States; and I feel
chagrined and mortified when I reflect upon the condition of my nation.
Of late, at times, I have almost wished that I had been born in a
foreign nation. I feel disgraced in having been born under a government
that has so little power, disposition, and influence for truth and
right; but I cannot help it. What is the cause of their weakness and
imbecility? They have left the paths of truth and virtue, they have
joined themselves to falsehood, they have made lies their refuge, they
have turned aside the innocent from their rights, and justified the
iniquitous doers. They have justified thieving and lying and every
species of debauchery; they have fostered those who have purloined
money out of the public treasury - those who have plundered the coffers
of the people, and have said, "Let it be so; you secrete my faults, you
assist me to plunder and deceive, and I am with you to cover up your
iniquity." Shame, shame on the rulers of the nation! I feel myself
disgraced to hail such men as my countrymen, though I think I shall
live through it. I will endure it as well as I can; but the corruption,
the iniquity, and the deception of men in high places no man can tell.
JD 9:4, Brigham Young, April 6, 1861
Note: Mormon hierarchy proclaimed that Abraham Lincoln was a stooge of religious leaders.
Now I will put the text together. The religious and political
organizations of the country. Abe Lincoln, the present President of the
United States, that was - at any rate he occupies the seat and claims
the title, and presides over a portion of the Union at Washington in
name, - this man is the representative of the religious enthusiasm of
the country. For the last thirty years there has been a constant
stirring up and firm exertion on the part of the North to get up a
crusade against slavery - to make the men who live in the Southern
States turn over their slaves. I was raised in the State of New York,
and recollect the early movements in this matter. At that time a great
many men held slaves. We drove our slaves to Virginia and sold them for
the money, and got full pay. We immediately began to feel sorry for
them, and began to feel that it was very wicked to keep negroes, seeing
we had got the money for ours. Our State was free from slavery, and we
desired all the Virginians to turn their negroes loose. We grew more
and more conscientious about it. The pulpit took the lead - the Sunday
schools and every other religious influence that could be brought to
bear. Mr. Lincoln now is put into power by that priestly influence; and
the presumption is, should he not find his hands full by the secession
of the Southern States, the spirit of priestcraft would force him, in
spite of his good wishes and intentions, to put to death, if it was in
his power, every man that believes in the divine mission of Joseph
Smith, or that bears testimony of the doctrines he preached. JD 9:18,
George Albert Smith, April 6, 1861
Note: President James Polk failed in his mission to curtail Mormon religious fanaticism.
When James K. Polk, President of the United States, was told that the
"Mormons" had occupied the Great Basin, and were making settlements on
the borders of the Great Salt Lake, "Why," said he, "that is the key of
the continent." When the wisdom of the venerable Senator, the late
Secretary Cass, was brought into requisition on the subject, "What
shall we do with the Mormons?" said he. "Send a small army among them,
under the command of an intelligent officer; send good-looking,
companionable, sociable officers, and a few strong-minded women; yes,
send men who are calculated to win away their females, and thus
civilize them, by introducing among them habits of modern Christian
civilization; and in a short time you will reduce them to the necessity
of being satisfied with one wife." Colonel Steptoe was sent here to
fulfill that mission with the gentlemanly officers and soldiers who
composed his command. The object of their errand, however, was not
accomplished. JD 9:111, George Albert Smith, September 10, 1861
Note: President Abraham Lincoln proved Joseph Smith and Brigham Young to be false prophets by saving the Union.
In a correspondence between Mr. Greeley, of New York, and the
President, Mr. Lincoln declared it was his intention to do everything
in his power that he thought would save the Union. This was very just
and correct in him, but has his course invariably tended to save the
Union? Time will show. There is no man can see, unless he sees by the
gift and power of revelation, that every move that has been made by the
Government has been made to fulfil the sayings of Joseph Smith the
Prophet, and all earth and hell cannot help it. The wedge to divide the
Union was entered in South Carolina, and all the power of the
Government could not prevent it. The Lord spoke to Joseph Smith, on the
25th day of December, 1832, as follows: - "Verily thus saith the Lord,
concerning the wars that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the
rebellion of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the
death and misery of many souls. The days will come that war will be
poured out upon all nations, beginning at that place; for, behold, the
Southern States shall be divided against the Northern States, and the
Southern States will call on other nations, even the nation of Great
Britain, as it is called, and they shall also call upon other nations,
in order to defend themselves against other nations; and thus war shall
be poured out upon all nations," &c. The wickedness of the wicked
is onward and downward, while the righteousness of the righteous is
onward and upward. Light and darkness, or in other words, right and
wrong are with us, and men choose darkness rather than light, wrong
rather than right. This is their condemnation. They despise the truth
and those who will declare it. JD 9:367, Brigham Young, August 31, 1862
Note: Brigham Young was a traitor to the United States of America during the Civil War.
After all this, to prove our loyalty to the Constitution and not to
their infernal meanness, we went to fight the battles of a free country
to give it power and influence, and to extend our happy institutions in
other parts of this widely extended republic. In this way we have
proved our loyalty. We have done everything that has been required of
us. Can there anything reasonable and constitutional be asked that we
would not perform? No. But if the Government of the United States
should now ask for a battalion of men to fight in the present
battle-fields of the nation, while there is a camp of soldiers from
abroad located within the corporate limits of this city, I would not
ask one man to go; I would see them in hell first. What was the result
a year ago, when our then Governor, and I thank God for such a Governor
as we had a year ago, called for men to go and guard the mail route?
Were they promptly on hand? Yes, and when President Lincoln wrote to me
requesting me to fit out one hundred men to guard the mail route, we at
once enlisted the one hundred men for ninety days. On Monday evening I
received the instruction, and on Wednesday afternoon that hundred men
were mustered into service and encamped ready for moving. But all this
does not prove any loyalty to political tyrants. JD 10:106 - p.107,
Brigham Young, March 8, 1863
Note: Brigham Young was a racist who hated Abraham Lincoln for freeing the slaves.
The rank, rabid abolitionists, whom I call black-hearted Republicans,
have set the whole national fabric on fire. Do you know this,
Democrats? They have kindled the fire that is raging now from the north
to the south, and from the south to the north. I am no abolitionist,
neither am I a pro-slavery man; I hate some of their principles and
especially some of their conduct, as I do the gates of hell. The
Southerners make the negroes, and the Northerners worship them; this is
all the difference between slaveholders and abolitionists. I would like
the President of the United States and all the world to hear this. JD
10:109, Brigham Young, March 8, 1863
Note: Brigham Young mocked Abraham Lincoln for avoiding the Mormon problem during the Civil War.
Some want to destroy "the twin relics - slavery and polygamy" - and
establish monogamy, with a brothel on every corner of each block in
this city. This reminds me of what I was told the President of the
United States said to a gentleman who is a preacher and a member of
Congress. He took our President to task for not destroying both "the
twins" together, that is, polygamy as well as slavery. After he had
laid the whole matter before the President in an elaborate manner,
showing him the necessity of destroying this people who believed in
polygamy, the President said "It makes me think of a little
circumstance that happened with me in my younger days. I was ploughing
a piece of newly cleared land, by and bye I came to a big log; I could
not plow over it, for it was too high, and it was so heavy I could not
move it out of the way, and so wet I could not burn it; I stood and
looked at it and studied it, and finally concluded to plow around it."
It looks as if they were trying to plow around Mormonism. They and the
Lord for it. JD 10:306, Brigham Young, June 4, 1864
Note: John Taylor was a false prophet who despised Abraham Lincoln for telling the truth.
And when the nation with which we are associated is shaken to its
centre and crumbles to pieces (it is pretty well shaken now,
notwithstanding what our President seems to say about it, that
everything is very prosperous, and that we have more men now than
before the war), notwithstanding all this, it is crumbling and falling,
and it will continue to fall and to crumble, until it is no more, and
by and bye there will be an end of it. JD 11:26, John Taylor, December
11, 1864
Note: John Taylor mocked Abraham Lincoln for avoiding the Mormon problem during the Civil War.
We expect still to continue to progress and to advance in religious
intelligence, in political intelligence; in religious power, and in
political power; we are still expecting to carry out our social
principles, which differ very materially from others. Our marriage
system is different from that of others - of that which is called the
religious world at the present time - the Christian world, if you
please; and this marriage system of ours, at the first sight, appears
to them as it did to us at first sight, the most revolting, perhaps, of
anything that could be conceived of. Whatever others may have thought
about it, I know what was thought about it by those who first embarked
in it. If they could have plowed around the log, according to a
facetious remark of President Lincoln, or burned it, or done anything
else, they would have done it, rather than have entered into it; but
they could not, and they had to take it up as the word of the Lord. It
was not a matter of their own choice; it was the will and the
commandment of the Almighty, for the guidance of his people. In this we
differ materially from others; they think that they are right in their
views, we know that we are right in ours, and therefore we are
satisfied. We expect, then, that these principles that we have
received, and principles that will continue to be imparted unto us by
our Heavenly Father, will spread, and increase, and go forth, and
obtain the pre-eminence and a position among the nations of the earth.
We do not expect that we shall ever be converted to any of their
religious systems, or to any of their social systems. We know what we
have received emanates from God; and knowing that, we stand upon it,
and cleave to it as the rock of ages, knowing that no power under the
heavens is able to overturn it, therefore we stand secure. The Lord has
a design to speak, to instruct, to guide, to direct us in all our
affairs, whether it relates to this world or to the world that is to
come, and we are desirous to be taught of Him, and being taught of Him,
we are then desirous to communicate the intelligence we receive unto
others. JD 11:55, John Taylor, January 18, 1865
Note: Brigham Young proclaimed that all non-Mormon men had mistresses.
Who knows but the time will come when the inquiry will be made in
Washington, by the President, by the Congressmen: "Are things any worse
in Utah than in Washington: than they are in New York? or in any State
of the Union? are they more unvirtuous, are they more disloyal to the
Government? But then there is polygamy." That has nothing in the least
to do with our being loyal or disloyal, one way or the other. But is
not the practice of polygamy a transgression of the law of the United
States? How are we transgressing that law? In no other way than by
obeying a revelation which God has given unto us touching a religious
ordinance of his Church. And the anti-polygamy law has yet to be
tested, as to its constitutionality by the courts which have
jurisdiction. By and by men will appear in the departments of the
Government who will inquire into the validity of some laws and question
their constitutionality. Marriage is a civil contract. You might as
well make a law to say how many children a man shall have, as to make a
law to say how many wives he shall have. It would be as sensible to
make a law to say how many horses or oxen he shall possess, or how many
cows his wife shall milk. If a woman wants to live with me as a wife,
all right; but the law says you must not marry her, and own her as your
wife openly. As the law stands, she can come home to me, not as my
wife, you know; she can sweep my house, make my bed, help me to make
the butter and cheese, and share in all my pleasure and wealth, but the
ceremony of marriage must not be performed. This is what is practiced
in the outside world from the President in his chair to the lowest
dog-whipper on the street that has means to obtain. They have their
mistresses, and thereby violate every principle of virtue, chastity and
righteousness. JD 11:270, Brigham Young, August 19, 1866
Note: Everyone realized that Mormonism was extreme religious fanaticism.
As soon as the Saints were all expelled from Missouri, Joseph Smith
went to Washington and laid the grievances of the people before the
President and Congress of the United States. Mr. Van Buren said, "Your
cause is just, but we can do nothing for you." Mr. Clay, when appealed
to, said we "had better go to Oregon." Mr. Calhoun informed Mr. Smith
it would involve the question of State rights, and was a dangerous
question, and it would not do to agitate it. Mr. Cass, as chairman of
the Senate committee, to which the petition was referred, reported that
Congress had no business with it. JD 13:109, George Albert Smith,
October 8 & 9, 1868
Note: The Governor of Arkansas did not want Mormon religious fanaticism to be in his state.
That they might not act hastily nor unadvisedly, a committee of
Latter-day Saints prepared a petition and sent it to the Governor of
every State in the Union, except the Governor of Missouri, and also to
the President of the United States, asking them for an asylum, and to
afford them that protection which was extended to other religious
bodies. All the States, except one, treated their application with
silence. Governor Drew, of Arkansas, wrote them a respectful letter, in
which he advised them to seek a home in Oregon.
The following reply was received from Governor Drew: -
"Executive Office, Little Rock, Ark., May 27, 1845.
"Hon. Brigham Young, President of the Committee of Twelve of Christ's Church of Latter-day Saints at Nauvoo, Ill.
"Sir, - Your letter of the 1st inst. has been received, and claims my
earnest attention. I must acknowledge my inability to serve your people
by calling an extra Session of the General Assembly of this State for
the object contemplated. And although I do not know that prejudice
against your tenets in Arkansas would weigh aught against the action of
that body, in refusing to furnish within our borders an asylum from the
oppression of which you so sorely complain; yet I am sure that
representatives of the people would long hesitate to extend to any
class of citizens exclusive privileges, however innocent their motives,
aims, objects or actions might appear, when the prospects of collision,
from causes of which in your case I know nothing, appear so evident
from the two very recent manifestations presented in the States of
Missouri and Illinois. I have no doubt Illinois, prompted by the
kindest of sympathies for your people in the late struggle and
overthrow they encountered in Missouri, extended a liberal helping
hand, but to repent her supposed folly. Could Arkansas, after
witnessing the same scene reenacted in Illinois, calculate on anything
short of a like catastrophe? JD 13:80, George Albert Smith, June 20,
1869
Note: The Mormon Gospel was centered upon polygamy by taking Old Testament Scripture out of context.
There can be no doubt that many men in those days were compelled to be
polygamists in the fulfilment of this law, for any man who would not
take the childless wife of a deceased brother and marry her, would come
under the tremendous curse recorded in the book of Deuteronomy, and all
the people would be obliged to sanction the curse, because he would not
obey the law of God and become a polygamist. They were not all
Congressmen in those days, nor Presidents, nor Presbyterians, nor
Methodists, nor Roman Catholics; but they were the people of God,
governed by divine law, and were commanded to be polygamists; not
merely suffered to be so, but actually commanded to be. JD 13:190,
Orson Pratt, October 7, 1869
Note: Orson Pratt was a false prophet since the LDS church is not based in Jackson County, Missouri.
Does this look like justice? Is this even-handed justice? It does not
seem to agree with my ideas of justice any more than the proceedings of
the mobocrats in Missouri, Ohio or Illinois. When, therefore, the
American nation, as a nation, by the voice of her Representatives,
Senators and President, sanctions a law to deprive American citizens of
their citizenship, to rob them of their houses and lands, and then
deprive them of their liberty, because of a difference of religious
belief and practice, I think the nation is pretty well ripened, and
that it will not take much more to prepare them for the fulfillment of
the prophecies which I have been repeating. I do not know how
long-suffering the Lord is. It is a good thing that He has wisdom,
knowledge and understanding, that He is not a human being, or He would
get wrathy and swallow up the people in a moment. It is a good thing
that you and I do not have people to deal with according to our
feelings. God is a long-suffering being. He has fulfilled a great many
things pertaining to this people during forty years past. There are a
great many more to be fulfilled in relation to us, and in relation to
the nation which is persecuting us; but whatever the final result may
be, whether the American Congress pass laws to persecute us or not;
whether they rob us of our houses and lands or not; whether they
imprison us and send us for five years to a Penitentiary or a military
camp or not, there is one thing sure - as sure as the sun shines forth
in yonder heavens, so sure will the Lord fulfill one thing with regard
to this people. What is that? He will return them to Jackson county,
and in the western part of the State of Missouri they will build up a
city which shall be called Zion, which will be the head-quarters of
this Latter-day Saint Church; and that will be the place where the
prophets, apostles and inspired men of God will have their
head-quarters. It will be the place where the Lord God will manifest
Himself to His people, as He has promised in the Scriptures, as well as
in modern revelation. JD 13:138, Orson Pratt, April 10, 1870
Note: Brigham Young was in open rebellion to the Morrill Act signed into law by Abraham Lincoln.
The inquiry among many, and especially among our political friends, is,
"What are you going to do? Are you going to observe the law against
plurality of wives, or are you going to obey the revelation?" We have
obeyed the revelation thus far, and still live; that I can say, and
perhaps that is enough. What do we say about the lawmakers? Go to, ye
legislators, and make a law that every man in this government shall
have one wife. You have just as good a right to do that as to say that
we shall not have two. Let every man have his wife, raise his family,
live virtuously and keep his vows, and our difficulty is at an end. We
say to Congressmen and Presidents, have your wife; and we also say to
every political and financial man the world over, marry the women and
take care of them and save us the trouble. If you do not, we will
gather them up, just as sure as the world. Many destroy life; we save
it; and as we have said, years and years ago, we say now to all, the
day that you will be virtuous and cease your unlawful connections with
the sex, and every man have his wife, and all the inhabitants of this
government observe this rule, we shall have then but one wife apiece;
but we shall save all we can save. The men are the lords of the earth,
and they are more inclined to reject the Gospel than the women. The
women are a great deal more inclined to believe the truth than the men;
they comprehend it more quickly, and they are submissive and easy to
teach, and if we cannot save the men, let us save the women for God's
sake, and do not find fault with us. JD 14:120, Brigham Young, May 21,
1871
Note: Brigham Young despised the laws and presidents of the United States of America.
Speaking of persecutions, neglects, slights and insults, was it an
insult for the President of the United States, after calling upon our
men to redeem this land from a foreign government, which we did, so far
as the whole of Upper California is concerned, for it was acquired by
the Latter-day Saints from the Mexican Government; and over it we
hoisted the American flag, and have maintained it ever since; and then
for our Chief Magistrate to make war upon the people who had actually
added so much to the public domain and placed it under the banner and
flag of their Government, to send an army to waste us away and destroy
us, was it generous? Did it evince brotherly kindness? Was it according
to Christian light? Was it according to the New Testament, the sayings
of the Savior, or the acts of the wise and the good? We leave everybody
to judge. Still they did not do it, no, nor they will not do it either.
JD 14:153, Brigham Young, June 25, 1871
Note: Mormon religious fanatics did as they were told by the LDS hierarchy.
Here is a great bone of contention with regard to political affairs.
The world say "Why do not these Latter-day Saints get up their mass
meetings, and sustain this, that or the other one, and be like other
people in a political point of view?" Why do we not sustain these
advocates who are now in the field, and join, and be one with, some one
or other of the political parties of the country? We have no desire to
do so, that is the reason. If we had the privilege of voting in,
independent of all other people on this land of America, or in the
United States, the man who should serve as president, we should cast
about to find the most suitable man, and he would be the nominee, and
when his name came before the people, every man and woman who had the
privilege of putting their vote in the ballot box would vote for that
man, asking no questions. JD 15:123, Brigham Young, August 11, 1872
Note: Mormon hierarchy proclaimed that President Ulysses Grant should pray for the success of polygamy.
The world have supposed us from the beginning, even very many
honest-hearted men, ignorant of the nature and object of "Mormonism,"
have opposed us. If the vail were lifted one minute from the eyes of
the world, and they could see the things of eternity as they are, there
is not a man living, not excepting our friend brother Newman, or
President Grant, or any other man that breathes, who would not bow down
before God and pray for Brigham Young and the prosperity of this work.
But there is a vail over men's minds. Darkness covers the earth and
gross darkness the minds of the nations, and this is to prove whether
they will or will not walk in the covenant of the Lord. JD 16:36,
Wilford Woodruff, April 7, 1873
Note: Orson Pratt was ignorant of the Constitution that gave Congress the right to regulate the territories.
In other words, Congress should not assume to be the dictator of my
conscience nor of yours. What I mean by this is, that if I am a
minister, Congress, or the President of the United States, has no
right, by virtue of the Constitution, to say how I shall administer the
ordinance of marriage to any couple who may come to me for that
purpose; because I have a conscience in regard to this matter. It is an
ordinance appointed of God; it is a religious ordinance; hence Congress
should not enact a law prescribing, for the people in any part of the
Republic, a certain form in which the ordinance of marriage shall be
administered. Why should they not do this? Because it is a violation of
religious principles, and of that great fundamental principle in the
Constitution of our country which provides that Congress shall make no
law in regard to religious matters that would, in the least degree,
infringe upon the rights of any man or woman in this Republic in regard
to the form of their religion. JD 16:172, Orson Pratt, August 31, 1873
Note: Orson Pratt used a monogamous verse to promote pagan polygamy.
I read here in the last verse of my text "What God has joined together,
let not man put asunder." It will be perceived from this sentence, that
God has something to do in the joining together of male and female;
that is, when it is done according to His mind and will: we will make
that a condition. But we will say that, in all cases under the whole
heavens, where a couple are joined together, and God has anything to do
with it, he does not ask Congress to make a law, nor the President of
the United States to appoint a form, and he will sanction it. No, he
claims the right, and his children claim that God has the privilege, to
prescribe the form or ceremony, and the words to be used; and when that
ceremony is performed by divine authority, we may then say, in the
fullest sense of the term, that they are joined together divinely, and
not by some civil law. JD 16:173, Orson Pratt, August 31, 1873
Note: Orson Pratt proclaimed Christian monogamous people would be in hell.
"But," says this Christian, "I really do not like this; I see this is a
polygamous city. I wonder if there is not some other place for me! I do
not like the company of polygamists. They were hated very badly back
yonder. Congress hated them, the President hated them, the cabinet
hated them, the Priests hated them, and everybody hated them, and I
engendered the same hatred, and I have not got rid of it yet. I wonder
if there is not some other place for me?' Oh yes, there is another
place for you. Without the gates of the city there are dogs, sorcerers,
whoremongers, adulterers and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Now
take your choice, Amen. JD 17:229, Orson Pratt, October 7, 1874
Note: Mormon religious fanatics voted as they were told by their LDS authorities.
One may say, If you undertake to carry out such views of union in
regard to political affairs, you will all vote the same ticket; there
will be no division nor disunion throughout all the Church
organization, and would not such a state of things be antagonistic to
the genius of our American government? Wherein, I would ask, would it
be contrary? Is there any principle connected with our government that
would forbid us, as a people, becoming so united? Does the constitution
of our country in any one particular prohibit American citizens from
uniting and casting a solid vote in favor of any eligible candidate who
may be regularly nominated, say for the position of President of the
United States? I know of no such restriction; there is none. JD 19:334,
Orson Pratt, April 7, 1878
Note: The majority of people in Utah were in poverty owing no taxes except a 10% church tax.
While the eastern states are burdened with debt and groaning under
local taxation, with failures of no mean magnitude occurring
continually, the men not knowing what to do to redeem themselves from
their financial difficulties, Utah Territory, occupies, it may truly be
said, the unique position of being out of debt: no Territorial debt to
speak of, no county debts. Notwithstanding the innumerable temptations
that have existed, and that our officers might have succumbed to we
are, I am happy to say, free from debt, and also the most lightly taxed
community now within the confines of the government. When I mentioned
these facts to President Hayes he remarked: "Your position is certainly
an enviable and unique one." JD 20:3, George Q. Cannon, April 7, 1878
Note: Mormon religious fanaticism kept Utah from becoming a state until 1896.
As to the time when we shall become a state, concerning which
considerable is said by outside parties, as well as by ourselves, it is
difficult at the present time to say anything definite respecting it. I
believe, however, the time will come, and that too before long, when
certain exigencies of a political character will arise that will make
the vote of Utah necessary in deciding national questions, and under
those circumstances it would be important to have Utah as a state. In
fact it is already acknowledged that had Utah been admitted as a state
when Colorado was, that all this difficulty which has occurred
connected with the presidential election would have been entirely
settled; indeed it would not have arisen. This is now conceded. But
this experience comes too late to be of any benefit in correcting the
injustice which we suffered, and to be of any avail in the presidential
contest which is now past; but it may have some effect in the future.
JD 20:33, George Q. Cannon, July 7, 1878
Note: Franklin D. Richards was a racist who despised Abraham Lincoln for freeing the slaves.
Year after year the war raged, till the Southern armies were recruited
by their slaves; the Treasury of the nation was rapidly depleting;
fierce engagements and wasting disease had done their work; and
recruits were enlisted for three years, or till the end of the war, and
President Lincoln, by proclamation, abolished the slavery of several
millions of negroes, not as a political measure, but as a measure
justified by the exigencies of war. I state these facts without any
argument as to whether slavery should be justified, or condemned. Their
great ancestor said they should be servants of servants among their
brethren, making their servitude the fulfilment of prophecy, whether
according to the will of God or not. JD 20:312, Franklin D. Richards,
October 6, 1879
Note: John Taylor compared President Hayes to a heathen pagan.
But there is another feature manifested in this. We notice that King
Darius, the victim of a political plot, was very solicitous for the
welfare of Daniel, for early in the morning he went to the lion's cave
and cried, "O Daniel, is the God in whom thou trusteth able to deliver
thee?" When Daniel replied, "O King, live forever, the God in whom I
trust has sent his angel and has delivered me from the jaws of the
lions," etc. I do not think from the reading of the President's
message, that if any of us were cast into the lion's den or into
prison, that Mr. Hayes would manifest the interest about us that Darius
did about Daniel; but then we must remember this difference, that the
first of these is a Christian; the latter was a heathen. But outside of
these things, I feel to proclaim against the vices of the age, whether
in this nation or others; for we as a nation are fast descending as low
as the most degenerate and corrupt nations of Europe, and are
practising infamies which have been the overthrow and ruin of many
mighty cities, nations and empires, and which are now the loathsome,
unnatural, disgusting, damning sins of Christendom. JD 20:355, John
Taylor, November 30th, 1879
Note: John Taylor was a hypocrite who abused the President but said he didn’t.
But have we resisted anything else? No. Have I? No. Have you? I presume
not. I expect these kind of things - the opposition and corruption of
men and the world, under the instigation of the devil, who is the enemy
of the Saints. What then? Do I expect to give up my religion to the
devil? I think not. What shall we do then? Shall we abuse the people of
the United States? No. Shall we abuse the President of the United
States? No. JD 20:356, John Taylor, November 30, 1879
Note: Wilford Woodruff was a false prophet since Mormon polygamy did not triumph over the United States of America.
And now I desire to bear my testimony. I have no fears, my brethren and
sisters - and I say the same to our nation, to all kings, queens,
emperors, presidents and governments of this world - I have no fears
with regard to "Mormonism," and the ultimate triumph of the kingdom of
God; because the Lord Almighty has said that the nation and kingdom
that will not serve him shall perish and be utterly wasted away. If
this had not been the Zion of God it would not have stood so long as it
has done. This kingdom, however, has not been organized by the power of
man but by the power of God, and whatever God undertakes to do he will
carry out. I have therefore no fear of this kingdom. JD 21:125, Wilford
Woodruff, June 6th, 1880
Note: Erastus Snow was a false prophet since Mormon polygamy did not triumph over the United States of America.
The Gospel has been the means of gathering us out from among the
nations, and has made us a free and happy people, an able and united
commonwealth; and the Lord is using us to establish its principles in
these mountains, that throughout these valleys may be formed a nucleus
around which honorable men and women may gather, men who will be
capable of appreciating the blessings of liberty and of helping to
extend them to others. And all presidents and senators and judges, and
all men in official authority who shall lend themselves and their
influence to trample upon the common rights of man, those rights which
God has bestowed upon us and which are our common heritage, and who
shall be found warring against God and his institutions, when the cup
of their iniquity shall be full, the Lord Almighty will cause them to
disappear from the public gaze, he will let them sink into oblivion and
disgrace. JD 22:154, Erastus Snow, April 4, 1881
Note: Mormon hierarchy proclaimed that President Garfield reaped what he had sowed.
Now, as much as I deplore such acts as that of yesterday, I look upon
it as one of the consequences which must follow. General Garfield, the
President of the United States, innocent of any act which can be
tortured into a justification for a deed of violence, now falls a
victim to this spirit of lawlessness with personal revenge. When men
permit the spirit of mobocracy and violence to prevail, when they
suffer crime to go unpunished, when innocent blood is shed and is not
atoned for, the time must come sooner or later, when the evil results
will become widespread. As men sow, so will they reap. It is an eternal
law and can only be avoided by deep repentance. JD 22:138, George Q.
Cannon, July 3, 1881
Note: John Taylor proclaimed that President Garfield was a stooge being used.
In reference to this late melancholy affair which has occurred, I feel
in my heart a strong sympathy for President Garfield. People may think
this strange. Why, say they, did he not make some remarks which are
calculated to injure you as a people? Yes. But he, like the rest of us
is a fallible being. We are all fallible, and it is not every man who
can resist the pressure which is brought to bear upon him, and the
influence by which he may be surrounded. JD 22:140, John Taylor, July
3, 1881
Note: Wilford Woodruff was a false prophet as this was a peaceful time for the United States of America.
The Lord Almighty has set his hand to establish his kingdom never
more to be thrown down or given to another people, and, therefore, all
the powers of earth and hell combined will never be able to stay the
progress of this work. The Lord has said he will break in pieces every
weapon that is raised against Zion, and the nations of the earth, the
Kings and Emperors, Presidents and Governors have got to learn this
fact. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the Lord. It is a
fearful thing to shed the blood of the Lord's anointed. It has cost the
Jews 1800 years of persecution, and this generation have also a bill to
pay in this respect. JD 22:334, Wilford Woodruff, October, 1881
Note: Mormon hierarchy hated President Chester A. Arthur who signed into law the Edmunds Act.
And following the war has been inaugurated an era of degeneracy in
public morals, degeneracy in politics and religion, a degeneracy in the
minds of our statesmen which has shown itself in a desire on their part
to tamper with the sacred rights of man, to tamper with every part of
the government, not even excepting the Supreme Court, which, up to the
time of the civil war, was looked upon by the American people as almost
beyond temptation, and beyond the probability of being corrupted or
bribed. But alas! The Supreme Court itself has been tampered with. And
for many years, almost from the commencement of that effort to break
down the barriers of the Constitution and to settle this vexed question
of slavery by violence - from that time politicians have sought to
sustain themselves in violent, revolutionary and unconstitutional
measures by foisting into the Supreme Court partisans who are already
imbued with extreme political notions and ideas, whose carrying them
with them on the bench has resulted in many decisions which after ages
will greatly deplore and point out as the stepping stones to the
destruction of our free institutions. But it remains for the Congress
of the United States in 1882 to strike the blow at human freedom which
places a vast people who have enjoyed their freedom in part only for 35
years in these mountains, at the disposal of a returning board to be
sent here by the President. This is the object of the Edmunds' bill.
Its framers, its advocates and supporters scarcely expect anything from
it toward the extinguishing of polygamy; but they do expect from it the
transfer of our flourishing Territory into the hands of the enemies of
the "Mormon" people. And they expect to disfranchise whom they will,
and decide who may vote and who may hold office, who may become members
of the Legislature, etc., and vice versa; and then dictate what laws
they shall make, and then dictate how the people shall be taxed to pay
their salaries and expenses, unless forsooth, Congress shall, according
to the recommendation of President Arthur, reconsider that part of the
law and make provision for their salaries. JD 23:92, Erastus Snow,
April 7, 1882
Note: Mormon hierarchy did not realize that criminal activity would result in loss of property to authorities.
Traitors may arise and seek to trample upon the provisions of the
Constitution, but right here in these mountains - on the backbone of
the continent - will grow the men who will preserve intact that sacred
inspired charter of human rights, under the just provisions of which
millions will rejoice long after usurpers and traitors shall have been
buried in oblivion. And right here in this connection I desire to
repeat what I have said in public once before. In reviewing the
tribulations through which the Saints have passed, and while
contemplating the wrongs which they have endured at the hands of
despoilers, I have felt and said, rather than be robbed as my father on
several occasions was, on account of his religion, I would endeavor to
have facts plainly submitted to the President of these United States,
so that he might fully understand the situation, and then, before I
would permit my possessions - the hard earnings of years of toil - to
go into the hands of those who covet our property, and who would rob
us, as our fathers were robbed, I would deed it to, and make a present,
if he would accept it, of all the property I have to the President and
his successor in office forever, as a perpetual reminder, that here, in
free America, whole communities of citizens have been plundered,
persecuted and deprived of the peaceful possession of property without
cause and without redress. JD 23:209, Moses Thatcher, April 8, 1882
Note: John Taylor proclaimed that monogamous people were not virtuous.
I will relate a little conversation that I had with President Hayes,
when he was here, on the subject of polygamy. I said to him, we are not
generally understood by the people of the world, by the outsiders; and
I can look with very great leniency upon the action of members of the
House of Representatives and the Senate, the governors, and others who
have expressed strong indignation against this principle. From your
standpoint, you think we are a corrupt people; you think it is a part
or portion of the thing you call the social evil, that permeates all
classes of society, and is sapping the foundation of the life of so
many throughout the land. You think that we are trying to introduce
something that is encouraging licentiousness and other kindred evils
among the people, and to legalize these things by legislative enactment
and otherwise, and trying to popularize and make legal those infamies.
I continued, that is a false view to take of the subject. Mr.
President, I have always abhorred such practices from the time I was
quite young; when I have seen men act the part of Lotharios, deceiving
the fair sex and despoiling them of their virtue, and then seeing those
men received into society and their victims disgraced, ostracised and
esteemed as pariahs and outcasts, I could not help sympathising with a
woman that was seduced. I looked upon the man who seduced her as a
villain; I do so to-day. Said I, when Joseph Smith first made known the
revelation concerning plural marriage and of having more wives than
one, it made my flesh crawl; but, Mr. President, I received such
evidence and testimony pertaining to this matter, scriptural and
otherwise, which it was impossible for me as an honest man to resist,
and believing it to be right I obeyed it and practised it. I have not
time now to enter into all the details; but in regard to those
honorable gentlemen in the Senate who maintained the principle of
constitutional rights and who declare, as I declare to-day, that that
instrument which was then gotten up was unconstitutional in several
particulars, I could not expect them to advocate my religion; it is not
their business, but is mine and yours. They can take what religion they
please; we do not wish to force our religion nor our marital relations
upon them, nor have we ever done it, nor could we do it if we wished,
for this principle is connected with the Saints alone, and pertains to
eternity as well as time, and is known to us by the appellation of
"celestial marriage." It does not belong to them, nor does it pertain
to all of our own people. None but the more pure, virtuous, honorable
and upright are permitted to enter into these associations. Now I speak
to the Latter-day Saints, who are acquainted with what I say. If I
state untruths, tell me, and I will consider you my friends, and the
friends of this community. Should we preach the doctrine of plurality
of wives to the people of the United States? No; you know very well
that it is only for honorable men and women, virtuous men and women,
honest men and women who can be vouched for by those who preside over
them, and whom they recognize as their Presidents; it is only such
people as these that can be admitted to participate in this ordinance.
You know it. I know it, you Presidents of Stakes know it and the people
know it. There are any number of people in this Territory who are good
people in many respects, but who cannot come up to that standard. That
is the position we occupy in relation to this principle. JD 23:65, John
Taylor, April 9, 1882
Note: God was against pagan polygamy though the patriarchs sinned by practicing it. (Deuteronomy 17:14-17)
God has given us this right, and He has given unto us our agency. If we
violate His will He will punish us; He has threatened us with
punishment if we do so, and we are responsible to Him, and not to the
Congress of the United States, not to the President of the United
States, nor to any human being; we are responsible alone to our God,
and there is no power upon the earth that can justly deprive me or
deprive you of this right. They may, by force of power, by illegal
measures and unconstitutional laws do this; men may be imprisoned or
slain; but the principle that I now declare is a fundamental, a
constitutional principle, and it will endure. And the day will come in
this land when every man will have this right, regardless of his
profession. Are we to be dictated to by popular preachers? Such men say
to the Congress of the United States, "You must enact certain laws; we
demand it of you; our congregations demand it; you must put down
'Mormonism.' We do not want that religion. We are Methodists; we are
Presbyterians, or we are somebody else, and we call upon you to
maintain orthodoxy and to put down heterodoxy." I would just as soon be
dictated to by the Pope of Rome, by Mr. Ingersol or by a "Mormon"
Bishop, as to be dictated to by popular preachers, as to what I must
accept as religion. JD 24:44, George Q. Cannon, June 25, 1882
Note: President Arthur’s administration also reformed the United States civil service.
Do you think for one moment that Senator Edmunds in framing the bill
called by his name, or in presenting it to the Senate for its action,
had any idea in his mind that he was an instrument in fulfilling the
predictions of God, through his servant Joseph? Have you any idea that
the House of Representatives in passing that bill, after it had passed
the Senate, supposed for one moment that they were helping to establish
the claims of Joseph Smith as a prophet of the living God? Or do you
imagine that President Arthur, in selecting the five Commissioners to
go to Utah Territory to act in accordance with the provisions of this
same law, supposed that he was helping in any manner to establish the
claims of what is called "Mormonism" to divinity, or that the
Commissioners themselves, in coming here, have once thought that they
were playing a part in the great drama of the last days, that they in
their sphere were helping, or are helping to establish the truth of
this work, the downfall of which is sought to be accomplished? And yet
these are the truths connected with this work; these are the facts. The
man who framed that bill, the man who introduced it in the Senate, the
judiciary committee who passed upon it, the Senate who adopted the
report of its committee of judiciary and passed the bill, the House of
Representatives who took the bill up and made it law, so far as their
action was concerned, and the President of the United States who signed
the Act and who appointed the Commissioners under it, and the
Commissioners themselves who were thus appointed - all these men in
their official capacity have helped, though they thought they were
doing the very opposite, to establish the truth of the predictions of
the Prophet Joseph, and of President Young and of the Apostles who have
been inspired of God from the commencement of this work until this
time, and who have predicted that these events would most assuredly
take place. JD 23:272, George Q. Cannon, October 8, 1882
Note: President Arthur wanted to reform the moral chaos of Mormon polygamy.
President Taylor of late has called upon us, to exercise towards them
the same spirit that was manifested by our Savior upon the cross:
"Father forgive them they know not what they do." We should endeavor to
exercise that spirit. Our persecutors, those who would seek to destroy
us, do not know what they do. They do not comprehend us at all. Why,
bless your souls, if the veil was lifted from off the eyes of the
President of the United States, from off the eyes of the members of the
Congress of the United States, and from off the eyes of our enemies, if
this veil were lifted they would bow before the Lord and plead for
these "Mormons;" they would do this if their eyes were open to see the
future consequences of taking a stand against this Church and kingdom.
But there is a veil over their eyes, because of their works of evil;
and the day will come when all peoples will mourn who take a stand
against the kingdom of God, the Zion of God, the Church of God, and the
Lord's anointed; unless they repent they will, when they pass into the
other world, go into outer darkness, where there is weeping and wailing
and gnashing of teeth. It is impossible, however, for the Saints of God
to inherit a celestial kingdom without their being tried as to whether
they will abide in the covenants of the Lord or not. JD 23:328, Wilford
Woodruff, December, 1882
Note: President Arthur left office well respected. (Wikipedia Encyclopedia)
And with regard to our nation, I leave them in the hands of God; but I
would to God their eyes were open to see and understand the
responsibilities that rest upon them. I would to God that the rulers of
our land - the President of the United States, the Congress of the
United States, the Supreme Court of the United States - would learn the
responsibility the God of heaven will hold them to in the
administration of those glorious principles laid down in the
Constitution of the government of this country. The God of heaven will
hold this nation, as well as all other nations, responsible for the
manner in which these principles are used. If they misuse them, they
will be held responsible, and will have to pay the bill. When innocent
blood is shed, it costs something; and I would to God that our nation
could understand the blessings they enjoy. There is no nation on the
face of the earth that has the same liberty that is guaranteed to us by
the Constitution of our country. JD 25:11, Wilford Woodruff, January 6,
1884
Note: John Taylor promoted pagan polygamy based on the sins of patriarchs.
Speaking of the doctrine of the plurality of wives, I remember talking
with one of our Presidents - I mean one of the Presidents of the United
States - on this subject in Washington, a number of years ago, as I
have with others since on the same subject; but I remember some of the
remarks made on that occasion. "Well," said he, after talking some
little on politics, and one thing and another, "what about your
polygamy?" "Mr. Pierce," said I, - I can mention his name now as it is
a thing of the past - "it may be possible that some of us may have
wrong ideas in regard to these things. We read about such a man as
Abraham, who is described as 'the friend of God;' we read about such a
man as David, who is described as 'a man after God's own heart:' we
read about Jacob, who had twelve sons, whose names are to be written
upon the twelve gates of the holy city. Who was Jacob? He was a man who
had several wives, by whom he had these twelve sons. Then we read of
Moses – a man of God, a leader of Israel, and a law-giver. He told the
people how they should treat their children whether by the first wife
or by the second, and how all these matters were to be arranged. "Mr.
Pierce," said I, "It is possible that we of the nineteenth century,
have not been able to instruct the Lord very much in regard to these
matters. Probably He knew just as much about them then as we do now,
and that in regard to our marital laws, we may have made some mistakes.
"Well," said Mr. Pierce, "I cannot say." Of course he could not. JD
25:90, John Taylor, February 10, 1884
Note: Mormon hierarchy ignored the civil service reforms of President Arthur.
A man cannot be Speaker of the House of Representatives, without being
hampered by promises he is compelled to give in order to get the
position, promises to put this man on this committee, and the other man
upon another committee, some to be chairmen of committees, and so on.
So with the President of the United States. Probably Grover Cleveland
will be an exception, because has not been much in public life: but it
is a rule that the nominees of the different parties give certain
promises as to what they will do, and who will get leading positions.
They are just as much fettered as though chains were on their wrists
and ankles. They cannot move only in a certain direction. All freedom
is taken away. A President is nearly killed after he gets his position
in endeavoring to satisfy the clamors and wishes of those who claim
they elected him to office. This is the case all through the
government. There is no office, even to that of a constable, but is
obtained in the same way. JD 26:18, George Q. Cannon, November 20, 1884
Note: This was the last public sermon of the traitorous Mormon prophet who went into hiding.
God has revealed unto us certain principles pertaining to the
future which men may take objection to. He has revealed unto us certain
principles pertaining to the perpetuity of man and of woman; pertaining
to the sacred rights and obligations which existed from the beginning;
and He has told us to obey these laws. The nation tells us, "If you do
we will persecute you and proscribe you." Which shall we obey? I would
like to obey and place myself in subjection to every law of man. What
then? Am I to disobey the law of God? Has any man a right to control my
conscience, or your conscience, or to tell me I shall believe this or
believe the other? No man has a right to do it. These principles are
sacred, and the forefathers of this nation felt so and so proclaimed it
in the Constitution of the United States, and said "Congress shall make
no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof." Now, I believe they have violated that, and have
violated their oaths, those that have engaged in these things and
passed that law, and those that are seeking to carry it out. Congress
and the President of the United States and the Judiciary, and all
administrators of the law are as much bound by that instrument as I am
and as you are, and have sworn to maintain it inviolate. It is for them
to settle these matters between themselves and their God. That is my
faith in relation to this matter. Yet by their action they are
interfering with my rights, my liberty and my religion, and with those
sacred principles that bind me to my God, to my family, to my wives and
my children; and shall I be recreant to all these noble principles that
ought to guide and govern men? No, Never! No, Never! NO, NEVER! JD
26:153, John Taylor, February 1, 1885
Note: President Cleveland won praise for his honesty and integrity. (Wikipedia Encyclopedia)
I would not say aught personal in relation to Mr. Cleveland,
believing him to be an honorable man of the world, yet his enemies in
the campaign accused him of irregularities of life that are common in
the world, and it is reported that he knows something of sexual
relationship, though he has not assumed the responsibility of family
and household; and in this respect, though perhaps among the most
honorable, he represents a large and respectable portion of unmarried
men. We do not understand that in thus expressing himself to our
delegates that he desired us to exactly imitate himself, but that he
wished we could confine ourselves at least to one wife. If however, the
parallel were carried out more fully, we would not only confine
ourselves to one wife as far as owning them in that capacity is
concerned, but we would try like others have, to limit our children
also and imitate the other vice of the age. JD 26:221, Erastus Snow,
May 31, 1885