835 
 
T H li 
 
 ITS CAUSES; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE. UTAH CONSPIRACY, 
 
 A LKOTUUE IJY 
 JOHN NICHOLSON, 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE SALT LAKE THEATRE, 
 ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1884. 
 
 STENOGRAPHIC-ALLY REPORTED BY JOHN IRVINE. 
 
 T TED AT JTJ^AJErvrXI^E I2SrSTK,XJO r J'03R. 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. 
 
 1884. 
 
THE 
 
 AND 
 
 ITS CAUSES; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE UTAH CONSPIRACY, 
 
 A LECTURE BY 
 JOHN NIG HOI-SON, /& 3? ~ 
 
 l^ctf 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE HALT LAKE THEATRE', 
 
 ON MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1884. 
 
 STENOGRAPHICALLY REPORTED BY JOHN IRVINE. 
 
 .A.T JTJ'VElKriL.EJ I^rSTnTJOT 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. 
 1884. 
 
2 /'hrr 
 
OFT 
 JVRY 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 THE circumstances which led to the giving of this lecture 
 in the Salt Lake Theatre are as follows: 
 
 Mr. Nicholson, by special request of Bishop EL B. Clawson, 
 delivered an address under a similar title in the Twelfth Ward 
 Assembly Rooms, on the 14th of September, 1884. The 
 impression created by it was such as to result in the annex* d 
 correspondence: 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY, 
 
 September 17, 188 J. 
 John Nicholson, Esq., 
 
 DEAR SIR: The address delivered by you on the 14th 
 inst , in the Twelfth Ward Assembly Kooms. on the subject of 
 the recent massacre of "Mormon" llders in Tennessee, and the 
 causes whinh led to that fearful tragedy, having created a deep 
 interest in the community, and a desire on the part of very many 
 who were prevented from being present upon that occasion to 
 hear the facts you have in your possession, we, the undersigned, 
 being of the opinion that a more widespread understanding of 
 the circumstances which surround this tragedy, and which led 
 to its perpetration will be of public benefit, respectfully request 
 that you repeat the lecture, or deliver ore of a similar nature at 
 as early a date as will be convenient to you. 
 
 Upon receiving an intimation from you that a compliance with 
 our request will be agreeable to you, and the date that will be 
 convenient to you to give the lecture, we will take the necessary 
 steps to secure a larger building than the Twelfth Ward Assem- 
 bly Kooms, and to give suitable notice to the public. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 Wm. Jennings, Theo. McKean, A. Miner, Francis Cope, Geo. 
 Swan, Heber M. Wells, James Dunn, H. Dinwoodey, G. M. 
 Ottinger, S. W. Sears, David James, G. E. Bourne, John Clark, 
 Elias Morris, Thos. G. Webber and others. 
 
 
IN TROD UCTORY. 
 
 THE RESPONSE. 
 
 To the Hon. Wm. Jennings and others. 
 
 GENTLEMEN: In response to your request that I 
 should deliver, in some large hall to be secured by you for the 
 purpose, an address similar to that lately given in the Twelfth 
 Ward Assembly Rooms-, I have to say that, although personally 
 reluctant to place myself so conspicuously before the public, I 
 will endeavor to comply with your wish. I suggest Monday 
 night, .Sept. 22nd, as suitable for the occasion, if that time is 
 agreeable with your convenience. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 JOHN NICHOLSON. 
 Salt Lake City, Sept. 17th, 1884. 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY, 
 
 September 18, 1884. 
 John Nicholson, Esq., 
 
 DEAR SIR: Referring to your response of yesterday, 
 wherein you express a willingness to repeat your lecture on the 
 "Tennessee Massacre and Causes Leading Thereto," or one of a 
 similar nature, the business of securing a suitable hall having 
 been considered, we beg to state that we have obtained the Salt 
 Lake Theatre for Monday evening, Sept. 22nd, for that purpose. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 William Jennings, H. Dinwoodey, David James, Thomas G. 
 Webber, A. Miner, John Clark and others. 
 
 THE APPEARANCE OF THE THEATRE. 
 
 The appearance of the Theatre on the occasion is thus 
 described by Mr. 0. F. Whitney, of the JJeserct News: 
 
 "Probably the most densely packed audience ever within the 
 walls of the Salt Lake Theatre, was seen there last evening at 
 the lecture of Mr. John Nicholson on the 'Tennessee Massa- 
 cre and its Causes.' The doors were thrown open at 7 o'clock, 
 as announced, and an eager multitude at once thronged into 
 the building. By the time the lecture was to begin, 8 o'clock, 
 it is safe to say that there was not a seat left untaken, and 
 hundreds were standing up, not alone in the lower part of the 
 house, but in every circle as well. It was truly a magnificent 
 sight. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 "Nor did the stage present a less splendid appearance. As 
 soon as the curtain rose, as it did promptly on the hour, it was 
 discovered that there was a second audience facing the one 
 which crammed the auditorium. Manager Clawson, who is an 
 adept at such things, had caused the whole stage to be shut in, 
 with the exception of entrances at the wings and rear, with 
 handsome scenery, while the entire avai ! able space was fi'led 
 with chairs, all of them taken, and many more would-be occu- 
 pants left standing. No less than three or four hundred peo- 
 ple were on the stage alone. The surprise awakened at the 
 sight found vent in a burst of applause from those in front. 
 Before this, however, the Theatre Orchestra, under Professor 
 Thomas, who were in their accustomed place, had rendered 
 some nice selections, and the Sixteenth Ward Band, in full 
 uniform, upon the stage, between the curtain and footlights, 
 had supplemented the same with repeated executions in like 
 excellent style. ' ' 
 
 HON. WILLIAM JENNIMJS 
 
 then approached the footlights and said: Ladies and 
 gentlemen: before introducing the lecturer, I would like to 
 say that there has been a report on the street this- afternoon 
 that there would be a cry of fire made here to night, to dis- 
 turb this audience. If such a thing should occur as a cry of 
 fire, I hope you will take no notice of it, but keep your seats 
 and all will be right. 
 
 I take pleasure, ladies and gentlemen, in introducing to you 
 Mr. John Nicholson, who will lecture upon 'The Tennessee 
 Massacre and Its Causes." [Applause.] 
 MR. NICHOLSON 
 
 stepped forward and was received with loud applause. He 
 then delivered the following 
 
 LECTURE. 
 
 STENOGRAPHIC ALLY REPOUTKI) BY JNO. IRVINE. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: the chairman has 
 already announced the subject upon which I propose to treat; 
 
THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 therefore, it is unnecessary for me to repeat it. As you may 
 well suppo e, it is no small matter for a man to occupy the 
 position that I do to-night before this vast audience. I trust 
 that you will bear with me in patience until I shall concentrate 
 my thoughts upon the task that lies before me. 
 
 The subject, you will at once admit, is one of absorbing 
 interest, not only to this community of which we form a part, 
 but it has created an interest all over this nation and many 
 other paris of the world besides. Perhaps before proceeding 
 to the discussion of the causes that produced the horrible 
 massacre which sent a thrill through this entire community, 
 and also caused a feeling of regret among all good and upright 
 people who have learned the details of the murder it would 
 be well, in the first place, to give a brief 
 
 NARRATIVE OF THE TRAGE1>Y 
 
 itself. As is the custom with the Elders of the "Mormon" 
 Church, Elders W. S. B^rry and Henry Thompson, who were 
 laboring as missionaries in the State of Tennessee, and more 
 especially in Lewis County of that State, made an appoint- 
 ment to hold a meeting and preach their views to the people. 
 That meeting was appointed for 11 o'clock, on the 10th day of 
 August, 1884, at the house of James Condor, on Cane Cieek, 
 Lewis County, Tennessee. A short time previous to the filling 
 of that appointment, the Elders whom I have Lamed were 
 unexpectedly joined by two others, Elders John H. Gibbs 
 and William H. Jones. On ihe day appointed, three of the 
 Elders with Elder Jones excepted, he being at the house of 
 Mr. Garrett, a t-hort distance from the Condor farm 
 assembled at Mr. Condor's habitation and engaged in prelimi- 
 nary exercises, such as the singing of r ligious hymns and 
 preparing their minds for the devotions in which they were 
 shortly to engage. 
 
 Elder Jones, at Mr. Garrett' s house, wa? engaged in read- 
 ing a discourse of one of the authorities of the "Mormon" 
 Church, for the instruction and edification of a number of 
 people who had assembled there. After he had concluded 
 this, he immediately started on his way to join the others 
 
AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 who were at Condor's; but while he was traversing that short 
 distance, suddenly a mob of men, in fantastic garbs and 
 masked faces, and armed and equipped with deadly weapons 
 for the commission of violence, rushed upon him and made 
 him a prisoner. Suffice it to say, without entering into the 
 details >o far as he is concerned, for you are more or less 
 familiar with them, he was left in charge of one of this 
 armed party, and that guard that was left over him received 
 instructions from his brother mobocrats that he should, on the 
 first intimation of any attempt to escape, shoot him down like 
 a dog that he should be murdered. You are already aware 
 that Elder Jones, by the consent and connivance of his guard, 
 escaped and survives, and has returned to his home and his 
 friends in Utah. 
 
 On leaving Elder Jones, the mob proceeded to the house 
 of Mr. Condor. They found the proprietor of the place stand- 
 ing by the gate. They made him a prisoner. James Condor 
 knew the business of that mob who had come with covered 
 faces armed to the teeth. He knew that they had come to 
 take the lives of the Elders from Utah, and in order that 
 these Elders might be defended he called to his boys who 
 were in the garden his son and step-son to go and get their 
 guns to defend the lives of these men who were under his 
 protection because under his roof. After the seizure of James 
 Condor, David Hinson, who appeared to be the leader of the 
 mob, entered the house where Elder Gibbs was engaged in 
 selecting texts of scripture for the purpose of enabling him 
 to preach the doctrines that are taught in the Bible. He took 
 a gun that was hanging upon the hooks down from over the 
 back door, and with that weapon, in cold blood, shot Elder 
 Gibbs down murdered him ! Next this deadly weapon was 
 presented at Henry Thompson, whose life he also sought. 
 Elder Berry being close at hand a man of indomitable 
 courage and powerful nerve desirous of saving his brother, 
 seized the weapon and held it as if it were in the grip of a 
 vise, and turned it away from the person of his fellow mis- 
 sionary. At the same moment Elder Berry observed others 
 oi the mobocrats enter the front door with their weapons 
 
8 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 leveled upon him, and when he saw that, and feeling that 
 his doom was sealed, he simply bowed his head and received 
 the bullets of the assassins in his body and fell dead at their 
 feet. Elder Thompson saw that to remain longer was to 
 needlessly sacrifice another life, and therefore he made his 
 escape. As he passed out of the house and was leaving it his 
 life would have been taken also, only there intervened betwixt 
 him and the would-be assassin the person of a lady who 
 passed out of the house and was about to lift her child from 
 the ground, and Elder Thompson escaped to the woods. In 
 the meantime, Martin Condor, the son of James Condor, 
 entered the house and engaged in a struggle with David Hin- 
 son for the possession of the weapon that he held, and while 
 engaged in this struggle some other members of the mob shot 
 him down and murdered him. In the meantime, J. R. Hud- 
 son, the step-son of James Condor, entered and leaped up into 
 the loft of the house to procure a gun, and descended as quick 
 as thought, almost. He was seized at the foot of the stairs by 
 two of the murderous ruffians but tearing himself loose he 
 shot and killed David Hinson, and then he in turn was slain 
 also, making five dead men, four whose blood was guiltless, 
 and one of the guilty murderers, who went into eternity with 
 the blood of innocence upon his hands. 
 
 Not satisfied with their diabolical work, thus far, these 
 fiends incarnate, before leaving the premises, as an after-piece 
 to the tragedy, poured a volley through the window, a number 
 of the missiles of death entering and severely wounding the 
 person of an innocent woman, Mrs. Condor, the mother of the 
 two murdered boys, and the balance of the bullets entered the 
 dead body of W. S. Berry. 
 
 A CONSPIRACY IN UTAH. 
 
 You will agree with me that this was horrible work, and 
 that those upon whom rests any degree of responsibility for 
 its consummation have a great deal to answer for. It is my 
 purpose to show where at least a portion of that responsibility 
 lies. I think before we get through to-night, that it will be 
 clearly shown that there exists in Utah, a conspiracy against 
 
AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 the peace, and good order, and well-being of the great majority 
 of the people who inhabit this fair Territory, and that that 
 conspiracy has its headquarters in Salt Lake City. I propose 
 to give you the evidence, and I do not propose to be one sided 
 in its production, for the conspirators shall furnish it them- 
 selves. 
 
 On the 7th day of May, 1882, in the Methodist Church of 
 Salt Lake City, I attended a meeting. It was a gathering of 
 rather an unusual character. It was one among ten thousand 
 meetings; so the presiding genius there the Rev. L. A. 
 Rudisill stated; for that particular 7th day of May, 1882, 
 had been set aside and consecrated for the purpose of working 
 up a prejudice against the "Mormon" community of inflam- 
 ing the minds of the people of this nation against an innocent 
 people who dwell in this Territory. 
 
 But I wish you to understand that it was not altogether or 
 purely a religious meeting. It was also political. There is a 
 great deal said in this community, by certain parties, about 
 the amalgamation of church and state. It is very objection- 
 able to them, except, of course, when they engage in it them- 
 selves; then it is perfectly right. The conspiracy to which I 
 now allude, is not only of a religious character, but also polit- 
 ical. There was there in all his bloom, His Excellency, 
 Governor Eli H. Murray, Judge John R. McBride, Judge 
 Jacob S. Boreman, and Mr. J. F. Bradley. They represented, 
 in that particular instance: the political wing of the conspir- 
 acy Mr. Rudisill and his co-religionist associates the religious 
 wing. 
 
 In speaking to the audience assembled on that occasion, 
 Mr. Rudisill stated that the Methodists had always occupied 
 the front rank in opposing "Mormonism," and that princi- 
 pally through the operations of that denomination of religion 
 Congress was compelled to pass the Edmunds law. Note the 
 word compelled. My memory does not fail me in regard to 
 the details of that meeting. He said compelled. But the 
 Edmunds law, he said, was not sufficient for the purpose in 
 view. 
 
10 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 His Excellency, the Governor, stated that the Edmunds 
 law was a step in the right direction, but it was far from being 
 satisfactory. 
 
 Judge John R-. McBride stated that on that particular 
 occasion he felt as if he was an excellent Methodist. [Laughter 
 and applause.] It is general >y understood in the community 
 I believe, that he is no religionist of any kind. He has a 
 perfect right to take that position, and every man has a right 
 of this kind, be the position what it may. But in one par- 
 ticular John R. McBride seems to conform somewhat to 
 scriptural requirements; for it has been said by Paul that we 
 should "be all things to all men." [Applause] It appears that 
 this conspirator is willing to be a devout Methodist, or any- 
 thing else, so long as he can accomplish the object nearest 
 his heart suppression of "Mormonism" [applause] or rather 
 the taking away of the political power out of the hands of the 
 majority of the people of Utah, for that is the political part 
 of the conspiracy. He further s'ated that in order to reach 
 the .'"Mormons," one legal provision, especially, should be 
 eliminated from the statute books that provision which pre- 
 vents a woman from testifying against her husband. He also 
 had the effrontery in that meeting to say that he felt that he 
 would make an excellent prosecutor of the "Mormon" Church 
 if he were appointed to that office. [Applause and laughter.] 
 It does not need a very great change to insert the correct word, 
 and make it persecutor of the "Mormon" Church. [Laughter]. 
 
 Mr. Boreman, or rather Judge Boreman I hope he will 
 pardon me for forgetting his title [laughter and applause] 
 when 1 consider how little he is entitled to it, I think it is 
 very pardonable. I cannot tell you very well what Judge 
 Boreman did say, it was so absurd. He seemed to be in a 
 passion worked up to a remarkable degree. He said some- 
 th'ng about the people who belonged to the "Mormon" 
 Church in England desiring to proclaim Brigham Young 
 king, and a lot of nonsense of that kind. If anybody had 
 asked me what I thought about his speech on that occasion 
 when the religious and political'conspirators met together, I 
 should have been much inclined to have given the same des- 
 
AND ITS CAUSES. 11 
 
 cription (hat was given by a student whrn he was asked to 
 state his opinion of a speech of a fellow student. He said it 
 was "an heterogeneous, concatenation of extraneous phraseol- 
 ogy." [Laughter and applause.! 
 
 Mr. "Bradley did not make out much better in this con- 
 nection than our friend, Mr. Boreman. His speech was about 
 as unintelligible; it was not edifying, especially to me, 
 although 1 was glad I was present for your sakes, ladies and 
 gentlemen, who were not there, that I might tell you what 
 took place. 
 
 There are some others whom I wish to bring to your 
 attention, forj desire to show you to-night that there has been 
 a systematic, determined purpose put in operation, to spread 
 through 'this country, as far as their influence could reach, 
 the most infamous, scandalous fabrications that' could possibly 
 be conceived in the brains of human beings, that under cover 
 of a" prejudice thus created, the design* of the conspirators 
 might be accomplished. 
 
 I draw your attention to the case of the Rev. R. G. 
 McNiece, who is very 'anxious about the welfare of this com- 
 munity ;f -exceedingly so. Not very long since he presented in 
 the Independent, a very influential journal published in the 
 East, his views, or what purported to be his views, on the 
 "Mormon" question, and you may be sure he did not wish to 
 paint the "Mormon" community in favorable colors. He 
 wanted to make the impression upon the country, through the 
 medium of the Independent, that the "Mormons" are a law- 
 less, murderous, vile community" of wretches, that should not 
 be p rmitted to live. As evidence that they should be robbed 
 of their rights, or ihat all political power should be taken away 
 from them, he stated that his fellow religionists in Utah had 
 been placed in great jeopardy through the buildings that they 
 occupied and their churches being stoned and set on fire, and 
 in consequence of this the lives, these valuable lives, of him- 
 self and fellow religionists had been placed in jeopardy. Of 
 course it was the "Mormons" who committed these out- 
 rages. 
 
12 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 When his attention was drawn to his perfidy through a 
 public journal of this city, he cited a number of alleged 
 instances to sustain the statements which he had made. But 
 before I proceed any further, I wish to say now that his state- 
 ments in the Independent were endorsed by some of the 
 political conspirators, Judge Rosborough, Judge Jacob S. 
 Borernan and one of the editors of the Salt .Lake Tribune^ 
 Colonel Nelson, for the chief editor was at that time in Washing- 
 ton, supposedly for the purpose, under cover of the prejudice 
 already created against the "Mormons," of procuring legisla- 
 tion to rob the "Mormons" of their political rights. I think 
 that any statement made by the Rev. McNiece certainly needs 
 endorsing [laughter] as I propose to show. He cited as an 
 instance of his truthfulness that about eighteen months pre- 
 vious, in the city of Logan, an attempt had been made to 
 burn the Presbyterian Church of that town. The facts in 
 regard to that circumstance were these : On the 30th day of 
 November, 1882, a church sociable was held in that building, 
 the Rev. Mr. Parks presiding, and there broke in upon the 
 harmony of the occasion an individual by the name of 
 William Buder, a non- "Mormon," and presumably a member 
 of the "liberal" party. He was in a state of beastly intoxica- 
 tion. He desired to *be admitted into this church sociable, 
 and forced his way into the building. The Rev. Mr. Parks, 
 who seems to believe a little in muscular Christianity and I 
 do not blame him took him neck and crop and bundled him 
 out [applause] just as he should have done. But William 
 Buder, a non- "Mormon," said to the Rev. Parks, "I'll get 
 even with you." On that same night, at a late hour, an 
 attempt was made to set the building on fire, and the subse- 
 quent investigation, according to all the circumstances discov- 
 erable after a close scrutiny, pointed to William Buder as the 
 would-be incendiary. Mr. Parks believed it was William 
 Buder, a non- "Mormon," who had sought in that way to get 
 even with him, and so did everybody else familiar with the 
 facts, and I do not know but what Mr. McNiece was just as 
 familiar with the details as anybody else; presumably so, for 
 no honorable gentleman will attempt to give publicity to any 
 
AND ITS CAUSES. 13 
 
 important circumstance involving the good character of his 
 fellownien, unless he is first satisfied of the truthfulness of 
 his position by a candid investigation. [Applause.] But don't 
 you see that to have stated that William Buder, a non- v 'Mor- 
 mon," was the incendiary would have spoiled the object, for 
 the crime must be placed upon the broad shoulders of the 
 Latter-day Saints? [Applause,] It must be shown that they 
 are lawless, and that they threatened and endangered the lives 
 of these lambs in wolves' clothing. [Laughter and ap- 
 plause. ] * 
 
 Some of the churches are quite remarkable for heroes. 
 Perhaps, ladies and gentlemen, you are not aware of the 
 heroism that has been occasionally exhibited right in your 
 midst. ["No."] Perhaps I might state some instances of 
 such heroism. There was another reverend gentleman, by 
 the name of McMillan, whose diocese was for a time in San- 
 pete County, Utah. He was treated with great consideration 
 and kindness by the people there. He was given the free use 
 of the meeting house of the "Mormons," in the town of 
 Kphraim, and he was very grateful. You will gee the char- 
 acter of his gratitude at a glance when I show you how he 
 returned the courtesy shown him by the savage "Mormons." 
 He went back to the East. What for? Because there is more 
 than one purpose in regard to the defamation of the "Mor- 
 mon" community. It is naturally to be supposed that these 
 heroes shall make a sensational and- "Mormon" speech when 
 they go East to facilitate the process of passing around the 
 hat. Therefore he had to make a hero of himself. He made 
 the declaration that in the quiet town of Ephraim, in San- 
 pete, this remarkably brave man, when he mounted the 
 rostrum had to take in one hand a weapon of death a re- 
 volver and the word of the Lord in the other [laughter and 
 applause] to protect himself against the lawless "Mormons" 
 who sought his life. 
 
 What an absurdity this story bears on it face when you think 
 of it. When he retuined he was met or waited upon by 
 
 + See Appendix. 
 
14 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 Canute Petersen, one of the leading men of Sanpete County, 
 who spoke to him about his misstaternents, and pointed out 
 to him that such fabrications were most infamous. He was 
 very sorry. He was humble. He w*s very meek. He said 
 he felt as if he had done wrong, but he would make it right 
 just as soon as it was possible. He subsequently paid another 
 visit to the East. How did he make it right? He simply 
 repeated his former statements and added a few more false- 
 hoods to give spice to his story, and his speech was subse- 
 quently published in the Denver papers. 
 
 But this was a second-hand way of making notoriety; for 
 the Rev. Lyford, who had officiated at Provo, had made him- 
 self a hero in the same line. Some of you remember, per- 
 haps, his remarkable hairbreadth escapes; but he always came 
 out alive [laughter and applause] and consequently his own 
 existence furnishes the best evidence of the falsity of his state- 
 ments. If that gentleman had dropped the latter jart of his 
 name and left the first two letters it would have been exactly 
 in keeping with his conduct. [Applause.] 
 
 When I was in Ogden in 1881, on July llth of that year, 
 a committee of a Methodist conference that was held there 
 expressed their views on the "Mormon" question, and what 
 ought to be done with it. Their resolutions were published at 
 the time; they were duly given to a gaping world Here is an 
 extract from that document: 
 
 u Mormonism holds the balance of power in Idaho and Ari- 
 zona and menaces New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and 
 Montana. We believe polygamy is a foul system of licen- 
 tiousness, practiced in the name of religion, hence hideous and 
 revolting. It should not be reasoned with, but ought to be 
 
 STAMPED OUT." 
 
 Fancy that! The "Mormon" religion must not be reasoned 
 with. Do not bring the magical touchstone of reason to bear 
 upon this question at all, but apply the truly Christian 
 method; let it be "stamped out." [Applause.] what 
 a rarity in Christian charity! [Applause.] Only faccy, if 
 you can, the Savior of the world, and those whom He chose 
 to officiate in connection with Him, speaking to His disciples 
 in reference to the religions that existed in that day, and that 
 
AND ITS CAUSES 15 
 
 were not similar to that which He taught, telling them, "these 
 religions are wrong, they are not right; do not reason with 
 them; they must be 'stamped out.' ' And yet these men who 
 met together in Ogden and considered the question of another 
 religion, take the position that that religion, because it does 
 not conform to their ideas, should not be reasoned with, but 
 that it should be "stamped out." What an outrage on com- 
 mon sense and common decency ! What a parody on the 
 Christian religion are these men and their views ! [Applause.] 
 They ako made this political recommendation: 
 
 1 'Resolved that it is the sense of this body that the laws of 
 this Territory should be made by a council appointed by the 
 President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate." 
 
 This means that every vestige of popular government 
 should be swept away from this Territory and an autocracy 
 established in its place. But you must remember that they 
 are opposed to any interference in any shape whatever of the 
 church with the state except, of course, when they do it 
 themselves. 
 
 I hold in my hand the conspirators' campaign document, 
 U A Handbook on Mormonism," it is called. I call it a pro- 
 duction of diabolism; for it is filled with lies and misrepre- 
 sentations against the "Mormon" people and their religion 
 from beginning to end. 1 will read you one little ex- 
 tract from the bitter pen of Kev. J. M. Coyner. His 
 name is suggestive. As a comer of falsehoods he is a 
 decided success. [Applause.] There are many "Mor- 
 mons" present. Listen how this man describes your re- 
 ligion : 
 
 "Mprmonism is made up of twenty parts. Take eight parts 
 diabolism, three parts of animalism from the Mohammedan 
 system, one part bigotry from old Judaism, four parts cunning 
 and treachery from Jesuitism, two parts Thuggism from India 
 and two parts Arnoldism, and then shake the mixture over 
 the fires of animal passion, and throw in the forms and cere- 
 monies of the Christian religion, and you will have this system 
 in its true component elements." 
 
 A professed Christian wrote this, for it is not the policy of 
 men such as he to allow the "Mormons" to describe their own 
 
16 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 religion. Of course, the Methodists, the Presbyterians and all 
 other denominations would expect that it would be the proper 
 thing to go outside of themselves, and especially to their ene- 
 mies, for a correct description or explanation of their religious 
 tenets and views. Judging from the way they treat the ''Mor- 
 mons, ' ' one would suppose that that would be their idea; to 
 be consistent it would. 
 
 But is this campaign document altogether religious? Not 
 by any means. Do not make a mistake by supposing so; for 
 wherever you find the religious wing of the Utah conspiracy, 
 you will find the political wing within short range. Who are 
 the writers of the articles in this book "The Handbook on 
 Mormonism" the product of diabolism? I will give you a 
 few of them you are familiar with. The Rev. R. Gr. McNiece, 
 [laughter] Eli H. Murray, [great laughter and applause] 
 the Rev. J. M. Coyner, Jacob S. Boreman, [laughter and 
 applause] the Rev. T. B. Hilton, J. R. McBride, [laughter] 
 0. J. Hollister [much laughter and applause] and others. 
 
 (The lecturer created great merriment by using the plain- 
 tive tone commonly used by a priest when he named the cler- 
 gymen, and vociferating after the manner of a stump speaker 
 when he uttered the name of a political schemer.) 
 
 There is another source more prolific of defamation in 
 this community. I refer to the Salt Lake Tribune, the organ 
 of the conspirators. I wish that source to furnish some of the 
 evidence to sustain the position that I take to-night. There 
 was published on the 15th day of March, 1884, what was 
 termed "A Red Hot Address." It purported to have been 
 delivered by a "Mormon" Bishop named West, in the little 
 town of Juab in the southern portion of this Territory. It 
 was very prudent to select a little side station; for the discov- 
 ery of a forgery would not, in the opinion of the conspirators, 
 be so easily made if perpetrated upon a place of that kind. 
 What was the character of that "Red Hot Address," said to 
 have been delivered by a "Mormon" Bishop? It recom- 
 mended the assassination of those who opposed the "Mormon" 
 community. Cue of the objects of the wrath of Bishop West 
 
AND ITS CAUSES 17 
 
 was His Excellency Governor Eli H. Murray. And Bishop 
 West told his audience that it was their imperative duty to 
 seize upon His Excellency and tread him down until his 
 bowels gushed out on the streets, and that those who should 
 succeed him, if they did not behave themselves better toward 
 the "Mormon" community than he, should be treated in a simi- 
 lar way. This "Red Hot Address'' was true, with a few 
 trifling exceptions. I wish you to note the exceptions; for the 
 organ of the conspirators does not stand upon trifles ; not by 
 any means. ["No."] In the first place there is no Bishop 
 West in the "Mormon" Church, and has not been for many 
 ye;rs. There was no meeting held in Juab on the day on 
 which that address was said to have been delivered. No 
 address of that kind was ever delivered. With these trifling 
 exceptions the address was entirely correct* [Laughter and 
 applause.] 
 
 I wish you to note .this fact, however, that if there ever 
 were any individual on the face of this earth susceptible of 
 being deceived, they are the editors of the Salt Lake Tri- 
 bune, They are so innocent, so guileless, so harmless them- 
 selves, that they do not think that anybody would do any- 
 thing wrong. They are remarkable for innocence. Why, a 
 child might deceive them that is providing providing they 
 are supplied with something that will scandalize the charac- 
 ters of the "Mormon" community. Then they are easily 
 deceived. Very easily deceived, indeed. So this "Red Hot 
 Address" was a canard. They were very much deceived. They 
 even went so far as to say that they were really imposed upon 
 by some person who furnished that address for publication, 
 and they made an apology. What an apology it was! An 
 apology for an apology. Let me see what kind of an apology 
 they made for this "Red Hot Address," fabricated out of whole 
 cloth. Here is a quotation from the paper of which I am 
 speaking: 
 
 "The case of the 'Red Hot Address' has been cited, which 
 was corrected as soon as the managers of this journal found 
 they had been imposed upon." 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
 1* 
 
18 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 Here is a qualification to that apology quoted from the same 
 sheet : 
 
 "There was not a thing in that bogus sermon which has not 
 been taught in the Tabernacle harangues." 
 
 What do you think of an apology of that kind? I call that 
 a re-assertion of the fabrication, and the apology is worse than 
 the first falsehood. [Applause.] 
 
 I will give you another sample apology for something else; 
 goodness knows what, that appeared in that innocent sheet. 
 Here it is : 
 
 "By a mistake a jot appeared in the Tribune yesterday, 
 which does not reflect the sentiments of any owner or director 
 of this journal. It was, too, as objectionable in manner as mat- 
 ter. It was altogether wrong ; its publication is a matter of 
 pain and mortification to us, and we grieve sincerely that it ever 
 found its way into the Tribune. ' ' 
 
 Can you tell me to what that refers? What predicament 
 does that leave me and you in, ladies and gentlemen? It 
 leaves you and me in this dilemma, that we must apply that 
 apology to the entire sheet, and you must do that in order to 
 cover the ground. [Laughter and applause.] 
 
 We hear it frequently asserted by these journalists, these 
 conspirators I must not, I suppose, use that word too often, 
 because I might perhaps tread on some of their corns, and I 
 surely would not like to do that; but we are frequently told 
 that these men are "American gentlemen. " I think they must 
 be so. We must consider them 'American gentlemen , ' ' for here 
 is the evidence of it: They have said they are themselves. 
 [Laughter and applause.] According to their own des- 
 cription of themselves I think if Chesterfield were living 
 now he would be ashamed of himself. Gentlemen, of course, 
 are considerate of the feelings of others. They are very deli- 
 cate about giving offense, and especially avoid speaking in a 
 derogatory way of any sentiment or feeling that is sacred in 
 the breasts of their fellow creatures. "American gentlemen" 
 would never do that. 
 
 1 call your attention to a portion of the faith of the "Mor- 
 mon" religion. The "Mormons" believe iu the religion that 
 
AND ITS CAUSES. 19 
 
 they have espoused, and like other people they have a right 
 to their religious views. They believe that by the performance 
 of vicarious work, the performance by proxy of ordinances by 
 the living for the dead provided it is accepted by the dead in 
 the spirit world, a saving influence is brought to bear upon 
 those who have passed away from this earth without obedience 
 to the gospel. This is a sacred principle with them. It is so 
 sacred to them, and it is a subject of such absorbing interest 
 to them, that I know of men in the community that have tra- 
 versed sea and land for thousands, of miles for the purpose of 
 gleaning information in regard to their dead relatives, that 
 they might officiate in their stead, and their work here be of 
 some benefit to their progenitors, and, as I have said, their 
 views are sacred to them. Of course no gentleman would hold 
 up their religious views as a subject for vulgar merriment, 
 however much he might differ from them. He would con- 
 sider them sacred to him because sacred to his fellow- creatures. 
 He would not hold them up to ridicule and make those who 
 entertain them the laughing-stock of the populace. Surely an 
 ' American gentleman" would not be guilty of so grave and 
 vulgar a breach of common decency as this. But let us see. 
 I will read an extract from the paper published, managed and 
 conducted by the self-described 4t American gentlemen" : 
 
 OFFICIATING FOR THE STIFFS. 
 
 4 'A short time ago a Mormon Saintess went through the 
 Logan Temple and was baptized or sealed to and had adopted 
 into her family thirty dead relatives. It took three days to 
 perform the various ceremonies and ordinations, and no doubt 
 the defunct will now rise from their tombs, or from their 
 HEATED DWELLING places. Her husband contemplates going 
 through a similar ceremony and as he has taken the trouble to 
 look up his genealogy, he has calculated that it will take 
 him exactly four months to perform the sacred rites for the 
 various STIFFS that were once members of his family. The 
 fools are not all dead yet." 
 
 And this, ladies and gentleman, emanated from these consi- 
 derate "American gentlemen." [Applause.] Judge ye of 
 their quality ! In the organ of the conspirators there have 
 been slanders most vile. Neither sex nor age has been spared 
 
20 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 in the vile calumnies that have been heaped upon private indi- 
 viduals. I would not insult this audience by recounting the 
 foul aspersions, the assassin stabs upon private character that 
 have been again and again and again perpetrated in the most 
 shameless manner in that unprincipled sheet published and con- 
 ducted by the self-described "American gentlemen." [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 In speaking of the clique that constantly conspires against 
 the commonwealth of Utah, I would not have you suppose 
 that I refer to the bulk of non- Mormons of this Territory, 
 among whom are to be found many honorable people who have 
 no lot nor part in the conspiracy and who do not give it their 
 sympathy. The plot is confined to a comparatively few design- 
 ing characters, who spare no efforts to whip others into line. 
 The operations of these enemies of liberty in Utah, are, in my 
 opinion, heartily despised by many people who have no connec- 
 tion with the "Mormon" Church, nor sympathy with its doc- 
 trines. Even numbers of clergymen take this position. 
 
 THE OBJECT OP THE CONSPIRACY. 
 
 What has been the object of these vile detractions of an 
 innocent community? Two fold in its character. The relig- 
 ious wing of the conspiracy desires to have the "Mormon" 
 religion crushed out, because in their operations here they 
 have no religious success. Their efforts are barren and un*ruit- 
 ful. They stay here and go back eastward when they wish to 
 pass around the hat. Th-ey return after getting the financial 
 benefits of their vile calumnies and giving descriptions of their 
 personal heroism and hairbreadth escapes among the lawless 
 "Mormons." They are hirelings. They preach for hire and 
 divine for money. The Elders of the ''Mormon" Church are 
 a standing reproach to such men. Like the immediate fol- 
 lowers of Him whom they profess to serve, they go out into 
 the world without purse or scrip, as they did, and they have 
 success in their labors. When they go they take their lives in 
 their hands as those men did who were brutally murdered on 
 Cane Creek, Lewis County. Tennessee; and when they return 
 they bring their sheaves with them. And in this way a relig- 
 
AND ITS CA USES. 21 
 
 ious, honest and industrious community is built up in the 
 Territory of Utah and adjacent places in this part of the great 
 West. The success of these Elders is a standing reproach to 
 the hirelings who have no success in their labors, and there- 
 fore they want that reproach wiped out, or, according to the 
 priests who assembled in Ogden, they desire that "Mormon- 
 ism" should not bo reasoned with but stamped out. This is 
 the object of the religious wing of this conspiracy. When 
 the Elders go abroad they have a great deal to meet. For 
 instance I will explain what they have had to encounter in 
 western and middle Tennessee, where the Elders who were 
 slain on Cane Creek were laboring. What was the situation 
 before that horrible tragedy was consummated? Everywhere 
 they went, they had presented to them the "Red Hot 
 Address," published in this city by the organ of the conspira- 
 tors. It was specially handed about and circulated by a Bap- 
 tist preacher named Vandever, of Hohenwald, Lewis County. 
 I have the facts here [holding up a letter in his hand]* giving 
 names and details from one of the survivors of the massacre 
 on Cane Creek Elder W. H. Joaes. It has been said that 
 there has been no evidence of the "Red Hot Address" ever 
 having gone to Tennessee. Not only was that "Red Hot 
 Address" there, but Elder Gibbs who was slain, and Elder 
 Jones who survives, presented to this Baptist preacher whom 
 I have named a refutation of the slanderous fabrication, in 
 order that he might redress the evil that he had accomplished 
 by its dissemination among the people, and which had 
 inflamed 'the minds of the populace to such an extent that 
 they were prepared largely by that statement or alleged 
 address purporting to have been delivered by a "Mormon" 
 bishop, to shed the blood of the Elders, and they did it; and 
 
 * EXTRACT FROM ELDER JONES' LETTER. 'This villain- 
 ous, slanderous fabrication was circulated over the country. 
 Parson Vandever worked up prejudice against us in that section 
 by giving it [the 'Red Hot Address'] wide publicity, and by his 
 pretended credence to the falsehood, causing great excitement. 
 Elder Gibbs and I sent by mail to Vandever an exposure of the 
 address in question, but he did not show it to anybody that we 
 know of." 
 
22 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 the blood of innocence is upon the skirts of those who perpe- 
 trated that infamy. The authorship of an indirect cause of 
 the murder is now traced home to them ; they cannot relieve 
 themselves of it. 
 
 What is the other part of the conspiracy? The "Mormons" 
 are in the majority here, and as the majority rules everywhere 
 in this republic, as a natural consequence they hold the bal- 
 ance of political power in the Territory. And the infamous 
 lies, some of which I have recounted, that have been spread 
 far and wide to show that the ''Mormons" are a lawless peo- 
 ple, that they are a vile people, that they are not fit to live, 
 were intended to form a prejudice in the minds of the people 
 throughout the country generally, in order that the conspira- 
 tors might operate under that feeling with impunity. They 
 imagined that but few if any people in the nation, in the light 
 or face of existing prejudice thus created, would think they 
 were doing wrong. This part of the conspiracy is to sweep 
 away from Utah every vestige of popular rule and concentrate 
 the political power in the hands of an unscrupulous few, or in 
 the hands of what I call the office-seekers' combination of 
 Utah those who are hungry for office and its spoils that 
 they might grind the "Mormon" community into the dust. 
 I will give you the proof, and the other side shall supply the 
 evidence: 
 
 In November, 1880, an election was held in this Territory 
 for a delegate to Congress from Utah. The candidate of the 
 People's Party was the Hon. George Q. Cannon, the candi- 
 date of the conspirators Mr. Allen G. Campbell. The Hon. 
 George Q. Cannon received of the popular vote on that occa- 
 sion considerable over IS, 000 votes, and Allen G. Campbell 
 about 1,300. Did this express the popular will? In what 
 more forcible way can the popular will be exhibited than by 
 the franchise? It Was the duty of His Excellency, Governor 
 Eli H. Murray, to furnish the candidate who received the 
 largest number of votes a certificate to that effect, to present 
 as a credential in the House of Representatives, and he gave 
 that certificate to the man that received 1,300 votes. Does 
 
AND ITS OA USES. 23 
 
 that not prove, as far as it goes, the character of the con- 
 spiracy? It is to usurp the political authority that belongs to 
 the people in a republican form of government. He who gave 
 that certificate, certified to a falsehood, and made an attempt 
 to dethrone the power of the people, to thwart the public will, 
 the popular will, and establish his will, an autocracy, and to 
 wrest from the people the reins of government. 
 
 I will still further show the political character of the con- 
 spiracy, and also why so many infamous lies have been told 
 about the l 'Mormons." that under cover of these falsehoods 
 and the prejudice resulting, the objects of this conspiracy 
 might be attained. 
 
 On the 3rd day of August, 1882, there was inserted in the 
 sundry civil appropriation bill, in Congress, an amendment 
 made by Senator Hoar. It was offered in view of the fact 
 that through the negligence of the Utah Commission the 
 election that ought to have occurred in that month lapsed. 
 The amendment thus inserted was passed there, giving 
 authority to His Excellency, Eli H. Murray, to fill all vacancies 
 that might occur in offices in this Territory through the lapse 
 of that election that should have been held. Fortunately, 
 however, there is a Territorial statute which provides that in 
 case of any deficiency in regard to filling the offices by the lapse 
 of an election, or through any other cause, such as an intended 
 successor to an ffioce not qualifying within statutory time, the 
 incumbent should hold over until such time as a legal election 
 should take place; and therefore there were no vacancies. So 
 it was held pretty generally even by those that were very 
 prominent, subsequently, on the other side. I might be 
 allowed to state here that it is publicly known that Mr. Mar- 
 shall, a prominent lawyer of this city, stated that there were 
 no vacancies, and he so expressed himself to quite a number 
 of persons belonging to the People's Party. However, passing 
 that over I now direct your attention to the fact that there 
 were a large number of offices that were not vacant in any 
 case, the election to which could not legally have occurred for 
 a year subsequent to that August election. But the party 
 who desired to make the seizure of the political power of 
 
24 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 Utah do not stand upon trifles; His Excellency, Eli H. Mur- 
 ray, in the face of these facts, endeavored to fill nearly every 
 office in Utah Territory by his appointment, and in that way 
 overthrow every vestige of popular rule in Utah Territory. 
 This was an evidence of the impatience of the office hunters' 
 party, because they anticipated by this act the legislation which 
 they desired on that subject. Much anxiety has been mani- 
 fested by certain persons whom I have named in regard to the 
 political affairs of this Territory. Among the officers among 
 these would-be officers appointees of the governor, were 
 found some of the gentlemen who figured conspicuously in the 
 first meeting in the Methodist Church, the details of which I 
 have already furnished this audience. Judge Jacob S. Bore- 
 man was gubernatorially appointed to an office in this county; 
 also Mr. J. F. Bradley. It is a wonder that Judge J. K 
 McBride was left out in the cold; but there was nothing large 
 enough, I presume, to satisfy that gentleman. [Laughter.] 
 
 Have I not proven to a demonstration the object of this 
 conspiracy, and the reason why such infamous fabricated 
 statements are sent abroad to prejudice the minds of the 
 people against the "Mormon" community? I think that I 
 have, and I have taken the evidence from the ~ther side of 
 the fence. They have furnished the proof themselves, and I 
 have only made use of it. 
 
 EFFECTS OF THE CONSPIRACY UPON CONGRESS. 
 
 What are the effects of this conspiracy and this prejudice 
 upon Congress? The effects are these: Laws that we con- 
 sider to be unconstitutional are introduced into Congress and 
 some of them are passed and become -law. For instance there 
 is the Edmunds law with which you are all more or less fam- 
 iliar. One of its chief objects was to disfranchise those who 
 were practical polygamists in the v 'Mormon" community, and 
 that was effectually done in the operation of that law. But 
 some men have India rubber consciences, and they injected 
 this India rubber material into the law and made it stretch. 
 The Utah Commission I talk respectfully of that body of 
 gentlemen made that law stretch to its utmost capacity. 
 
AND ITS CA USES. 25 
 
 They almost went outside of polygamy altogether. If they 
 had just gone half an inch further they would have excluded 
 from the polls persons who were first cousins to polygamists. 
 [Applause and laughter.] There is one very peculiar feature 
 associated with the Edmunds law. There has been introduced 
 in connection with its operations, without the color or authority 
 of law, a test oath. That oath made its first appearance, I 
 think, in 1879 if my memory serves me correctly in what 
 was known as the Willits' bill, a measure that was introduced 
 into Congress, but did not pass. It was formulated so I 
 have been given to understand by the Utah conspirators here 
 and furnished to Mr, Willits to be incorporated in his Utah 
 bill. It was subsequently used by His Excellency, Eli H. 
 Murray, and had to be subscribed to by every person elected to 
 any office in this Territory before he could receive a commission. 
 And now, under the Edmunds law, every person who walks 
 up to the registrar's office to register has to take this iron-clad 
 oath, a copy of which I now hold in my hand. If I had been 
 a conspirator I do not think that I should have favored the 
 introduction of this particular oath. My reason for this is 
 that, according to a vulgarism, it "gives the whole thing 
 away. ' ' I will not read the entire oath, but will read a por- 
 tion of it: "That I have not lived or cohabited with more 
 than one woman in the marriage relation. 11 [The lecturer's 
 manner of uttering the words in italics in a subdued tone cre- 
 ated great laughter and applause.] That oath makes a wide 
 opening through which the corruptionist, steeped up to his 
 neck in filth and crime can crawl [loud applause] and builds 
 around the man who conscientiously enters more or less into 
 the marriage relation a wall deep, thick and high, so that he cannot 
 get through or climb over. Does not that give the thing away? 
 I am not displeased that they formulated that oath. It shows 
 the position exactly. It exhibits the superiority'of the "Mor- 
 mon" community over the corruptionist s. [Applause.] 
 
 There is a custom whenever a man comes into special promi- 
 nence in political matters for his admirers to wear a particular 
 kind of hat. For instance, there is the Cleveland hat, and 
 there is the Elaine hat. I have a recommendation to offer to 
 
26 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 the conspirators, and why not adopt it? Let us have an 
 "anti-marriage relation hat." [Applause,] Let it be of spot- 
 less white, emblematical of the purity of the characters of 
 those entitled to wear it [laughter] and let there be written 
 in gold letters large, so they can be easily read by the passing 
 observer the words: "I HAVE NOT LIVED NOR CO- 
 HABITED WITH MORE THAN ONE WOMAN," and 
 in small letters [applause and laughter] so that you can hardly 
 see them, "in the marriage relation." [Renewed applause and 
 laughter. ] The saving clause should be very obscure, it tells 
 such a horrible tale. 
 
 In the anti- "Mormon" crusade first meeting, details of which 
 I have given, Judge McBride said that he desired that that 
 legal provision which prevented a woman from testifying against 
 her husband should be expunged from the statute books, and 
 you can see the ear-marks of the Utah conspirators in all the 
 legislation that has been introduced into Congress. I am not 
 here to blame the national legislators for what they have done, 
 for I believe it has been largely the result of the misrepresenta- 
 tions that have been made by the conspirators whose head 
 quarters are in this city. They have acted in the belief that 
 the "Mormon" community were as vile as they have been 
 
 painted by these, I was going to say you can imagine I 
 
 do not wish to use anything bat respectful language, because I 
 am speaking of "American gentlemen." [Applause.] And 
 what is the character of the crusade legislation? One of the 
 first provisions of the Hoar amendment act passed by the 
 Senate at its last session, provides that the wife shall testify 
 against the husband, and as the Husband and the wife are one, 
 the monstrous doctrine is incorporated that a man shall be 
 compelled to testify, in that sense, against himself. What an 
 outrage to attempt to demolish a leading safeguard which 
 maintains the sacredness of the family circle! Shame on the 
 instigators of such legislation ! I have a right to express my 
 sentiments regarding so flagrant an outrage'sought to be per- 
 petrated upon an innocent people. 
 
 This law also proposes, in certain cases, that a witness shall 
 be treated as a criminal by abolishing the ordinary process of 
 the subpoena and providing that an attachment shall issue. 
 
AND ITS OAUSES. 27 
 
 And the "Mormon" community, according to this remark- 
 able measure, shall have no power to transact their own secular 
 business, but it proposes to perform it for them by fourteen 
 trustees appointed by the President of the United States. It 
 is a wonder that they did not incorporate some provision in the 
 law that Bishop Preston and his Counselors of the "Mormon" 
 Church should be deposed from their positions it amounts to 
 nearly the same thing and that a Bishop and Counselors be 
 appointed by the President of the United States [laughter]. 
 
 Further, the franchise is, according to this law, to be swept 
 away from the ladies. What an ungallant lot these con- 
 spirators are! Operating against the ladies whom they claim 
 are in bondage in Utah, and yet they want to take an un- 
 warrantable step to enslave them politically. 
 
 It further provides that the property of the "Mormons" shall 
 be confiscated summarily; and that under no pretence what- 
 ever shall the people amalgamate for the purpose of bringing 
 people to this Territory from abroad. Therefore, if this were 
 law let us hope for the sake of republican institutions that 
 it never will be you would not have the privilege of bringing 
 to this land your father, or your grandmother, or your cousins, 
 or your aunt, or any of your relatives, because they are "Mor- 
 mons. ' ' 
 
 What a parody on legislation! the result of the work of a 
 conspiracy, religious and political, in the Territory of Utah, 
 with its headquarters in Salt Lake City. That is the charac- 
 ter of the legislation sought to be brought about by that com- 
 bination, to sweep away the liberties of the people and grasp 
 the power that will grind them into the dust, under the cover 
 of the prejudice that they have created by their infamous 
 falsehoods. 
 
 ATTITUDE OF THE CONSPIRATORS SINCE THE MASSACRE. 
 
 I will now show the position that has been taken by repre- 
 sentatives of the conspiracy since the massacre took place, 
 that unhappy and horrible deed in Lewis County, Tennessee. 
 There is, I believe, a general understanding that the chief 
 editor of the Tribune is or has been a member of the legal 
 
28 THE TENNESSEE MASS A ORE 
 
 profession. He is called Judge Goodwin. I do not know 
 how far that goes. I presume that if I was to say to this 
 audience, for the purpose of receiving an answer, "How do 
 you do, Colonel?" there would by a chorus of voices, there are 
 so many colonels in this country. And so it is with judges. 
 But I believe that the gentleman I now speak of possesses 
 legal knowledge. What an unfortunate thing that he does 
 not inject it into his journalism! 
 
 Here is a quotation embodying another quotation, which 
 the Tribune in its issue of Sep. 1 6th, 1884, contains: 
 
 "On the other hand, the reason why the violence was com- 
 mitted has been boldly given. The clergyman of Nashville, 
 extracts of whose sermon we gave last week, openly says:" 
 
 "'The law-abiding citizens charge upon these Mormon mis- 
 sionaries that, under the guise of religion, they were attempt- 
 ing to seduce their wives and daughters from the paths of 
 virtue, and they have not disproved it. " 
 
 "We have other evidence of the same kind." 
 Were Judge Goodwin on the bench instead of the tripod, 
 and he should take a similar position in regard to charges 
 made against alleged law-breakers brought before him, what 
 would be the result? Suppose a man was charged with murder 
 in his court, and the jury were asked to bring in a verdict, 
 his instructions after the trial would be something like this: 
 "You must bring in a verdict of guilty, for this man is 
 charged with murder, and has not disproved it." What a re- 
 markable position to be taken by an intelligent man! Accord- 
 ing to his position all you have to do in order to prove a 
 person guilty is to make a charge against him, and convict 
 him providing he fails to disprove it. That is reversing the 
 usual methods of justice with a vengeance. These Elders 
 were charged by the local priests whose prejudices, pro- 
 bably, were incited by the "Red Hot Address" and other 
 documents of that description with attempting to seduce the 
 wives and daughters of citizens of Tennessee, and they have 
 not disproved it. What a travesty on common sense! How 
 absurd 1 How ridiculous ! But then they have other evidence 
 proof of the same kind. They have evidence to the effect 
 
AND ITS CA USES. 29 
 
 that charges have been made against these Elders, and these 
 Elders have not disproved it. Very remarkable that they 
 have not disproved it seeing that they are dead! What a 
 wonderful thing to take place in our day, that these men, 
 murdered in cold blood, because charges have been made 
 against them to palliate the crime perpetrated by the mur- 
 derers, and because they do not rise out of their graves, to 
 which they were sent by the hands of assassins before their 
 time, to disprove the charges, they must be guilty! How 
 supremely ridiculous! 
 
 After the murder was perpetrated all the respect that could 
 be shown by a grief- stricken community was exhibited to 
 those who were ruthlessly slain. Their remains were buried 
 by those who survived that awful tragedy near the spot where 
 their blood was shed. Elder B. H. Roberts, and others, at 
 the risk of their lives, proceeded to the place where they were 
 entombed and exhumed the bodies and prepared them to be 
 dispatched to their sorrowing relatives, as the last grain of 
 comfort that could be given to the bereaved. I said these 
 men performed this brotherly act at the risk of their lives, as 
 was subsequently proved. On their return trip from Cane 
 Creek they lost their way. Happily for them that they did; 
 for there was a party of mobbers ambushed ready to shed their 
 blood also, even when they were on this mission of mercy and 
 brotherly kindness. However, the bodies were brought here. 
 The remains of Elder Berry were taken to the South, to Ka- 
 narra and consigned to his family, and the remains of Elder 
 G-ibbs to Paradise, his home when he was alive. And through- 
 out this Territory, and in every place where the news had 
 reached the "Mormons," arrangements were made to hold 
 services in honor of the dead, to show the respect of the 
 people for those who had been slain. Among these meetings 
 was a large assemblage in the Taberuacle of this city, which 
 was crowded on the occasion; an immense host convened there, 
 and certain Elders poured out their thoughts in words of 
 respect for the dead and grief for the awful act that had caused 
 the death of these men. 
 
30 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 But more eloquently still was the prevailing sentiment ex- 
 pressed by the moistened eyes which could be seen all over 
 that vast congregation, so far as the faces came distinctly 
 within the range of vision of the observer. 
 
 What was the position taken by the organ of the conspira- 
 tors, the Salt Lake Tribune, regarding these solemn ceremonies? 
 That sheet contained, in its following issue, an alleged de- 
 scription, of the proceedings, and it was a travesty a farce. 
 What think you of men who can be so lost to the better feel- 
 ings of humanity that they can take the grief, the sorrow of 
 their fellow creatures and laughingly gloat over and hold it up 
 as something to be vulgarly joked about? I say that the de- 
 gradation of the human heart cannot reach a lower depth 
 than that [applause] , and I say that men who can be guilty of 
 such an outrage are lost to all of the better feelings of human- 
 ity [applause]. Perhaps you think T speak strongly on this 
 subject. I want you to understand that I speak no more 
 strongly than I feel [applause], 
 
 Perhaps there may be some in the audience that think an 
 apology is due from me for my severity. I feel that my 
 apology must be of a similar character to that which was given 
 by a member of the British House of Parliament, when he was 
 guilty of making some personal remarks regarding a member 
 of that august body. He was called upon for an apology; he 
 remarked: u l said the gentleman on the other side was a 
 scoundrel, and I am sorry for it." He was sorry he was a 
 scoundrel [laughter and applause]. I have stated that men 
 who are guilty of such outrages as those which I have de- 
 scribed are lost to all that makes man noble, and I am sorry 
 for it I am sorry they are so lost [applause]. 
 
 It appears that the surviving Elders in Tennessee, B. H. 
 Roberts and others, petitioned Governor Bate of that State 
 to take official steps to have the murderers arrested and 
 punished for the fearful crime. In response, this magnanim- 
 ous governor offered the munificent sum of $1,000 to be 
 spread over a whole crowd of mobbers and murderers. But 
 the sum seemed exceedingly large to His Excellency Governor 
 Eii H. Murray. Doubtless he thought it vastly too much. He 
 
AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 sent to Governor Bate a dispatch, of congratulation. He 
 stated in that dispatch that he was glad to see that Governor 
 Bate was taking some steps to have those who killed the 
 Elders brought to justice, because it was no just reason that 
 they should be murdered because they were agents of "organ- 
 ized crime." What do you think the governor sent that 
 dispatch for? He was overwhelmed with hypocritical grief. 
 He, under cover of this pretended sorrow, like the senseless 
 ostrich that thinks when its head is in the sand it cannot be 
 seen, only made other portions of his physical structure ap- 
 pear all the more prominent [laughter and applause]. He 
 sent that dispatch in order to tell the people of Tennessee and 
 the country generally that the Elders who were killed were 
 but the agents of c 'organized crime ; ' ' but really of course 
 it was not exactly the right thing to kill them. But still 
 they were merely agents of "organized crime'' [applause]. * 
 
 Perhaps you and I may think that the governor stepped 
 out of his way in order to interfere with the affairs of a com- 
 monwealth, with which he has no more to do officially or per- 
 sonally than the humblest citizen of this Territory. But, 
 then, how could he get it before the country, that the Elders 
 who were killed were agents of "organized crime" unless he 
 
 * GOVERNOR MURRAY'S DISPATCH 
 
 SALT LAKH: CITY, 
 
 Aug. 22d. 
 Gov. W. ft. Bate, Nashville, Tenn.: 
 
 Dispatches state that you are exerting yourself to vindicate 
 the laws in the matter of the murder of Mormon missionaries in 
 Tennessee. I thank you for this action. The charges of preach- 
 ing polygamy does not excuse murder. I trust that you may 
 bring the guilty to punishment, thereby preventing such lawless- 
 ness in Tennessee or elsewhtre. Lawlessness in Tennessee and 
 Utah are alike reprehensible, but the murdered Mormon 'agents 
 in Tennessee were sent from here as they have been for years by 
 the representatives of organized crime, and I submit that as 
 long as Tennessee's representatives in Congress are, to say the 
 least, indifferent to the punishment of offenders against the 
 national law in Utah, such cowardly outrages by their constit- 
 uents as the killing of emigration agents sent there from .here 
 will continue. 
 
 ELI H. MURRAY, 
 
 Governor, 
 
32 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 should make that interference. It could not be otherwise 
 done ; so excellent an opportunity could not be let slip in order 
 to create, to create, to manufacture the same feeling that 
 caused the murder of five human beings and the wounding of 
 an innocent woman. That was all that the dispatch was in- 
 tended to do, in my opinion. 
 
 But do you think that the governor sent that dispatch of 
 his own accord and volition altogether? Do you think, now, 
 honestly, ladies and gentlemen, that he formulated that dis- 
 patch and sent it outside of the conspiracy combination ? If 
 you do, then you do not exactly believe the same as I do 
 [laughter]. I am too familiar with the operations of that small 
 circle of schemers to believe any such thing. In the first 
 place my opinion is when I express an opinion I give it as 
 such ; when I relate facts I sustain them as facts ; I give you 
 this as my opinion, you can take it for what it is worth it 
 was first necessary to secure the approval and consent of him 
 who has said, on the streets of this city, that he is practically 
 the governor of Utah. Do you know who he is? Patrick 
 H. Lannan [loud laughter and applause], an American gentle- 
 man of Cork [great applause and laughter] , or the County 
 Down, or some other place in equally close proximity to New 
 York or Massachusets [renewed laughter and applause]. 
 The gentleman whom I have named is given to talking. I 
 might say very much given to talking. It has been said that 
 perpetual motion has never been brought to light, but Mr. 
 Lannan's tongue comes the nearest to it of anything that has 
 been discovered [laughter and applause]. He has stated that 
 the governor cannot make any prominent move without he is 
 consulted in regard to it. He has told this very broadly, and 
 the information is from his side of the house. This is very 
 well known, and it rasps a little on the feelings of some of his 
 own friends. Now, ladies and gentlemen, as the showman 
 said, "you pays your money and you takes your choice'* 
 [laughter]. You can take for your governor Eli H. Murray 
 or Patrick H. Lannan [applause]. I think I will take Mr, 
 Murray [a voice "Don't'']. 
 
AND ITS CA USES. 33 
 
 THE EDUCATION SUBTERFUGE. 
 
 Perhaps, ladies and gentlemen, I am taking up too much 
 time [loud cries of "No, No," and "Go on"]. There is a 
 question that has been agitating this community of late very 
 much, especially in some quarters of this city. It is a cam- 
 paign question with the conspirators. It is the educational 
 condition of this Territory. I remember attending a political 
 meeting held in front of the tribune office on Second South 
 Street before it removed to its present quarters. On a por- 
 tion of the stand in front of the orators it was an election 
 subject that was on the tapis was a vessel that contained a 
 liquid to which Mr. Scott Anderson and other temperance 
 men very much object. There was a speaker getting off the 
 usual anti-Mormon buncombe, and as the contents of the jug 
 grew beautifully less his articulation commenced to get pro- 
 portionately thicker. He reproached the people for their 
 alleged lack of educational facilities, and shouted "Where is 
 your free schools? [imitating the thick articulation of the half 
 intoxicated orator and would-be "Mormon," regenerator.] 
 Where is your seminaries of learning?" [Laughter and ap- 
 plause. ] 
 
 There has been on this subject a very large cat lately let out 
 of the bag. It was the Methodists that did it this time [Laugh- 
 ter]. You know as well as I know that it has always been 
 asserted that the district or common schools of Utah are sec- 
 tarian, that the books used in them were sectarian or "Mor- 
 mon" books; that if children of non- "Mormons" were sent 
 there they are liable to be indoctrinated in the tenets of the 
 "Mormon" faith. This information was conveyed to Senator 
 Hoar by the Utah conspirators, as evinced in his speech on the 
 Utah bill. I here have his own language, and will quote his 
 words to show how he had been stuffed on this subject: 
 
 "We find schools established where the text books are 
 selected wholly to instruct the youth of that community in a 
 doctrine inconsistent, as we believe, not only with Christian- 
 ity, but civilization itself." 
 
 He had been primed and loaded by the Utah calumniators 
 of the "Mormons." But the Methodists, at a conference 
 
34 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 which lately convened at Ogden, let the whole thing out; for 
 they]considered a resolution in their meeting as to the advis- 
 ibility of introducing into their denominational schools text 
 books the same as those infuse in, the "'Mormon' district 
 schools." You see they were so anxious so deeply anxious 
 to have their children indoctrinated in the tenets of "Mor- 
 monism," as taught in the school books of the district schools 
 of Utah, that they wanted to introduce them into the Meth- 
 odist schools [Applause], that their pupils might all be made 
 full-fledged "Mormons" [Applause]. This exploded the sec- 
 tarian theory in relation to the district schools altogether 
 nothing left of it at all and it was like all the subterfuges of 
 the conspirators thin as air. 
 
 Statements have frequently been made to the effect that the 
 school-houses are inadequate, that they are mere hovels, 
 which is not true, because we have numerous good school- 
 houses and efficient teachers in the community, and the facil- 
 ities for education, considering the age of the Territory, are 
 commendable. 
 
 There was recently a meeting held in the 8th Ward to con- 
 sider the advisability of erecting a school house, the accommo- 
 dation t for the school population in the 8th district being 
 insufficient. The object of the meeting was to vote on a tax 
 to provide means to accomplish the object in view. I should 
 have supposed that about a quarter of an hour or so before 
 the time of meeting the "liberal" gentlemen might have been 
 seen rushing towards the place of meeting with their hair 
 streaming in the wind and their coat tails in a bee-line behind 
 them in order that they might get there in good time to vote 
 ' 'Aye' ' on the tax question, and dig deep into their pockets for 
 the shekels to help build a new school house. I should have 
 supposed that they would be in such a hurry to vote on the 
 question that they could hardly be held back. But they went 
 there and voted solid for "no tax" for school purposes. 
 Grandly consistent ! Their position on this question is like 
 that of a man who knocks another man down, puts his foot 
 on him, presses him hard down upon the ground, and at the 
 same time shouts, "Why don't you get up?" [Applause.] 
 
AND ITS CA USES. 35 
 
 In the 7th Ward, on the 15th instant, a similar meeting 
 was held, and the gentlemen belonging to the same party 
 ["Liberal"] were out in force. Strange to say they took the 
 same position as in the 8th district. And there was there in 
 all his glory not a member of the district, I believe; I do 
 not know exactly, but I think not Judge J. R. McBride, the 
 excellent and devout Methodist of a former meeting. In his 
 usual truthful, logical and consistent style he warned the 
 people that only certain persons could vote at any election. 
 You can observe the consistency and force of the remarks of 
 this learned gentleman, seeing that the meeting was not con- 
 vened for election purposes at all, but to vote on the question 
 of whether there should be a tax imposed on the residents of 
 the district so as to increase its educational facilities. Every 
 one on the anti-Mormon side of the fence voted u No." It is 
 necessary to formulate another argument, now, seeing that the 
 sectarian one has fallen through, and it was furnished by Mr. 
 0. J. Hollister, ex-internal revenue collector for Utah. He 
 deposited his vote on that occasion on the "no tax" side of 
 the question. I do not deal with private matters. I deal in 
 public affairs, and when a man presents himself before the 
 public in a public capacity, then he is a subject for manipu- 
 lation on the public rostrum. I will give you this new reason, 
 furnished in two letters published subsequently to the meeting 
 in the Salt Lake Herald, from which I will quote. Listen to 
 what this gentleman has to say. Here is a quotation from his 
 communication to the Herald : 
 
 "It is no difference what is taught in the so-called public 
 schools of Utah or who teaches. The Mormon Church main- 
 tains and teaches practices that to the Gentiles are degrading 
 and corrupting. There is no social interchange between Mor- 
 mons and Gentiles, mainly on this account. If this is the 
 fact as regards grown people, how much more as regards 
 children who cannot be expected to have much wisdom and 
 who are so easily contaminated and corrupted." 
 
 Here is the reason, that by the association of Gentile chil- 
 dren with * 'Mormon' ' children the former become corrupted 
 by the intercourse and companionship and are degraded. 
 What think you of a man that would offer a premeditated 
 
36 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 cold-blooded insult not only to every parent in the ' 'Mormon" 
 Church, but to every innocent little, toddling child in that 
 community? What is the substance of the excuse that is 
 offered? It is this: "I am holier than thou." Mr. Hollister 
 reminds me of a character in sacred history presented by the 
 Savior as an illustration of the different qualities of the peti- 
 tions that are offered to the throne of grace. Do you re- 
 member the prayer of the self-righteous Pharisee? "Lord I 
 thank thee that I am not as other men" and let me say here, 
 speaking largely for other men, in this instance they are equally 
 thankful for the difference. [Applause.] Another argument 
 was made by that gentlemen on the same occasion. Here is 
 a quotation from another letter of his : 
 
 ' 'I beg to reaffirm the statement and to aver, besides, that 
 the Gentiles have paid the full proportion of the taxes that 
 have built and that run the Mormon schools. 
 The reason why the Grentiles object to paying special school 
 taxes besides the above, is because they cannot avail them- 
 selves of any advantage therefrom. ' ' 
 
 Here he attempts to class the "Gentiles" as anti-Mormons, 
 by assuming that they all feel as he and his fellow-conspira- 
 tors do. That is the usual trick. But let us consider 
 this part of the question: the Gentiles have paid their 
 proportion of the taxes for these purposes. 0. J. Hol- 
 lister was at that meeting, and so was the tax list, so I 
 am informed by the gentleman who took it r there. And 
 what was on that tax list? I will tell you; the name of 0. J. 
 Hollister conspicuous for its absence. [Applause] . This is 
 the position of the oracle of those who fight the school tax. 
 
 THE MORALITY SUBTERFUGE. 
 
 The "Mormons" are so very immoral according to the lies 
 that are formulated and spread abroad to further the interest 
 of the conspiracy under the popular prejudice that they may 
 accomplish their purposes. In the Salt Lake Tribune, under 
 date of March, 1881, there appeared a peculiar article. The 
 editor of the organ of the conspirators had been conversing 
 with a gentleman of this city on the "Mormon" question, 
 and this gentleman is reported in the article as stating that 
 he rejoiced to see the youth of the "Mormon" community 
 
 
AND ITS CAUSES. 37 
 
 visiting drinking saloons, gambling dens, houses of ill- fame ; 
 and the editor in commenting on the remarks of this so-called 
 gentleman, says: "if freedom can be gained without 
 excesses, so much the better; but if not, gain the freedom, 
 never mind the excesses. ' ' And this from the men who would 
 regenerate the "Mormon" community. What think you of 
 the regenerators of Utah?* 
 
 You are aware, ladies and gentlemen, that I have spoken in 
 a similar strain as I have to-night on another occasion, quite 
 recently, and I have in consequence been roundly abused by 
 the organ of slander, by the organ of the conspirators; but 
 never a word has been said in regard to my statements. None 
 of them have been quoted or replied to. This is remarkable, 
 because that newspaper had in that meeting a reporter. But 
 it says: "A mentally blasted wretch, a mournful appendage of 
 the Deseret News, named Nicholson [laughter], poured out 
 his venom in the 12th Ward." Here is the argument with 
 which I am answered. I am called "a mentally blasted 
 wretch." [Laughter and applause.] Ladies and gentlemen, 
 look upon me and take warning [renewed laughter and ap- 
 plause], and do not have the temerity at any time to fall upon 
 the Tribune rock and get broken to pieces [applause] ; for do 
 you not see that the huge boulder is likely to roll over me, 
 and, like the wheels of Juggernaut, grind me to powder? 
 [Applause.] I have been called names; but no argument has 
 been adduced. I have been called "a liar," an "egregious 
 ass" [laughter] and other things too numerous to mention; 
 but never a word of the lecture. You are capable of judging 
 whether I am "a mentally blasted wretch" or not. [Laughter] 
 I think I can leave the verdict in your hands. 
 
 I have been called, among other things, an alien. If there 
 ever has been anything that I have prided myself upon it has 
 been my birthplace, for I was born on this planet. I know no 
 country but the earth ; and I know no people but those who 
 sustain the truth, the final triumph of which will bring about 
 the universal brotherhood of man. I love the institutions of 
 this country as I love my life, for they embody the principles 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
38 THE TENNESSEE MASSACRE 
 
 of human freedom ; and where I find men who seek by in- 
 famous, infernal designs to crush them into the earth, I am 
 willing to wear myself out in their exposure. [Loud applause.] 
 I am not an alien, however; I am a citizen of the United 
 States. [Applause.] Here is the certificate [holding it up in 
 his hand]. Another truthful statement of the organ of the 
 conspirators nailed to the counter ! 
 
 I have shown with some clearness I think I hope you will 
 not think me egotistical if I say so that the "Mormons" have 
 been defamed ; that members of the community have been 
 murdered in cold blood and the crime has been palliated by 
 men who are in your midst, and who have caused lies to be 
 spread broadcast throughout the country. This conspiracy 
 has endeavored to wipe out in the Territory of Utah political 
 and religious freedom, that a small minority might seize the. 
 reins of government, and despoil, and crush, and injure an 
 innocent community. I denounce these as crimes against 
 humanity; and I charge the perpetrators with being the genu- 
 ine agents and operators of "organized crime" in Utah. [Loud 
 applause.] 
 
 Thanking you for the kind attention which you have given 
 me, ladies and gentlemen, 1 wish you all a very good night. 
 [Loud applause. ] 
 
 (A vote of thanks to the lecturer, put to the audience by 
 the chairman, Hon. Wm, Jennings, was carried by a shout of 
 "Ayes" that seemed to shake the building.) 
 
AND ITS CAUSES. 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 PASSAGES FROM THE FIRST 
 LECTURE. 
 
 IN the lecture delivered by Mr. Nicholson in the Twelfth 
 Ward Assembly Rooms, on September 15th, the following 
 passages occurred : 
 
 THE SLAVERY HUMBUG. 
 
 A great deal has been said about the "Mormons" being in a 
 condition of slavery and serfdom, and these conspirators have a 
 great deal of spmpathy for them on that account. They want 
 to make them free; but the liberalizing process is very remarka- 
 ble. They want to make them free by taking away all their 
 political rights, and give them another kind of freedom to visit 
 the dens of infamy that have been established here and nurtured 
 by them under the protest and against the active efforts of the 
 Latter-day Saints, without a dissenting voice on their part. That 
 is the kind of freedom they want to introduce. 
 
 But let us see how much freedom there is when you come to 
 simmer it down in their own case. There was a man who took 
 part in that Methodist religio-politico meeting held on the 7th of 
 May, 1882, by the name of Jacob S. Boreman, formerly a judge 
 of one of the judicial districts of this Territory, with his head- 
 quarters at Beaver. There was brought up before him while he 
 acted in that capacity a "Mormon," by the name of Alonzo 
 Colton, He was indicted under a Territorial statute that had no 
 reference to polygamy whatever a Territorial law against 
 lascivious cohabitation and in the face of the fact that he (Bore- 
 man) knew that this statute had no application to the case, but 
 that it ought to have come under the law of the United States 
 against bigamy and polygamy, passed by Congress in 1862, that 
 
40 APPENDIX. 
 
 man was, in Jacob S. Boreman's court, convicted under the 
 Territorial law that had no application, even if he were a polyg- 
 amist. That is known and acknowledged by every man of all 
 shades of opinion. It would be so admitted universally in this 
 community to-day, except, perhaps, by the honorable gentleman 
 himself. Yet he placed that man in the penitentiary through 
 his bringing his Methodism on to the bench; and Colton served 
 out a term of five years on a conviction brought under a law that 
 had no application to the case. Colton's brother-in-law came up 
 to this city some time after his incarceration. I met him several 
 times. He drew out a petition for his release on the ground that 
 he (Mr. Colton) was illegally convicted and unlawfully held in 
 custody; that his conviction and imprisonment were an outrage. 
 I saw the petition. It was taken to certain men that you and I 
 know perfectly well independent men who breathe the air of 
 freedom of this great republic. But they did not sign it. They 
 stated to the brother-in-law of Alonzo Colton, something after 
 the language used to the "Mormons" by the late President Mar- 
 tin Van Buren "Your cause is just, but I can do nothing for 
 you." They said, in effect, that they dared not affix their signa- 
 tures to that paper for fear of the Tribune getting after them 
 They were so free and independent. You understand the bal- 
 ance. I could give you the names of those parties, but I do not 
 wish to be too personal. This is the freedom enjoyed by the 
 conspirators against the peace and freedom of the people of 
 Utah. 
 
 In fact the whip of the conspirators, through their organ and 
 the medium of public harangues, has been constantly cracked 
 over the heads of decent men \vho have in the slightest manner 
 protested against their outrageous operations against the "Mor- 
 mons," until they haye either been forced into line or into a 
 silence under which they have chafed, because of the perpetual 
 outrage upon their ideas of fair play. And yet these conspira- 
 tors will talk of freedom, and talk with spread-eagle loftiness 
 about the sweets of liberty. 
 
 THE MOKALITY PLEA. 
 
 Let us enquire a little further into the comparative morality of 
 "Mormons" and non-Mormons, as exhibited by the official sta- 
 tistics of two of the chief cities of Utah. In the year 1882 the 
 total number of arrests made in Salt Lake City, by the municipal 
 police, for crimes of every class, was 1,640; of these law-breakers 
 446 were "Mormons" and 1,194 non-Mormons, yet the latter con- 
 
APPENDIX. 41 
 
 stitute but one-fourth of the population. They furnished, how- 
 ever, three-fourths of the criminality. In 1883 the arrests 
 amounted to 1,609 in all. Only 150 were "Mormons' 7 and the 
 remaining 1,459 non-Mormons. 
 
 Ogden makes a still more striking exhibit in the same direc- 
 tion. In 1881 the relative population was 85 per cent. "Mor- 
 mons" to 15 per cent. non-Mormons. The arrests numbered 
 211. Of the persons arrested 21 were "Mormons," the remaining 
 190 being non-Mormons. 
 
 In 1882 the arrests numbered 306, the relative proportion being 
 22 "Mormons," to 284 non-Mormons. 
 
 In 1883 the arrests footed up 537, with a score of 74 for ihe law- 
 less "Mormons" and 463 for the non-Mormons. In the last 
 mnaed year the proportion of "Mormons"' in the population was 
 closely estimated at 71 per cent. "Mormons," leaving 29 per 
 cent. non-Mormons. 
 
 These figures are eloquent; they speak in thunder tones, ren- 
 dering comments upon their showing superfluous. 
 
 THE KESPONSIBILITY. 
 
 , 
 
 I might refer to cases of mobbing, and driving, and murder 
 that have been the direct result of the publication of false state- 
 ments formulated by men in this city. I was informed but 
 yesterday by Joseph H. Parry that \\hen he was laboring in the 
 Southern States, in the same district where Joseph Standing was 
 laboring, that the cause of the excitement that resulted in the 
 death of the latter, was, that in the Journal of Education were 
 published certain averments by J. M. Coyner. The cue was 
 taken from these statements by the sectarian preachers of that 
 region; those preachers by anti-Mormon harangues worked the 
 people into such a frenzy that that murder was the result, and 
 the blood spots of Joseph Standing are upon the skirts of J. M, 
 Coyner, he being, according to Elder Parry's evidence, one of 
 the indirect causes of that foul assassination. 
 
 STATEMENT OF K. G. McNIECE. ' 
 
 "It was also about eighteen months ago that our chapel and 
 school-building in Logan was set on fire. Some one climbed in 
 at the window and having poured coal-oil on the floor^set it on, 
 fire. The fire went out; but the next morning the burn e$ floor 
 and the mark of the coal-oil showed too plainly that the purpose 
 was to burn the building." 
 
42 APPENDIX. 
 
 The verified facts : 
 
 "LOGAN, UTAH, June 21, 1884. 
 "Editor Deseret New$: 
 
 "1 send herewith Sheriff Crookston's affidavit regarding 
 the attempt to burn the Presbyterian church. Rev. C. M. Parks, 
 the pastor, has made to me personally a similar statement. Mr. 
 Parks says he will call on you on Monday next and repeat it. 
 
 "B. F. CUMMINGS, JR." 
 
 "Territory of Utah, County of Cache, Logan Precinct, on this 
 21st day of June, A. D., 1884, personally appeared before me, B. 
 F. Cummings, Jr.. a justice ot the peace in and for said precinct, 
 at my office in said precinct, Nicholas W. Orookston, who, being 
 duly sworn, deposes and says that he is now and has been ever 
 since before November, A.* D. 1882, sheriff of Cache County. 
 
 "Said N. W. Crookston further deposes and says, 'On the morn- 
 ing of .December 1st, A. D., 1882, I was notified that an attempt 
 to burn the Presbyterian church in Logan had been made during 
 the previous night. 1 went to the church with County Attorney 
 Maughan. Found a quantity of kindling wood saturated with 
 coal-oil on the floor of the bell tower. The wood had evidently 
 been thrown there through a window and the coal-oil, afterwards 
 found on it, from the window, and a lighted match dropped in 
 on it. A bench used as a seat was charred, the carpet covering 
 on it was burned and some of the kindling wood was also char- 
 red. Rev. O. M. Parks, pastor of the church v told me that on the 
 previous evening there had been an entertainment in the church, 
 being Thanksgiving evening; that one, Wm. Buder, came to tne 
 entertainment drunk, and that he (Parks) asked him to leave, 
 but he (Buder) would not, and that he (Parks) then put him out 
 by force, and that Buder then threatened to get even with him 
 (Parfcs). 
 
 "'The kindling wood had been split off from round blocks 
 sawed from a log. I took three pieces of the kindling and fitted 
 two of them into a block which I found in Buder's yard. The 
 way the pieces fitted, the curve of the grain, the length and the 
 kind of wood, all proved positively that the two pieces I fitted 
 had been split off "from the log in Buder's yard, While I was 
 fitting the piece on the block Buder came to me, took hold of me 
 and told me to 'let that wood alone.' He seemed to be very 
 much alarmed. 
 
 "In the month of June, A. D. 1883, Buder was in jail. I was 
 his jailor, I told him he had better leave town, and that there 
 was proof that he had tried to burn the Presbyterian church. 
 In reply he said "the church didn't burn, but I'll get even with 
 Parks before I leave town.'" N. W. CROOKSTON. 
 
 Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 21st day of June, A. 
 D. 1883. 
 
 B. F. CUMMINGS, Jr., 
 Justice of the Peace. 
 
 THE OLD STYLE. 
 
 To-day we print a verbatim report of an address delivered by 
 Bishop West at Juab on the 9th inst., as forwarded by a friend. 
 
APPENDIX. 43 
 
 It reads like the old-day Tabernacle harangues, and the devout 
 brethren and sisters of the former time would have warmly en- 
 joyed and commended it as being ''full of the sperret," indeed, 
 we are not sure but away down deep in their hearts they will 
 approve it now. It is a very violent harangue, full of bitter ma- 
 lice and the usual untruths of the fanatics when they undertake 
 to deal with subjects' wherein they are opposed. The common 
 dreary twaddle of exclusive holiness and a monopoly of honesty 
 is disgustingly paraded by this dishonest parasite in behalf of a 
 set of rogues whose crimes, peculations, public and private, 
 robberies and unblushing piracies are the amazement of every 
 one who has had to do with the facts. No spot in the Mormon 
 administration, from the tithing yards to the county and Terri- 
 torial treasuries could bear the light of day. Elder West's main 
 insistance was, in plain words, that it was the command of the 
 Lord, communicated through Joseph Smith, "the martyr," in a 
 vision, about the beginning of the present month, to 'himself 
 (West), that Governor Murray must be assassinated, and that 
 his successor must in like manner be "removed," until the Gen- 
 tiles were faint with terror, and let the Saints alone to- manage 
 "their own kingdom" in their own way. Of course the howling 
 of such a noisy blatherskite in that vein simply means that he is 
 filled with a murderous hate, but is too cowardly to himself to do 
 the deed he undertakes to spur others up to commit. There is no 
 danger from him, and even in the worst times the brethren had 
 top much discretion and wholesome fear of the consequencies to 
 undertake any such villainous programme. In former years 
 Elder West would, however, have been sure of promotion in the 
 church for his efforts, especially if they had been well kept up, 
 for the sect in its wretched development of Brighamism has need 
 of such tools. He starts in too late in the day, however, and will 
 neither win cross/which he might have won in Jackson county, 
 Missouri, nor crown, which he might have gained during the 
 fanatical "reformation' * which led up to the Mountain Meadow 
 massacre. 
 
 As this notorious fabrication has created considerable interest^ 
 on account of the murderous mischief it has created, it is here 
 published in full, as it appeared in the Salt Lake Tribune of 
 March 15th 1884 together with a refutation of it from the pen of 
 George Teasdale. 
 
 A KED-HOT ADDRESS. 
 
 (From the Salt Lake Tribune.) 
 
 Stenograph ical report of Bishop West's harangue in the Juab 
 school-house, Sunday, March 9th, 1884. Reported by Tobias 
 Tobey for the Salt Lake Tribune. 
 
 Juab, Utah, March 9th. 
 
 It is time, my brothers and sisters, that we ceased this cowardly 
 silence and humble submission to the rulings and machinations 
 of the devil and his fiery imps at the capitol of this God-forsaken 
 Gentile government; and it is time for us to fling their defiance 
 and scurrilous domination back in their faces. We are the elect 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 of Christ, and the day of judgment is at hand, and it's our turn 
 then if it isn't now, which I say it is. When Gabriel sounds his 
 trumpet on that awful day, the Gentile hellhounds will find the 
 Saints of God have got all the front seats reserved, and that they 
 can't find standing room for themselves in the gallery. The 
 cause is flourishing in the Juab Stake of Zion, and many souls 
 are being daily rescued from the flames of heathenism. If I 
 had my way not a house would be left standing which sheltered 
 a knavish Gentile. They are eyesores in the sight of the Lord 
 and His vengeance is sure to come. They persecute His Saints 
 and He has commanded them to destroy their persecutors. He 
 has commanded the Saints to rid the earth of the sin-besmudged 
 heretic. He has revealed unto us the foundation of the Gentile 
 Church that it is the devil. (II Nephi ch. 4, verse xx.) Hell is 
 filled with the scurrilous Gentiles and the floors of hell are 
 paved with the skulls of apostates. He who kills a Gentile rids 
 the earth of a serpent and adds a star to his own crown. The 
 Saints are gathering together from sea to sea and they will rise 
 in their awful might and fall upon the enemies of Zion. Let the 
 tabernacles resound with joyful voices for the fulfillment of the 
 prophpcies of Moroni are at hand. The minions of the devil 
 are set loose in our midst by the crime soaked politicians who 
 rule our land. The shades of the sainted martyr Smith call 
 aloud for vengeance at the hands of his followers. The blood of 
 the Gentile persecutors shall be spilled on their own thresholds to 
 appease the anger of our prophet. Tune the lyre and beat the 
 cymbals; for our revenge is now at hand. We will wipe out the 
 scum of the Washington blood suckers and the high priest of 
 the devil who assumes to rule in our very midst shall be cut off 
 with a sharp instrument. The thieving Murray issues orders to 
 the Saints of God, and defies every one but the devil, who is 
 his sponsor. His head will be placed upon the walls of our city and 
 his entrails scattered throughout the street of Zion, that every 
 Gentile adventurer may behold and take a care that we are left 
 to pursue our road to Paradise unmolested. Our strength is 
 greater than the world believes and our will is powerful and 
 undaunted by heretic menaces. The Lord is our shepherd and 
 we cannot fail. The red man is our firm ally and he thirsts for 
 the blood of the enemy of Zion. We are powerful and unassail- 
 able in our mountain home and we will roll the massive boulders 
 of destruction down from the mountain tops upon the heads of 
 the unregenerate. Our secret places are stored with crafty explo- 
 sives with which we will surely destroy the strongholds of the 
 government of Satan. Our young men are drilling for the 
 conflict, and pur wives and daughters are making themselves 
 ready to minister to our wants, and the day is close at hand. 
 Let the Gentile leeches and poltroons beware and win our for- 
 bearance, if yet they may. The Lord is sorely angered at our 
 persecutors, and He has said to our counselors in a vision that 
 He will deliver our enemy into our hands as He delivered Laban 
 into the hands of Nephi. He will visit the earth, through us, 
 with a worse destruction than He did in the days of the flood, 
 and the ungodly will bite the dust with rage, and their blood 
 will flow in the streets of Zion even as much as the waters in the 
 
APPENDIX. 45 
 
 day of Noah. Behold, I declare unto you, all ye Saints who 
 revere the memory of the Prophets, that you must begin to gird 
 up your loins and whet your knives. Let the religious fervor of 
 the Saints who are dead and gone recur to your weaker spirits 
 and fire you with the zeal of the destroying angels. Eli Murray 
 is the Cain of our generation. He hates our people and he 
 "works for our destruction that he may win for himself a reputa- 
 tion of valor among the ungodly. He is a damned scoundrel, 
 and a pestiferous leper. He is the polluted scum of corruption. 
 He reeks with ungodliness, and he is rotten with heresy. I com- 
 mand every true disciple of Christ to watch out for this damned 
 Yankee interloper, and ye know that there is protection enough 
 for you in Zion if ye kill the whole Gentile race. Lnst night, as 
 I lay in my bed thinking over the affairs of the Church, and 
 possessed of a strange restlessness, and praying the while for 
 inspiration from the Most High, that I might see the way more 
 clearly to a sure release of my brethren from bondage, behold a 
 great and glorious light suddenly filled my apartment with a 
 glow brighter than the sun. I was at first afraid, snd inclined 
 strongly tojeap from my bed and flee. But of a sudden I heard 
 a voice which caused my heart to beat with tumultuous joy, for 
 it was that of Joseph Smith. I gazed at him earnestly, expect- 
 ing and hanging on the words which should perchance fall from 
 his lips, and I beheld that his garments were of a dazzling white- 
 ness, and that his skin was of a dazzling and heavenly whiteness, 
 save the blood-red spots and livid wounds where the bullets of 
 the cursed Gentiles had entered his sainted body, and which 
 were now visible to their eternal damnation, as w<-re the marks 
 of the nails which pierced the hands and feet of Christ. Joseph 
 spoke to me in a voice of wondrous sweetness blended with 
 strains of the direst severity when he spoke of the fate in store 
 for those Saints who neglected what he should now command 
 them. Joseph bade me to cast my eyes about and behold the 
 presence in the midst of the Saints of an emissary of the devil. 
 It was the will of the Most High that this man should be removed, 
 and if other emissaries were chosen to fill his place, even as many 
 as were so chosen should be similarly dealt with. If allowed to 
 remain in our midst, the sin would be on our heads, for it was 
 the command of the Most High God of Abraham and Isaac. It 
 lay in our power to be our own rulers, and our cowardice was 
 the cause of sore distress to the departed Saints who had left us 
 a kingdom. Eli H. Murray was possessed of a devil, and had 
 only the outward semblance of a man. He should and must be 
 trod upon until his bowels gushed out in the streets. The incar- 
 nate fiend lurked invisibly behind his hellish disciple, and was 
 intent upon the destruction of Zion. The time was short, and 
 vigorous and immediate action premptory The curses of eternal 
 damnation awaited those who failed in this holy mission. The 
 work must not stop at the destruction of one of these hell-hounds, 
 these Erebus-like pestilences in the folds of the anointed, but 
 must extend even to the farthermost corners of the earth, until 
 every heretic out of hell was sent home, and the Latter-day 
 Saints were rulers of the land. Much more the beloved Joseph 
 said to me which I am commanded not to reveal unto you until 
 
46 APPENDIX. 
 
 you prove the sincerity of your faith and love for the prosperity 
 of Zion from what has already been revealed. The direst plagues 
 shall be immediately visited upon you and your children if these 
 divine commands go unheeded. 1 call upon you who sit there 
 trembling in your seats to beware, and to rise in your strength 
 and win your crown. Let every Saint in Zion be present at the 
 meeting in this building on Sunday next at this hour, and I will 
 discourse further upon these matters which I baye, for wise rea- 
 sons, kept from you during the day up to this minute. The Lord 
 bless you. Amen. 
 
 THE FOUL LIBEL KEFUTED. 
 
 NEPHI, JUAB Co., TJ. T. 
 
 March 18, 1884. 
 Editor Deseret News: 
 
 Please pardon me for refprring to a sheet published in 
 your city, called the "Salt Lake Tribune,," although I do not 
 presume that it is sustained by any respectable person in this 
 Territory where it has so unenviable a reputation; still it may be 
 sent abroad and fall into the hands of some simple-minded per- 
 sons who might perhaps be deluded into the impression that it 
 was a truthful sheet, or reliable authority. Not that I think for 
 a moment that any sane person would be so woefully deceived. 
 I wish to refer to a manufactured sensational piece in the issue 
 of Sunday the 16th inst.. that has been called to my attention, 
 headed a "Ked-Hot Address;" also a short editorial on the sub- 
 ject in which the truthful (?) editor states it had been "forwarded 
 by a friend. " O, tempore! O, mores! It purports to be a "sten- 
 Ographical report of Bishop West's harangue in the Juab school- 
 house, Sunday March 9, 1884, reported by 'Tobias Tobey' for the 
 Salt Lake Tribune." Then follows an address which charity 
 would suggest had been written by an insane person or worse, 
 the offspring of a dreadfully corrupt heart, a miserable disgrace 
 to the genus homo, worthy only to rise to "shame' and everlast- 
 ing contempt." 
 
 Now, the facts are these: It is all a gross fabrication, Juab 
 is a small town occupied by hotel and boarding house keepers, a 
 store or two and the railroad hands; there is a small branch of 
 the Church, presided over by Elder James Wilson, who is very 
 much respected, but no bishop. On the Sunday referred to there 
 had been a wash-out and all the hands were busy, so that there 
 was no meeting held on that day; and as far as the "Bishop 
 West" is concerned, there is no such bishop there or in the "Mor- 
 mon" Church, and who "Tobias Tobey" is no one knows. 
 
 I have been requested to inform you of these facts, and kindly 
 request that you will waive any feeling of dislike you may have 
 to, in any way, refer to the existence of such a sheet, for the 
 sake of our young Elders on missions, who might perchance 
 meet with this shockingly vile fabrication. 
 
 Very Eespectfully, 
 
 GEORGE TEASDALE. 
 
APPENDIX. 47 
 
 WHAT UTAH WANTS. 
 
 The Salt Lake Tribune of March 6th, 1881, had an editorial 
 headed, "What Utah Wants," from which we make the following 
 extracts : 
 
 "Apropos of the new and petty war recently started by the 
 municipal government on the women of the town, the liquor 
 dealers and the gambling fraternity, one of the 'enemy' said to 
 us the other day: 'It may be a hard thing to say, and perhaps 
 harder still to maintain, but I believe that billiard halls, saloons 
 and houses of ill-fame are more powerful reforming agencies 
 here in Utah than churches and schools, or even than the 
 Tribune. What the youug Mormons want is to be freed. So long 
 as they are slaves, it matters not much to what or to whom, they 
 are and they can be nothing. Your churches are as enslaving 
 as the Mormon Church. Your party is as bigoted and intolerant 
 as the Mormon party. At all events I rejoice when I see the 
 young Mormon hoodlums playing billiards, getting drunk, 
 running with bad women anything to break the shackles they 
 were born in, and that every so-called religious or virtuous 
 influence only makes the stronger. Some of them will go quite 
 to the bad, of course, but it is better so, . for they are made of 
 poor stuff, and since there is no good reason why they were 
 begun for let them soon be done for, and the sooner the better. 
 Most of them, however, will soon weary of vice and dissipation, 
 and be all the stronger for the knowledge of it and of its vanity. 
 At the very least they will be free, and it is of such vital 
 consequence that a man should be free, that in my opinion his 
 freedom is cheaply won at the cost of some familiarity with low 
 life. And while it is not desirable in itself, it is to me tolerable, 
 because it appears to offer the only inducement strong enough to 
 entice men out of slavery into freedom.' 
 
 So far, the Tribune's pretended quotation. Now for its own 
 comments, in the same article: 
 
 '''Freedom is the first requisite of manhood, and if it can be 
 won without excesses so much the better. If it can't, never mind 
 the excesses, win the freedom. It is not you who are responsi- 
 ble, when it comes to that; it is those who have enslaved you. 
 Who is the national hero of the yeomanry of England but Kobin 
 Hood, 'waging war against the men of law, against bishops and 
 archbishops, whose sway was so heavy; generous, moreover; 
 giving a poor, ruined knight clothes, horse and money to buy 
 back the land he had pledged to a rapacious Abbott; compas- 
 
48 APPENDIX. 
 
 sionate, too, and kind to the poor, enjoining his men not to injure 
 yeomen and laborers, but above all rash, bold, proud, who would 
 go to draw his bow before the sheriff's eyes and to his face; ready 
 with blows, whether to give or take.' 
 
 * # # # * * 
 
 "Read the first chapter of Book Two of Taine's English 
 Literature, if you would see what ails Utah, and what it needs 
 as a medicament." 
 
 "To vent the feelings, to satisfy the heart and eyes, to set free 
 boldly on all the roads of existence, the pack of appetites and 
 instincts, this was the craving which the manners of the time 
 betrayed. It was 'merry England,' as they called it then. It 
 was not yet stern and constrained. It expanded widely, freely, 
 and rejoiced to find itself so expanded." 
 
 -#- #- # # 
 
 "Let the people of Utah rise out of the dust, stand upright, 
 inquire within, lean on themselves, look about them, and try in 
 a large way to be men, as they were born to be. Let them know 
 nobody more puissant than themselves. What is a game of 
 billiards, a glass of beer, a cup of coffee, cigar, or other petty 
 vice, in the span of a strong human life, filled with endeavor in 
 the right direction? The Territory, like the rest of the land, is 
 still in in its infancy, still in the pulp of babyhood. It has yet 
 to be made. There is work for men, whose first and last quality 
 is strength, manliness. The day of trifles, and of crouching 
 and cowardice, of criminal surrender to the first howling dervish 
 who calls himself a priest and presumes to speak in the name of 
 the Almighty, has lasted long enough. Let a new era dawn in 
 which men shall dare to be men." 
 
PRILE-L1ST OF 
 
 HOME PUBLICATIONS 
 
 FOIl SALK AT THE 
 
 Juvenile Instructor Office, 
 
 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, 
 
 AND 
 
 AT ITS BRANCH HOUSE, CA* VO1V I AX) SOXS, 
 OG&EX CITY, UTAH, 
 
 And by Book-Sellers throughout the Territory. 
 
 THE FAITH-PROMOTING SERIES. 
 
 My First Mission, 
 
 A String of Pearls, 
 
 Leaves From my Journal, 
 
 Gems for the Young Folks, 
 
 Jacob Hamblin, 
 
 Fragments of Experience, 
 
 President Heber C. KimbaU's Journal, 
 
 Early Scenes in Church History, 
 
 The Life of Nephi, 
 
 Scraps of Biography, 
 
 Myth of the Manuscript Found, 
 
 Labors in the Vineyard, 
 
 OTHER WORKS. 
 
 The Martyrs, 
 
 ''Mormon" Doctrine, 
 
 The Hand of Providence, 
 
 Lydia Knight's History, 
 
 Deseret S. S. Union Music Book, 
 
 Choir Music, 
 
 Plural Marriage, 
 
 Why We Practice Plural Marriage, 
 
 Heroines of "Mormondom," 
 
 Public Discussion, on the Doctrines of the Gospel, 
 
 An Epic Poem, (synopsis of Church history in verse) 25