rs, is it not a nation
of abject, degraded slaves?

To a thinking man, one of the most strange phenomena is that our modern
nations allow all their most sacred rights to be trampled under feet, and
destroyed by the Papacy, the sworn enemy of Liberty, through a mistaken
respect and love for that same Liberty!

No people have more respect for Liberty of Conscience than the Americans;
but has the noble State of Illinois allowed Joe Smith and Brigham Young to
degrade and enslave the American women under the pretext of Liberty of
Conscience, appealed to by the so-called "Latter-day Saints?" No! The
ground was soon made too hot for the tender conscience of the modern
prophets. Joe Smith perished when attempting to keep his captive wives in
his chains, and Brigham Young had to fly to the solitudes of the Far West,
to enjoy what he called his liberty of conscience with the thirty women he
had degraded and enchained under his yoke. But even in that remote solitude
the false prophet has heard the distant peals of the roaring thunder. The
threatening voice of the great Republic has troubled his rest, and he
wisely speaks of going as much as possible out of the reach of Christian
civilization, before the dark and threatening clouds which he sees on the
horizon will hurl upon him their irresistible storms.

Will any one blame the American people for so going to the rescue of woman?
No, surely not.

But what is this confessional-box? Nothing but a citadel and stronghold of
Mormonism.

What is this Father Confessor, with few exceptions, but a lucky Brigham
Young?

I do not want to be believed on my _ipse dixit_. What I ask from serious
thinkers is, that they should read the encyclicals of the Piuses, the
Gregorys, the Benoits, and many other Popes, "De Sollicitantibus." There
they will see, with their own eyes, that, as a general thing, the confessor
has more women to serve him than the Mormon prophets ever had. Let them
read the memoirs of one of the most venerable men of the Church of Rome,
Bishop de Ricci, and they will see, with their own eyes, that the
confessors are more free with their penitents, even nuns, than husbands are
with their wives. Let them hear the testimony of one of the noblest
princesses of Italy, Henrietta Carraciolo, who still lives, and they will
know that the Mormons have more respect for women than the greater part of
the confessors have. Let them hear the lamentations of Cardinal Baronius,
Saint Bern