ed Church property; by the
proceedings of the Federal courts of Utah in re-opening citizenship
to the alien members of the Mormon Church; by the acquiescence of the
Gentiles of Utah in the proceedings by which statehood was obtained;
and finally, and most indisputably, by the admission of Utah into equal
sovereignty in the Union--since that admission would never have been
granted, except upon the explicit understanding that the state was to
uphold the laws and institutions of the American republic in accordance
with our covenants.

Of all these promises the Church authorities have kept not one. The
doctrine and practice of polygamy have been restored by the Church, and
plural marriage living is practiced by the ruler of the kingdom and his
favorites with all the show and circumstance of an oriental court. There
are now being born in his domains thousands of unfortunate children
outside the pale of law and convention, for whom there can be
entertained no hope that any statute will ever give them a place within
the recognition of civilized society. The Prophet of the Church rules
with an absolute political power in Utah, with almost as much authority
in Idaho and Wyoming, and with only a little less autocracy in parts
of Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Washington, California, Arizona and New
Mexico. He names the Representatives and Senators in Congress from his
own state, and influences decisively the selection of such "deputies of
the people" from many of the surrounding states. Through his ambassadors
to the government of the United States, sitting in House and Senate, he
chooses the Federal officials for Utah and influences the appointment of
those for the neighboring states and territories. He commands the making
and unmaking of state law. He holds the courts and the prosecuting
officers to a strict accountability. He levies tribute upon the people
of Utah and helps to loot the citizens of the whole nation by his
alliance with the political and financial Plunderbund at Washington. He
has enslaved the subjects of his kingdom absolutely, and he looks to it
as the destiny of his Church to destroy all the governments of the world
and to substitute for them the theocracy--the "government by God" and
administration by oracle--of his successors.

And yet, even so, I could not have recorded the incidents of this
betrayal as mere matters of current history--and I would never have
written them in vindication of myself--if I had not