The Official Declaration

SALT LAKE CITY, JANUARY, 1890.



THE First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and the Twelve Apostles, have issued a specific and official denial of the calumnies recently revived against the Church, in the late inquiry as to the character of said Church, in the third district court. The charge of believing in and practicing the horrible doctrine of blood atonement for "apostacy and other crimes" is denied, and the position of the Church in relation to that doctrine explained. It is denied that the Bishop's or other court in the Church exercise judicial functions with a view to supersede the judgment of any civil court; that the Church interferes with citizens in the exercise of social or political rights; that there is anything in the endowment ceremony hostile to the government of the United States; that the Church claims to be an independent, temporal Kingdom of God, aiming to overthrow the United States or any other civil government. These denials are followed by the announcement that they claim for themselves and the Church no religious liberty they are unwilling to accord to others; ask for no civil or political rights which are not guaranteed to citizens in general; and the desire is expressed, of being in harmony with the government and people of the United States as an integral part of the nation. The attempts to exclude members of the Church from naturalization and the exercise of the elective franchise, are regarded as dangerous encroachments upon civil and religious liberty. Notwithstanding the wrongs the Church has suffered, it is announced as the intention, by the help of Omnipotence, to remain firm in fealty and steadfast in the maintenance of constitutional principles. The document closes with a strong appeal to the nation not to condemn the Saints upon the testimony of their enemies, but to suspend judgment until a full investigation can be had—"and we appeal to the Eternal Judge of all men and nations, to aid us in the vindication of our righteous cause," is the closing sentence.

The document is strong, and its demand for fair treatment and common justice should appeal to the hearts of all men in whom a love for American institutions is not dead. It is said that the brave are always generous, and, that being true, we cannot believe that this appeal to the sentiment and judgment of the brave American people, if followed up, and the facts presented to them, will be in vain. If it is, then misrepresentation and malice and fraud bear down truth and innocence, and the glory of the nation has departed. But not until the trial is made and the results positively declared, can we believe it. We regard it as the duty of the Saints to make a united and a mighty effort to vindicate their innocence before the tribunal of public opinion; and then if the nation in which we live is so lost to all sense of justice as to condemn them, they may confidently leave their cause to be vindicated by the God of justice—the God of the whole earth, and He will not fail them.


(Contributor, vol. 11 (November 1889-October 1890), Vol. Xi. January, 1890. No. 3. 114.)