There is nothing theocratic in the government of the Mormon Church that
is exhibited to the world. It does not claim to govern the Territory
of Utah. It acknowledges the authority {329} of the Government of the
United States. You cannot assail it by declaring it as a matter of
opinion on the part of the American Congress that for a man to worship
God according to his belief, as Mormons do (however contrary to our
opinions and our wishes), is a theocracy to be suppressed with fire
and sword. But if you will make war upon it, let it not be by striking
down the liberties of your people and doing violence to your own holy
faith; but assail it with the red right hand of war, with the sword to
stab it out, and say to them: "Proclaim your heresies and conduct your
rites beyond the limits of this Territory of the United States." Sir,
this is worse than open, flagrant war. This is asserting to the people
that what our fathers, acting under the teachings of the Christian
religion, fought for more than a hundred years to accomplish, shall be
thrown away. This is an assertion by the Congress of the United States
that there may be a trial by a packed and prejudiced court, by partial
jurors, by a man's enemies, and not his friends; that a government
shall be constructed in which the vast majority--nine-tenths of the
people--in defiance of the principles which control our whole political
system, a government of a minority shall be constructed through penal
provisions and through verdicts of courts selected and organized to try
and convict!