| 553 vs. Joseph H. Reynolds and Harmon T. Wilson, and discloses another specimen of that spirit of religious prejudice which has been arrayed against Gen. Smith ever since he first took his station in the religious world. When a community becomes so corrupt that it is a hard matter to empannel [impanel] a jury, sufficiently free from religious prejudice to do justice to a fellow citizen, then do we indeed realize the abyss of darkness and corruption to which the human mind is capable of sinking. Shame on the man whose mind is so trammelled [trammeled] by prejudice as to render him incompetent to be empannelled [impaneled] in a jury of his countrymen! How exalted he must appear, what a magnanimity he must display and what convincing testimonials of a cultivated intellect he must exhibit, when he meanly, degradingly and slavishly acknowledges before intelligent men, within the pales of courts of justice, that he cannot act justly and legally with his fellow man, in consequence of RELIGIOUS PREJUDICE! What has religion got to do the truth or falsity of any civil or criminal allegation charged upon an individual? Nothing. O, short sighted, ignorant corrupt, despicable men! Did you ever read that clause of the constitution that protests against proscription for opinion sake?-that protects every subject of this government in the free exercise of his religious sentiments? This was one of the fundamental principles consulted by the framers of that instrument. Throwing off the manacles of a tyranical [tyrannical] nation; springing forth into freedom; panting after a full fruition of national liberty; determined to rend every chain of oppression from the mind of man; eager to plant the germ of happiness in the foundation of the Republic-a free, universal religious toleration was embodied in, and granted by, its wise, judicious and ennobling provisions. The illustrious fathers of that perilous era, foresaw the glory, happiness and excellence that an adherence to these principles would secure, and the distraction, ruin, panic and distress that a departure from them would entail. They had felt the yoke of oppression, which kindled within their bosoms a warm solicitude for the unshackled freedom of posterity.
Shall men, at this age of the Republic-when it has stood the test of nearly seventy years-the liberality of its institutions supporting, like the ark of God, the fair fabric of liberty, rich with the blandishments of gratitude and benevolence-holding up the mottos [mottoes] to surrounding nations, 'Religious Toleration, the Cradle of Liberty,' the 'Home of the Oppressed'-begin to inculcate the identical principles that have led to the overthrow of almost every Republic that has previously existed?-Would they follow in the train of ruin, desolation and overthrow which has befallen other nations, and rear a dynasty more despicable in its administration than that over which the Russian Autocrat tyranizes [tyrannizes], dooming all to speedy banishment who will not unite with the Greek church? Would they promote internal commotion and revolt-give a double impetus to the damning car of corruption that is now sweeping through our land, leaving desolation, faction, turbulence, party wrangling and unholy ambition in its track, to grow into a national calamity? Would they light the torch of general devastation and pave the way for mourning around our nation's 'funeral pile,' when all the trophies won by the chivalry of Revolutionary ancestors will find an obvious rest amid the relics of our crumbling Republic? If these results are desirable and hoped for by demagogues and political weathercocks, let that spirit of religious prejudice, (manifested upon the above named trial and which we as a people have ever encountered,) continue to augment and cast its darkning [darkening] shadows over the mind of man, and it will add sufficient fuel to the spreading flame to consummate the general devastation.
Notwithstanding Gen. Smith did not obtain a verdict for damages only to the amount of forty dollars, yet the fact of the jury's verdict-obtained as it was in the midst of such strong prejudice-being in favor of the plaintiff, is sufficient evidence of the unparalleled malignance and unprecedented barbarity, encountered by him at the hands of those inhuman mobocrats, at the time of his capture. Gen. Smith has now shown to the world that he was illegally and cruelly arrested, and that he was innocent when tried upon the merits of the charge alleged. This he has always been able to show upon every previous trial, and we venture to predict that his innocence will be sustained upon every subsequent charge, until the whole world shall become convinced of his patriotism and the excellence of his character.
At a special conference of the Boston Branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, held at Franklin Hall, Boston, April 13th, 1844, Elder Noah Packard was called on the chair, and Elder A. McAllister was chosen clerk.
Elder William Sanborne was found guilty of lying, slander fraud, and misrepresentation, and by unanimous vote of this branch is silenced from preaching the gospel until he makes satisfaction.
Voted that the above be published in the Times and Seasons, at Nauvoo.
(page 553) |
