| 387 "allied with the enemies of his father;" and "in league with those who counsel violence." "He would have force applied where argument fails." This is the argumentative defense offered by the News. Is the News informed as to the time and place where argument between the Reorganization and the Utah church, upon the doctrine of polygamy or plural marriage has failed? Will the editor please to state, if he knows, when and where the champions of the two organizations have held joint discussion upon the subject at issue, in which discussion argument failed? The fact is, the Utah elders, except here and there an isolated case, have all declined, from Orson Pratt and John Taylor, clear down, to meet the leading elders sent to Utah to invite the attention of the people to the issue raised. These men who now raise this cry of "persecution," "persecution," because we demand the just enforcement of law, in Utah as elsewhere in the United States, persist in saying that we seek to "bring trouble, if not destruction upon the people who live but to carry out the revelations of God received through" Joseph the Martyr; when they have the printed refutation of such charge on record in the very speech, which to them has proven so offensive. If the "enforcement of law in Utah as elsewhere in the United States," is the persecution referred to, we must plead guilty; but in no other sense have the elders of the Reorganized Church sought to bring persecution or trouble upon Utah.
How happened it that it took Brigham Young eight years and two months to discover the alleged revelation? How happened it that it was not until August 29, 1852, that the alleged revelation on plural marriage, said to be from God to Joseph Smith, was presented to the church? How happened it that then it was not presented to the First Presidency; then to the Twelve; then to the Seventy, in solemn conclave assembled to consider it? How happened it, that when it was presented, it was at a special conference, held at an unusual time of the year; instead of at a general annual or semiannual session, on the legendary days of April 6, or October 6? How happened it that when presented, President B. Young accounts for its possession in such a dogmatic and suspicious way? How happened it that Elder Orson Pratt distinctly affirmed that he presented the doctrine for the first time? How happened it that then, the people who were to be affected for good or evil by the change in the church polity, were not permitted to examine the document claimed to be a revelation from God to them, and declare for or against it, as they might have been moved to do? How happened it that John Taylor denied the existence and teaching of the doctrine in France in 1850, as stated by O. Pratt in his works? How happened it that in Denmark, Wales, Scotland, and in many parts of England the existence of the doctrine and its practice in Utah were denied? How happened it that President B. Young admitted to Schuyler Colfax in 1865 that polygamy was not introduced till after the removal to Utah? How happened it that Hiram B. Clawson, son-in-law to President B. Young, stated in Chicago in February, 1882, that it could not have been for polygamy that the Mormons
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