WORK ON THE "MEDIATION AND ATONEMENT"—ITS CHARACTER—"THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD"—THE "STORM"—ARRIVAL OF THE COMMISSION—TEST OATH—"IN THE MARRIAGE RELATION"—HOW IT WORKS—FIRST CASE IN THE CRUSADE—PRESIDENT TAYLOR'S REFLECTIONS.

Notwithstanding the cares, labors and anxiety which his position as President of the Church thrust upon him, in these eventful years of which we are now writing, President Taylor still found time to write works on the gospel. In the year 1882 he issued his work on the Mediation and Atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is a book of some two hundred royal octavo pages.

In the main, it is a collection of scriptural passages bearing upon the subject, brought together from both ancient and modern revelations, and arranged in such manner as to develop the necessity, sufficiency, efficacy, glory, power and completeness of the atonement made by Messiah, for the sins of the world. It is not a work ambitious of displaying literary skill, or written with a view to meet the shallow and trifling objections urged against this great, central fact of the gospel by glib-tongued infidels and repeated without thought by their apish followers. It was the object of the author to bring together all the testimonies to be found in holy writ on this subject, as well in modern as in ancient scripture; and most admirably did he succeed, linking the testimonies together with such remarks as make their meanings and bearings clear, and increase the value of the original passages. The student of the great subject of the atonement, will find in President Taylor's work a most valuable collection of material for his consideration.

In chapter XXIII he will also find a most valuable reference to the doctrine of evolution as believed in by the Darwinian school of philosophers—a school of philosophy which professes to trace living phenomena to their origin, and which, if it were true, would at once destroy the doctrine of the Atonement.

In the appendix to the work, also will be found some interesting information in relation to the ideas of a general atonement and redemption entertained by the ancient heathen nations, traces of which may still be found in the traditions of their descendants. From these facts some noted infidel writers have sought to make it appear that the Christian doctrine of the atonement was derived from the heathens; but President Taylor clearly proves that the heathens originally derived their knowledge of these things from the earlier servants of God, and have preserved those truths, though in a mutilated form, in their traditions. "Exhibiting," as President Taylor writes, "that the atonement was a great plan of the Almighty for the salvation, redemption and exaltation of the human family; and that the pretenders in the various ages, had drawn whatever of truth they possessed, from the knowledge of those principles taught by the priesthood from the earliest periods of recorded time; instead of Christianity being indebted, as some late writers would allege, to the turbid system of heathen mythology, and to pagan ceremonies."

About this time he also wrote a pamphlet of some forty-five pages on the Aaronic Priesthood, chiefly relating to the authority and duties of Bishops.

The Mormon question having come once more prominently before the country through the enactments of Congress against it, the editor of the North American Review visited Utah for the express purpose of soliciting President Taylor to write an article on the then present state of the Mormon question, which he did, reviewing the operations of the recently passed Edmunds law; and in addition to that, refuted many of the false, slanderous misrepresentations, both new and old, respecting the Saints.

Meantime the storm which President Taylor had predicted at the April conference in 1882, burst upon the Saints in all its fury. The conspirators against the Church of Christ, in the Edmunds enactment, had a law under which they hoped to be able to destroy its power.

The first act of the Commission appointed by that law, was to frame a test oath which they required every person to take before he was permitted to register or vote. This practically disfranchised a whole Territory at one fell swoop; and in order to be reinstated as a voter, every man had to take the oath, which required him to swear that he had never simultaneously lived with more than one woman "in the marriage relation;" or if a woman, that she was not the wife of a polygamist, nor had she entered into any relation with any man in violation of the laws of the United States concerning polygamy and bigamy.

By this arrangement it will be seen that those who cohabited with more than one woman in adultery or prostitution, were not affected by its provisions. The roue, the libertine, the strumpet, the brothel-keeper, the adulterer and adulteress could vote. No matter how licentious a man or a woman might be, all but the Mormons were screened and protected in the exercise of the franchise by the ingenious insertion of the clause, "in the marriage relation," a clause which nowhere appears in the Edmunds law. Such broad constructionists were the Commission, that they declared no man or woman who had ever been a member of a family practicing plural marriage, should be permitted to register or vote, no matter what their present status might be. As a case in point, President Taylor himself relates the following incidents connected with the operations of this law. They are from the article above referred to in the North American Review:

"A former mayor of Salt Lake City, Mr. Feramorz Little, a very honorable gentleman and highly respected, came to this Territory many years ago, before there was any law of Congress against plural marriage, and espoused two wives. Subsequently, one of these wives died, then the other, and at the time that this incident occurred he had been for years without a wife. He had a son who was appointed registrar for a certain district in this city, and this son had the mortification of being compelled, under the ruling of the Commission, to refuse his father permission to register, and consequently deprived him of the right to vote—a privilege which he had a perfect right to exercise, both because of the provision in the Constitution that no ex post facto law shall be made, and again by reason of the statute of limitations, which bars all action in any such cases after the expiration of three years. Soon after the refusal of the registrar to place his father's name on the registration list, a well known keeper of a bagnio and her associates presented themselves, and the son had the humiliation of having to permit them to register. These courtesans afterward voted.

"Another case: A man came to the place of registration, and remarked to the officer that he supposed he could not register, as he had a wife and also kept a mistress. This man might be considered a very straight-forward fellow to make so ready an acknowledgment, but I fail to see anything straight-forward in such a crooked transaction as the breaking of the marriage vows and marital infidelity. But the officer knew what was in the oath better than this man, and advised him to read it. He did so. When he came to the words, 'in the marriage relation,' he immediately said, 'Yes, I see. I can go that,' and was at once sworn and registered."

Having begun the application of the law so as to effect the franchise of the party in the majority, the next move of the conspirators was to begin action judicially.

The first case prosecuted under the new regime was that of Rudger Clawson, a young man highly respected in the community. His case marks the inauguration of as cruel and unjustifiable a judicial crusade as was ever perpetrated against a free people in a professedly free government. He was arraigned both for polygamy and unlawful cohabitation, found guilty and sentenced on the 3rd of November, 1884. His sentence on both charges covered a period of four years imprisonment, and eight hundred dollars in fines.

President Taylor was subpoenaed as a witness in his case, but the testimony he gave was not material. Indeed the prosecution seemed more anxious to involve him in a conflict with the court than to elicit any fact he might know in relation to this particular case. His description of the scene in court during this trial, the character of the man being tried, and that of the men trying him, with a review of their methods and the principles involved in the controversy, together with the picture he draws of the present state of society as he described them off hand in a discourse delivered in Ogden, a few days after the trial, is too important to be omitted; and it demonstrates that the fire of President Taylor's eloquence could still burn brightly on occasion, until it scorched and burned an opponent, and vindicated the right. He said:

"While I was in court a few days ago, and gazing upon the assembly of judges, lawyers, marshals, witnesses, spectators, etc., many reflections of a very peculiar character passed through my mind, some of which I will here rehearse:

"I could not help thinking as I looked upon the scene, that there was no necessity for all this; these parties [Rudger Clawson and his plural wife] need not have placed themselves in this peculiar dilemma. Here was a young man blessed with more than ordinary intelligence, bearing amongst all who know him a most enviable reputation for virtue, honesty, sobriety and all other desirable characteristics that we are in the habit of supposing go to make a man respected and beloved, the civilized world over. He had been trained from early childhood in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, had been an attendant at Sabbath school and Young Men's Improvement Societies, where his course was of the most pleasing kind; more than this, some years ago when quite a youth, he had shown his devotion to the faith in which he had been reared, by going forth without purse or scrip to preach in the midst of the unbelieving the doctrines of a most unpopular faith. And as I reached this point in my reflections, my mind instinctively wanders to a monument I gazed at in Salt Lake City cemetery but a few days ago. That monument records in fitting words of respect and admiration the devotion of two young missionaries in a far-off southern state, one of whom had fallen a victim to mob violence, had sealed with his blood the testimony which he bore, the other had stood by him in his hour of sore need, and rescued his mangled body and brought it safely for thousands of miles to the home of his bereaved parents and sorrowing co-religionists.

"This heroic young man is the one now arraigned before the courts of his country, for an alleged offense against the morality of the age! Assuming that the reports pertaining to him should prove to be correct, and he really has a plural wife, what then would be the position? He from his earliest recollection, had been taught to reverence the Bible as the word of God, to revere the lives and examples of the ancient worthies whom Jehovah honored by making them His confidents, and revealing unto them the secrets of his divine purposes; he had read of one who was called 'the friend of God and the father of the faithful;' of another who was said to be a 'man after God's own heart;' of a third who in all things is said to have done the will of heaven, and so on until they could be numbered by the score; yet all these men, the friends, associates and confidents of the great Creator of heaven and earth, were men with more than one wife, some with many wives, yet they still possessed and rejoiced in the love and honor of the great judge of all the world, whose judgments are just, and whose words are all righteousness. This young man is charged with following these worthy examples; it is asserted that he has taken to wife a beautiful and virtuous young lady, belonging, like himself, to one of our most respected families, and who also believes in the Bible, and in the example set her by those holy women of old, such as Rachel, Ruth, Hannah, and others, who honored God's law, and became the mothers of prophets, priests and kings.

"And as my cogitations ran, I thought what need had these two to follow such examples of a by-gone age; why not walk in the way of the world today, unite with our modern Christian civilization, and if passion guide their actions why call each other husband and wife, why hallow their associations by any sacred ceremony—was there any need of such? Why not do as tens of thousands of others do, live in the condition of illicit love? And then if any child should be feared from this unsanctified union, why not still follow our Christian exemplars, remove the foetal incumbrance, call in some copyist of Madame Restell, the abortionist, male or female that pollute our land? That would have been, sub-rosa, genteel, fashionable, respectable, Christian-like, as Christianity goes in this generation.

"If this did not succeed, the young man might have turned his victim into the street to perish, or die of pollution as is done in tens of thousands of instances, in the most sanctified manner by the hypocrites of the day. Then in either of these cases, the young gentleman could have been received into good society, be petted and applauded; could hold a position under our government, be even a deputy marshal, registrar or what not, and still further, be able to answer all necessary questions; and be admitted as a grand juror without being brought in as a gutter snipe on an open venire, but as a respectable citizen on the regular panel.

"Or, again, these two, in the event of a child being born, might consign it to the care of some degraded hag, some 'baby farmer,' where gradually and quietly its innocent life would ebb out, and bye and bye the grief-stricken parents would receive the anticipated notice that their dear little offspring, notwithstanding every care, was dead and buried! This is a respectable crime, a crime committed principally by those who go to high-toned churches and fashionable meeting houses in velvets and feathers, in silks and satins, and who with upturned eyes and hypocritical voices, insult the majesty of heaven by drawling out, 'Lord have mercy upon us, miserable sinners!' Yet they are murderers—murderers of the worst kind, the shedders of innocent blood, consumers of their own flesh, whom the vengeance of God awaits!

"This young man and woman could have done all this and no marshals with ready feet would have dogged their steps, no packed grand juries with unanimous alacrity would do the bidding of over-zealous prosecuting attorneys; no federal judge would overturn precedent, ignore law, disregard justice on purpose to convict. No, they might have been the friends, associates, companions of judge and prosecutor, governor and commissioner; but now, as they would neither associate unrighteously, nor take means to destroy the results of their union, but honestly and virtuously live, as is claimed, as husband and wife, he stands in the felon's dock, charged with an offense against the dignity of the United States, and to convict him, oppressive laws, more oppressively administered are brought to bear with all the ingenuity that malice can devise and hatred adopt.

"And there, in this ignominious position, he stands with every person who might possibly be his friend, excluded from the jury, without the possibility of a fair trial by his peers, not one of the panel being in the least sympathy with himself; by such people this unfortunate young gentleman has to be tried, judged, prosecuted, proscribed and condemned because of his firm and unswerving faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; of David, Solomon, and numerous other God-fearing and honorable men, who, like him, have despised the cant and hypocrisy of an ungodly world, and dared to obey the behests of Jehovah.

"Of these things he had learned from the Bible, in the Sunday School; no wonder then that our would-be reformers are so anxious to exclude the Bible from our district schools, as its teachings and examples so emphatically condemn the theories on which the acts and legislation of Congress are based, as well as the course pursued by those who seek to aid in the regeneration of Utah, by adding to or taking from the law as is best suited to shield their own corrupt practices; or, on the other hand, by extra judicial proceedings, under cover of law, they pervert, to prosecute and persecute the Mormons.

"Where was this scene enacted? In the gorgeous palaces of Belshazzar, surrounded by his wives, concubines, and nobles, and where was seen written on the walls 'Mene, Mene, Tekel Upharsin?' No. Was it at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, when ten righteous persons could not be found to avert the wrath of an offended God, or in Pompeii or Herculaneum, which, in their turn, for their libidinous and unrighteous practices, as Sodom and Gomorrah, suffered the vengeance of eternal fire? No. Was it at the Saturnalia of the Bacchanals of ancient Greece and Rome? No. Those nations have long been overthrown and are now only known to a few readers of ancient history. Was it during the reign of the first French Republic, when they elevated a prostitute as the goddess of reason? No. Was it in the days of the inquisition, when the rack, the gibbet, the faggot and the flames were brought into requisition to force unwilling victims to testify of things which their conscience forbade, and who perished by thousands for daring to think, and act, and believe in and worship God according to their own consciences? No. Was it under the influence of Bacchus, or in the midnight revelings as exhibited in Rome under Nero? No; this scene was enacted in mid-day, in the nineteenth century, in the year of our Lord, 1884, in the Federal court house, in Salt Lake City, at a court presided over by Judge Charles S. Zane, Chief Justice for the United States in the Territory of Utah, assisted by Prosecuting Attorney William H. Dickson, and the other adjuncts of the law, and in the presence of several hundred American citizens!"