"Now who would consider himself insulted by the hissing of a snake, the attack of the wasp, or the odor of a skunk? You would simply avoid them. It is not in their power to insult you.'
"There is no law they can place us under which we cannot obey. We must live above all law, and nothing can harm us if we are 'followers of that which is good,' so keep quiet!'
" * * There is something heroic in being able calmly to view with firm nerves and unblanched cheek the acts of your petty tormentors. Filled with the light of eternal truth, rejoicing in the possession of the favor of God, 'having the promise of the life which now is, and that which is to come," standing on a more elevated platform, you can smile with complacency on their feeble attacks, and"
'Like Moses' bush ascend the higher,
And flourish unconsumed by fire.'
"But independent of this, it is our very best policy to be quiet. The court can proceed, yet the sun will rise and set, the earth will roll on its axis, potatoes and corn will grow irrespective of the decrees of courts. Hitherto you have been subject to the misrepresentations and manufactured lies from the small fry of this coterie—little whelps who lick the hands of their master, and vomit their lies by wholesale, to pervert public opinion; but they are found out. They have run their erratic race. You have no fear from them. Your cause is before the public. The eyes of the great American nation are now upon you, and men of honor, probity and position represent your acts. (And to their honor be it spoken the intelligent press, irrespective of party, denounce your persecutors.) This clique are not representatives of American sentiment. The majority of strangers in our midst repudiate them; and there are hundreds of thousands of honest, high-minded, honorable men throughout the land, who despise as much as you do, these infamous acts. We live in the most liberal and enlightened nation in the world; if there are evils, they can be corrected; but the undercurrent, the vital, strong, living sentiment of America is fair play, justice for all, equal rights, liberty, equality and brotherhood; they are opposed to hypocrisy, fraud, injustice and piracy, and will sustain republicanism, democracy, equity and the inalienable rights of man. Men of standing and position are now noting your acts, and they will report them truly and correctly; therefore keep quiet, and do not play into your enemies' hands. For they war, not only against you, but against the liberal, enlightened sentiment of the nation, against the time-honored principles of republicanism and equal rights."
The wisdom of the policy advised by Elder Taylor was soon vindicated by glorious results. The Supreme Court of the United States decided that the grand and petit jurors summoned by McKean, were both drawn in violation of law, and as "a legal consequence, all the indictments now pending in the courts of Utah are null and void. Brigham Young and his Mormon brethren must be discharged from confinement, and the records of this judicial conspiracy expunged." McKean had the mortification of setting in the Supreme Court at Washington during the reading of this decision which so utterly condemned his fanatical and illegal proceedings.
But the end was not yet. McKean still had sole control of judicial affairs in Utah, in the district courts; and not being able to prosecute Mormons according to the plan he had first adopted, he determined to follow the policy of "masterly inactivity," by which he hindered and delayed the business of the courts, both civil and criminal, by refusing to empanel either grand or petit juries, hoping by this means to compel Congress to enact such a jury law for Utah as would keep Mormons off all juries, whether they were actual polygamists or only believers in it; and thus enable him to drag the class of men he had singled out as his victims, before their avowed enemies for trial. In these measures he was partially successful for Congress passed the Poland Bill in 1874, which virtually abolished the office of Territorial marshal and Territorial attorney general, by enlarging the duties and powers of the United States marshal and United States prosecuting attorney. The powers of the probate courts were also cut down, being limited by the Poland Bill to jurisdiction in the settlement of the estates of deceased persons and their descendants, guardianship and other like matters; but otherwise they were to have no civil, chancery or criminal jurisdiction whatever. They were permitted to hold concurrent jurisdiction in divorce cases with the United States district courts, but an appeal could be taken from them after appearance, before plea or answer. Thus the courts of the people were practically abolished and others set up in their place. Changes were also made in the manner of selecting juries, so that the Gentile population—at the time but an insignificant minority of the inhabitants of Utah—was given equal representation on the juries with the overwhelming majority of the people.
The conduct of Judge McKean and the measures introduced into Congress respecting Utah affairs, again brought Elder Taylor out in a series of six letters to the press, in which he made a scathing exposure of federal official corruption in our Territory, and a searching criticism of the various measures pending in Congress, previous to the passage of the Poland Bill. In closing one of these letters that reviewed some of the bills in Congress, he made the following stirring appeal to the national legislators:
"With all the reverence and respect due to the rulers of a mighty nation, from the tops of these distant mountains I call upon you to pause in your career, for I also am a teacher, and have a right to be heard. I speak in behalf of one hundred and fifty thousand citizens of Utah. I speak in behalf of forty millions of free American citizens in the United States. I conjure you out of respect for the memory of the dead, as the rightful guardians of the liberties of a vast nation, that stands proudly prominent among the nations of the earth, and in behalf of unborn millions, to pause. I conjure you, in behalf of our honor and integrity, in behalf of republican principles, and the cause of freedom throughout the world. I plead with you in behalf of our common humanity, and the rights of man, to reflect. Would you, to gratify a morbid sentimentality desecrate and tear down one of the most magnificent temples of human liberty, ever erected? Would you wantonly deliver up the sacred principles of liberty, equity and justice, bequeathed by your fathers, to the grim Moloch of party who is crushing, grinding and trampling under foot our God-given rights, and whose sanguinary jaws are extended to gorge and devour the quivering remnants of our feeble, expiring liberty? Have we not had more than enough trouble already with Virginia, North Carolina, Louisana and Utah? Can we ever be satisfied? 'Let us have peace.'"
The opening of the "Black Book," as he called his inquiry into the conduct of federal officials in Utah, revealed a lamentable state of affairs. Men who had come to the Territory for the ostensible purpose of administering the law were found to be among the chief transgressors thereof, and the aiders and abettors of criminals. But I allow Elder Taylor to make his own indictment against them, only adding that he demonstrated the truth of every item charged in it, by publishing the time when, the places where, and the names of the criminals they liberated. Elder Taylor writes: