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.