"Ladies of Utah: As I have been called upon to express my views upon the important subject which has called us together, I will say that I am happy to be one of your number in this association. I am proud that I am a citizen of Utah, and a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I have been a member of this church for thirty-six years, and had the privilege of living in the days of the prophet Joseph, and heard his teaching for many years. He ever counseled us to honor, obey and maintain the principles of our noble constitution, for which our fathers fought, and which many of them sacrificed their lives to establish. President Brigham Young has always taught the same principle. This glorious legacy of our fathers, the constitution of the United States, guarantees unto all the citizens of this great republic the right to worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences, as it expressly says, 'Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.' Cullom's bill is in direct violation of this declaration of the constitution, and I think it is our duty to do all in our power, by our voices and influence, to thwart the passage of this bill, which commits a violent outrage upon our rights, and the rights of our fathers, husbands and sons; and whatever may be the final result of the action of Congress in passing or enforcing oppressive laws, for the sake of our religion, upon the noble men who have subdued these deserts, it is our duty to stand by them and support them by our faith, prayers and works, through every dark hour, unto the end, and trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to defend us and all who are called to suffer for keeping the commandments of God. Shall we, as wives and mothers, sit still and see our husbands and sons, whom we know are obeying the highest behest of heaven, suffer for their religion, without exerting ourselves to the extent of our power for their deliverance? No; verily no! God has revealed unto us the law of the patriarchal order of marriage, and commanded us to obey it. We are sealed to our husbands for time and eternity, that we may dwell with them and our children in the world to come; which guarantees unto us the greatest blessing for which we are created. If the rulers of the nation will so far depart from the spirit and letter of our glorious constitution as to deprive our prophets, apostles and elders of citizenship, and imprison them for obeying this law, let them grant this, our last request, to make their prisons large enough to hold their wives, for where they go we will go also."
Sisters M. I. Horne and Eleanor M. Pratt followed with appropriate words, and then Sister Eliza R. Snow made the following remarks:
"My remarks in conclusion will be brief. I heard the prophet Joseph Smith say, if the people rose and mobbed us and the authorities countenanced it, they would have mobs to their hearts' content. I heard him say that the time would come when this nation would so far depart from its original purity, its glory, and its love of freedom and protection of civil and religious rights, that the constitution of our country would hang as it were by a thread. He said, also, that this people, the sons of Zion, would rise up and save the constitution, and bear it off triumphantly.
"The spirit of freedom and liberty we should always cultivate, and it is what mothers should inspire in the breasts of their sons, that they may grow up brave and noble, and defenders of that glorious constitution which has been bequeathed unto us. Let mothers cultivate that spirit in their own bosoms. Let them manifest their own bravery, and cherish a spirit of encountering difficulties, because they have to be met, more or less, in every situation of life. If fortitude and nobility of soul be cultivated in your own bosoms, you will transmit them to your children; your sons will grow up noble defenders of truth and righteousness, and heralds of salvation to the nations of the earth. They will be prepared to fill high and responsible religious, judicial, civil and executive positions. I consider it most important, my sisters, that we should struggle to preserve the sacred constitution of our country—one of the blessings of the Almighty, for the same spirit that inspired Joseph Smith, inspired the framers of the constitution; and we should ever hold it sacred, and bear it off triumphantly."
Mrs. Zina D. Young then moved that the meeting adjourn sine die, which was carried, and Mrs. Phoebe Woodruff pronounced the benediction.
CHAPTER XLIV.
WIVES OF THE APOSTLES—MRS. ORSON HYDE—INCIDENTS OF THE EARLY DAYS—THE PROPHET—MARY ANN PRATT'S LIFE STORY—WIFE OF GEN. CHARLES C. RICH—MRS. FRANKLIN D. RICHARDS—PHOEBE WOODRUFF—LEONORA TAYLOR—MARIAN ROSS PRATT—THE WIFE OF DELEGATE CANNON—VILATE KIMBALL AGAIN.
The life of Mrs. Orson Hyde is replete with incidents of the early days, including the shameful occurrence of the tarring and feathering of the prophet, which took place while he was at her father's house.
Her maiden name was Marinda M. Johnson, she being the daughter of John and Elsa Johnson, a family well known among the pioneer converts of Ohio. She was born in Pomfret, Windsor county, Vermont, June 28, 1815.
"In February of 1818," she says, "my father, in company with several families from the same place, emigrated to Hiram, Portage county, Ohio. In the winter of 1831, Ezra Booth, a Methodist minister, procured a copy of the Book of Mormon and brought it to my father's house. They sat up all night reading it, and were very much exercised over it. As soon as they heard that Joseph Smith had arrived in Kirtland, Mr. Booth and wife and my father and mother went immediately to see him. They were convinced and baptized before they returned. They invited the prophet and Elder Rigdon to accompany them home, which they did, and preached several times to crowded congregations, baptizing quite a number. I was baptized in April following. The next fall Joseph came with his family to live at my father's house. He was at that time translating the Bible, and Elder Rigdon was acting as scribe. The following spring, a mob, disguising themselves as black men, gathered and burst into his sleeping apartment one night, and dragged him from the bed where he was nursing a sick child. They also went to the house of Elder Rigdon, and took him out with Joseph into an orchard, where, after choking and beating them, they tarred and feathered them, and left them nearly dead. My father, at the first onset, started to the rescue, but was knocked down, and lay senseless for some time. Here I feel like bearing my testimony that during the whole year that Joseph was an inmate of my father's house I never saw aught in his daily life or conversation to make me doubt his divine mission.