The Defendant Imprisoned
The defendant, George Reynolds, was re-sentenced June 14, 1879, and two days later he left Salt Lake City, for Lincoln, Nebraska, in charge of George A. Black and William T. Shaughnessy, deputy marshals, to serve his sentence in the Nebraska penitentiary. He served less than a month in that prison when he was brought back to Utah and placed in the local penitentiary where he was confined until he had served out his sentence, from June 1879 to January 1881, receiving the remission of his fine and the reduction for good behavior of one hundred and forty-four days. While confined he taught school, his pupils being the inmates of the prison. So successful was he that the warden remarked of him: “Reynolds is worth more than all the guards in keeping order among the prisoners.”
Bitter Threats Against the Church
The bitterness of the anti-“Mormon” press of Salt Lake City, and the broadcast circulation of falsehoods by the enemies of the Church commenced an agitation throughout the nation that was to result in special legislation against the “Mormon” people intended to encompass their destruction. Ministers of the Protestant churches in the United States took up the hue and cry. Many bitter expressions were heard in condemnation of the Latter-day Saints, and threats were made against their peace and safety. A sample of the bloodthirsty utterances is that given by Rev. T. DeWitt Talmage in the Brooklyn Tabernacle, shortly after the death of President Young, as follows: “Now my friends—now, at the death of the Mormon Chieftain, is the time for the United States government to strike. They are less organized than they have been, and less than they will be. If these Mormons will not submit to authority, let so much of their rich lands be confiscated for the wants of the government as will be sufficient for their subjugation. If the government of the United States cannot stand the expense, let Salt Lake City pay for it. (Applause.) Turn their vast temple into an arsenal. Set Phil Sheridan after them. (Immense applause.) Give them enough troops and he will teach all Utah that forty wives is thirty-nine too many. I call upon the Church of Jesus Christ to pray for the overthrow of this iniquity.”
Address of Anti-“Mormon” Women
In November, 1878, the Gentile women in Salt Lake City met in the Congregational Church, to the number of about two hundred, and drew up an address to the wife of the President of the United States, denouncing plural marriage and its practice in the name of religion. They called upon the “Christian women of the United States” to aid them in the arrest of “the progress of evil,” and to delay the admission of Utah into statehood until this was accomplished. Congress was also memorialized and circular letters were forwarded to the clergy with the request that they be presented to their congregations for signatures and then sent to the congressmen of their respective districts.
“Mormon” Women Reply
A counter mass meeting of the women of the Church was held November 16, 1878, in which they declared they had been misjudged and misrepresented to the nation in regard to their most sacred rights. They invited the government to make an impartial investigation of their cause.
Falsehoods of the Press
Nearly every paper in the United States devoted space to the “Mormon” question, and almost without exception, with bitter denunciation and suggestions to Congress of the most drastic nature. The Salt Lake Tribune did not hesitate to circulate the most contemptible falsehoods that these fires of hate might be kept burning.