“No; but for a term of years; still, it can not be denied that they were slaves for the time being.
“But I give England all credit for her persistent efforts to suppress the slave-trade since she abolished it in 1807.”
“By the way,” said Mr. Austin, “I have been, since coming into this community, using every opportunity for studying the Mormon problem, and it strikes me as a strange thing that such a system of hierarchical tyranny and outrage has been so long permitted to exist and grow in this land of boasted freedom—civil and religious.”
“It can not seem stranger, or more inconsistent, to you than to me, sir,” replied Captain Raymond, flushing with mortification. “I am exceedingly ashamed of this bar sinister on the scutcheon of my country; but I trust that vigorous measures are about to be taken for its expunging.
“Some have defended the let-alone policy on the ground that to restrain and punish them would be to abridge religious liberty; but I cannot see it so. We have, in fact, allowed a most tyrannical hierarchy to persecute even to putting to death, those who, having unfortunately fallen into its power, attempted an escape from it, or refused to submit to its dictation in regard to either belief or practice.
“Women have been forcibly detained among them (the self-styled “Latter-day Saints”) horribly ill-used, and when caught in an attempt to escape, foully murdered.”
“The perpetrators and abettors of such deeds of darkness mistake liberty for license; every man or woman has a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness—yet only so far as he does not interfere with the exercise of the same rights by others. The victims of Mormon tyranny and intolerance have most certainly a right to complain that they have been deprived of both civil and religious liberty.”
“Very true,” responded Mr. Austin; “and I have learned with mortification, that the ranks of the Mormons are largely recruited from Great Britain.”
“Yes; I wish your government were as anxious to keep that class of its citizens as its sailors, particularly its man-of-war’s-men,” returned the captain laughingly.
A short discussion as to the comparative amount of freedom enjoyed by the citizens of the two countries, and the comparative security of life and property, followed, each gentleman maintaining that his own was the more favored land.