o make bargains of
protection with the world; and then it will still be necessary to
force the eyes of their self-complacency to turn from the satisfied
contemplation of their own virtues. "You will never be able to reach the
conscience of the Mormons," a man who knows them has declared. "I
have had my experiences with both leaders and people. If you tell them
'You're ninety-nine-and-one-half per cent. pure gold,' they will ask,
surprised and indignant: 'What? Why, what's the matter with the other
half per cent?'"

Chapter XX

Conclusion

Of the men who could have written this narrative, some are dead; some
are prudent; some are superstitious; and some are personally foresworn.
It appeared to me that the welfare of Utah and the common good of the
whole United States required the publication of the facts that I have
tried to demonstrate. Since there was apparently no one else who felt
the duty and also had the information or the wish to write, it seemed
my place to undertake it. And I have done it gladly. For when I was
subscribing the word of the Mormon chiefs for the fulfillment of our
statehood pledges, I engaged my own honor too, and gave bond myself
against the very treacheries that I have here recorded.

We promised that the Church had forever renounced the doctrine of
polygamy and the practice of plural marriage living, by a "revelation
from God" promulgated by the supreme Prophet of the Church and accepted
by the vote of the whole congregation assembled in conference. We
promised the retirement of the Mormon Prophets from the political
direction of their followers--the abrogation of the claim that the
Mormon Church was the "Kingdom of God" re-established upon earth to
supersede all civil government--the abandonment by the Church of any
authority to exercise a temporal power in competition with the civil
law. We promised to make the teaching and practice of the Church conform
to the institutions of a Republic in which all citizens are equal in
liberty. We promised that the Church should cease to accumulate property
for the support of illegal practices and un-American government. And we
made a record in proof of our promises by the anti-polygamy manifesto
of 1890 and its public ratification; by the petition for amnesty and
the acceptance of amnesty upon conditions; by the provisions of Utah's
enabling act and of Utah's state constitution; by the acts of Congress
and the judicial decisions restoring escheat