went to meet the prophet, seer, and revelator of God, as they supposed,
but he had laid aside his robes of sanctity for the moment and he was a
plain, unadorned, aggressive, if not an able, business man. He first
denounced them for interfering with a business which he had made
peculiarly his own; and, when they protested that they had no intention
to interfere with his trade, but were seeking new markets, he declared
in a voice of thunderous passion that if they did not cease with their
projected enterprise, he would crush them. They escaped from his
presence feeling like courtiers repulsed from the foot of a king's
throne, and then surveyed their enterprise. If they stopped, they would
lose all the money invested and their enterprise would possibly be sold
out to their creditors; if they went on and invested more money, the
president had the power, as he had threatened, to crush them. Not only
could he ruin their enterprise, but he could ostracise them socially and
could make of them marked and shunned men in the community where they
had always been respected.

Is there menace in this system? To me it seems like a great danger to
all the people who are now affected, and therefore of great danger to
the people of the United States, because the power of this monarchy
within the Republic is constantly extending. If it be an evil, every
apostle is in part responsible for this tyrannical course. He helped to
elect the president; he does the president's bidding, and shares in the
advantages of that tyranny.

I did not call the social system a violation of the pledges to the
country, but I do affirm that the business tyranny of Mormon leaders is
an express violation of the covenant made, for they do not leave their
followers free in secular affairs. They tyrannize over them, and their
tyranny spreads even to the Gentiles. In all this I charge that every