| An Address to the Earthly King of the Kingdom of God (1905) |
| An Address to the Earthly King of the Kingdom of God | Salt Lake Tribune, January 22, 1905. | |||||
| Supreme rulers should be wise and tender | ¶ | When there is committed supreme rulership to the hands of a king, and when he brings to his companionship and support a set of ministers—any one of whom may be called, on occasion, to deliver his will to subjects, either residing within the monarch or elsewhere—it becomes of vital importance to the subject that the prince be both wise and tender toward his people, and that his ministries shall emulate, even if reverence will not permit them to excel in, these high qualities. | ||||
| President
Smith is a sovereign Twists the scriptures |
¶ | You, sir, are a sovereign
of absolute authority. The written constitution under which your predecessors
reigned has, by steady avoidance, disuse, and misconstruction by the courts
of your appointment, been so changed and so weakened as that it has no longer
either definite provision or binding force. |
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| Predecessors
adhered to the word of God People afraid to quote scripture in their defense |
Your predecessors were required to adhere to the word of God, whose kingdom they administered as earthly kings. Your prelates have so mystified that constitution, upon which the people depended for their protection, as that the mere subject dare no longer quote it lest he be deemed guilty of treason to the crown; and you have so definitely declared that the God whose kingdom you rule as earthly monarch, does not announce any will to you, that your own personal purpose becomes both the law and the constitution. | God … does not announce any will to you: In his 1903 appearance at the Smoot hearings, President Smith stated he had not received any revelations. | ||||
| Not
of high intellect Independent |
¶ | This would be a most
dangerous state for a kingdom where the ruler is both a good and a wise
man; it becomes doubly menacing when the ruler is not known to possess intellect
of a high order, and when he has not been renowned for any other goodness
than that of announcing his own personal purpose and then living accordingly. |
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| Advisors
seek only his approval Fail to defend the people |
¶ | Even this situation, bad as it is, becomes worse if the ministry, selected to aid the purposes of the crown, is composed of men who repose themselves entirely within the favor of the throne and forget the rights of the people of whom they should be at least defenders, if not advocates. | ||||
| Hierarchy corrupted by favor or weakened by fear | ¶ | In a monarchy such
as this, the ministry should be the connecting link between the throne and
the subject. It is indeed unfortunate when, with no constitution to protect
the mass and ruler without no deference to God to guide him in the performance
of his duty to his subjects, the ministry is either so corrupted by favor
or so weakened by fear that it inclines entirely toward the throne and leaves
the subjects utterly at the mercy of royal whim. |
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| Joseph F. a hard man, increasingly egocentric | A careful scrutiny of the history of peoples demonstrates that under such sad combination of circumstances the king, unless he be an especially good man, amenable to the softer influences of humanity (and neither the friends nor the enemies of your majesty have every charged this kind of weakness upon you), is certain to make wider and wider demands upon the life and property of his subjects and to grow more and more impatient of any resistance to his will. | |||||
| Hierarchy takes advantage of the people | And, too, under such circumstances, it has been noted by patriots of all times that the ministry serving under a monarch who is unrestrained, and over a people who are rendered supine or helpless, take their advantage in still more complete aggression upon the subject's rights. | |||||
| Wish President Smith no ill will (!) | ¶ | It is with no ill will toward your majesty that this address is directed to you. Your rule is absolute; I wish it might be glorious. You are the highest of earthly potentates, in that you hold the authority of the Creator of the world, and rule in His name; I would that your reign might be so filled with excellences which we ascribe to Him as that all your subjects might be safe and free and happy, and that all the rest of the world, gazing on the splendor of this kingdom, might desire to join its prosperous and contented people. | ||||
| Reproach: gluttonous of power, unleashed hierarchy | But unfortunately, and even at the cost of my favor in your court, I must address to you these words of reproach. Having cast aside the constitution, you have cast aside the principles which it represented; having selected a servile ministry, you have not permitted the voice of your subjects to reach your ears; having been gluttonous of power and impatient of any assertion of claim against your sovereign will, you rule by affrighting the courage and conscience of all. As earthly king of the kingdom of God you have loosed yourself, and at your pleasure you have loosed your ministers, from all bonds. | |||||
| Violate the kingdom's constitution | ¶ | I charge you with these
acts, which are violative of the written constitution of the kingdom of
which you are the ruler: |
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| 1. Disregards church laws | ¶ | 1. That you have disdained the laws which your predecessors established, and which you interpreted. And there can come no greater disaster to a kingdom than that its chief citizen (i[t]s ruler), shall refuse to obey the law which has been decreed from the throne. For if he will not obey, how can he presume that others will heed? | ||||
| 2. Calls unfit leaders | ¶ | 2. I charge you with the selection of ministers who are merely the creatures of your own favor, possessing neither the ability to administer nor the confidence of the people to justly strengthen their power. Some of these were unknown when you designated them for places in your cabinet. Some of them were known and detested. And yet you forced them upon the kingdom. | The first apostles President Smith called were his own son, Hyrum M., and John Henry Smith's son, George Albert, neither of whom had any significant church or secular experience. The third, former Deseret News editor Charles w. Penrose, had long been a thorn in Frank's side. | |||
| 3. Violates treaties | ¶ | 3. I charge you with having made treaties upon which the safety of your subjects depended; and with having ruthlessly violated, and with having directed your ministers to violate, these treaties, leaving us to danger of war with powers better equipped for earthly struggle. | Assurances given for statehood that the church would end plural marriage and refrain from political control. | |||
| 4. Pressures subjects into polygamy | ¶ | 4. I charge you with having taken the bodies of daughter of your subjects and having bestowed them upon your favorites. And you have done this, sometimes by the secret method when you could cajole the fathers and brothers into silence by some offer, or frighten them by some threat. | Post-manifesto polygamy. | |||
| 5. Robs widows of their property | ¶ | 5. I charge you with having taken the property which belonged to the widow and the orphan and having absorbed it into the possessions of the crown. And you have done this, not only by your personal autocracy directly, but by referring cases to your ministry who, because of previous instruction, have determined the controversies against all justice and in your behalf. | A widow was unable to recover property her husband had willed to the church. | |||
| 6. Raises taxes | ¶ | 6. I charge you with having departed from the constitution, which provided for a tax which your subjects were able to bear; and having instituted in lieu thereof a system of elaborate exactions so appalling in their total as that your subjects are going into poverty in order that the crown lands, palaces, jewels, and vestments may become richer and sumptuous. | A new fund had been established for voluntary contributions, but at the moment I can't remember what it was. Notoriously frugal, Joseph F. Smith could hardly have been accused of living lavishly. "Crown lands," etc. may refer to church assets the president controls. | |||
| 7. Enriches cronies | ¶ | 7. I charge you with having provided, at the public cost, for worthless and indolent, if not dissolute, princes of your house, and with having added such emoluments to their positions as that they have been thrice paid for services; and with having uttered your edict of protection, so that no misconduct could remove them. | Perhaps a reference to apotles who benefited from their church positions in commercial ventures. | |||
|
Rhetorical flourish |
¶ | Can you deem it a happy
and fortunate lot for a kingdom when the ruler's highest ideals are the
gain of mere earthly wealth to contribute to the magnificence of the crown
possessions; the maintenance of a ministry servile in all things, the living
of a life of luxury with many wives in many palaces; the multiplication
of many children, who, as princes of your house, are to be maintained (judged
by the examples so far afforded) at the public charge; and the steady retrogression
of the hope and ambition of the subject? Do these things make a prosperous
and a happy kingdom? Or do they make hell on earth and indicate the decay
and the ruin of the kingdom of God, over which you rule with bigotry, with
gluttony of power, with insensate self esteem? |
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| ¶ | History will answer, if you will not, the questions of THE WRITER. | |||||
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