Speech #490005531

If you left it to the evidence of the trustees in possession. with no means of getting access to their books or papers or to understand what is going on. how much progress would the United States make in forfeiting what is above the $50.000. or the property they had at the time of the passage of the act of 1862? That. as I said before. is just where the rub comes. It is because this section. keeping entirely clear of interfering with faith or doctrine or the church as a church. takes hold of its temporal affairs. its emigration affairs. its polygamous affairs. and sees to it that the money is not devoted to illegal uses. and sees to it that it is devoted only to those that belong to the proper administration of a religous society. and sees to it that a true report is made to the Government of the IUnited States in regard to its business operations. so that all that it holdsin excess of law for these purposes may be devoted to other uses. Therefore I repeat that the section most obnoxious to that political hierarchy which governs and manages and controls the administration of these enormous assets is this very twelfth section. not because it interferes with faith. for it does not. not because these trustees have the slightest power. to influence.the action or govern the conduct of the church as a church. but because out of the church and in the world of affairs it opens it to the daylight and keeps it within the law.