Speech #490124794

When religion veils itself in mystery and organizes its power over its individual members under the dread claim of a Divine commission to direct the actions and bind the consciences of men. when it accumulates great wealth. and thus through superstitious reverence. and by the influence which concentrated and corporate wealth always acquires. wields power over civil affairs. such an ecclesiastic organism is a menace to the civil power. and becomes dangerous to the liberty of the people and to tle peace and good order of society. It is the experience of all countries. and especially of Great Britain and America. that the power to accumulate property in the hands of ecclesiastical bodies has been dangerous to the people. and this has given riso in British and American history to those mortmain acts which have checked so greatly this process of accumulation. By the charter of this Mormon Church and of its annex corporation. the Emigration Society. the capacity to acquire real and personal property was unlimited. The latter corporation had power to emit bills of credit. a power denied even to the States of the Union by the Constitution of the United States. These two powerful corporations. created without lawful authority. holding large real and personal property. and with unlimited capacity for future acquisition. were checked by the act of Congress of 1862.