The girl continued obstinate ... the authorities called on the young man and directed him to give up the young woman. This he steadfastly refused to do ... He remained true to his intended, and said he would die before he would surrender his intended wife to the embraces of another ... The young man was ordered to go on a mission to some distant locality ... But the mission was refused ...
His fate was left to Bishop Snow for his decision. He decided that the young man should be castrated; Snow saying, ‘When that is done, he will not be liable to want the girl badly, and she will listen to reason when she knows that her lover is no longer a man.’
It was then decided to call a meeting of the people who lived true to counsel, which was held in the school-house in Manti ... The young man was there, and was again requested, ordered and threatened, to get him to surrender the young woman to Snow, but true to his plighted troth, he refused to consent to give up the girl. The lights were then put out. An attack was made on the young man. He was severely beaten, and then tied with his back down on a bench, when Bishop Snow took a bowie-knife, and performed the operation in a most brutal manner, and then took the portion severed from his victim and hung it up in the school-house on a nail, so that it could be seen by all who visited the house afterwards.
The party then left the young man weltering in his blood, and in a lifeless condition. During the night he succeeded in releasing himself from his confinement, and dragged himself to some hay-stacks, where he lay until the next day, when he was discovered by his friends. The young man regained his health, but has been an idiot or quite lunatic ever since ....
After this outrage old Bishop Snow took occasion to get up a meeting ... When all had assembled, the old man talked to the people about their duty to the Church, and their duty to obey counsel, and the dangers of refusal, and then publicly called attention to the mangled parts of the young man, that had been severed from his person, and stated that the deed had been done to teach the people that the counsel of the Priesthood must be obeyed. To make a long story short, I will say, the young woman was soon after forced into being sealed to Bishop Snow ...
In the midsummer of 1857 Brigham Young also expressed approval for an LDS bishop who had castrated a man. D Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power vol 2@250
In Utah the church dominated the liquor trade. In 1856 Caleb Green freighted six tons of tobacco, rum, whiskey, brandy, tea, and coffee across the plains for Young, and two years later The New York Times reported that the ‘principal drinking-saloon and gambling-room are in Salt Lake House, a building under the control of the Church and the immediate superintendency of Heber C. Kimball’. Stanley P Hirschson, The Lion of the Lord p285
Christianity ... is a perfect pack of nonsense ... the devil could not invent a better engine to spread his work than the Christianity of the nineteenth century. John Taylor, third Mormon president, Journal of Discourses VI:167
How did this state of things called Mormonism originate? We read that an angel came down and revealed himself to Joseph Smith and manifested unto him in vision the true position of the world in a religious point of view. John Taylor, Journal of Discourses X:127
Sometime after dinner we sent for some wine. It has been reported by some that this was taken as a sacrament. It was no such thing; our spirits were generally dull and heavy, and it was sent for to revive us ... I believe we all drank of the wine, and gave some to one or two of the prison guards. John Taylor, History of the Church VII:101
... the one-wife system not only degenerates the human family, both physically and intellectually, but it is entirely incompatible with philosophical notions of immortality; it is a lure to temptation, and has always proved a curse to a people. John Taylor, Millennial Star vol 15 p227
We are accused here of polygamy, and actions the most indelicate, obscene, and disgusting, such than [sic] none but a corrupt and depraved heart could have contrived. These things are too outrageous to admit of belief ... Inasmuch as this Church of Jesus Christ has been reproached with the crime of fornication, and polygamy, we declare that we believe that one man should have one wife, and one woman but one husband, except in case of death, when either is at liberty to marry again. John Taylor married to at least twelve women at time of statement 1850
What does the Christian world know about God? Nothing ... Why so far as the things of God are concerned, they are the veriest fools; they know neither God nor the things of God ... What! Are Christians ignorant? Yes, as ignorant of the things of God as the brute beast. John Taylor, Journal of Discourses XIII:22
Where shall we look for the true order or authority of God? It cannot be found in any nation of Christendom. John Taylor, Journal of Discourses X:127
Why is it, in fact, that we should have a devil? Why did the Lord not kill him long ago? Because he could not do without him. He needed the devil and a great many of those who do his bidding to keep men straight, that we may learn to place our dependence on God, and trust in Him, and to observe his laws and keep his commandments. When he destroyed the inhabitants of the antediluvian world, he suffered a descendant of Cain to come through the flood in order that he might be properly represented upon the earth. John Taylor, Journal of Discourses XXIII:336
June 4, 1879 – John Taylor and apostles decline to allow Elijah Abel to receive temple endowment because his is Negroid, even though Abel received Melchizedek priesthood with Joseph Smith’s authorization. This African American regularly attends his Seventy’s quorum meetings and serves proselytising mission just before his death. Deconstructor, board post ‘Explain the Prophets (Great Moments in Mormon History)’
Another word of the Lord to me is that it is the duty of these young men here in the land of Zion to take the daughters of Zion to wife and prepare tabernacles for the spirits of men, which are the children of our Father in heaven. They are waiting for tabernacles, they are ordained to come here, and they ought to be born in the land of Zion instead of Babylon. Wilford Woodruff
Any man having one drop of the seed of Cane in him cannot hold the priesthood and if no other Prophet ever spake it before I will say it now in the name of Jesus Christ, I know it is true and they know it. The Negro cannot hold one particle of Government ... Let me consent today to mingle my seed with the seed of Cane. It would bring the same curse upon me. And it would upon any man. And if any man mingles his seed with the seed of Cane the only way he could get rid of it or have salvation would be to come forward and have his head cut off and spill his blood upon the ground. It would also take the life of his children. Wilford Woodruff, fourth Mormon prophet, Journal 4:97-99, February 1852
How did it come? By the ministering of an holy angel from God ... The angel taught Joseph Smith those principles which are necessary for the salvation of the world ... He told him the Gospel was not among men, and that there was not a true organization of His kingdom in the world ... This man to whom the angel appeared obeyed the Gospel. Wilfred Woodruff, Journal of Discourses II:196-197
If we are going to do away with polygamy, it would only be one feather in the bird, one ordinance in the Church and Kingdom. Do away with that, then we must do away with the prophets and apostles, with revelation and the gifts and graces of the Gospel, and finally give up our religion altogether. Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses XIII:166
Joseph & Hyrum Smith were Master Masons and they were put to death by Masons or through their instigation and he gave the sign of distress & he was shot by Masons while in the act. Wilford Woodruff’s Journal vol 5 19th August 1860
[K]ings would tremble upon their thrones at my word ... I should become a Counsellor & multitudes should seek counsel at my mouth & I should have great wisdom & power to fly through the midst under heaven ... I should have power over my enemies & have long life & bring many into the kingdom of God. Also that I should have the riches of the earth. Wilford Woodruff, diary
Speaking and interpreting of tongues was manifest in the Congregation. One brother sung a lengthy song in tongues & sister Hide interpreted the same. It was great & glorious. Much of it was respecting the fame of Joseph and his magnus works. Wilford Woodruff, diary 20th April 1837
We are not going to stop the practice of plural marriage until the Coming of the Son of Man. Wilford Woodruff, 17th May 1888
A colored man ... is not capable of receiving the Priesthood, and can never reach the highest Celestial glory of the Kingdom of God. Angus M Cannon, The Salt Lake Tribune 5th October 1884
When Heber C Kimball asked Sister Eliza R Snow the question if she was not a virgin although married to Joseph Smith, she replied, ‘I thought you knew Joseph Smith better than that.’ Angus M Cannon
After the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was organized, there were only two churches upon the earth. They were known respectively as the Church of the Lamb of God and Babylon. The various organizations which are called churches throughout Christendom, though differing in their creeds and organizations, have one common origin. They all belong to Babylon. George Q Cannon, Gospel Truth p324