History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

GODBE AND HARRISON. 649
thority of the priesthood. When their case was handed
to the high council, the recusants, instead of pleading
their cause, merely read a series of resolutions touching
measures of church reform, Godbe denying Brigham's
right to enforce obedience, whether in matters
secular or spiritual, and Harrison stating that if it
was apostasy to differ conscientiously from the priesthood,
then he must be considered an apostate. "We
claim," they said, "the right of respectfully but freely
discussing all measures upon which we are called to
act. And if we are cut off from this church for
asserting this right, while our standing is dear to us,
we will suffer it to be taken from us sooner than resign
the liberties of thought and speech to which the
gospel entitles us; and against any such expulsion we
present our solemn protest before God and angels."
It remained only to pass sentence of excommunication,
and in due form the elders were delivered over to the
buffetings of Satan for a thousand years.
But a few days later there appeared in the Utah
Magazine an account of the trial, together with a pro-
test and appeal to the brethren, afterward copied in
the New York Herald and other leading journals.
"It had been argued," remarked the recusants, "that
we must passively and uninquiringly obey the priesthood,
because otherwise we could not build up Zion.
A nation built up on such a principle could be no Zion.
The only glory or beauty there could be in a Zion
must result from its being composed of people all of
whom acted intelligently in all their operations."
Supported as it was by a portion of the wealth and
intelligence of Utah, the Walker brothers, the Tullidge
brothers, Stenhouse, Lawrence, and Eli B. Kelsey,
u the reformation gathered weight. On Sunday,
the 19th of December, 18G9, services were held for
the first time by the reformers, in the chapel of the
assembly-rooms in the thirteenth ward, and in the
14 Kclsey, who voted against their expulsion, was also excommunicated.
Stenhouse'.i Rocky Mountain Saints, G40.