Mr. SMITH. I should like to say to the honorable
gentlemen that the members of the Mormon Church are among the freest and most
independent people of all the Christian denominations. They are not all united
on every principle. Every man is entitled to his own opinion and his own views
and his own conceptions of right and wrong so long as they do not come in
conflict with the standard principles of the church. If a man assumes to deny
God and to become an infidel we withdraw fellowship from him. If a man commits
adultery we withdraw fellowship from him. If men steal or lie or bear false
witness against their neighbors or violate the cardinal principles of the
Gospel, we withdraw our fellowship. The church withdraws its fellowship from
that man and he ceases to be a member of the church. But so long as a man or a
woman is honest and virtuous and believes in God and has a little faith in the
church organization, so long we nurture and aid that person to continue
faithfully as a member of the church, though he may not believe all that is
revealed. (Proceedings Before the Committee on Privileges and Elections of
the United States Senate in the Matter of the Protests Against the Right of
Hon. Reed Smoot, a Senator from the State of Utah, to Hold His Seat, 4
vols. [Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1906), 1:98)
