Mormons bribed a US Supreme Court justice?

Question

"In December 1892, the 33-year-old Mormon apostle Abraham H. Cannon recorded in his diary: 'At my Quorum meeting on Thursday the brethren were told that our success in the Church [law]suits was in a great measure due to the fact that we have a partner of Justice [Stephen J.] Field of the Supreme Court of the United States in our employ, who is to receive a percentage of the money if the suits go in our favor, and the property is returned to us.'

"In the wake of federal sanctions over polygamy, Mormon leaders felt their only resort was to offer cash to a U.S. Supreme Court justice. In fact, Justice Field was not the only dignitary who was 'bribed' (Cannon’s word) by the LDS Church in those desperate times, according to the explicit account recorded by Apostle Cannon."

So the First Presidency bribed a US Supreme Court justice and mentioned it openly in the weekly meeting of The Twelve. Apostle Abraham Cannon was the 4th son of George Q. Cannon of the First Presidency.

http://signaturebooks.com/2010/11/important-utah-and-mormon-diary-published/

What do you think of this and do you think the LDS leadership still engage in activities like this today?
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Answer 1

Well in 1838 the Governor of Missouri ordered the extermination of all practicing Mormons in executive order 44. I am not exaggerating here. He ordered the states military and law enforcement resources to kill Mormons on sight without any attempt to demand surrender much less offer trial. I guess after a state governor orders the extermination of your wife and kids you just don't have the same respect for law and government.

Today is a different world than back then. We don't commit random genocide anymore and Mormons no longer bribe Supreme Court justices. Hopefully Supreme Court justices are no longer so easily bribed either.

Answer 2

what do i think of this?



it happened over 100yrs ago so i don't think much about it.



is this some anti Mormon thing?

Answer 3

I have to agree with Ms Forrest. What happened 100 yeas ago and how the world worked was very different 100 years ago. Corruption was common. Neither the LDS Church nor judges of the Court would even consider such a proposition today.

Answer 4

It's sad that the only way to get religious freedom, that same freedom supposedly guaranteed by the constitution, was to bribe a judge.

Answer 5

You do realize that if your put as much effort into fasting prayer as you do in tearing down Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ's Church you would be walking on water and healing people left and right and doing all sorts of miracles.



Yes I do think your effort is misplaced. And I do think you have more potential to do good than you realize.

Answer 6

First of all, I don't know that you can take what somebody wrote in their diary as gospel truth. I'm not Mormon, I don't particularly care about the LDS church one way or another, I'm just saying that diaries are not the strongest historical evidence.



Seeing as how federal sanctions on polygamy never went away and the LDS church did away with the idea of polygamy, I have to think that even if this diary entry was true it would show that any alleged bribery was ineffective anyway.



Your point???

Answer 7

I can record a lot of things in a diary. It doesn't mean they are true.

Answer 8

I wasn't aware of this. Thanks for the reference. I believe LDS leaders are fallible men and probably made an error in judgement. Thank heavens they didn't claim that God told them to do this. It's like Abraham lying to Pharoah about his wife Sarah. He was fallible but later repented. I don't believe LDS leaders have. It would be wise to do so.

Answer 9

If this is true, I can honestly say that I don't think it would happen today and I think it is horrible that something like this could ever happen. If I knew more details, I would be able to give a better idea of what I would think about it. Also, I would like to say that I think it is absurd to think that just because it happened over 100 years ago that it isn't worth thinking about. All things that happened 20, 50, 100, 200, etc. years ago is what molded our country into what it is today. If history isn't worth "thinking" about, then what is? I am proud to say that I am interested in all aspects of my country's history.

Answer 10

Quizzard, I beg to differ if the LDS church leadership of today would dare be "corrupt" today. Their true colors are shinning more and more every day.

Many people are seeing right through them...

If they need something done, or fought for, they can buy it, or manipulate membership to do the fight for them.

After all (members) would want to heed the counsel of what they call "the Lord's anointed"...correct?

And NO it does not matter when it happened. Wrong is wrong. Especially for a "church" claiming to be the only true church on the Earth.

"There is no salvation outside The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints..." (Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 670).



From the site...

Quinn added that “in his journal, Cannon provided details of everything from the plots of plays performed at the Salt Lake Theatre to confidential meetings of the LDS leadership, from board meetings of major businesses to the complaints and unhappiness of his plural wives, from to the prostitute-romps of his prominent brother and U.S. Senator Frank J. Cannon to Abram’s decision to marry a new plural wife in July 1896.”



Prop 8 fight for a man and woman marriage only was a commotion AND a convenient smokescreen for questions about why more and more Mormons are falling back into the church's old (and illegal) polygamous ways. not to mention believing in polygamy in heaven, even for some members of today.

Mormon leaders have stated that living leaders are more important than standard works, (scripture)

SO thou shall not lie, steal cheat, etc, and the rules of the Bible nor the BOM do not stand up against a living mormon prophet....(according to them)

Example...

According to the Encyclopedia of Mormonism, "Neither written scripture, nor natural theology, supercedes the 'living oracles.'"6In his "Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet" speech given in 1980, Ezra Taft Benson insisted that the "living prophet is more vital to us than the standard works."



*Frankly decption all started with the way Joseph Smith ran things.

THIS pattern of institutionalized deception, and secrets, WAS established by Joseph Smith.

Brigham just added to it and fuel the fire with his own ways. Then LDS leader after leader, did the same things.



Bribing people in authority is no different to them.

*MANY leaders and members now a days will reveal less than the whole truth, or embellish in order to defend the church.



Google "Lying for the Lord"....Mormonism is what you find.

Answer 11

I think it easily happened. I think it happened more often than anyone thinks, and not just from mormon leadership. I think it still happens today between mormon leadership and the Republican party. There's never been such thing as a poor politican. There's never been such a thing as an LDS leader that didn't want power and money and prestige. It's a human thing, I guess. Better them than me any day.