"To President John Taylor. "Sir—Duty imperatively demands that as I am about to withdraw from the Church over which you preside I make known to you and to all whom it may concern the reasons which have compelled me to take this step. When I joined the Mormon Church a little over 5 years ago I believed implicitly as I do now that the Bible was the word of God and the Rule of Faith and while the 'Book of Mormon' and 'Doctrine and Covenants' were referred to as additional revelation they no where contradicted the Bible but rather established it.

"Before joining the Church I became acquainted with Elders Wm. Budge, John Nicholson, Francis Cope, James L. Bunting, and others. Elder Nicholson preached from the Bible only and almost entirely dwelt on what is known as the first principles claiming that these principles were what had been introduced by our Savior and preached by his immediate apostles but that men had wandered away from them and had fallen into darkness & superstition. He asserted and quoted largely from the Bible to show that the Gospel in its fullness, purity, and power had been driven from the earth, but that now it had been again restored. I had heard a great many things about the Mormons that were nothing to their credit consequently the eminent social qualities and gentlemanly conduct of Elder Cope won my admiration and esteem. I was greatly pleased to find him a monogamist; for while I could not deny that many good men in the past had had more wives than one, I never for one moment assented to the idea that there was any virtue in such a proceeding or that it merited or would receive any reward. I joined your Church on the 20th of May 1879 and during the first 2 years of my membership I faithfully adhered to it and would have given my life to defend it. During all this time I never heard of Adam being God, never heard of blood atonement, never heard of polygamy being required of all men before they could attain to highest glory, never dreamed that Brigham Young or any one else cooly threw the Bible overboard and preached whatever they pleased which I was bound to accept as the revelations of God. The first thing which caused me to have any doubt was the conduct of Apostle Albert Carrington, who succeeded Wm. Budge as President of the European Mission. Wm. Budge always appeared to me in the light of a most kind, gentlemanly, and truly Christian man. It was not unnatural that I shuld look for all this in a man who claimed to be a successor of the Twelve Apostles of Christ, and whose speeches and writings were to be received as Scripture.

"Judge my horror and amazement when I found that he constantly used language which I had only heard from the lips of the lowest blackguards and that his conduct generally was something disgraceful. I saw him myself in the presence of several hundred witnesses on board a tugboat in Liverpool conduct himself so disgracefully with a young girl, then a servant in the Mission House, that every Elder present held his head down with shame. I was so disgusted that I almost left the Church then and there. Several of the Elders came to me and assured me that such conduct would not be overlooked, but would be promptly dealt with by the authorities. I believed this, and shortly afterwards left Liverpool to make my way to Utah in obedience to the command to gather. I left behind me a dear old mother, friends, associates, companions, country, everything, and with my family came to Salt Lake.

"God who alone judgest the hearts of men knows the sincerity and purity of my intentions. I imagined that I had come to the kingdom of God to help to build it up! What did I find? I found that God—the God of the Bible—is not even worshiped by the Church over which you preside, the God you worship is Adam. Brigham Young teaches I quote his words:— 'When our Father Adam came into the Garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body and brought Eve one of his wives with him. He is our Father and our God and the ONLY God with whom we have to do.' At first I could not bring myself to believe that this doctrine was accepted by the Church, but on careful inquiry found to my horror and astonishment that it was really so. It is true a great many know nothing about it and are simply in ignorance. Those who do know accept it as far more to be relied on than any portion of the Bible, for say they the Bible has been translated over and over again and may be wrong but this is the direct teaching of a Great Prophet. I reject this as abominable and horrible idolatry and give it as one reason why I cannot remain in your Church.

"Then there is the Doctrine of Blood atonement (slaying men and women to atone for their sins), which to me is simply a doctrine of murder. Brigham Young says 'I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been righteously slain in order to atone for their sins.' Again he says, 'I have seen scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have been a chance if their lives had been taken and their blood spilt upon the ground as a smoking incense to the Almighty.' I know of nothing so horrible as this in all the idolatries and superstitions which have cursed the human race, and it would of itself be reason more than sufficient for my withdrawal from your Church.

"But there are many more, far too many to mention in this letter but I will refer to a few.

"As I have shown Adam is made God but you do not give him much power or rather leave him much for you do teach that he has given you the power to wield, that however matters little you hold it and he has parted with it. that is my point you teach that. If a faithful son of Adam's is called behind the veil (dies) and has no priesthood God (Adam) cannot give him any. He must wait until he gets it from the earth where you have all the power. If he has no wife or wives (and you teach that he must have at least three or he cannot have the highest glory) God (Adam) is utterly unable to help him You have the keys and he must wait your leisure and pleasure. In fact you teach that you have the power to make a God 'who shall pass by the angels and the Gods' whereas God according to Mormonism can only make an angel (servant) and scarcely that without your permission.

"This to me is a mockery and silly superstition and I unhesitatingly reject it. I know many members of your Church whose sincerity to do not doubt and who are very good people. But generally speaking I never saw so much hypocrisy in my life as I have seen since I came to Salt Lake City. You profess to have a direct revelation from God commanding you to do no work on Sunday. But you and the people generally are steeped in Sabbath breaking. Shortly after I arrived in the city I found the theatre open on Sunday and Bishop O. F. Whitney and a number of members of the Church rehearsing plays that they were going to perform at Conference for money. I found that here and in other parts of the Territory rehearsals are commonly held in the preaching houses of the wards upon a Sunday. I found that painters had been sent for by yourself and other leading members of the Church to do work on Sunday; and that the business office of the Church is frequently open all that day, and your clerks diligently at work. You profess to abhor drinking, smoking and swearing. One of the heaviest smokers in the city is John Smith the patriarch of the whole Church. Members of the Church in full membership keep saloons, and the Church organ the Deseret News opens its columns for the advertisements of the lowest dens in the city, and so far as bad language is concerned, I say deliberately, I have heard more in Salt Lake City from Latter-day Saints in one year than I heard from all the members of other churches with whom I have been acquainted in the whole course of my life.

"Joseph F. Smith during last conference told the Priesthood meeting that to obey the higher law they must have at least three living wives at one and the same time, and that anything to the contrary was a "damned lie." You yourself in the Ogden Tabernacle speaking of what the Gentiles were trying to do said "Who the devil cares." Surely you do not think I can believe such language from the Holy Spirit of God.

"I now request you to erase my name from your books, and only add in conclusion that I have had no quarrel, no dispute, no misunderstanding with any member of your Church. I leave it from conviction and at the call of duty well persuaded that I can meet you or any member of the Church over which you preside at the bar of God and look you in the face before him as an honest man

"Yours respectfully,

"SCOTT ANDERSON"