130 years ago today - Nov 14, 1889

Testimony of John Henry Smith:

Q. I will ask you, Mr. Smith, if, in the course of the administration of the ceremonies there in the Endowment House, there is any covenant or oath or affirmation made by, or required of, those, passing through there, that they will avenge the blood of the prophets on this nation or its people, or against the government of the United States? Has there ever been since you first went through there?

A. I absolutely declare that there was no such oath, or such covenant, no such bond entered into by me, nor did I ever administer such an oath, covenant or bond to any man, that could be construed, by any reasonable construction of language, any way upon the earth, to mean a thing of that kind; and will say here for myself, that had any man presented to me an oath that bound me to become a deliberate enemy of my country that I love and respect, I would have repudiated it upon the spot.

. . .

Q. Weren't the people instructed to pray the Lord to avenge the blood of the prophets, and to teach that to their children and their children's children?

A. I have no remembrance of any such instructions of that positive kind.

Q. Well, that they were instructed to pray to the Lord to avenge the blood of the prophets, wasn't that it?

A. I decline to answer any further questions with regard to that.



Testimony of Heber John Richards:

Q. You say there was no covenant to avenge the blood of the prophets upon this nation?

A. None that I heard, sir.

Q. What was said about avenging the blood of the prophets?

A. In the fore part of the ceremony [in the Endowment House], in the annointing, they annointed my right arm that it might be strong to avenge the blood of the prophets, but that was all that was said.

Q. What was said about avenging the blood of the prophets, Joseph and Hyrum?

A. Nothing whatever about Joseph and Hyrum, that I recollect—It was just "prophets."

[The Inside of Mormonism, A Judicial Examination of Endowment Oaths Administered in All the Mormon Temples, by the United States District Court for the Third Judicial District of Utah, to Determine Whether Membership in the Mormon Church is Consistent with Citizenship in the United States, https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=6FhqT9uHS-cC pp. 48–49, as quoted in Sources on the Oath of Vengeance or Law of Retribution, Christopher C. Smith, privately circulated]