For the Commercial (Oswego) Times.

BEAVER  ISLAND  AND  THE  MORMONS.

BY  A  TRAVELER.

The Beaver Islands, situated at the fiit of Lake Michigan, is the present location if the "Peace party" Mormons, (or as they love to call themselves Latter Day Saints) under the administration of James J. Strang, whom they claim to be "Joseph Smith's lawful successor in the prophetic office."

Mormonism, whether true or false, has gone forward in gigantic strides, being aided by the help of persecuting priests and bigoted people, which will always aid in building up any delusion man can invent.

It has brought into the field many thousand thinking people from the various sects of the day, who seem from their appearance and energy, to be people of understanding and enterprise, who really believe their religion to be true, however unpopular, and are showing by their works the faith which they profess to have. Of all the gathering places the Mormons have had, Beaver Island is the best. It possesses the best natural harbor on the Lakes, where all kinds of vessels here lie in perfect safety during the severest storms. It is very commodious and beautiful. There are some five or six hundred of the church already gathered there, having set good stores and one nice steam sawmill on the Island. The interior of the Beaver is a good farming country, well timbered with pine, hemlock, mountain ash, beech, spruce and maple, and a great variety of other kinds of woodland. There are three of the most beautiful crystal lakes ever beheld by man. They are building a Tabernacle one hundred by sixty feet, in which they expect to receive their pentacostal endowments, which their Prophet promises them, that God will give them when it is finished. The people seem to be very industrious, active and enterprising.

Their prophet, Strong, is a master-piece of intellectuality; a thorough going man of good information. He was once the postmaster of Ellicottville, and editor of the Randolph Herald, of this State -- was a regular lawyer of considerable eminence before his appointment to be the Mormon prophet. Since which time he has had nothing to do with either law or politics. He devotes his whole time for the good of his people who he is president over. He and his people seem to be very much devoted to their cause, and say they shall make Beaver Island a second "Eden" for beauty and privileges. His people, each, are presented with from 40 to 160 acres of land, as an everlasting inheritance to them and their children for ever.

The Mormons are regular free soilers, but not politically so, for they say they have never been protected in their rights in Missouri, or Illinois as citizens, and therefore they will have nothing to do with politics, but "will be subject to the laws that be," and be governed by them, but will not help make them, and thus bring upon them another persecution.

The Beaver Islands are blest with the most extensive inland fishery there is in the United States. White fish and Mackinaw trout are taken in abundance. The Mormons own two good sail vessels, and can do a good business in the lumber trade. -- All kinds of work is carried on upon the Beaver which is done elsewhere on the western lake ports. Propellers and sailors are continually going and coming into their port. The first class of large steamers do not stop there regularly; yet a pier will soon be built at the head of the Island, where they will all call regularly. Garden Island, six miles square, is one of the richest and most beautiful islands upon the earth. The Big Beaver is six by fourteen miles in extent. There are several more beautiful and well timbered islands which surround the Big Beaver; each about six miles square. The people have sent to Congress a petition for a grant of these Islands, and it is hoped that the government will give it to them that they may live by themselves and enjoy their fanaticism and delusion, if it is such, without molestation from any one.

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THE MORMON COLONY BEAVER ISLAND. -- We have conversed with a gentleman who has just returned from a visit to Beaver Island, at the head of Lake Michigan, upon which the Mormon Colony is located, headed by their prophet, James J. Strang. They number about six hundred, and have a farm on the Island, which is cultivated by them. They have also engaged to a limited extent in taking white fish and trout which constitutes their chief means of subsistence. The temple, 100 by 60 feet, is in progress at their settlement, one sixth of the labor of the colony being required upon it weekly. At present this labor is directed to the building of a printing office, the press and materials for a weekly paper being on the ground. Semi-occasionally the portion of the temple which is finished is used as a theatre, Mr. G. J. Adams, one of the leaders, acting as manager. This room is also used as a ball room, where the faithful chase the giddy hours [away], also a place of worship on Sundays. Strang is at present deeply engaged in deciphering the plates found by him, as indicated by a vision, back of Kenosha, some time since. They are of copper and are engraved with cubaistic [sic - cabalistic?] characters, supposed to relate to the interests of the "church of the latter day," by his followers. He is described as a hard working, and industrious man, [but] most of those on the island are indolent and evasive to labor. -- Chicago, illinois, Journal.

==> We publish the foregoing, not as absolutely correct, but merely to show what candid man say of us, when they behold and [think].

The Tabernacle has never been occupied as a ball room, neither would it be possible to [so] use it. The seats eise like an ampitheater and are made fast. Neither is it used for worship Sundays. The Saints, when by themselves, and not restrained by the [institutions of] man, keep the Sabbath of God. "The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord our God." Ex. xx. 10. No endowment is promised in the Tabernacle.

Neither have we any islands here six miles square. The islands around Big Beaver are in size from a mere beach to dry size up to 14,000 acres.


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> The Detroit Tribune is out on the people of this place in a lying and blackguard article, for the crime of refusing to vote the Whig ticket at the last fall election. He is quite mistaken in the premises. Some of the Mormons in this place were anxious to vote the Whig State ticket, but could not learn who was in nomination. Usually refraining from political matters, and having no political associations formed since they came into the State, the Whig leaders had not spirit enough so much as send them a ticket.

The manner in which they have been abused and belied by the Tribune and Advertiser has well nigh cured them of the predilection. A party which builds itself up by belying everybody who does not support its nominations, is unfit to be supported. But here is the article: --

THE  MORMONS  ON  BEAVER  ISLAND.

Beaver Island, which is the largest of a collection or group of that same name, lies in Lake Michigan, about twenty-five miles above the Straits of Mackinac. It contains about twenty-eight thousand acres of land, (a large portion of which is still in the hands of Government,) and forms one organized township. -- There is, upon this island, a population of about five hundred, the larger proportion of which are Mormons. Those not professing this belief, are styled Gentiles.

A bitter fight has sprung up between the Mormons and Gentiles, and the same state of hostility that marked the course of this sect in Illinois and Missouri, toward other sects, and vice versa, exist at this place.

It is doubtless true that the Mormons, as a sect, have suffered wrongs and persecution at the hands of individuals and whole communities, through the influence to some extent, of prejudice, and, to a certain degree, through their own misconduct. This persecution has not been blessed with benign results upon the temper and character of the sect generally; but has resulted in making its leaders, and some of its members, vindictive, tyrannical and dishonest.

The leaders of the Mormon colony on Beaver Island, are unprincipled and worthless men, and the chief, or "King," as he is styled -- a man by the name of Strang -- is an open profligate and blackguard.

Early in the last summer, a rumor was current through the Island, that the Indians, half-breeds, fishermen, and other inhabitants from the surrounding Islands were to make a descent upon the Mormons, and drive them off. The Mormons, consequently, organized themselves, fortified their "Tabernacle," or church, planted ordnance in front of it, and blazed away a bold defiance at the world in general. No attack took place; but the rumour was sufficient to furnish Strang with an available argument in favour of a "strong Government," which argument he immediately applied, and procured himself to be proclaimed "King" for his natural life, and G. J. Adams, (an ex-theatrical performer,) Viceroy, in case of his death, until the succession should be filled. The sequel has shown that --
"Upon his head, they placed a fruitless crown,
And put a barren sceptre in his grasp;" for his short reign has been marked with turmoil and trouble. His Viceroy, Adams, has left him in disgust, and, taking with him a large number of subjects, has retu=ired to the Island of Mackinac, where he is engaged in playing sham "Kings" and "Viceroys," in the loft over J. P. King's store, to a very select audience. Some of those who followed Adams to Mackinac, have since returned to Beaver Island, and found their houses, furniture, and goods, in the hands of others, who professed to hold by virtue of an "order of confiscation" issued by King Strang, who, moreover, informed them that "the island was not large enough to hold them." These persons have again left, as all faithful subjects were forbid from harbouring them. Mrs. Adams the wife of the Viceroy, remains upon the island; and it is supposed that it was in consequence of certain infamous propositions made toward her by Strang, that his Majesty was arrested, and thrown into jail at Mackinac, on a charge of bigamy; from whence he was liberated, in order to enable him to return to his "Kingdom," and exercise "the glorious privileges of a freeman," by making his subjects vote the Loco Foco ticket, under pain of death, and without distinction of age, sex, or race.

The entire township organization of the island is in the hands of the Mormons, though Mr. Bowers, the Township Clerk, who refused to sign the election returns, in consequence of the gross frauds, is little more than one in name.

The sect are forbidden by "King Strang" from buying Government land. They are, however, encouraged to pillage Government timber, which they do with great industry. -- When this laudable enterprise is accomplished, they will probably pull up stakes and go elsewhere, as they can make nothing there by farming. -- Det. Trib. Dec. 11.


Notes: (forthcoming)

ACQUITTED.

A great ado has been made over the arrest of Strang, the Mormon King at Beaver Island, alledging that he had been guilty of almost everything. He has had an examination at Detroit, and has been honourably acquitted. -- In this case we are of the opinion that Strang and his followers have been wronged. -- Conneaut Reporter.


Note: The editor of the Ohio Conneaut Reporter seems to have taken a special interest in the affairs of the distant Strangites. See also the issue of that paper for Oct. 13, 1845.

THE  MORMONS  IN  UTAH.

It is undoubtably a matter of concern to every lover of good order, morality and religion, that a sect holding such principles as the disciples of Joseph Smith should not only exist, but grow and strengthen itself in the midst of this Republic, in a day when enlightenment and Christianity are so broad-spread. But we are doomed to have [errors] and wickedness side by side with truth and piety. Such is the decree of that Providence which governs all events. The Mormons systematize and license licentiousness by local laws; in every community the same exists, but hides [its] darkness; sometimes [it is paliated by those] who reprobate it in general by neglect, punish the guilty and even receiving the aggressor into honest society. Such things are, however, by some means given a coloring that hides the real enormity of the thing, and we are expected to abide with the sinful when brought forward and patronized by influential associations. The Mormons pursue an [opposite] course, and not only legalize the enormity, but throw over it the sanction of their mis-called religious faith. Christendom is outraged by such a thing, but the remedy is not atttempted, otherwise than by resort to measures of hostility and outrage against the sect. By means not recognized under our laws, the Mormons have been driven from place to place, until they have sought an asylum in the heart of a wilderness, choosing always most admirable locations for their towns and establishing industry and thrift. We are not advised that they are dishonest in their conduct with each orther, or the strangers who go among them. With the exception of the one peculiar dark stain they are as correct as their neighbors. They [reject] the Bible, which is the foundation of good government and every good thing. But in this they are not worse than other proscribed sects who separate from the world to enjoy their own distinctive opinions. We say this not to make any lighter the condemnation which the public judgement has passed upon the strange votaries of a monstrous belief. But we fancy there may be in it some sort of appeal against the violence which has already been used against them, and may be still further prosecuted, since they have forfieted the good opinion if not the protection of government. It is a pretty well-settled conclusion, from the experience of the past, that the persecution of any class or sect does but encourage and revive their energies, give them moral strength for resistance and for growth, which they otherwise would lack. We freely confess our doubts of the propriety of the course taken by the U. S. officers in leaving Utah, after having been badly received by the head of the Mormons. What was said against Government is highly to be censored, because blasphemous, but need not necessarily have led to a rupture. The Mormons remember what they have suffered for their faith, and how they have been despoiled without protection by Government. It is not easy for such people, who are certainly far from being Saints, to forgive those wrongs. A little railing would be natural. Men of sagacity and wit might have stripped Young of his false garb of prophecy, and done some good to his followers; but angry men are not apt to do good any where or to any cause -- not even their own. -- Monroe Democrat.

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THE  MORMONS  IN  UTAH.

The Official Report of the United States Judges in the Territory of Utah, as made to the President has been published. It is a document of three columns, signed by Chief Justice Brandeburg, Judge Brocchus and Secretary Harris. -- The hostile and seditious sentiments manifested by Governor Brigham Young, are assigned as reasons for the withdrawal of the Judicial officers of the Terrirory. The report explains at great length the religious organization and powers of the Mormons; and enters into detail of sundry malpractices of Governor Young and his followers. The Government of the United States is, according to the Report, shamefully spoken of and ill-treated; the officers sent out for the Governor of the Territory were refused a hearing; and Gov. Young indulged in sundry maledictions upon the memory of Gen. Taylor. These statements have already been published, unofficially. It is not necessary to repeat them. The Report proceeds to comment upon the prevalence of polygamy in the territory. Plurality of wives is openly avowed and practiced under the sanction and in obedience to the direct command of the Church. So universal is this practice that very few, if any, leading men in the community can be found who have not more than one wife each. -- The evil can never be made a statutary offense by a Mormon legislature; and if a crime at common law, the Court would be powerless, with Mormon juries.

The Great Salt Lake City is an important point in the Overland route to the Pacific, but the emigrant avoids it. No man can open his mouth in opposition to the lawless exactions of the populace, with safety to his liberty, business or life. In view of these circumstances the Justices by whom the present document is indited, deemed it proper to withdraw. They submit their case to the President for consideration. -- Exchange Paper.

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Upon these articles we have a few words to say... "plurality of wives is openly allowed and practised under the sanction, and in obedience to the direct command of the church." Suppose it is. Does not the constitution of the United States guarantee freedom of religion to all citizens? The law of polygamy is part of the religious faith of the Brighamites. The practice of it, according to their faith, is essential to the salvation of the great body of mankind. They at least believe, however erroneous the belief may be, that to forbid polygamy, would be to interdict eternal life to some. Has not an American Citizen a right by the Constitution, to obey God according to the Bible? Who has the right, by the American Constitution to interpret the scriptures for him? Has he not the right to obey God, according as he understands the commandments?

And farther, "the evil can never be made a statuary offense." What of it? If the people of Utah think polygamy a wholesome institution, and choose not to condemn it as a crime, whose business is it? In that Democratic country, have not the people a right to make such laws as they think fit for their own government? Is not the right of the to make their own laws, the very [ecnesse] of Democracy?

Moreover, "if (polygamy is) a crime at common law, the court would be powerless, with Mormon juries." Then even the Utah judges doubted whether polygamy was a crime at common law. Then the difficulty is this, Polygamy is not forbidden at common law. It is not forbidden in the Bible, and the Brighamites, the citizens of Utah, will not make a law against it, and for want of something else to make a fuss about, the judges have come home with this as the great complaint against citizens of Utah. Had it been found that the Territory was overrun with brothels as every city in the U. S. is, with free quarters for public officers, no complaint would have been heard for such offences.

But when they are found regularly marrying wives, taking them home and providing for them and their children, as Jacob, David, Solomon and the Prophets and Patriarchs generally did; in this christian land they are charged with immorality and crime, and a public out-cry is raised against, and, an excuse got up for persecuting them. Nothing can be found in the common law against polygamy; nothing in the civil law; nothing in the Old or New Testaments against it. But it is forbidden by canon in all Catholic countries, and by statutes in all Protestant states; and the Brighamites who are so far behind the times, as to follow the examples of God's chosen servants of the olden time, are, forsooth, dangerous and rebellious citizens.

Where do these Utah judges get authority to malign Mormon juries? Have they found them unwilling or unfaithful stewards of the law? Did they stick to their posts, instruct jurors in the law and find them like jurors in other places, ready to give verdicts in perjury? No. The judges violated their oaths, to faithfully do the duties of their offices, upon the shallow pretense that they were afraid Mormon juries would be as recreant as themselves...


Note: The above editorial comments were almost certainly supplied by James J. Strang, and as such, represent one of the very earliest published "Mormon" defenses of polygamy, under U. S. law. Within a few months, the LDS leaders in Utah would begin to pen somewhat similar apologies for their unique religious doctrines. They must, however, have been a bit chagrined that lawyer Strang beat them to the punch, in supplying the essentials for their rebuttal of subsequent anti-polygamy arguments from "the States."

==> We learn from the Saint Louis Republican that the Salt Lake Mormons have purchased machinery for a sugar refinery, which they contemplate starting at Salt Lake. The iron work of this machinery alone weighs forty tons, and cannot be carried over for less than $15,000. This is a great undertaking, but we think it must fail. It is hardly possible that the income can justify so great an expense.


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> Some Friend has sent us an old number of the Frontier Guardian, in which Orson Hyde gives as a reason for not entering into a discussion with us, "that the relation existing between the Stranites and the Brighamites is precisely the same as that between God and the angels, and the Devil and the fallen spirits." Mr. Hyde is perfectly right. Every just man will approve his judgment.

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==> It appears that the nomination of Orson Hyde as one of the Judges of the United States District Court for the Territory of Utah, has been rejected by the Senate. Mr. Hyde goes west without office.

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==> We learn that Almon W. Babbit, of Kanesville, late Delegate from Utah, is gone on a trip to that territory. The aspect of affairs in that quarter portends a storm near at hand. We hope it may be a light one, and especially that the right may prevail.


Note: Elder Almon W. Babbit had a "stormy" career among the Brighamites. As an able administrator and notable political figure (with ties to Washington Democrats), he was too valuable a man for the Church to lose. Yet, his individualism and outright personal rivalry with Apostle Orson Hyde (ostensibly a Whig) frequently got him into hot water with the Salt Lake leaders.

FROM  UTAH.

The N. Y. Herald publishes some strange documents from the Great Salt Lake, being a correspondence between Brigham Young and Judge Broccus, and an incidental missive from Elder Phelps. The letters between the Governor and the Judge grew out of an address delivered by the latter, in which it was assumed he bore down rather roughly on the Salt Lake Ladies, in expressing a wish that they "might become virtuous." On this the Governor fired up, hence the correspondence, which was as mild as could have been expected under the circumstances. Elder Phelps mingles in the discussion as a kind of outsider, and brings all the arguments deducible from the example of the ancients in favor of a plurality of wives.

We are soon to have an interesting and authentic work on the condition and prospects of the Mormon settlement. A Detroit paper states that Lieut. Gunnison, of the Topographical Engineers, is about to publish the results of his observations, while engaged in the survey of the Salt Lake and other professional duties among the Mormons. He is a gentleman of cultivation and ability, and we expect to get a clear notion of the Mormon polity and its effects upon morality and civilization from his book. -- Buff. Com. Adv.


Notes: (forthcoming)

TREASURE  IN  NEW JERSEY.

The Mount Holly Mirror, N. J., tells an almost incredible story, that some of Capt. Kid's treasure has been found among the Pines, and that the occupants of that region are in a state of intense excitement. A man dreamed for several nights successively that he should find this treasure, the place to be indicated by four iron bars projecting from the earth. He went and found his dream realized. Two hundred and forty thousand dollars are said to have been discovered up to Monday night, buried in iron chests, and the people have turned out with their pickaxes in further search for the treasure.


Notes: (forthcoming)

UTAH  AND  THE  NEW YORK TRIBUNE

The New York Tribune publishes a long and interesting article from "The Seer," on the condition and progress of Utah, and another on polygamy, or what the Seer calls "Celestial Marriage;" to which the Editor appends the following remarks: --

MORMON  POLYGAMY.

We publish in another column, from The Seer, documents of high interest and importance, which shed a great deal of light on the weighty question of the treatment which the community in Utah should receive from the United States. One of these papers related to the growth and present condition of the Mormon Church, to the number of its adherents and the progress of its doctrine in different parts of the world, and to the splendid work of reclaiming the desert, which the emigrants have achieved in the face of obstacles and difficulties, as in all history, scarce any exiled and pioneer people ever had to contend with. It is impossible, we think, to read the simple facts put forth in the Epistle of Orson Pratt and not find a degree of admiration for the courage, energy, and industry which have accomplished so much in the subjugation of the wilderness, and converting the useless haunts of beasts into the habitable home of man.

But a far graver interest attaches to the second of the documents in question, which treats, of what is called in the Mormon jargon, "Celestial Marriage," or polygamy. This is the difficult and dangerous point in our political relations with that people, and on this head the Rules of Celestial Marriage are calculated to reassure the anxiety of the most nervous among those who deplore the existence of such an institution. They show that there is no need of an invading army of the United States soldiers to put down the evil in question, but that, if it is not prolonged by external persecution, it must speedily extinquish itself, and put an end at the same time to all the distinctive falsities and absurdities in general. We have in these theological state papers the palpable evidence that polygamy does not work well among an industrious, shrewd newspaper-reading community. The results which are naturally to be expected from it, are evidently appearing in full bloom. Domestic discord has invaded the penetralia of Mormondom, and the nursery, kitchen and parlor of the saintly households are already in hot water on account of wilful wives and battling babies. Hence the necessity for new revelations, telling the sex that there must be no cap-pulling, face scratching, or baby-spanking of other than their own bairnes. If the thirty leves of Brigham Young, or whatever the number is, have a lot of cherubs apiece, all under one roof or in one neighborhood, as they are possessed of domestic precedents and practices of American women, it is a matter of course that they cannot dwell in all that sachrine softness of communion with one another which The Seer sets down in its catalogue of good behavior, and that the institution which so degrades and enslaves them will inevitably be overthrown...

And, even if there were no moral certainty that polygamy will estinguish itself in Utah, it would by no means be a plain case for resort to violence. Wisdom would still dictate waiting for the action of mental and moral influence instead of resorting to the temporal arm. Certainly, the institution as it exists there, is not to be put on a level with polygamy among us and in defiance of laws. Whatever is done universally and legally, though wrong, is attended with more or less a compensating principle; hence the profession of a soldier, whose business it is to kill according to law, is better than a brigand, whose business it is to kill without law. So too of polygamy in accordance with Mormon law in comparison with bigamy in our latitude. The one is a crime by the law of this community; the other is not only permitted, but held to be virtuous and laudable by the law of that. We cannot force our laws upon the Mormons; but we may be sure that if we leave them at peace, the necessities of Society, and the progress of intelligence and the moral sentiments among them will lead to the correction of the evil we deplore.

This article certainly pays a deserved tribute to the industry and enterprise of the Mormons in Utah. And its distinction between legal polygamy in Utah and the misnamed bigamy, which in christian countries consists in abandoning one wife to swindle the heart of another, is the beginning of justice. But the argument against polygamy, and the reasons for believing it will be of short continuance, strike us as in the last degree puerile. The argument is this: --

"A rule has been made that different wives of the same husband shall not punish each other's children. Rules are not made against anticipations, but entities. Therefore the fault of spanking each other's bairns already exists, (otherwise the rule against it would not.")

"Therefore (assuming that this fault is neither curable, nor endurable,) polygamy will be abandoned -- and with it all the distinctive features of Mormonism, which make the deep gulf between it and other systems of religion." How the latter conclusion is arrived at we do not understand.

It is not true that rules are made only against entities. They are commonly made against probabilities, as well as experienced evils. The Newspaper-reading American citizens in Utah, know very well that in such places as New York, where a majority of the people live from two to a dozen families in house, differences frequently arise between the children of different mothers... All the argument against polygamy is founded on the assumption that women will not do right, ans will quarrel, cause or no cause, an assumption very far from complimemtary...

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DEATH  OF  CAPT. GUNNISON, U. S. A.

The untimely and tragic fate of this gallant and able officer, while engaged in the arduous duties of the government, has caused a profound impression throughout the country...

(under contruction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

SALT  LAKE  AFFAIRS.

We are not in receipt of any recent news from Utah, and are looking with anxiety for information from that quarter. We were quite surprised recently to learn that the population of Utah is but eighteen thousand.

But this information does not shake our confidence that they will maintain themselves against the Indians, and any other force that shall go there to disturb their peace. Nor do we think it a misfortune to the Brighamite Mormons that military protection is not extended to Utah, as to other territorial settlements. In the end they will have to take care of themselves, and the incursion of a few barbarous bands of Indians among them will compel them to learn the art of war, and inure them to watchfulness and self-defence. There are enough of them to withstand all the Indians in Utah.

But our latest news comes from Washington, some two months old, to be sure, shows a new feature in their affairs. In the plan for the organizing the Territory of Nebraska in the proposition to carry its western boundary to the mountains, a few miles this side of Salt Lake City, placing Fort Bridger and nearly all the country between it and the Mormon settlements in Nebraska Territory.

The boundary proposed is an unnatural and inconvenient one. But the reason given for it is horrible. The friends of justice and religious liberty, if there are any in the country, must have been shocked as Mr. Richardson, of Illinois, avowed the intention and effect of the proposed change.

Fort Bridger was established many years since by the man whose name it bears, in a place for carrying on Indian trade. During his long residence among them, Bridger had obtained great influence over the Indians. -- After the commencement of the war of the Indians upon Utah, and after the regular revocation of Bridger's license as an Indian trader, it was ascertained that he was furnishing arms and ammunition to the hostile Indians.

For this crime process was duly issued against him in the name of the United States, and an attempt made to arrest him, and where did he flee to avoid an arrest for aiding and abetting an Indian tribe in making war on the United States? To Washington -- to the seat of government.

And because the persons injured by the war are Mormons, it is now proposed to extend the Territory of Nebraska as near to Salt Lake City as possible, without including the Mormon settlements, so that the Indians can shelter themselves from the militia of Utah by a short retreat over the Territorial boundary and can get supplies near at hand. Mr. Bridger wishes to go back to his trading house, thirty miles out of the Mormon settlements, and recommence selling guns, powder and lead to aid Indians in killing Mormons in Utah, and United States officers on public duty in the mountains, and to help him on in so laudable an undertaking Congress propose to dismember Utah.

We do not know the fate of this proposition. But when baby-sitter Richardson, of Illinois proposed it, no one rebuked him. Such a wretch is a fit representative of Egypt, or the neighboring military tract, Algiers.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMONS  OF  SALT  LAKE.

[A traveler] who has recently been among the Mormons of Salt Lake furnishes the New York Journal of Commerce with the following:

[Mormons are Panthiests] They believe [------ ---- ---]. The three Gods of this [------ ---- ---] revealed in the Bible [------ ---- ---] under their direction,)... [two illigible paragraphs follow]

Reason on which marriage is founded. -- They argue again, that mind is only matter, and this material mind is always struggling to develop itself. God having provided so liberally for its development, by the sexuality of each individual, we sin if we prevent mind from developing itself; and hence, as no one can be saved in his sins, that person is not religious -- cannot be happy in a future state -- who is not married. To this they add tortured scripture without end. And as the sinner must marry only the "Latter Day Saints," it becomes the duty of every masculine "saint" to receive every woman who offers herself; as he thus "saves a soul from death and hides a multitude of sins."

Practically, many of these "saints" are zealous for their creed. Some have ten, some twenty, and some have fifty wives. It is a common thing to introduce a stranger thus: "I introduce you to Mrs. Harris, and Mr. Harris, and Mrs. Harris," on to the end of the chapter. The result is, great effemincy of the husband. He walks a poor wretch, covered with a cloak at mid-summer, and downcast in looks. The children are numerous, as marriage unproductive is sin. It is said that the premature deaths and still-born infants are in undue proportion to the number of births. -- Attendant to this are jars and contentions. -- So that, though they satisfy lust, the Mormons are not a happy people.

Their mode of holding services is peculiar. Their ediface is like an ancient Greek or Roman theatre... The band commences playing, and play some time. Then a prayer, which in language is much like that of an ordinary pastor. It means, however, a very different thing, as they understand the scriptural language employed. The comes a sermon. Sometimes several speeches or sermons in succession, filled with such sentiments as above. They close with instrumental music and a benediction. Their services are often long.

The Book of Mormon they do not hold in as great repute as formerly. Of the Bible, they make great use. In its interpretation they are extreme literalists; and many have the whole of it at their tongue's end. So that false and absurd as their system is, it is no easy matter to discuss with them.

Lastly, they make regeration to be -- consent to be a Latter Day Saint, and a married individual, their ritual or rather Judaized modernism. Their outward law under the constitution of the United States, really the whim of their leaders, modified by a sort of traditional usage, that even a few years have compelled them to adopt. They have an Ecclesiastical Court to settle disputation; allow no suits or reference to government of the State or national authority.

The Valley of the Salt Lake is not the richest land that ever saw the sun, and there physical causes that will silence all fears that a people so peculiar [----- ---- --- ---] the glorious prospects [of Mormonism to be] seriously clouded. They are on the wane. Their own errors contain the elements of self-destruction.

But how sad the picture, or rather the fact, that thousands of good, [se-----] men and women, as many truly are, should be so deluded! -- Who would have tho't that the basest lusts and passions -- the most downright despotism -- the most stupid hierarchy, could arise and be fostered, and attain the threatening aspect they once had, but now are losing.


It would difficult to crowd together more errors in the same space than are found in the foregoing; and, if the onslaught was upon anybody but the Mormons, no easy to get so ridiculous a tissue of lies in so respectable a paper as the Journal of Commerce, or get it republished in the Free Press.

If men have ten, twenty, and fifty wives apiece, an the result are poor wretches, with downcast looks, covered with a cloak at mid-summer, then how [----- ---- --- ----- ---- --- ---]

Such men as [this exist by the] thousand in all christian countries, where men count who count polygamy felony waste their strength on harlots; but they don't beget children. Visit their houses and love has given no pledge but the lecher's lip.

Polygamy saves a woman's health, and thus makes her capable of bearing more and stronger children. But it has no effect on the health of men, because any man of ordinarily sound constitution is capable, without any unusual tax upon his strength, of begetting more children than twenty healthy women can bear.

The world has been astonished with the growth of the Mormon settlements, particularly that of Utah; and the indominable energy with which they [posted] themselves into the fastness of the mountains, and built up a flourishing republic, has been the admiration of the most enterprising men of this enterprising age. --

Yet now we are [told] by the grave Journal of Commerce that this has been done [by] men so worn with lechery that they require cloaks in mid-summer! -- Bah!...

As usual, the article ends with the prediction of the speedy extinction of Mormonism. That has been the chorus of every declamation against them for twenty-four years, and it seems to be as fresh and green as ever.


Notes: (forthcoming)

DEFENCE  OF  POLYGAMY.
LETTER FROM A LADY IN UTAH TO HER SISTER IN NEW HAMPSHIRE.

Dear Sister... you will bear with me patiently, while I give a few of my reasons for embracing, and holding sacred, that particular point in the doctrine of the Church of the Saints to which you, my dear sister, together with a large majority of Christendom, so decidedly object. I mean, a "plurality of wives." ... According to Jesus Christ and the Apostles, then, the only way to be saved is to be adopted into the great family of polygamists, by the Gospel, and then strictly follow their examples....

[in the Bible] then, I find that polygamists were the friends of God; that the family and lineage of a polygamist were selected, in which all nations should be blessed; that a polygamist is named in the New Testament as the father of the faithful Christians of after ages, and cited as a pattern for all generations; that the wife of a polygamist, who encouraged her husband in the practice of the same, and even urged him into it, and officiated in giving him another wife, is named as an honourable and virtuous woman, a pattern for Christian ladies, and the very mother of all holy women in the Christian Church, whose aspiration it should be to be called her daughters; that Jesus Christ has declared that the great fathers of the polygamic family stand at the head in the kingdom of God; in short, that all the saved of after generations should be saved by becoming members of a polygamic family; that all those who do not become members of it are strangers and aliens to the covenant of promise...

But, leaving all Scripture, history, or precedent out of the question, let us come to nature's law. What, then, appears the great object of the marriage relations? I answer, the multiplying of our species, the rearing and training of children.

To accomplish this object, natural law would dictate that a husband should remain apart from his wife at certain seasons, which, in the very constitution of the female, are untimely; or, in other words, indulgence should be not merely for pleasure or wanton desires, but mainly for the purpose of procreation.

The mortality of nature would teach a mother, that, during nature's process in the formation and growth of embryo man, her heart should be pure, her thoughts and affections chaste, her mind calm, her passions without excitement... Polygamy, then, as practised under the Patriarchal law of God, tends directly to the chastity of women...

The polygamic law of God opens all vigorous, healthy, and virtuous females a door by which they may become honourable wives of virtuous men, and mothers of faithful, virtuous, healthy, and vigorous children....

I again repeat, that nature has constituted the female differently from the male; and for a different purpose. The strength of the female constitution is designed to flow in a stream of life, to nourish and sustain the embryo, to bring it forth, and to nurse it on her bosom. When nature is not in operation within her in these particulars, and for these heavenly ends, it has wisely provided relief at regular periods, in order that her system may be kept pure and healthy, without exhausting the fountain of life...

Not so with man. He has no such drawback upon his strength. It is his to move in a wider sphere. If God shall count him worthy of an hundred fold, in this life, of wives...

In the Patriarchal order of family government, the wife is bound by the law of her husband. She honours, "calls him lord," even as Sarah obeyed and honoured Abraham. She lives for him, and to increase his glory, his greatness, his kingdom, or family. Her affections are centred in her God, her husband, and her children....

O my dear sister! could the dark veil of tradition be rent from your mind! could you gaze for a moment on the resurrection of the just!... if you are ever saved in the kingdom of God, it must be by being adopted into the family of polygamists - the family of the great Patriarch Abraham...

I remain, dear sister, your affectionate sister.
                   Belinda Marden Pratt

For full text, see: Millennial Star  XVI:30, July 29, 1854. p. 468ff.

---

On our first page the reader will find an able defence of the Salt Lake doctrine of Polygamy. In doing so we do not subscribe to its entire soundness. But we cannot conceal from ourselves that Polygamy was not only, but required and enforced by the law of God. Of this there is much evidence, not alluded to by Mrs. Pratt, and she has given abundance.

While persons professing to be [saints] of God, and ministers in the dispensation of the fullness of times, denounce as immoral, licentious and degrading, that which God has enjoined, we should be traitors to an unholy calling if we shunned to declare the whole council of God.

Having shown the truth, with the evidence of it, our duty is done. But many are fond of hearing both sides -- holding that falsehood has as much right to be defended as truth. For the benefit of such, we shall soon publish a debate in Congress on the subject, in which the assembled wisdom of the [nation] have said their say on the other side.


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Monroe Democrat, of March 23d, has the following: --

SQUATTER SOVEREIGNTY. -- The organ of the Mormon community that colonized Beaver Island, in Lake Michigan, has the following argument in favor of Douglas' principle of popular sovereignty, which we commend to all who advocate the Nebraska bill: --

"What business has Congress or the United States with the law concerning marriage? -- That is a domestic matter of each State, in which each is sovereign. Fifteen of the States allow a large portion of their population, (the salves,) as many wives as their masters please. and as many concubines as they can get. A majority allow every man to keep as many concubines as he can hire, and turn them off when he pleases, and consign them to poverty and destruction. In all the States vast numbers are publicly kept as common prostitutes, and neither Congress or any other power has been appealed to. But because the Mormons in Utah have, like the Puritans in New England, determined to be governed by the law of God, they must, forsooth, be refused admission into the Union. Does not republicanism itself guaranty to Utah the right of self-government? Have not they the same right to establish polygamy, that Michigan has to prohibit it, and establish duality? Is the republicanism of America a reality, or is it a false pretense, a swindle? Nothing can be clearer than that if the people of Utah see fit to institute and practice polygamy, no power on earth can legally prevent them. The only real difficulty in the matter will arise when those who have been legally married in Utah to a number of wives, choose to go with their wives to reside in other States."


We don't see any thing especial to object to in what the Democrat says. Yet it does put us in the wrong pen.

The Democrat will remember that we were answering the question of the Chicago Tribune, 'what shall we do with the Mormons?' in reference to the expected organization of Utah as a State. It was not squatter sovereignty, but State sovereignty that we were advocating...


Notes: (forthcoming)

A Mormon in Limbo. -- Bill Smith, the Mormon prophet, and brother of Joe Smith, the renowned founder of the Mormon Church, which is becoming so noted, we might say thro'-out the civilized world -- is now closely confined in the jail at this place. He being indicted, gave bail for his appearance at the last Circuit Court, but, having got some presentiment -- and we think it would hardly require any supernatural power to give it to him -- that the case rather favored the side of the people, he vacated these parts. But owing to some disarrangement in the Mormon under ground railroad, or the adroitness of the person in pursuit, he was brought to a halt at St. Louis, and marched back to Dixon. He had started, we are told, for Salt Lake City. "Jordan is a hard road to travel." -- Dixon Telegraph.


There is no doubt whatever that William is a bad boy, and deserves chastisement. But he has a right to be legally dealt by. We do not doubt that at Dixon he is prejudged and foredoomed. Whatever offences he may have committed against law or gospel, this prosecution is merely trumped up, and rests for success on perjury.


Note: Either James J. Strang was not following the continuing drama of William Smith, as it unfolded in the pages of the Illinois Dixon Telegraph and the St. Louis newspapers, or he was feeling sympathetic to the position of his former religious associate --- William was charged with bigamy, adultery and polygamy, much the same as Strang had been charged in his recent past. The report that William was caught heading out for Utah may have also aroused Strang's attention. He doubtless would have rather seen repentant surviving members of Joseph Smith's extende family gather to the Beaver Island Zion, rather than to the Brighamite Zion.

Private letters from Utah give a discouraging account of the state and prosperity of the Territory. At the same time some of the newspapers give a very flattering account of the state of affairs there. As the Deseret News does not exchange with us, we have no regular information from Brigham's people. -- It appears, however, that the Indian hostilities drag their slow length along, but have ceased to be dangerous. The emigration to Utah is little if any greater than that from Utah to California.

---

The Brighamites at Salt Lake have appointed Jedediah M. Grant an Apostle, in the place of Willard Richards, deceased. Grant is superior to Richards, and is a preacher of established reputation. We need not say that he is a decided Brighamite, and will have no additional influence in his new calling.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Autobiography  of  a  Thorough  Bred  Yankee.

J. E. Johnson, the editoe of the Council Bluffs Bugle, gets off the following autobiographical sketch of himself. He was born in Fredonia, Chautauqua county, New York, which place he left when about 13 years of age. -- His subsequent history we will tell in his own words: --

Up to the age of eighteen our energies were directed and employed in Agriculture. Possessed of a feeble, and rather feminine constitution, and having the care of a mother and younger members of the family, we concluded to look about for lighter employment. We resided in Ohio, found the country decidedly too small, started with an ox team towards sundown, but did not reach that point, for our funds gave out, [and casting] us up at the Capital of the Sucker State
[Springfield] all standing

When, after passing through the various degrees of sickness, poverty, and a "power" of ague shakes, wood sawing, soap making, pedling, etcetera, we obtained a situation with 60 little suckers, and commenced teaching them the idea "how to shoot," with so much success that the "Yankee Schoolmaster" was considered "some punkins," -- Our education, however, being limited, we had to scratch hard to keep ahead of the scholars.

Here we staid a year, made a raise, came up into the then unsettled Iowa, was offered a share in the Keokuk landing claim, (now the city of Keokuk,) for a week's work, but "didn't take," spent our funds in the ague shaking business, and returned home to our mother sick and out of heart. The tears and words of encouragement of that excellent mother determined us. By the next season we were again headed toward the far west, and made a halt near the Mississippi river, where we assisted in laying off and building a new town.

Here we a staid about five years, in which time we had accumulated quite a property, when the difficulties and persecutions of the Mormons commenced. After the exile of the Saints, our affairs, from thousands, terminated in the merest pittance. Having received a slight intimation that our presence was not required, by a band of armed ruffians, who surrounded our house at midnight, and we were allowed a week to wind up our affairs and Puckerehee."

Thinking that a warm head and a whole hide were preferable to our traps, we eloped with little effects, but only removed to the desolate city of the Saints. We were Postmaster at the time of our expulsion, and also had commenced to keep and sell drugs; we therefore, opened a four-penny drugstore in the desolate city of Nauvoo. From which in a general exterminating war of new citizens, Mormons, and all, we were again, after being defeated in a hard fought battle, with the mob on short time.

For two years we floundered about from Galena to St. Louis, (we didn't know when or where;) having nothing at first; we had less at last. We again brought up at Montrose, at the head of the Lower rapids, on the Mississippi, pledged our face for a stock of goods, staid a year, and made clear about $2,000; lost near half of which in the great fire ain St. Louis. Started again towards sundown with 50 head of cattle, etcetera. Sent a friend forward to California on a spec. Taking a liking to this country, we halted, and entered the mercantile list in earnest, with a capital of--of--of nothing...


Note: Editor Joseph E. Johnson later moved from the Council Bluffs Bugle to head up the Crescent City Oracle, as mentioned in the New York City Mormon of June 20, 1857. See also Johnson's 1882 autobiography, wherein he tells of being Postmaster at Macedonia, Illinois, etc.

The Albany Journal is responsible for the following: --

Twenty-eight years ago, "Jo Smith," the founder of this sect, (the Mormons) and "Harris," his first convert, applied to the senior editor of the Journal, then residing in Rochester, to print his "Book of Mormon," then just transcribed from the Golden Bible, which "Jo" had found in the cleft of a rock, to which he had been guided by a vision.

We attempted to read the first chapter, but it seemed such [un]intelligible jargon that it was thrown aside. "Jo" was a tavern-idler in the village of Palmyra. Harris, who offered to pay for the printing, was a substantial farmer. Disgusted with what we deemed a weak invention of an impostor, and not caring to strip Harris of his hard earnings, the proposition was declined.

The manuscript was then taken to another printing office across the street, from whence, in due time, the original Mormon Bible made its advent.

"Tall trees from little acorns grow." But who would have anticipated, from such a bald, shallow, senseless imposition, such world-wide consequences? To remember and contrast, "Jo Smith" with the loafer look, pretending to read from a miraculous slate stone placed in his hat, with the Mormonism of the present day, awakens thoughts alike painful and mortifying. There is no limit, even in this most enlightened of all the ages of knowledge, to the imposture and credulity. If knaves, or even fools, invent creeds, nothing is too monstrous for belief. Nor does the fact -- a fact not denied nor disguised -- that all the Mormon leaders are rascals as well as impostors, either open the eyes of their dupes or arrest the progress of delusion.

---

The senior editor of the Journal we take to be Thurlow Weed, who, at or soon after the time alluded to, published an Anti-Mason paper at Rochester. Twenty-eight years ago was 1826, when the Book of Mormon was not transcribed. This was accomplished in 1829 -- three years too late for Mr. Weed.

We do not understand why so respectable a gentleman as Thurlow Weed should indulge in such a falsehood; an assertion the falsity of which can be shown by thousands of witnesses in the State of New York, having no connection with Mormonism, we are unable to divine.

The statement following after, that Harris took the manuscript to another office "across the street, from whence, in due time, the original Mormon Bible made its advent," is equally false, and equally foolish in falsehood.

The Book of Mormon was not printed in Rochester, but in Palmyra. It came off the press of E. B. Grandin & Co., Palmyra, N. Y., 1830.

If men of Thurlow Weed's standing will publish such absolute falsehoods in immaterial matters, to make their case against the Mormons, when will there be an end of imposition?

[---- ------- ------ ---] them false in every material point, to the satisfaction of any respectable gentleman as sole judge whom he will name, in the State of New York.

If Mr. Weed has anything to say in excuse or correction of his error, or in defence of his assertion, we will cheerfully publish it.


Note 1: The Albany Evening Journal was started by Thurlow Weed on March 22, 1830, as an anti-Masonic newspaper; it later became an influential Whig paper. The writer of this report reprinted from the Albany Evening Journal was Thurlow Weed, a noted editor, publisher, anti-Mason, and early Whig politician. Assuming that Smith and Harris came to visit Weed in Rochester in 1829, the paper he was then editing was the Anti-Masonic Enquirer. The paper Weed had previously edited was, by 1829, Robert Martin's Rochester Daily Advertiser & Telegraph. See the "Origin of Mormonism" in the Albany Evening Journal of early 1846 for the earliest known Weed account of his meeting with Joseph Smith, Jr.

Note 2: In fact, Joseph Smith did approach another printer in Rochester, with his solicitation to get the Book of Mormon published. It was only after he secured a bid from that "office across the street," that Smith was able to convince Grandin to print the work in Palmyra. Thus, Weed was off a little in a few of his details, but his recollected chronology was essentially correct.

AN  INTERESTING  RELIC.

A distinguished Mormon preacher has discovered what he represents to be a fragment of the material out of which Books of Mormon, Golden Bibles, and all that sort of thing are manufactured.

We suppose there can be no doubt of the authenticity of the relic, as it was found in the home of the prophet. Who could possibly put a fragment of brass plate in the prophet's house but the prophet? And what could he possibly have it for, unless it was to manufacture a new Book of Mormon?

To us the evidence is as satisfactory as that in favor of infant sprinkling, contained in the passage, "And Balaam arose and saddled his ass. What could the poor, dear man saddle his ass for, unless it was to carry his dear little infant to the priest to be sprinkled?"

We caution the reader against all suspicion of any imposition, except the imposition of prophets. -- Of course prophets will forge ancient records on brass or gold, and of course they will put their chips where some intruding hand will find them -- of course they will -- why not?

Certainly, nobody could do such a thing as to forge the chips and impose them secretly on the weak-minded, or the weak in faith. -- No, no; there is no imposition in the world, except that of prophets. They are the only men that forge brass plates, or brass chips.

This is quite as conclusive as the brass kettle story. By the way, reader, did you ever learn the story of the brass kettle? -- Well, if not, we feel bound to inform you. It is necessary to hear both sides, and then judge.

Benjamin Perce had an old brass kettle with a notch in the side of it. Perce was uncle to Strang's wife. Strang had plates looking a little like brass, which somebody dug up from under an old oak tree, cased in an antique porcelain box. Therefore Strang must have made the plates out of the kettle. What could be more obvious? What else could uncle Ben's brass kettle have been cut up for?

Surely Mormonism will perish under all these assaults. That is as obvious as the soundness of the foregoing logic.


Note: Mary Perce, whom Strang married c. 1836, was his first wife. The couple had four children together: Myraette, Mary, William J., and Hattie. Mary's brother was Benjamin C. Perce; they both were the children of W. L. Perce, a Baptist minister in western New York. Benjamin was an early resident of Spring Praire, Walworth Co., Wisconsin. After Strang's first plural marriage, in July 1849, Mary left him at Beaver Island and returned to Walworth Co., probably to live there with Benjamin's family. The story of Benjamn's missing brass tea kettle was not commonly told among the Strangites, but seems to have emerged after most of that group had left Wisconsin for Michigan.

James J. Strang, formerly Postmaster at Ellington and subsequently publisher of the Randolph Herald, is now President of a branch of the Mormon church at their location, called "Voree." It appears that these deluded people are now divided into three parties, one called the "Twelveites," located at Nauvoo, or emigrating to the California region; the "Rigdonites" under Sidney Rigdon located near Chambersburg, Pa. -- and the "Voree Mormons," who acknowledge James J. Strang as their prophet, who are gathering themselves at a place in Wisconsin, which they name "Voree," where they design to maintain order under [-----] and the laws of the country.

Some remarks in the Mayville Sentinel a few weeks since, on the character of the prophet, has called out a long article in the "Voree Herald," a paper published by him, in which he shows that the charges are without foundation. He had enjoyed the most implicit confidence of the loco foco party of this county, was appointed Postmaster at Ellington on the recommendation of the leading politicians of the country, who "esteemed his opinion of value and reposed ultimate confidence in him." We do not canvass his claims to the station of a prophet, and as successor of Joe Smith. -- Fredonia Censor.


Note: The information represented in the above Fredonia Censor article appears to be more than half a decade out of date. President Strang reprinted it and other old news items in support of a backward glance at the "period since the usurpation of Brigham Young."

... The [Pontiac] Gazette says, "when we got to apply the laws of the United States, not locally inapplicable to the condition of affairs in Utah, we will find another difficulty, which places the Mormon denizens of the Salt Lake basin in an attitude condemned. They are in the admitted, open, flagrant violation of one of the most sacred laws of the United States -- they are living in polygamy."

Upon this we take issue, and say there is no law of the United States against polygamy, and never was, perhaps all have some partial enactments against it, though we are not aware that any has entirely prohibited it. But though every State in the union had passed any particular law, it would not be the law of the United States. Congress and the treaty making power alone can enact laws for the United States. Congress and the treaty making power alone can enact laws for the United States.

Any State can alter or repeal her law on the subject of polygamy, and changes of that kind occur frequently, simply because it is a State law with which the United States has nothing to do.

Congress has no power to make a law against polygamy in any of the States, and if the State of Texas or Michigan saw fit to authorize polygamy within her borders, the United States government has no power to prevent it...

If we try the question on religious and moral authorities, the result will be the same. According to the Old Testament God Almighty sanctioned and commanded it; not permitted and suffered it, as many modern writers pretend. The New Yestament contains nothing express on the subject, and in no sense limits or revokes what is contained in the old. And the whole plan of salvation in the gospel contemplates the adoption of all the heirs of that life into the families of polygamic Abraham and Jacob. The gospel knows no salvation short of an adoption for the life everlasting into the family of a polygamic patriarch. No christian pretends to deny this.

On the score of morals, no writer of any age, living in a country where polygamy prevailed, has spoken against it. Several of the ablest christian writers of the last and present age have regarded it a wise institution for particular nations...

Once remove the mind beyond those prejudices, and it contemplates polygamy without repugnance. No one ever laughed at the plaintive tale of Jacob's mourning for Rachel because according to ourlaw, Leah only was a wife; Rachel but a prostitute. The heart is not the less touched with the story of Joseph making himself known to his brethren, because in this country he would have been a bastard, and all his father's kindred to him so much robbery of them....

The New York Tribune has honestly made this distinction, and honestly advised its readers that legalized polygamy among Mormons bears no relation to either indiscriminate prostitution or to that criminal polygamy which in all States consigns the guilty to prison...


Notes: (forthcoming)

From the New York Herald.

TRIAL  OF  THE  INDIAN  MURDERERS  OF
CAPTAIN GUNNISON.

(under construction)

 


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  PONTIAC  GAZETTE  AGAIN.

The Gazette of June 23d makes the following response to the Islander of June 14th:

The Mormons. -- The Northern Islander, the newspaper published at St. James, Beaver Island, Michigan, and organ of "King Strang," has noticed our article in a number of our paper las November, on the subject of the Mormons and Popular Sovereignty. The paper containing the notice is of the date June 14th, 1855. The Islander of that date contains an article occupying a little over two pages of the paper, including our article, which is published entire. It is a paper which bears evidence that it was written by the "King" himself, and is evidently intended as an answer to the many newspaper articles which have appeared against the Mormons and their peculiar practices.

... The "King" takes the course usually pursued by a cunning and unscrupulous advocate of iniquity -- mixes some truth with a great deal of [nauseous rot], to suit the taste and inclinations of his followers... the "King" says he takes issue with us, and says there is no law of the United States against Polygamy. In that he is right; and we plead to a loose expression, that did not convey the meaning of our mind. What we should have said was that they [Mormons] were living so against the laws of every State in the Union. For we believe there is no State which has not laws that will punish severely the crime or misdemeanor of polygamy.

... he follows up his case by alluding to the many instances [found in] the Old Testament, in which men of God are represented as having lived in the practice of polygamy. Maybe he would have us all engage in the sacrifices, wars, murders, &c., which are there recorded. If the argument is good for anything, it is good to prove that mankind should now-a-days live just as the children of Israel did two or three thousand years ago!...

But the "King" is not satisfied with this; he goes still further with his argument, and attempts to justify polygamy by saying that some ancient nations in which polygamy was practiced were the most wealthy, powerful and civilized... He also [institutes?] a defence of polygamy by alluding to the evil practices of christians; but we do not suppose it is any defence to one man that another sins, or commits a like crime to the one with which he is charged.

... The "King" is pleased to give publicity to the name of the Editor of the Gazette -- for which we are thankful. His fling at our familiarity with perjury, and his vulgar picture of our leading in a choir of cyprians in the front parlor of some fashionable haunt of those wretches, are harmless, Such attempts will hurt no one but the "King" himself.

Once more, and we stop for this week. The "King" says that in his opinion we are much mistaken in regard to the practice of the Mormons on Beaver Island. That may be; but we understand it to be one of their practices to "indulge" in polygamy, or the having of more than one wife, and if that would not consign a man so practicing to a term at Jackson [prison], if he lived in Oakland county, we are unable to understand the following section... [legal code excerpt follows] ...

If there is any man on Beaver Island who has two or more wives, we take it that such a man, if he were living in Oakland county, would not only be guilty of a crime and liable to be sent to State prison, but he would be prosecuted for the crime, convicted, and sent to Jackson.


Notes: (forthcoming)

                                                            Saint James, June 22, '55.
Dear Brother: -- In accordance with your request, I now proceed to write you a series of letters, narrating some incidents of my life and experience since I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

In the early part of November, 1838, the wolves being unusually destructive to my flock of sheep, and to avoid the perplexity of having them daily killed, I resolved in my mind that I would reserve of my flock for family use a sufficiency, and take the residue (amounting to a little over five hundred) into the adjoining State of Missouri, (I was then living in McDonough county, Ill., about five or six miles east by north of the village of Macomb,) and there find a market for them.

Whilst I was ferrying my sheep over the Mississippi, at the town of Quincy, Ill., I met with a young man on the ferry boat, who had been in the town to get himself armed and equipped for the purpose of entering the Mormon war, as he pleased to call it. This declaration of the ignorant young man was indeed news to me. I had heard through the medium of the newspapers that a sect of religionists had recently sprung up in north-eastern Ohio, but never took interest enough in the matter to read an entire article, thinking it all a humbug.

When I got to Mr. Merrill's (six miles from Quincy), who lived in Marion county, Missouri, being a Campbellite preacher and tavern keeper, (where I put up my sheep for the night,) I found a crowd collected there, and much excitement and confusion prevailing.

This was the night of the eighth of November. It is not to be expected that I heard much good said of Mormons in this clamorous collection of ignorant, enthusiastic beings. Although I entered into the discussion of every topic, I gained very little knowledge of the causes of the Mormon war, as it was called.

Early the succeeding morning after my past night's confusion, I put my sheep drove in motion, and made near twenty miles on my way west, all the way trying the chances of selling my sheep, but found no buyers, on account of the war excitement; there being none but the old superannuated men, females and negroes left at home, and they all excused themselves from buying sheep on the ground of having used all their ready money to arm and equip those who, at the Governor's proclamation, had responded to the call to drive out every Mormon beyond the limits of the State, or exterminate them.

Where I stayed the night of this day, was at the house of an old aristocrat, a native of Virginia (and of course one of the first families), possessed of more pride of family than sound judgment, or general information. I had many warm arguments with him on free religious toleration and the Mormon war, being, as I now considered it, nothing more or less than a religious persecution, together with their increasing numbers, and the fears excited thereby, that they might in a short period give political character to the State, if not nipped in the bud.

I became convinced during the argument against the Mormons by the old egotist, (my host,) and his disclosure of the cause of the Mormon war, that it was altogether as I supposed, a religious persecution and an ungodly crusade against an unoffending, innocent people. And I ever after treated it as such, while I remained in Missouri selling my sheep. I did not return home until the first of December, and before I left the State the war was ended.

On my way home I was detained a week by the ice running in the Mississippi, cutting off the communication between the adjoining States. And the old preacher Merrill's being the nearest house of entertainment, there was a general resort to this house by all transient men that were waiting to cross the river.

The house was very much crowded by men from Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois, all prejudiced more or less against the Mormons, except Judge Holman, of Kentucky, who was on his return home from emigrating the Pottowatamy Indians, as principal agent, to the west of the Missouri River. He informed us that he had went and returned through Far West, and the firm conviction of his mind was that it was a religious persecution, and political jealousy of the growing strength of the Mormons.

Judge Holman and myself had to contend against the crowd, who were headed by our host, Preacher Merrill. Our arguments were (or rather quarrels on the part of our opponents) very bitter. All were more or less excited. Holman was a host to contend with, and bore down all opposition; and we really succeeded in silencing the crowd, before the end of our six days and nights discussion.

By the time I got home the advance of the Mormons expelled from Missouri began to cross the Mississippi River in a poor, and apparent distressed condition. -- During the course of this winter, I found my health very much declining, and was advised by Dr. Wm. F. Barrett (who is now President of the Medical College of Mo.) to suspend all manual labor, and take moderate horse exercise; and he prescribed for me, and prepared the medicine for me to take.

I had already entered my sons and two nephews as pupils or students at the McDonough College, located in Macomb, and concluded to rent my farm, teams and other stock and move into the village, and board my sons, instead of hiring their board. I had 300 acres tillable land, between 5,000 and 8000 bushels of grain that I had no market for, a large quantity of bacon and lard, about 250 head of hogs, and about 100 head of cattle, together with sheep and poultry, and fourteen well selected horses, well suited for the saddle or harness; also three yearling colts.

The incumbrance of this amount of personal property was greatly in the way of my resolution to move to the village, I was not long in determining what to do. -- With the abundance about me, I immediately resolved to seek out some poor Mormon families, and establish them as farmers on my homestead, as I was well supplied with house room. My dwelling had eight rooms besides the cellar, and I had another good house that would accommodate two small families.

Sometime in the month of March I went down to Quincy, Ill., to put my plan into effect. I saw many families that had come out of Missouri, all more or less in destitute circumstances. But I had a friend in Quincy, the Hon. Archibald Williams, whose advice I wished to obtain in regard to suitable persons to take charge of my farm and property. Upon my arrival in Quincy, I waited on my friend Williams, who informed me that he had in one of his houses the families of Joseph Smith, Sen., Samuel H. Smith, Don Carlos Smith, Jenkins Salsbury, and a Br. Henry Hoit. He said they were all destitute, and he thought gentlemen, and would suit my purpose; and that he had warm prejudices in favor of them, and Mormons in general.

I waited on the venerable patriarch and those under his roof. -- He received me with great cordiality, and after I had disclosed my business he frankly said that his sons would take charge of my farm and effects, and praised God that I had been sent in answer to his prayers.

We called the whole household together in council, whereupon it was determined that Samuel and Don Carlos would accompany me home, to see the premises and consummate the bargain. But the distance being sixty miles, and they on foot, it was concluded that I should start home that afternoon, and get there the next day and they would try to be at my house the night following. The old patriarch, during our brief interview, gave me [rather a] detached account of the persecution the saints had passed through since the organization of the church in April, 1830, up to the expulsion of the saints from Missouri, and their unparalleled sufferings, with the circumstances of his son, the prophet and seer, remaining in prison in the hands of his enemies. But his confidence was unshaken in God, that he would deliver him from his enemies and restore him to the bosom of the church.

The manner and language used in narrating the above, and his allusion to the ignorance of mankind in regard to God and godliness, and the period having arrived at hand for the ushering in (according to the words spoken by the holy prophets) of the dispensation of the fullness of times, and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon, pursuant to the accomplishing of God's work for the salvation of mankind, bringing them to the glorious period when all should know the Lord from the least to the greatest, was really most thrilling, and made an impression on my mind which cannot be forgotten; indeed, I was almost persuaded to be a Mormon.

I arrived at home and the Bros. Smith came as was agreed upon, and in a few days they took possession of my farm and stock on hand, which was ample for the comfort of many families. I told the Bros. Smith, Hoit and Salsbury to inform all the destitute Mormons to come and get provisions to subsist upon, as 8,000 bushels of grain would feed many persons, if used for breadstuff alone, and it could be had without money or price.

Notwithstanding the influence of the course of medicine I was under, my health was still rapidly declining, all seemed to move on smoothly with me and my tenants; but, however, there was an occasional freak of persecution against me for introducing Mormons into the neighborhood. In the meantime I had read the Book of Mormon, and was somewhat perplexed (as I was really a believer in the work, although I had not as yet heard a sermon) at the frequent occurrence of the words "had not aught," and such like provincialisms, however, I became more reconciled in regard to those errors as I was daily growing in faith.

About this time we had the news reach us that the prophet Joseph Smith had escaped from prison, and had arrived in Illinois, and was making an effort to buy the village of Commerce, at the head of the lower rapids of the Mississippi river. I had great anxiety to see him but Don Carlos informed me that as soon as the contemplated purchase was made, and a place fixed for the gathering of the saints, that Joseph would be at my place to pay them a visit. I therefore put my patience in requisition to wait the appointed time.

As I was in the daily habit of riding out every fair day, on a bland bright morning I prevailed on my wife to indulge in the luxury, of a ride on horseback, to visit our tenants on the farm. On our return home I perceived, as we were leisurely riding along, that a carriage containing a number of persons was meeting us, and as we neared it the appearance of a large man sitting in front driving seemed to be familiar to me as if I had always known him, and suddenly the thought burst on my mind that it was none other than the prophet Joseph Smith.

Indeed, my whole frame was in a tremor with the occurrence of the thought, and my heart seemed as it were coming up into my mouth. Getting in speaking distance, he suddenly reined up his horses, as making ready to speak, (I was much agitated as the words came from his mouth,) "Sir, can you tell me the way to the farm of a Mr. Miller, living somewhere in the direction I am going?" Instead of answering him direct, my reply was, "I presume, sir, that you are Joseph Smith, Jr., the Mormon prophet?" "I am sir," adding, "I also presume that you are the Mr. Miller whose farm I inquired for?" "I am sir." He then introduced me to his wife and family, and thus a formal (or rather informal) introduction passed between us and families. In our short interview many things were said in regard to our meeting, that on our approach we both supposed that the other was an old acquaintance.

I solicited him to preach. He excused himself not feeling like sermonizing, having just escaped from prison; that he felt like a bird uncaged and was more disposed to reconnoiter the country and visit his friends and people.

Upon my urging the matter of his preaching, he suddenly turned to me, saying, that he did think of some one of the elders preaching for me, but he was now resolved on doing it himself; that it had been whispered that a Samaritan had passed by and bound up the wounds of his bleeding friends, adding that he would do the best he could in the way of preaching. Accordingly the time and place was fixed upon, and I went to notify the people of the appointment of the Mormon prophet to preach.

The appointment arrived at hand. The house and dooryard was filled with people, apparently anxious to hear, as I then thought, and do yet, more for the purpose of fault finding than seeking after truth. He took for his text that chapter in the writings of Luke, where a certain man fell among thieves when journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho, and was taken and ministered to by the Samaritan.

He took an extensive latitude while treating on this text, and took up a long time, and notwithstanding it was a rainy day, those outside of the house stood in the rain sheltered by umbrellas until the service was over. I had no remaining doubts left in regard to the truth of the prophet Joseph, and the doctrine of the gospel as taught by the Latter Day Saints. An arrangement was then agreed upon that I was to circulate notice of an appointment for two days' meetings, to be held in the court house on Saturday and Sunday, the weeks from that time, and Joseph was to send a couple of able elders to preach in this hot bed of Presbyterian and Methodism.

Three days before the appointed time of preaching in the court house in the village of Macomb, it being sometime near the 26th of June, 1839, keeping up my custom of riding out every day on account of my declining health, I harnessed up my carriage horses and brought out the carriage, proposing to my wife to take our little daughter Mary, who was about the age to be interesting as a little prattle