For the Investigator.
MORMONISM -- THE "SPIRITUAL WIFE" DOCTRINE, &c. 

Mr. Editor, -- I return you my sincere thanks for your liberality in offering the use of your columns to any Mormon wishing to reply to any of my communications. In writing against the Mormons, I feel no ill will towards any of them; neither do I fear their abuse. Let them honorably defend their dictrines; prive, also, of I have made any charges unsustainted by evidence; if I have, I will "own up." It is my firm, honest belief, that Mormonism is calculated to uphold the worst vices of our frail nature, and as such, is an incubus on society. My object us, to shpw it in its true colors; and in striving to do so, I shall strictly adhere to what I know to be true, and what can be sustained by a hundred witnesses.

The "spiritual wife" doctrin,e I will explain, as taught me by Elder W____e, as taught by Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Elder Adams, William Smith, and the rest of the quorum, &c., &c. It is as follows: -- Joseph had a revelation from God that there were a number of spirits to be born into the world, before their exaltation in the next; that Christ would not come until all these spirits received or entered their "tabernacle of clay;" that these spirits were hovering around the world, and at the door of bad houses, watching a chance of getting into their tabernacles; that God had provided an honorable way for them to come forth -- that was, by the "Elders of Israel" sealing up virtuous women, and as there was no provision made for woman in the Scriptures, their only chance of heaven was to be "sealed up" to some Elder for time and eternity, and be a star in his crown forever; that those who were the cause of bringing forth these spirits would receive a reward -- the ratio of which reward should be the greater or less according to the number they were the means of bringing forth.

This, Mr. Editor, is the substance of the "Mysteries of the Kingdom," in as few words as I can use to explain it. THat it is calculated, with a little sophistry, to delude the "faithful" weak-minded, is self-evident. They reason thus: -- "That God is no such being as the Scriptures would seem to represent, and the sectarian would believe; that woman was made for man, and those seeming jealousies of the Almighty, represented in the Bible, were for the blinding of the Gentiles, that they might not indulge their propensities which God gave them, without his express permission...

(under construction)

Respectfully yours,                    
HENRY ROWE.          

Portland, Feb. 3, 1845.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMON  TROUBLES.

Correspondence of the New York Tribune.

                                                  Nauvoo, Illinois, April 16, 1845.

The difficulties between the Mormons and Anti-Mormons, which have been so rife for a year past, still continue. Mormonism, instead of exploding here, as it was supposed it would, upon the death of the Prophet, Joe Smith, has continued as flourishing as ever. Joe's place has been supplied by "The 'Twelve Apostles," who now rule the destinies of this band of ignorant, lawless and unprincipled fanatics with the sway of despotism. The Temple is still progressing, and the outside will probably be completed this season. When completed, it will be a beautiful edifice, far surpassing anything in the State. It is one hundred and twenty feet long and eighty-eight feet wide, and is sixty feet from the basement to the eaves. They are now building a wall eight feet wide and fourteen feet high all around it, enclosing six acres. What the object of this wall is, I am not aware but the Anti-Mormons see in it a great Mormon fortification,. One thing is certain -- the Mormons are fast increasing in power and strength, and they talk openly of defending themselves against everything that does not suit their notion. Every house has arms in it, and there is scarcely a man in the city who does not carry arms on his person. 'They permit no process of law to be executed upon the inhabitants of the Holy City unless it suits the sovereign majesty of the Saints. No man is permitted to express any opinion here derogatory to the character and standing of the People. If he does so, he is immediately driven out of the city by a Mormon mob. There have been several instances of this kind lately.

The trial of the persons indicted for the murder of the Smiths last summer comes on at Carthage in this County in four weeks from Monday next. It will be a time of tremendous excitement. -- Some six or seven of the most respectable citizens of the County are indicted for the murder of the Smiths, and among the number are Hon. Jacob C. Davis, State Senator; Thomas C. Sharpe, Esq., Editor of the Warsaw Signal; W. N. Grover, Esq., counsellor at Law, and Col. Williams. All these gentlemen have strong friends who are determined they shall have fair play -- several military companies from the Anti-Mormon portions of this County and from the adjoining Counties will reconnoiter at the County seat in Court week. The "Nauvoo Legion" will probably be on hand also. If the appearance of the Mormon Legion would not put old Jack Falstaff's ragged regiment to the blush, I am mistaken.

One of Mr. Polk's nominees, a Jack-Mormon by the name of Backenstos, who resides at Carthage, is in trouble. The Mormons sent him to the Legislature last winter where he made himself busy in abusing the old citizens of the County, and when he returned from Springfield a week or two ago, the citizens of Carthage went en masse to his house and gave him notice to leave the town in a certain time. Before the time expired, he received notice of his appointment by the President to some lucrative office in the Lead Mines, and, by begging hard, the citizens, on account of his family, concluded to let him stay a week or two longer to settle up his business. They did not extend this act of grace to him, however, without pelting his house with rocks.

What will be the end of all these troubles no man can foretell, but I am apprehensive that there will be a terrible collision one of these days The Mormons and Antis can never live in peace any more -- the hatred existing between them is deep, deadly and inveterate. One party must leave; and if the old citizens of the county are driven from their homes and their firesides by Mormon persecution, a feeling of indignation will be aroused among the people of Illinois that will not be quelled, until the last vestige of Mormonism is driven from Illinois, as it was from Missouri.      Yours, &c.


Notes: (forthcoming)

 
(letter from Hancock Co., IL -- under construction)

Note: The letter is dated April 7, 1845. It tells about anti-Mormon activities, Col. Backenstoss, etc. -- mentions Mr. Elliott's escape recent from jail.

 
(letter from Hancock Co., IL -- under construction)

Note: The letter is dated June 6, 1845 -- signed "Macedonius." It tells about the murder of the Smiths and the trial for those charged in the assassination.

MORMONISM: TROUBLE IN THE HOLY CITY -- Bill Smith is making trouble for the Twelve in Nauvoo and will either quietly compel them to surrender their power and submit to him or else he will throw himself into open rebellion... in consequence of the sickness and death of his wife Smith has been comparatively quiet since his entrance in the city but there are many points in which he has disagreed with the leaders of the church which has led to coldness if not hostility...


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Warsaw Signal contains numerous statements of violence in or about Nauvoo. Wm. Backenstos, late sheriff of Hancock, has been ordered to leave the holy city. He is accused of being the correspondent of the Warsaw Signal. Patriarch Bill Smith, of Nauvoo, brother of the prophet, whose wife died about four weeks since, was again married on last Sunday week having been a widower about eighteen days. His bride is about sixteen years of age, and he is thirty-five. The split among the Nauvoo saints is growing wider. Bill Smith heads one party, the twelve disciples the other.


Notes: (forthcoming)

From the St. Louis Republican, Sept. 16.

MORE TROUBLE WITH THE MORMONS. Our correspondent at Warsaw sent us by the La Clede, which arrived this morning, the following account of serious outbreaks between the Mormons and their opponents in Hancock county:

                    Warsaw, 11th Sept., 1845 -- 10 o'clock, A. M.

Messrs. Editors: on Tuesday morning last, (9th inst.) and attack was made upon a school-house in Rocky Run Precinct, by some persons unknown, but supposed to be Mormons, in which there was at the time of the attack a convention of Anti-Mormons, or old settlers of the country. The door and windows of the house were completely riddled by the shots fired by the assailants. The attacking party approached under cover of the woods and bushes, fired one round and fled. No person was injured, but many were, I presume, much frightened and this sudden and unexpected attack. The old settlers in that section of country armed themselves for defence, and if they are backed by their friends in other parts of the country, blood will flow. By a messenger, just in, who came to purchase lead, powder, flints &c., I learn that four buildings were burned down last night, and one man shot, and very badly wounded, but not mortally. Yesterday thirteen wagons loaded with furniture, were seen wending their way to the City of Refuge, (Nauvoo.)


Note: A companion article in this same paper tells of the problems of the Saints at Morley Settlement and Hancock Settlement, makes mention of ElderDaniel Tyler, etc.

THE MORMON WAR. -- An Extra from the Illinois State Register, dated Sunday, Sept. 21st, states that the rout of the Anti-Mormons, by Sheriff Backenstos and his party, was complete, and that the recontre of the 17th, described in the Sheriff's proclamation, struck such terror to the hearts of the mob supporters, in all the surrounding country, that the people all fled from Carthage, Augusta, and other Anti-Mormon towns, and carried their families into the counties of Adams, Marquette, Schuyler, and McDonough, and were beating up for volunteers, in those counties, to recruit their forces, with which to renew the war. It was believed that, having so disgraced themselves by the incendiary mode in which they carried on the war, their success would not be very great. Before this news reached Springfield, Governor Ford had issued a call for five hundred men, to quell the disturbances. No letters have been received at Springfield from any of the Mormon party, since the commencement of the troubles, except one from a very obscure man in Nauvoo, and another from McDonough county, and no newspapers. It was rumored that the mails were stopped, and there was a story afloat that one mail-carrier had been murdered. No messenger had arrived at the Capital, from all that section of the country, until the 21st, when a committee arrived from Mt. Sterling   [Boston Atlas.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE MORMON CIVIL WAR. The latest accounts give no further details of the destruction of property and life in the Mormon war. Up to the 26th ult. Sheriff Backenstos remained at Carthage, fortified in the court-house and surrounded by armed men. The St. Louis Republican of the 29th says: --

We received his fifth proclamation, dated Carthage, on the 25th. It is very long and not very important. He says that "there seems to be a continuance of peace throughout Hancock county. There has been no burning of houses, or other property, since a part of my force pursued the mob and fired upon them." He says that there are many complaints made to him by Mormons and anti-Mormons, about the stealing of cattle, &c., and that he has used every means to find out the truth of these reports; that the Mormons who were burnt out have been employed in removing their household furniture, other mobeables, and grain, to Nauvoo, and after they had done this, they proceeded to gather their cattle and drive them from the infected district, but could not find them, and that two hundred head are thus missing. Some fifty head of cattle, he says, are reported to him to have been stolen near Warsaw and Carthage. He is incredulous about the Mormons committing these depredations. The Governor's first proclamation, issued on the 21st, is pronounced a "forgery or fraud." He says --

"I pronounce it a base fraud. I hope no armed men will come into Hancock county, under such circumstances. I shall regard them in the character of a mob, and shall treat them accordingly. I am personally acquainted with Major Baker and Captain Merriman, and I am warranted in saying that they...


Note: The source of this incomplete text has yet to be discovered among extant files of the Missouri Republican of September, 1845. The context of Governor Ford's Sept. 21, 1845 proclamation is recorded in his 1854 book, History of Illinois.

 
(letter from Brigham Young -- under construction)

Note: The letter is dated Oct. 5, 1845, at the beginning of the LDS fall conference, the first held in the Nauvoo Temple. President Young tells about the Mormons' plans to move to Oregon, etc. President Young wrote more than one letter on the subject -- see also his Dec. 17, 1845 communication, which says: "We expect to emigrate West of the mountains next season. If we should eventually settle on Vancouver's Island, according to our calculation we shall greatly desire to have a mail route,... if Oregon should be annexed to the United States,... and Vancouver's Island incorporated in the same by our promptly paying national revenue, and taxes, we can live in peace with all men,"

The Mormons.

The Mormons have doubtless suffered gross wrong at times; but they have also themselves been very gross wrong-doers. The history of the troubles that they have occasioned is full of instruction and warning. The power of religious imposture -- the perversion and blinding of the moral sense by fanaticism -- the danger of putting into office men who are so strongly partisan as to be influenced in the discharge of official duty by a regard for the votes of law-breakers -- the necessity of an energetic and equal administration of law, so as to make it a reliable protection to life and property and a terror to all evil-doers alike -- are subjects that are urged most impressively upon the public attention by the events alluded to. We collect here a few facts by way of illustration.

In the first place we ask attention to the following extracts of a letter from the seat of war, published in the New York Observer. We have the more confidence in the writer s statements, because they are so fully confirmed from other sources. Writing from Hancock Co., Ill., Sept. 29, he says: --

"The present rupture began in a precinct called Greenplain, in the south part of the county. It was a beautiful district, with an enterprising and flourishing population of about 80 or 90 men. About the settlement was an extent of unoccupied land. Upon this the Mormons came and settled, most of them with the rights of squatters. Year after year they poured in till they were three times as numerous as the citizens. All other immigration has avoided Hancock as a district infected with the plague. We were a quiet people, no bolts or locks secured our stables or our houses. But no sooner had the Mormons come, than cattle and horses and hogs began strangely to disappear, and every description, of moveable property was I unsafe. The value of real estate was greatly depreciated. Resort for redress was had to the law with little success for the amount taken at one time was generally small. But where the amount was larger, the arrangements for concealment were so complete that property was rarely recovered: the whole settlement was found to be a mutual insurance company of thieves, and this band of a thousand souls was but a branch of the great association at Nauvoo.

"Once, in the life time of Smith, they pushed their business so hard, that Joe sent them word to stop stealing, as the citizens began to be excited. The order was obeyed; but after the death of Joe it recommenced and was carried on most unmercifully. But the stolen property was sometimes found. To meet this emergency, they had gathered in such numbers as to place the administration of the law in the hands of their chief men. Every week their numbers were increasing, and with their numbers their insolence. -- They were in the habit of swearing for each other like the members of other piratical associations. No men are so attached to "law and order" as the Mormons. Take an example, to show the meaning of law and order, as they understand it. A horse was stolen and traced to the Holy City by the owner, and found in the possession of the thief. But he proved by a Mormon oath, before a Mormon magistrate, that he had bought the horse, and it was decided that the horse belonged to the thief. The owner was then arrested for an alleged infraction of the law in the attempt to recover his horse, -- convicted, -- robbed by the judge, of the horse he rode, and of his watch, to pay his fine. Such are the men who have invaded this unhappy county. But the thriving settlement of Greenplains had suffered perhaps worse than any others, having a heavy settlement in its vicinity on the South and the general rendezvous, Nauvoo, on the North. Every night something was taken: They had lost to the value of thousands. The Mormons had destroyed the value of their farms. They could sell for nothing. No decent immigrant would come among the Mormons. To seek protection from the law was worse than vain. It added injury to injury. Application had been made to the Governor, from whom they received an insulting reply, but no aid. Gov. Ford is a devoted party man, and the Mormons cast some thousands of votes, and those votes are always sold by the head of the church to the highest bidder. In this extremity, the citizens of Greenplains met -- some sixty of them -- to consult. The law in the hand of a society of freebooters was the instrument of heavy oppression, but no relief. To crown the whole, the Mormons fired upon the house where they had met to consult. This fixed their purpose. They would drive the Mormons from the vicinity. They gave notice to the Mormons that they must leave. They were allowed full time to remove all their moveable effects, and when the shanty was clear, the torch was applied."

"The only object of the burning was to put an end to the war which had been so long waged upon their property. There was no hope but in driving them out, -- but they did not retaliate for the numerous losses they had sustained. They took no spoils, but they recovered some stolen goods."

"'But they should have waited in the hope of redress by legal means.' How long? Four or five years they had waited. They had every thing to fear from the law but nothing to hope. Our highest executive and judicial officers have been bound by their log-rolling obligations with the Mormon chiefs, who dispose of all the Mormon votes, as Bishop Hughes does of the Romish vote of your city. Here is the true secret of our whole difficulty and the strength of the Mormons. I grieve to say it; but without knowing this fact you can know nothing of our affairs."

"You will not give my name to the public, for it would seriously expose the life of any man in this county to have it known that he was the author of the above. Irvine Hodges, brother of the two Mormon murderers lately executed in Iowa, having had the imprudence to threaten some disclosures respecting the twelve at Nauvoo, was at once assassinated. Men here are very careful what they write. The Mormon spies and Danites are every where."

After these burnings, as has been already stated, an agreement was entered into with the Mormons, according to which they were to leave the country in the Spring. In the meantime, however, they seem bent on doing all the destruction and mischief in their power. -- The following extracts are from different sources: --

More Mormon Difficulties. A gentleman from the Upper Mississippi informs us, that a few days ago the Sheriff of Rock Island came to Nauvoo with a writ for one of the Reddings, charged to have been concerned in the murder of Col. Davenport. After Redding had been arrested and was about going on board a boat for Rock Island, a body of Mormons collected round the Sheriff for the purpose of rescuing the prisoner, and in the attempt Redding received a shot in the leg, and the Sheriff a wound from a pistol shot. The prisoner escaped. -- St. Louis Republican.

ROCK ISLAND, Ill., Oct. 23, 1845.          

There has been a special term of the Rock Island County Circuit Court in session here this week for the purpose of trying men concerned in the murder of Col. Davenport on the 4th of July last. William H. Redin, and his father, George Grant Redin, were put on trial on Tuesday last as accessories in the murder but the jury after being out three days were unable to agree. They stood eleven to one for conviction. Old Redin was a Mormon, and kept what is called a "station house," [i. e. a harbor for robbers, thieves, cut-throats and murderers,] on "Devil's Creek," nearly opposite Nauvoo, on the Iowa side of the Mississippi. It was at his infernal den on Devil Creek that the murder was planned -- from there they started out on the enterprise, and there returned and divided the spoils.

John Baxter, another of the murderers, was put upon trial, and the Jury last night, after an absence of half an hour, brought in a verdict of Guilty. That makes four who have been convicted. There are three more in jail awaiting their trials at the next term of the Court.

When the whole history of this murder and robbery shall be written, and its connection with the Mormon Church developed, the world will be astonished. -- N. Y. Tribune.

St. Louis, Nov. 1.          

Reding was rescued and is now secured in Nauvoo; the officers were stoned, and otherwise injured. We now learn from the Quincy Whig and other sources, that the Mormons in Nauvoo have actually defied the power of the state, and declared that no more arrests shall be made in Nauvoo. On Saturday last, the Whig says:

Col. Warren, Judge Purple and Mr. Brayman, attorney for the state, visited Nauvoo. Near the environs of the city, they saw assembled a force of about 200 armed Mormons; this being contrary to the order of Gen. Hardin, in relation to armed men assembling in the county, Col. Warren felt it his duty as an officer, to inquire into the matter. For that purpose he invited Brigham Young and others of the leading authorities to a conference. He informed them that the armed men on the prairie was contrary to orders, and wanted to know what it meant. To this Young gave an unsatisfactory reply: he said, however, that it was their intention to submit to no further arrests, and ridiculed the court, the Judge, the attorney of the state, who were present, and in substance, defied the power of the state.

After him, Elder Taylor, another of the Twelve, got up, and abused the Governor, State officers, &c. Brigham Young again got up, and said he was not very good at an apology -- but that they must not mind what Elder Taylor said -- that he was always making trouble, &c. -- offered to treat -- and called in two gallons of wine. But Col. Warren refused to drink with them; he got up and told them in a plain talk what he thought of their conduct, and that, as an officer, he should do his duty and carry out the law.

While this was going on, a deputy of the U. S. marshal arrived with a detachment of the Quincy Rifles; with a writ for Brigham Young, charged with counterfeiting the coin of the United States. This becoming known in the city, the excitement was tremendous -- the Mormons assembled in large crowds -- and a disposition was manifested by them to resist all attempts to arrest any person in Nauvoo. After a consultation with the officer, by Judge Purple and others, it was deemed advisable to postpone the execution of the writ at the time, for the personal safety of all concerned.

Col. W., with the force under his command, was to have marched into Nauvoo on Tuesday last, for the purpose of executing the writs against Reding, Brigham Young and others, but we are not advised of the result of this attempt to enforce the law. It is said that Col. W. is in possession of certain information that a bogus manufactory is now, and was, before the death of the Smiths, in operation at Nauvoo; and the twelve, or some of them, are interested in it.

The Circuit Court of Hancock county adjourned on Monday last. The trial of Backenstos, for the murder of Worrell, did not take place. Before the time of trial, Backenstos applied for a change of venue, alleging that the Judge, Purple, was prejudiced against him. The application was granted, and the case removed to Peoria County. -- Republican.

---

Flight of the Mormon Prophet from Nauvoo. William Smith, of the patriarch's family, has fled from Nauvoo. The St. Louis papers publish his "faithful warning to the Latter Day Saints," against the unrighteousness of the elders who have usurped the patriarchal chair, of which he is the only legal occupant. He counsels peace, love to all men, and a restoration of confidence between the Mormons and their neighbors; opposes emigration to Oregon, and promises further exposures of the unrighteousness of the "wicked elders." He is now in St. Louis, under the protection of some friends. His address is dated 25 October.


Note: The final item in the series presented above, was also published as "Flight of the Prophet" in the Amherst, NH, Farmers' Cabinet of Nov. 20, 1845. That version adds the information that William Smith's address in the St. Louis papers was "dated 15th Oct."

THE MORMONS. -- Mrs. Smith, the widow of the Mormon prophet, has addressed a letter to the New York Sun, declaring that it is not her intention to go to California, or any other remote place, with the Mormons. She says:

"The laws of the United States are quite good enough for me and my children, and my settled intention is to remain where I am, take care of my property, and if I cannot educate my children here, send them to New York or New England for that purpose. -- Many of the Mormons will, no doubt, remove in the spring, and many more will remain here; and nothing would give me greater pleasure than to have a mixed society in Nauvoo, as in other cities, and all exclusive religious distinctions abolished.

"I must now say, that I never, for a moment, believed in what my husband called his apparitions and revelations, as I thought him laboring under a diseased mind; yet, they may all be true, as a prophet is seldom without credence or honor, excepting in his own family or country; but as my conviction is to the contrary, I shall educate my children in a different faith, and teach them to obey and reverence the laws and institutions of their country."

She also says:

"I am left here, sir, with a family of children to attend to, without any means of giving them an education, for there is not a school in the city, nor is it intended there shall be any here, or at any other place, where the men, who now govern this infatuated, simple-minded people, have sway. I have not the least objection that these petty tyrants remove to California, or any other remote place, out of the world if they wish; for they will never be of any service to the Mormons, or the human family, no  matter where they go. Their object is to keep the people over whom they rule in the greatest ignorance, and most abject religous bondage, and if these poor, confiding creatures remove with them, they will die in the wilderness."


Note 1: The Nauvoo Times & Seasons published in its issue for Jan. 15, 1846 the following note of response and refutation to the letter printed by the Sun: Nauvoo, Dec. 30th 1845. -- To the Editor of the New York Sun; Sir: I wish to inform you, and the Public through your paper, that the letter published Tuesday morning, December 9th, is a forgery, the whole of it, and I hope that this notice will put a stop to all such communications. -- EMMA SMITH.

Note 2: While the letter published by the Sun of Dec. 9, 1845, subscribed by "Emma Smith," was probably not sent to that paper by her directly, its still remains arguable that one of her close associates penned the communication and that she secretly allowed the act -- perhaps in carrying out some defensive "blackmail" against her Brighamite opponents in Nauvoo. It is, for example, not inconceivable that a confidant of Mrs. Smith (such as her brother-in-law William) might have taken her words from some other, private communication, added to them, and submitted the results for publication, hoping all the while to thus induce her to admit in public things she had thus far been saying only in private. As things turned out Emma did not follow Brigham Young west; did not raise her children to be Mormons; and did not have any respect for the motives and intentions of "The Twelve" in their subsequent leadership of the Saints.

Note 3: Oddly enough there was very little journalistic reaction to the purported Emma Smith letter. A few papers (like the Quincy Whig & Warsaw Signal) noticed the letter in passing; Sidney Rigdon's Pittsburgh Messenger & Advocate paid it some attention; but, for the most part, the strange communication went unmentioned, outside of the columns of the New York Sun, after its initial appearance there. Its partial reprinting in the Portland Transcript marks a rare exception to this tendency among the papers of the time.

Springfield, Ill., DEc. 17, 1845.    

The Grand Jury of the U. S. District Court, insession here, have for the past week been investigating the state of affairs at Nauvoo. The result is, the have found twleve indictments (mostly against the head men of the Mormon Church,) for counterfeiting the coin of the United States. Among the number indicted are Brigham Young, President of "The Twelve," and Orson Pratt, a prominent leader.

I learn that the developments are most startling. It appears that counterfeiting has been the principal part of the business there for some years, and that it has been carried on by the heads of the Church. The amount of counterfeited has been immense, and the execution has neen so nice, as in most cases to prevent its being detected. The prophet Joe Smith, used to work at the business with his own hands.

Other disclosures were made in relation to robberies and murders, which have never before been made public, but will be in due time.

Although these indictments have been found, yet no arrest will be made for reasons which will duly appear, and whether creditable or not to our Executive, the public will judge. -- Correspondence of the Tribune.


Notes: (forthcoming)

The  Mormons.

We gather from several articles in the Warsaw Signal and other quarters, that a portion, if not the whole of the Mormons, intend soon to commence their pilgrimage for California From ten to twelve hundred have already crossed the river from Nauvoo, and are encamped on Sugar Creek, Iowa, seven miles distant. Among them were the Twelve, the High Council, all the principal men in the Church, and about one hundred females. -- They were several days and nights in getting across the river. It is said to be the plan of the leaders to send this company forward as a pioneer corps. They are to proceed about five hundred miles Westward, where they are to halt, build a village, and put in a Spring crop. They are to remain there until those who follow in the Spring reach them -- when another pioneer company will start for a point five hundred miles still farther West, where they will stop, build a village and put in a Fall crop. The company remaining behind will in the Spring, move on to this second station and in this manner they hope to accomplish the long journey which is in contemplation. Many of them who now go as pioneers are to return as soon as their crop is in, for their families.

It is said in the Signal that the Twelve crossed the river on Sunday night, apparently apprehensive of some visitation from officers who might interfere with their departure. They left behind them, as agents for the sale of the remaining property, A. Babbitt, Fulmer and Haywood, formerly of Quincy.

Major Warren, who has been in command of the Illinois militia stationed during the winter in Hancock county, has issued an address to the citizens of that county. In this address he says: --

"That he has learned with much regret, that a body of men, some twelve in number have assumed the authority of notifying a number of families to make preparation to leave the county by the first of May next, on pain of being burnt out; and this, too, as they said, upon the authority of Gov. Ford. Looking forward, as I now do, to the consummation in good faith of the compromise effected last fall by Gen. Hardin, Majors Douglass McDougall and myself, and believing as I do that it is the duty of all good citizens and lovers of good order to abide by that compromise, and to avoid all cases of excitement, I feel it my duty to declare, that all persons engaged in notifying at this time to leave are violators of the peace, amenable to the law of the land, and that they ought to be punished to the utmost extent of the law. The declaration that they were authorized to give such notice by Gov. Ford is false and slanderous. And I hereby pledge myself, and the force under my command, to move at a moment's warning, to put down all violence and breaches of the peace, and to assist in the execution of all proper legal process, let it come from what party it may, either Morman or anti-Morman; and farther, advise all good citizens, (if aggressions are made upon their person or property, when there is no chance to procure the assistance of the volunteers,) to defend their persons and property with powder and lead."

The Signal also condemns any attempt to interfere with the compromise between the two parties in that county. (St. Louis Rep. 13th.)


Notes: (forthcoming)

From the Nauvoo Eagle, May 22

MORMON AFFAIRS, &c. -- A large majority of the mormons have already left the State, and those who still remain are husbanding their resources and working hard in order to procure an outfit. Most of the farmers have either disposed of their property or left it in the hands of agents. The city is half deserted, the bulk of improved property having been sold and the houses vacated. Hundreds of families are preparing to occupy the former homes of the Mormons, as soon as it becomes apparent that mobs have been suppressed and order predominates over anarchy. We know of many who are but waiting for the restoration of tranquility to move in; and under the better auspices which now begin to shed their influence upon the place, it cannot be doubted that Nauvoo will command a large population and enjoy a permanent prosperity.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMON  WAR  RENEWED.

The Western mail received at Baltimore on tuesday night, brought information of disturbances in Nauvoo. It appears that the regulars (or Anti-Mormons) have determined that every Mormon shall leave that place, and measures have been adopted to drive off such as are not disposed to go.

The editor of the Hancock Eagle, at Nauvoo, has suspended his paper. It is said to be the intention of the assailants to destroy the Temple.

The St. Louis papers of the 15th inst. (the latest dates) state there had been no outbreak on the 12th inst. The alarm, however, continued, and a steamboat which left Nauvoo on the 13th, heard the report of five or six cannon in the direction of the city, soon after her departure.


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> The threatened renewal of hostilities against the Mormons at Nauvoo, has subsided without coming to an open fight. The anti-Mormons who gathered around that place to the number of several hundred, in a menacing attitude, have become frightened at their own valor, and retreated without carrying into execution their purposes. "The war is now over and peace is again restored," says the St. Louis Reveille of the 19th.


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> SECEDING MORMONS. -- We learn from several correspondents that a body of Mormons who have seceded from the adherents of Jo. Smith, with Sidney Rigdon at their head, have lately settled at Greencastle, Pa. Though they refuse to bear the name of Mormons, and call themselves 'the Church of Christ of the latter-day saints,' yet we are told they preach the same doctrines that others called Mormons do. They regard Rigdon as a prophet, and as the visible head of their church. one of our correspondents writes that they have purchased a large farm on Conecocheague Creek, about two miles from the village of Greencastle; that they are about to put up some kind of factory there; and report says they have contracted for the building of 40 houses. They have brought a printing press with them, and publish a paper, as we understand, monthly. They are making furious war on Perfectionism, and are laboring especially to disprove our doctrine of the Second Coming. They have even challenged a public discussion with Perfectionists.

Bro. Daniel Long, who writes us from Virginia, says that whenever the Lord opens the way for him, he is ready to go up and meet them.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Going to Take California: -- The President has determined to sent a regiment of Volunteers around Cape Horn to California. We suppose it will be annexed by force and arms. He can't wait for the Mormons to settle it and then petition Congress to be annexed. Gunpowder is quicker in its operation, and it will blow it right on to us.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE MORMON CALIFORNIA EXPEDITION. -- The advance company of the Mormons was at Council Bluffs on the 26th ult. the twelve had a train of 1000 wagons with them, and were encamped on the East bank of the Missouri river, in the vicinity of the Bluff. The whole number of teams attached to the Mormon expedition, is about three thousand seven hundred, and it is estimated that each team will average at least three persons, and perhaps four. -- The whole number of souls now on the road may be set down in round numbers at twelve thousand. -- From two to three thousand have disappeared from Nauvoo in various directions. Many have left for Council Bluffs by way of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers -- others have dispersed to parts unknown; and almost eight hundred or less still remain in Illinois. This comprises the entire Mormon population that once flourished in Hancock County. In their palmy days they probably numbered between fifteen and sixteen thousand souls, most of whom are now scattered upon the prairies, bound for the Pacific Slope of the American Continent. The health of the travelling Mormons is good, considering the exposure to which they have been subjected. They are carrying on a small trade in provisions with the settlers in the country, with whom they mingle on the most friendly terms.


Notes: (forthcoming)

NAUVOO AND THE MORMONS. -- A messenger from the Mormon camp brings information that Col. Kearney has mustered into the service of the United States five hundred Mormons, who are probably ere this on their march to Santa Fe. -- The accounts from Nauvoo are of a distressing nature. The villains are now destroying property in all directions. The prisoners taken by the new citizens, on account of the alleged riot of Saturday last, seventeen in number, are still in custody. -- Each party holds prisoners as hostages; the Anties have only five; each demand an exchange.


Notes: (forthcoming)

By Magnetic Telegraph. -- Reported for the N. Y. Herald.

The Mormon War -- Another Battle at Nauvoo --
One of the Mormon leaders killed --
Several wounded in both sides.

By accounts received at Baltimore Monday evening, we learn that the excitement in the Mormon region was becoming more intense, and that the Anti-Mormons were flocking towards Nauvoo from both sides of the Mississippi, in great numbers, with the determination of totally expelling or exterminating the followers of the deceased prophet, Joe Smith.

Another battle had taken place at the City of the Temple, in which the Mormons were again victorious, and compelled their opponents to retreat.

The Mormons erected breastworks, which they mounted with six pieces of cannon.

The anties, (doubtless satisified with their disgrace for the time being,) only threw two shots into the camp of their enemies, after which they entreated for a parley.

The nauvooites refused to comply with the solicitation of the anties, and returned for answer that they were "done talking."

Upon this the action began with great desperation on both sides -- but the firing of artillery soon ceased, and the weapons were changed to muskets.

Anderson, the determined leader of the Mormons, and his son, were both shot, and fell fighting desperately in defence of the city. Two other Nauvooites were also killed, and a great many were wounded.

Six of the anties are reported to have been seriously wounded -- one of them, Capt. Smith, it is thought, mortally.

It was anticipated that anotehr battle would commence hourly. The hostility of the anties having become more inveterate than ever.

The Mormons, at Nauvoo, were much distressed, both from sickness and from the great scarcity of provisions. Their ammunition was likewose scarce. Judging fromall of which, it is not supposed that they would be able to withstand a regular charge from a force of one-third their own number of well-drilled men.

The fighting appears to be principally carried on by the mist reckless and unprincipled men of both parties -- without regard to either the tactics of war or the rules of christianity, and our readers need not be surprised to hear of still more blood-thirsty proceedings in that region by the next mail.

---

THE MORMON WAR. -- The St. Louis Republican contains a long correspondence, in relation to affairs between the Mormons and the Anti-Mormons.

Carthage, Sept. 8, 1846.     

On my arrival here, I was agreeably disappointed to find that the anticipated battle between the Mormons and Anti-Mormons had not yet taken place.

When I left Quincy yesterday morning, it was confidently reported, by a gentleman direct from Warsaw, that the battle would come off that day, but upon my arrival here, I found there was no probability of a conflict for some days to come. There are in the Anti-Mormon camp about one thousand men, eight hundred of whom are supplied with arms and equipments. They have five pieces of artillery -- six pounders, The Mormons have, as near as can be ascertained, five hundred men, with a sufficiency of small arms, and it is said they have three pieces of cannin which had been buried near the Temple, and which were resurrected for this occasion. The story is not credited, and it is not supposed they have any cannon.

A council of war was held, last evening by the officers of the Anti-Mormon forces, and their deliberations resulted in a determination to call upon Gen. Stevens of the _____ brigade Illinois militia, for more men. Accordingly, General Stevens issued orders to his subordinates, and despatched messengers with them, with instructions to rendezvous at the Anti-Mormon camp by Thursday next. So there will be no fight until the latter part of this week, and perhaps not until the first of next, if then. I am inclined to think, this will be another bloodless war.

A compromise in relation to the Mormons leaving Nauvoo has been made and broken by the anti-Mormon party, and the whole affair remains as before. Col. Singleton and Col. Chittenden, of the anti-Mormons, have resigned, because of the breaking of the terms with the Mormons, which is all the anti-Mormons could ask.


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> NEWS FROM NAUVOO. -- By the last advices from Nauvoo, we learn that the Temple had not yet been sold. The Anties having every thing now their own way, of course will act accordingly. The Mormons in the vicinity are represented as being in a most pitable condition.


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Mormons in California have laid claim to a large portion of the gold territory, and demand thirty per cent. of the ore taken therefrom. An express has been sent to the Salt Lake settlement, where about 10,000 Mormons are located. There is a rumor that equally rich mines have been discovered in that region. The thirty per cent. demand of the Mormons is expected to lead to trouble.


Notes: (forthcoming)

                    From the Rochester American.

A  MORMON  APOSTLE.

We received yesterday a visit from Martin Harris, formerly of Palmyra, who was concerned with Joe Smith, in originally proclaiming the Mormon faith. He wrote the book of Mormon from Joe Smith's dictation, the latter reading the text from the golden plates by putting his face in a hat. When the volume was written, Harris raised funds for its publication by mortgaging his farm. But he no longer goes with the Mormons, saying they "have got [sic, gone to?] the devil just like other people." He abandoned them fifteen years ago, when they assumed the appellation of "Latter Day Saints," and bore his testimony against them by declaring that "Latter Day Devils" would be a more appropriate designation.

Mr. Harris visited England some three years ago. At present he professes to have a mission from God, in fulfilment of which he wanders about preaching to "all who will feed him." When this essential condition is not performed by his hearers he shakes off the dust from his feet, and leaves for more hospitable quarters. Mr. H. is exceedingly familiar with the Scriptures, and discusses [sic, discourses?] theology, in his peculiar way, with the fluency and zeal of a devotee.


Note 1: The above article originally appeared in the Rochester Daily American of Nov. 16, 1849.

Note 2: Although the article says that Martin Harris "abandoned" the "Latter Day Saints" some "fifteen years" prior to 1849, it does not make it clear whether Harris then also abandoned his testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon. H. Michael Marquardt, in his 2002 Dialogue article, "Martin Harris: The Kirtland Years," documents the activities of Harris during the time he spent away from the Latter Day Saints, showing that he associated briefly with the Mormon Gladdenites during 1851-52, and thereafter occasionally demonstrated his allegiance to at least some of the tenets of Mormonism, in a variety of situations. If Harris ever did go through a period in his life where he placed no faith in the Book of Mormon, he evidently did not publicize that infidelity.

The Mormon Colony, Beaver Island. -- We have conversed with a gentleman who has just returned feom a visit to Beaver Island, at the head of Lake Michigan, upon which the Mormon Colony is located, headed by their prophet James Strang. They number about siz 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 constitute 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 ois diverted 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, and also as 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 cabalistic characters, supposed to relate the interests of the "church of the latter day," by his followers. He is decribed as a hard-working, industrious man, but most of those on the island are indolent and adverse to labor. (Chicago Ill. Journal, Aug. 3)


Notes: (forthcoming)

Origin of the Mormon Imposture.

The Rochester American publishes the following from a forthcoming work by Mr. Turner, entitled "History of Philip and Gorham's Purchase. " -- Though not entirely new, it is succinct, and communicates some facts, coming within the author's personal knowledge.

"As we are now at the home of the Smith family -- in sight of 'Mormon Hill' -- a brief pioneer history will be looked for, of the strange, and singularly successful religious sect -- the Mormons; and brief it must be, merely starting it in its career, and leaving it to their especial historian to trace them to Kirtland, Nauvoo, Beaver Island, and Utah, or the Salt Lake.

Joseph Smith, the father of the prophet Joseph Smith, Jun., was from the Merrimack river, N. H. He first settled in or near Palmyra village, but as early as 1819 was the occupant of some new land on Stafford street, in the town of Manchester, near the line of Palmyra. * 'Mormon Hill' is near the plank road about half-way between the villages of Palmyra and Manchester. The elder Smith had been a Universalist, and subsequently a Methodist; was a good deal of a smatterer in scriptural knowledge, but the seed of revelation was sown on weak ground; he was a great babbler, credulous, not especially industrious, a money-digger, prone to the marvellous; and, withal, a little given to difficulties with neighbors, and petty law-suits. Not a very propitious account of the father of a prophet -- the founder of a state; but there was a 'woman in the case.'

Mrs. Smith was a woman of strong, uncultivated intellect; artful and cunning; imbued with an ill-regulated religious enthusiasm. The incipient hints, the first givings out that a prophet was to spring from her humble household, came from her; and when matters were maturing for denouement, she gave out that such and such ones -- always fixing upon those who had both money and credulity -- were to be instruments in some great work of new revelation. The old man was rather her faithful co-worker, or executive exponent. -- Their son, Alvah, was originally intended or designated, by fireside consultations and solemn and mysterious out-door hints, as the forthcoming prophet. The mother and the father said he was the chosen one; but Alvah, however spiritual he may have been, had a carnal appetite; ate too many green turnips, sickened and died. Thus the world lost a prophet, and Mormonism a leader; the designs, impiously and wickedly attributed to Providence, were defeated; and all in consequence of a surfeit of raw turnips. Who will talk of the cackling geese of Rome, or any other small and innocent causes of mighty events after this? The mantle of the prophet which Mrs. and Mr. Joseph Smith and one Oliver Cowdery had wove themselves -- every thread of it -- fell upon their next eldest son, Joseph Smith, Jr.

And a most unpromising recipient of such a trust was this same Joseph Smith, Jr., afterwards 'Jo Smith.' He was lounging, idle, (not to say vicious,) and possessed of less than ordinary intellect. The author's own recollections of him are distinct. He used to come into the village of Palmyra, with little jags of wood, from his backwoods home; sometimes patronizing a village grocery too freely; sometimes finding an odd job to do about the store of Seymour Scovell; and once a week he would stroll into the office of the old Palmyra Register for his father's paper. How impious in us young "dare devils"† to once and awhile blacken the face of the then meddling, inquisitive lounger -- but afterwards prophet -- with the old-fashioned balls, when he used to put himself in the way of the working of the old-fashioned Ramage press! The editor of the Cultivator at Albany -- esteemed as he may justly consider himself for his subsequent enterprise and usefulness -- may think of it with contrition and repentance, that he once helped thus to disfigure the face of a prophet, and, remotely, the founder of a state.

But Joseph had a little ambition, and some very laudable aspirations; the mother's intellect occasionally shone out in him feebly, especially when he used to help us to solve some portentous questions of moral or political ethics, in our juvenile debating club, which we moved down to the old red school-house on Durfee street, to get rid of the annoyance of critics that used to drop in upon us in the village; and, subsequently, after catching a spark of Methodism in the camp-meeting, away down in the woods, on the Vienna road, he was a very passable exhorter in evening meetings.

Legends of hidden treasure had long designated Mormon Hill as a repository. Old Joseph had dug there, and young Joseph had not only heard his father and mother relate the marvellous tales of buried wealth, but had accompanied his father in the midnight delvings, and incantations of the spirits that guarded it.

If a buried revelation was to be exhumed, how natural was it that the Smith family, with their credulity, and their assumed presentiment, that a prophet was to come from their household, should be connected with it; and that Mormon Hill was the place where it would be found.

It is believed by those who were best acquainted with the Smith family, and most conversant with all the Gold Bible movements, that there is no foundation for the statement that their original manuscript was written by a Mr. Spaulding, of Ohio. A supplement to the Gold Bible, 'The Book of Commandments,' in all probability was written by Rigdon, and he may have been aided by Spaulding's manuscripts; but the book itself is without doubt a production of the Smith family, aided by Oliver Cowdery, who was school teacher on Stafford street, an intimate of the Smith family, and identified with the whole matter. The production, as all will conclude who have read it, or ever. given it a cursory review, is not that of an educated man or woman. The bungling attempt to counterfeit the style of the Scriptures; the intermixture of modern phraseology; the ignorance of chronology and geography; its utter crudeness and baldness, as a whole, stamp its character, and clearly exhibit its vulgar origin. It is a strange medley of scripture, romance, and bad composition.

The primitive design of Mrs. Smith, her husband, Jo and Cowdery, was money making; blended with which perhaps was a desire for notoriety, to be obtained by a cheat and fraud. The idea of being the founders of a new sect was an after-thought in which they were aided by others.

The projectors of the humbug being destitute of means for carrying out their plans, a victim was selected to obviate that difficulty. Martin Harris was a farmer of Palmyra, the owner of a good farm, and an honest, worthy citizen; but especially given to religious enthusiasm, new creeds, the more extravagant the better; a monomaniac, in fact. Joseph Smith, upon whom the mantle of prophecy had fallen after the sad fate of Alvah, began to make demonstrations. He informed Harris of the great discovery, and that it had been revealed to him that he (Harris) was a chosen instrument to aid in the great work of surprising the world with a new revelation. They had hit upon the right man. He mortgaged his fine farm to pay for printing the book, assumed a grave, mysterious, and unearthly deportment, and made here and there among his acquaintances solemn annunciations of the great event that was transpiring. His version of the discovery, as communicated to him by the prophet Joseph himself, is well remembered by several respectable citizens of Palmyra, to whom he made early disclosures. It was in substance as follows:

The prophet Joseph was directed by an angel where to find, by excavation, at the place afterwards called Mormon Hill, the gold plates; and was compelled by an angel, much against his will, to be the interpreter of the sacred record they contained, and publish it to the world. That the plates contained a record of the ancient inhabitants of this country, 'engraved by Mormon the son of Nephi.' That on the top of the box containing the plates, 'a pair of large spectacles were found, the stones or glass set in which were opaque to all but the prophet,' -- that 'these belonged to Mormon, the engraver of the plates, arid without them the plates could not be read.' Harris assumed that himself and Cowdery were the chosen amanuenses, and that the prophet Joseph, curtained from the world and them with his spectacles, read from the gold plates what they committed to paper.

Harris exhibited to an informant of the author the manuscript title-page. On it was drawn, rudely and bunglingly, concentric circles, between, above, and below, which were characters with little resemblance to letters, apparently a miserable imitation of hieroglyphics, the writer may somewhere have seen. To guard against profane curiosity, the prophet has given out that no one but himself, not even his chosen co-operators, must be permitted to see them, on pain of instant death. Harris had never seen the plates, but the glowing account of their massive richness excited other than spiritual hopes, and he, upon one occasion, got a village silversmith to help him estimate their value, taking as a basis the prophet's account of their dimensions. It was a blending of the spiritual and utilitarian that threw a shadow of doubt upon Martin's sincerity. This, and some anticipations he indulged in as to the profits that would arise from the sale of the Gold Bible, made it then, as it is now, a mooted question whether he was altogether a dupe.

The wife of Harris was a rank infidel and heretic, touching the whole thing, and decidedly opposed to her husband's participation in it. With sacrilegious hands she seized over a hundred of the manuscript pages of the new revelation, and burned or secreted them. It was aranged by Smith and family, Cowdery and Harris, not to transcribe these again, but to let so much of the new revelation drop out, as the 'evil spirit would get up a story that the second translation did not agree with the first.' A very ingenious method, surely, of guarding against the possibility that Mrs. Harris had preserved the manuscript with which they might be confronted, should they attempt an imitation of their own miserable patchwork.

The prophet did not get his lesson well upon the start, or the household of the impostors were in fault. After he had told his story, in his absence, the rest of the family made a new version of it to one of their neighbors. They showed him such a pebble as may any day be picked up on the shore of Lake Ontario -- the common hornblende -- carefully wrapped in cotton and kept in a mysterious box. They said it was by looking at this stone, in a hat, the light excluded, that Joseph discovered the plates. This, it will be observed, differs materially from Joseph's story of the angel. It was the same stone the Smiths had used in money-digging, and in some pretended discoveries of stolen property.

Long before the Gold Bible demonstration, the Smith family had, with some sinister object in view, whispered another fraud in the ears of the credulous. They pretended that, in digging for money at Mormon Hill, they came across a chest, three by two feet in size, covered with a dark-colored stone. In the centre of the stone was a white spot about the size of a sixpence. Enlarging, the spot increased to the size of a twenty-four pound shot, and then exploded with a terrible noise. The chest vanished and all was utter darkness.

It may be safely presumed that in no other instance have prophets and the chosen and designated of angels, been quite as calculating and worldly as were those of Stafford street, Mormon Hill, and Palmyra. The only business contract -- veritable instrument in writing, that was ever executed by spiritual agents, has been preserved, and should be among the archives of the new State of Utah. It is signed by the prophet Joseph himself, and witnessed by Oliver Cowdery, and secures to Martin Harris one-half of the proceeds of the sale of the Gold Bible until he was fully reimbursed in the sum of $2,500, the cost of printing.

The after-thought which has been alluded to -- the enlarging of original intentions -- was at the suggestion of S. Rigdon, of Ohio, who made his appearance and blended himself with the poorly devised scheme of imposture, about the time the book was issued from the press. He unworthily bore the title of a Baptist elder, but had by some previous freak, if the author is rightly informed, forfeited his standing with that respectable religious denomination. Designing, ambitious and dishonest, under the semblance of sanctity and assumed spirituality, he was just the man for the use of the Smith household and their half-dupe and half-designing abettors; and they were just the fit instruments he desired. He became at once the Hamlet, or more appropriately perhaps, the Mawworm of the play.

Under the auspices of Rigdon, a new sect, the Mormons, was projected. Prophecies fell thick and fast from the lips of Joseph; old Mrs. Smith assumed all the airs of a mother of a prophet; that particular family of Smiths were singled out and became exalted above all their legion of namesakes. The bald, clumsy cheat found here and there an enthusiast, a monomaniac or a knave, in and around its primitive locality, to help it upon its start; and soon, like another scheme of imposture, (that had a little of dignity and plausibility in it,) it had its Hegira, or flight, to Kirtland, then to Nauvoo; then to a short resting-place in Missouri -- and then on and over the Rocky mountains to Utah or the Salt Lake. Banks, printing-offices, temples, cities, and finally a state, have arisen under its auspices. Converts have multiplied to tens of thousands. In several of the countries of Europe there are preachers and organized sects of Mormons; believers in the divine mission of Joseph Smith & Co.

And here the subject must be dismissed. If it has been treated lightly -- with seeming levity -- it is because it will admit of no other treatment. There is no dignity about the whole thing; nothing to entitle it to mild treatment. It deserves none of the charity extended to ordinary religious fanaticism, for knavery and fraud have been with it incipiently and progressively. It has not the poor merit of ingenuity. Its success is a slur upon the age. Fanaticism promoted it at first; then ill-advised persecution; then the designs of demagogues who wished to command the suffrage of its followers; until finally an American Congress has abetted the fraud and imposition by its acts, and we are to have a State of our proud Union -- in this boasted era of light and knowledge -- the very name of which will sanction and dignify the fraud and falsehood of Mormon Hill, the gold plates and the spurious revelation. This much, at least, might have been omitted out of decent respect to the moral and religious sense of the people of the old States.

__________
* Here the author remembers to have first seen the family, in the Winter of '19, and '20, in a rude log house, with but a small spot of underbrush around it.

† To soften the use of such an expression the reader should be reminded that apprentices in printing offices have since the days of Faust and Gottenburgh, been thus called, and sometimes it was not inappropriate.


Notes: (forthcoming)

==> William Smith, brother of the Mormon prophet Joe, has some peculiar notions about spiritual wife-ism. He is now before the Circuit Court of Illinois, sitting in Lee County, on a charge of having more wives than the law allows. One of the members of the church has made affidavit that she had been induced to believe that it was necessary for her salvation that she should become his spiritual wife; the result of which was just the same as usually accompanies cases where no spiritualism is claimed. Smith has himself now pending, in the same court, an application for a divorce, on the ground that his wife, while...


Note: The lower half of this 1853 news item is missing.

The Mormons: -- [Brigham Young and Orson Hyde say:] "Remember, that God our heavenly Father was perhaps once a child and mortal like we ourselves, and rose step by step in the scale of progress, in the school of advancement; has moved forward aond overcome until he