AUTHOR  OF  THE  MORMON  BIBLE.

[At a public meeting lately held in Cherry Valley Judge Campbell said:] ... "Rev. Solomon Spaulding, one of the earliest preceptors of the Academy of Cherry Valley, was the actual composer of most of what is known as the Mormon Bible. He wrote it during a period of delicate health to beguile some of his weary hours, and also with a design to offer it for publication as a romance. Dr. Robert Campbell, late of Cherry Valley, and foster father of the first Mrs. Grant, of the Nestorian mission, calling some years since upon Mr. Spaulding, had the manuscript of this notable book to be shown to him, and was also informed by Mr. Spaulding that he had hopes of reaping some pecuniary advantage from it for himself and family. Mr. Spaulding has been dead for some years, though it is believed that his wife is still living in the United States. How it passed from the possession of his family into the hands of Joe Smith it is probable that Mrs. Spaulding could tell." -- New England Puritan.


Note: The exact text for the above article is undetermined -- see the Nov. 19th New York Daily Tribune below for essemtially the same reprint from the New England Puritan.

AUTHOR OF THE MORMON BIBLE. -- The New England Puritan states that [at] a public meeting lately held in Cherry Valley Judge Campbell said:

"Rev. Solomon Spaulding, one of the earliest preceptors of the Academy of Cherry Valley, was the actual composer of most of what is known as the Mormon Bible. He wrote it during a period of delicate health to beguile some of his weary hours, and also with a design to offer it for publication as a romance. Dr. Robert Campbell, late of Cherry Valley, and foster father of the first Mrs. Grant, of the Nestorian mission, calling some years since upon Mr. Spaulding, had the manuscript of this notable book to be shown to him, and was also informed by Mr. Spaulding that he had hopes of reaping some pecuniary advantage from it for himself and family. Mr. Spaulding has been dead for some years, though it is believed that his wife is still living in the United States. How it passed from the possession of his family into the hands of Joe Smith it is probable that Mrs. Spaulding could tell."


Note: This piece from the New England Puritan was responded to by an anonymous correspondent in the Dec. 6, 1850 issue of the Daily Tribune. See also the LDS Frontier Guardian of Feb. 7, 1851 for Orson Hyde's editorial juxtaposition of the two articles.

Authorship of the Book of Mormon.

              SCHENECTADY, Monday, Nov. 25, 1850.
To the Editor of the New-York Tribune:

In your paper of the 19th inst., my attention was drawn to an article headed "Author of the Mormon Bible," wherein it is stated a certain Judge Campbell asserted at a recent public meeting, at Cherry Valley, that the Rev. Solomon Spaulding was the actual composer of most of what is known as the Mormon Bible, and that he (Mr. S.) wrote it intending to publish it as a romance. A Dr. Robert Campbell is stated to have seen this celebrated manuscript. Mr. Spaulding has been dead many years, but how it got into the hands of Joe Smith the writer of said article knoweth not, but it is probable Mrs. S. can tell. Now, Mr. Editor, I am very averse to public writing or speaking, but being a humble member of that much calumniated and grossly persecuted community, I cannot suffer the above erroneous statement to pass current in spite of its endorsement by Revs. Drs. Judges, and high sounding titles, without endeavoring to throw a little more light upon the subject than the author of the assertion is capable of doing.

In the first place I would say that the term Mormon Bible, in the sense used, is inappropriate, and proceeds from the ignorance or prejudice of the speaker or writer. The Bible of the Mormons is that in common use, containing the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, in which they fully and sincerely believe, as any person who has had any conversation with them or at all examined their doctrines, must be quite convinced of; that they are more consistent in the belief thereof might be also asserted. But herein they differ from the professors, they do not regard them as all the revelation of God to man, or that revelation is necessarily confined to bye-gone days.

As regards the Book of Mormon, they look upon it as a written revelation to another portion of the House of Israel on this continent, and equally worthy of our belief as the Bible with which it fully coincides in the expression of doctrinal truth. So much for that part of the subject which may dispel in some measure a very popular error.

As regards the main subject in hand, the Authorship of the Book of Mormon, there are various conflicting statements, and all backed by very reverend and respectable authority, and each asserted with equal force. First and foremost, it is attributed to the Rev. Solomon Spaulding, from whose possession as MSS. was obtained by some unknown process, and subsequently converted into the aforesaid Book. Again another report or affidavit, asserts that Joseph Smith was the author, and that he translated the plates, when they were in the woods, and he in the house, same as when he looked for the money diggers with a stone in his hat, and his hat over his face, and Oliver Cowdery acted as Secretary or Scribe. Here is an evident contradiction, but the latter statement is so extensively absurd as to deserve no attention. The former is more plausible. But facts and dates are stubborn things, and these will completely demolish the whole affair. The story was started by an infamous character named D. P. Hulburt, who was cut off from the Church for immoral conduct, and whose disappointed ambition prompted him to a wrongful retaliation. He heard of this romance entitled "The Manuscript Found," and thinking it would suit his malicious purpose, obtained it from Mrs. Davison (widow of Mr. Spaulding) to get it out of the way, under pretence of having it published, and so destroy the Book of Mormon, promising to pay her half the proceeds arising from the sale thereof. He then writes her that the Manuscript does not read as he expected, and he should not print it. Hulburt finding little or no affinity between the writings to cover his retreat, endeavors to make out that Sidney Rigdon, during a temporary stay in Pittsburgh, where Mrs. S. formerly lived, obtained the Manuscript, but there the dates disagree. Mr. R. did not live in Pittsburgh until 1822, and resided there until 1826. Mr. Spaulding wrote his romance in 1812, in New Salem, Ohio; removed to Pittsburgh, according to Hulburt's statement, the same year, and thence to Amity in 1814.

Mrs. Davieson says, in the "Origin of Mormonism," published by La Roy Sunderland, "At length the MSS. was returned to its author and we removed to Amity. The MSS. then fell into my hands and was carefully preserved." -- so that the only time Mr. R. could possibly have obtained it was between the years 1812 and 1814, for since that time it has been carefully kept by Mrs. D. until delivered to Hulburt. Mr. Rigdon was then a mere lad, far distant and engaged at home in agricultural pursuits, and moreover the Book of Mormon was not published until after an interval of eighteen or tweny years. Thus we see the publishers of the Book of Mormon had not the benefit of the Reverend novel writer's production, and it remains with Mrs. Davieson or Mr. Hulburt to bring it to light. They have or should have it between them -- bring it forth, publish it to the world as the Book of Mormon is published, and let us see the indetity of the two publications, or let the advocates of the imposture forever hold their peace, and invent a story that is more consistent and plausible.

Now, Mr. Editor, the imposition is transparent. The story is long since exploded, and will not bear investigation, and as my only object and aim is to expose a popular error, operating adversely to our community, against whom calumny and falsehood have been too generally disseminated by the pulpit and press, which have eventuated in hostile acts of bloodshed, arson and expatriation, I trust your natural feeling of justice and benevolence will permit the insertion of this statement in reference to the former published article.
                Very truly, Yours,           JUSTITIA.


Note: The piece from the New England Puritan was reprinted in the Nov. 19, 1850 issue of the Daily Tribune. See also the LDS Frontier Guardian of Feb. 7, 1851 for Orson Hyde's editorial juxtaposition of the two Daily Tribune articles.

Tragical Occurrence.

                                                        Mackinac, June 8.
The Mormons murdered Thomas Bennett in his own house, and dangerously wounded his brother Samuel... the fishermen and Indians are collecting at MacKinley's Point, prepatory to an attack on the Mormons...


Note: The full text of this article will be posted when a proper copy becomes available.

NEW  REVELATIONS  AMONG
THE  MORMONS.

The disciples of Joe Smith enjoy a remarkable advantage in the constant accessions to the spirit of their faith, through renewed celestial communications; two new revelations having occurred within the past month. On Friday night, May 30, it appears that the chamber of Orson Hyde, the Editor of the Frontier Guardian, published at Kanesville, Iowa, received a sudden illumination, and a manuscript book was presented to him, which proved to be a translation from that portion of the golden plates which Joe Smith was forbidden to disturb. This book is a warning against false teachers, pseudo-prophets and wolves in sheep's clothing. It tells of counterfeit revelations and prophetical impostures, and is particularly explicit in directing the Saints not to let go of the "IRON ROD," meaning thereby the true priesthood. Another revelation has been made to Bishop Gladden of Ohio, containing much of what had been communicated to the Editor of the Guardian, together with several addenda, proclaiming the duty of reverencing the teachings of the Bishop above all other prophets, seers, high-priests and apostles, and announcing his duty to form an alliance with Queen Victoria. Elder Hyde denounces the Bishop for 'false revelations' and 'unfounded pretensions,' and adds some pungent observations upon the conduct of certain new converts, closing with the following exhortation:

"To the Saints who are established here, and who wish to do right: free themselves from all such trash that floats on the swelling current of emigration, and lodges on the banks -- by trees and in eddies. Kick and roll it off again, and let it pass away, lest it produce an unhealthy state of things among you."

Notes: (forthcoming)

From  Utah  Territory.

The last mail from the West brought us a letter and some papers from the Great Salt Lake City, up to July 1. The news is not of remarkable interest. No rain had fallen for the six weeks previous to the 1st July; and still, the gardens, and crops in general. looked fine, and promised an abundant harvest. There were some exceptions in fields of wheat, which had been burned, or perished for want of irrigation, as the streams were so low that a sufficient quantity of water could not be obtained to supply all.

Mr. Livingston, of the firm of Kinkead & Livingston, arrived at the Great Salt Lake City in advance of his train, about the 14th of June, and had been so sick with the Mountain fever that his life was despaired of, but he had recovered almost entirely.

Judge Brandenburg and Mr. Holliday arrived a few days before Mr. Livingston. One of Holliday's trains arrived the last of June -- the other train was still behind.

Trade, it is said, opens dull, and it was feared that there was not money enough in the City to buy the merchandise that was coming. There was talk already of taking part of it to Oregon, or some other quarter.

The people have had considerable difnculty with the Indians, by whom large numbers of cattle and horses had been stolen. The Mormons collected a party, and pursued the Indians into the mountains, and among the Cedars. They killed about a dozen Indians, broke up their encampment, and destroyed all their provisions. The Indians have stolen, at various times, great numbers of mules, horses, and cattle.

The emigration to California is represented as quite small, though the intelligence from that quarter was very flattering. A very large emigration to California from the States was anticipated this season, overland; and it is said, unless this takes place, and money becomes more abundant, pecuniary affairs would be seriously affected.

Flour was selling at $8 per hundred, and it was supposed that it would go down to $6.

A f ew days before the date of the letter, the President of the city gave a party to Judge Brandenburg, which was numerously attended, and everything passed off very pleasantly.

In the diary of President Young, who, during the Spring, visited some of the distant Mormon settlements in the "South Counties," it is stated that he visited the ruins of an ancient city, where he found immense quantities of broken, burnt earthen-ware, painted according to their taste; arrow-points, adobes, burnt brick, a crucible, and every color of flint stones. The ruins were about two miles long and one wide; one of them appeared to be the remains of a temple, and covered about an acre of ground. In digging into one of the ruins, pottery, adobes, a fire-place, and the burnt embers of the fire, were found.   St. Louis Rep., 2d.


Notes: (forthcoming)

LATER  NEWS  FROM  THE  PLAINS.

... Steamer Duroc arrived in St. Louis from the Missouri River with the latest news. Mr. Thomas Bateman met Orson Hyde and Company 198 miles this side of Fort Laramie.... Encounter with the Indians, near Loup Fork of the Platte... seven Mormons in company...


Note: The full text of this article will be posted when a proper copy becomes available.

The Mormons in Utah.

Messrs. Booth and Denniston arrived at Terre Haute a few days since, having come from California by way of the plains. From these gentlemen, who tarried some time at the Salt Lake City, The Terre Haute Express obtains considerable information in regard to the movements and progress of the Mormons.

This singular people have reoccupied their old station in Carson Valley and in much larger numbers, and intend making a permanent settlement there. It is there desire to occupy the whole of it, and in their hands it will become extremely valuable, as it is the only place fit for a settlement between their possessions in the great Salt Lake Valley and California. The whole valley is well watered and covered with the most luxuriant grass. By the term "Valley" is meant that portion which is susceptible of cultivation, lying at the base of the mountain, and is about twenty-five miles long, by five to fifteen in breadth.

The Mormons have extended their settlements along the base of the mountains, northward, and facing the Great Salt Lake, ninety miles, nearly to Bear River ferry. They are fast taking up all the good land in the valley. Each one claims and owns whatever he is able to inclose and improve. They are generally satisfied with a small tract each, say from forty to one hundred acres. They are a very industrious people, and their improvements are good and substantial. Their houses are small and neat, being built of adobes made of blue clay. They have mills in the mountain canyons, and make fair lumber, which is sold in the city at $50 per thousand feet.

The Mormons are engaged in building a railroad to the mountain, some seven or eight miles, on which to transport the materials for their great temple.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE MORMON COUNTRY in Iowa is announced for sale, and the "Saints" of that locality are adjured to repair to the great Valley. The Sixth Epistle from the President of the Mormons, is published. It contains, among a vast number of religious matters...

Progress of some building in [Salt Lake City] such as the walls of the basement story of the Seventies Hall are in progress and the walls of the Tithing Barn are completed...


Notes: (forthcoming)

The  Mormons  in  Utah.

(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

Mormonism Exposed, by an Ex-Mormon.

To the Editor of the Boston Transcript:
   The late high-minded and treasonable proceedings of the Mormons in the territory of Utah, as shown by the official report of the United States officers returned therefrom, however strange and startling they may appear to the uninitiated, form no new development to those who have had an opportunity of scrutinizing and observing them, and their doctrines and practices and designs, but are in perfect keeping with the character of the sect, openly avowed by them to most of their members for some ten years or more.

The writer of this, having been one of their number, and having been personally acquainted with Brigham Young and his associates called by them the twelve apostles and having had frequent conversations with them in respect to their policy in relation to the Government of this country, is perhaps better qualified than many to submit a few hints thereon.

First, then, a word in regard to their great leading doctrine. They believe and teach that the aborigines of this continent are descendants of a branch of the house of Israel, through the seed of Joseph, the Patriarch; and consequently those remarkable blessings pronounced upon Joseph and his two sons, by Jacob his father, also by Moses, will be fulfilled upon the head of the Mormon church, and on this continent. Hence all those terrible denunciations and destructions predicted of in the Prophets against the oppressors of Ephraim and Manassah (the Indians) are to be fulfilled upon the devoted heads of the American people, the Mormons being the instruments.

The Book of Mormon -- misnamed the Mormon bible -- which Joseph Smith claimed to have found miraculously, in the shape of metallic plates inscribed upon in an unknown or lost language, but translated by him through inspiration, is the sacred and political history of this branch of Israel, the predecessors of the American Indians. The organization of the Mormon Church is the beginning of this work of returning political power to the Indians ostensibly, but in reality to the Mormon Church. In regard to the government and laws of this country, they are ready at any and all times to set them at defiance, except when they may deem it politic to do otherwise. In addition to their religious idea of vengeance on this Government, they have sworn vengeance against the States of Missouri and Illinois, from which they have been driven, and against the United States Government for not aiding with them against those States.

The Salt Lake movement was got up for the avowed purpose of placing themselves without the pale of this Government, (they, with all their prophets, little dreaming that it was so soon to be part of that government,) that they could the better manage their treasonable designs; and at that time the Mormons petitioned Queen Victoria for her aid for the Mormon emigrants from Great Britain, urging in that petition the importance of her Majesty's government counteracting the rapid emigration from the United States to California! That petetion can be seen by examining the files of the Mormon paper printed in England at that time, called the Millennial Star.

In regard to polygamy, it has been preached among them for years; and, if it were necessary, I could give you cases of the separation of husbands and wives, and breaking up of families, the demoralization of young women by some of those twelve apostles, in this city and vicinity, that would almost chill the heart's blood.

They teach and avow openly that marriages performed out of that church are null and void, and can be broken at the pleasure of either or both parties! There is no particular order or system about it. The heads of the church manage to secure to themselves the most desirable of the females that join the church; and when tired of them give them over to the laymen of the church, and not before.

I know of one instance of a family from this city, where the mother and two daughters (mere children) were used as wives of one of these apostles, Heber Kimball, he at the same time living with his lawful wife! I know of another case, in which P. P. Pratt, another of these twelve, took the young wife of Mr. Hum, of this city, unbeknown to him, and they have lived as husband and wife since. But your space will not permit to begin to enumerate instances of that kind that have come to my personal knowledge. Instead of polygamy, it should be termed licentiousness run mad. Any and all of these charges I stand ready to sunstantiate by their own documents, and by unimpeachable witnesses.
                                        JOHN HARDY.


Notes: (forthcoming)

CALIFORNIA.

... THE MORMON DISTURBANCES. -- By the late acquirement of the Rancho of San Bernardino, the Saline brotherhood are gate-keepers to Southern California... they plan to take possession of all the arable lands in the Valley of the Gila...


Note: The full text of the above report will be posted after a proper copy of the article has been located.

The Mormons of the Salt Lake.

Correspondence of the St. Louis Republican.

                                        Salt Lake City, July 6, 1852.

After a delay of three days at Laramie, we started for Salt Lake. We took the road over the Black Hills...

This is a beautiful valley... I was most interested in seeing and hearing Brigham Young, the present Chief of Mormonism. He is a six-foot Vermonter, weighs about 180 lbs., has a florid complexion, light hair, well perfumed and combed, with a curl here and there, as if one of his new wives had twitched her fingers through it -- wears a black suit, a famous white cravat, a fashionable black hat, black cotton gloves, and sports a large, gold-headed cane. This was the man pointed out to me as the Governor of Utah, and Chief Apostle of the Mormons...


Note: The full text of the above report will be posted after a proper copy of the article has been located.

UTAH.  THE MORMONS -- POPULATION -- RELIGIOUS, ETC.

(Description of Salt Lake City & the Mormons -- under construction)

 


Notes: (forthcoming)

Nauvoo, From the Mississippi, Looking Down the River.

 

Note 1: No information has survived as to who the artist was, or exactly when this fetching view of old Nauvoo was first sketched. After appearing as a steel engraving in the  New York Illustrated News, copies were reprinted in various other media, including the July 22, 1854 issue of the Boston periodical, Gleason's Pictorial.

Note 2: The illustration was accompanied by a single paragraph of general, descriptive text, not reproduced here.

THE  MORMONS

(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

The  Mormons.
_______

(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMONS.
_______

Special Correspondence of the New-York Daily Times

                                        Territory of Utah,
                                        Great Salt Lake City, April 19, 1853.

Before I had the high honor of a residence among the Latter-Day Saints, I supposed them the most harmonious brother-and-sisterhood the world ever saw. A more discordant set of harmonies, however, were never combined. A very short acquaintance with them, with some knowledge of their history, exhibits a very curious accumulation and loss of members constantly going on in the Mormon community. It seems to require about as much work to keep the converts after they are made, as to make them...


Note: The full text of the above report will be posted after a proper copy of the article has been located.

The  Tribune  on  Polygamy
_______

(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

Bill Smith, the Mormon prophet, and brother of Joe Smith, the renowned founder of the Mormon church, is now closely confined in the jail at Dixon, Illinois. He has escaped once, but was retaken at St. Louis, on his way to Salt Lake City.

Note: It must have been especially embarrassing to Elder William Smith, that he was unable to duplicate his famous older brother's well-publicized evasion of confinement (in exactly the same jail from which Joseph was released) in July, 1843, and was discharged to successfully dispute arrest, in one of ante-bellum Illinois' most famous legal cases. The Times evidently derived the above news item from the report published in the May 4, 1854 issue of the Illinois Dixon Telegraph.

FROM  GREAT  SALT  LAKE  CITY.
________

THE MORMON FAITH -- CLIMATE AND AGRICULTURE OF
THE MORMON SETTLEMENT -- LETTER FROM
GOV. BRIGHAM YOUNG.

From The St. Louis Republican, June 2.

A number of gentlemen from Great Salt Lake City, Utah Territory, were passengers in the Sam Cloon, on Tuesday night, from the Missouri River. They arrived at Fort Leavenworth on the 26th ult. by mail stage. Among them were the following gentlemen: W. C. Dunbar, Milo Andrews, C. H. Wheelock, J. M. Barlow, W. Frost, R. W. Wolcott, Seth M. Blair, Esq., U. S. District Attorney for Utah Territory, and Gen. James Ferguson. These gentlemen are all members of the Mormon Church, and have been sent on missions to portions of the United States, Europe and Ireland.

The left Salt Lake City on the 1st of May, and were only 23 traveling days to Fort Leavenworth. The winter had been very severe, and a great deal of snow had fallen. The wall around Great Salt Lake City was one-half completed, and the wall around the Temple was in the same state of forwardness. Money was plenty in the Valley, but there was a great want of ... [remainder of clipping cut off]


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE MORMONS. -- Twenty-eight years ago, "Jo Smith," the founder of this sect, and "Harris," his first convert, applied to the senior editor of The Journal, then residing at 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 unintelligible 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, 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 or 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.   [Albany Eve. Jour.


Note: 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. Weed left similar accounts in his 1883 Autobiography of Thurlow Weed and in an 1880 statement he prepared for Ellen E. Dickinson. Dan Vogel cites the date of this article as "August 3, 1854," see his Early Mormon Documents III pp. 327-331 for more information on Weed's reminiscences about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.

The Beginning of Mormonism.

From the Albany Evening Journal, July 31.

Twenty-eight years ago, Joe Smith, the founder of this sect, and Harris, his first convert, applied to the senior editor of the Journal, then residing at Rochester, to print his "Book of Mormon," then just transcribed from the "Golden Bible" which Joe 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 unintelligible jargon that it was thrown aside. Joe 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, 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 Joe Smith, with his 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 or 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.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM. -- The Sandusky (O.) Mirror notices the rejection by Thurlow Weed of the job of printing the Mormon Bible many years ago, which was published in The Tribune, and says:

"The veritable Joe Smith, the Mormon prophet, about thirty years ago loafed about the tavern on the Susquehanna, near the Great Bend. He courted the daughter of a respectable farmer named Hal[e], but the old man forbid him his house. He took advantage one Sunday of the absence of the old man at church, took a yoke of oxen and wagon, the girl's bedding, loaded them all up and put off, got married and then cheated his father-in-law. It was near Great Bend, on the New-York side of the river, that Joe pretended to find his revelation on stone! We were then a printer's devil, and carried a one horse mail from Montreal to Great Bend, and well remember of hearing frequently of the pranks of 'Lazy Joe.'"


Note: The Weekly Democratic Mirror (a.k.a. "Bay City Weekly Mirror" in 1854) was published in Sandusky, Erie Co., Ohio. The identity of the writer (who claims to have known Joseph Smith c. 1827) of this report (along with the name of the paper where he once worked as a "printer's devil) remains unknown. Thirty-five miles SW of Sandusky lies Gibsonburgh, Ohio, where D. P. Hurlbut settled in about 1854.

ORIGIN  OF  THE  BOOK  OF  MORMON.

The following account of the origin of the Book of Mormon was given to the writer of this article by the widow of the writer of the said book. She was a native of Pomfret, Conn., of respectable family and connections, and her statement is entitled to full credit, which is in substance as follows:

"A Mr. Spalding, her former husband, was a native of Ashford, Conn., a clergyman by profession, who removed with her into the State of Ohio. After some years' residence in that State, he became unable to follow his professional calling, from feeble health, which confined him to his domocil. In this situation of health, mind and location, the various ancient mounds and fortifications, so common in that region, attracted his attention; and the probable science and civilization of their builders, so far in advance of the natives of the country, led him to inquire by whom they were constructed, and from whence a people came, who could perform these stupendous labors. For his own amusement, and the exercise of his mind and inagination, he commenced writing, in the solemn style, his ideas of the migration of mankind, from the time of their dispersion after the deluge, through the regions of the East to this Western continent, giving such romantic names and descriptions of persons and places as his imagination furnished him with. His neighbors also enjoyed the fruits of his labors, and as he progressed, spent their evenings at his house, to hear and enjoy the effusions of his vivid imagination. These manuscripts, after the death of their writer; falling into the hands of designing Mormon prophets, have by them been claimed to be miraculously given and discovered; and, though written without any evil designs, have been made the instruments of leading many honest credulous minds into this fallacious delusion."

I have been induced to give this statement publicity, to prevent further imposition upon human credulity, and in the hope that further light may yet be given to the public, from others, concerning the rise of this spreading delusion.     S.


Note 1: The above paraphrase of an account reportedly provided by Solomon Spalding's widow, closely parallels her better known 1839 statement. The original text from which the 1854 paraphrase is derived, was apparently provided by Matilda Spalding Davison some time before her death in 1846. Two other statements from about the same period are credited to the widow: an 1842 reply to Rev. Gaston and an undated account first quoted from in 1851.

Note 2: The 1854 paraphrase of the widow's account bears a peculiar similarity to a statement attributed to her brother-in-law, John Spalding, which was also published in the 1851 source. John says that a story written by his brother, Solomon Spalding, relates that "the American continent was colonized by Lehi, the son of Japheth, who sailed from Chaldea soon after the great dispersion." The 1854 paraphrase has the widow recalling that Solomon Spalding wrote about "the migration of mankind, from the time of their dispersion after the deluge." Obviously, while such a fictional history might bear some resemblance to the Book of Ether in the Book of Mormon, it would not tie the ancestry of the American Indians to the wandering Israelites of a much later period. John Spalding solves this seeming dilemma concerning the content of his brother's writings, by saying, "Long after this, Nephi, of the tribe of Joseph, emigrated to America with a large portion of the ten tribes whom Shalmanezer led away from Palestine."

THINGS  IN  UTAH.
_____

POLYGAMY  AND  SLAVERY.
_____

GLORY  OF  POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY.
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The Advantages of Having Many Wives.
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NO CHANCE FOR ONE-HORSE POLITICIANS.
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MOVEMENT  FOR  CONVERTING  THE  WORLD.

From The Chicago Tribune.

Through the kindness of a friend who resides in this city, we are permitted to publish the following letter from one of the "Saints" of Salt Lake City, concerning his experiences in religion, the character of Deseret, its climate and society, and that "peculiar institution" of Deseret, Polygamy. It is the clearest exposition and boldest defense of Polygamy that we have yet seen, and coming from a person who possesses three wives, with a prospect of more, its arguments, and the facts stated, demand attention. We especially invito a perusal of it by Judge Douglas and his friends, whose "Popular Sovereignty" doctrine is to legalize Polygamy in Deseret and Utah, and, it may be, in Illinois also.

---

City of Salt Lake, (Deseret,) July 29, 1854.      

My Dear Friend: I have been promising myself the pleasure of writing to you a long family sort of letter for the last eighteen months, as I assured you I would when we parted, and I should have done so, only that, somehow, when I had opportunities of sending one, one thing or another was sure to interfere with my time for writing.

"The fact is, the Salt Lake City is a place for work, and loafers and lazy people are entirely out of their element here. I never lived in a place where there is so prevalent a spirit of industry, or where drones are so little tolerated. As a consequence, there is scarcely any poverty -- none, I may say, except that which is the result of sickness and other misfortunes; and in such cases it is not marked by the painful features which are observable in the quarters of the poor in Rochester, Buffalo, and Chicago, where I have had opportunities of seeing for myself; for here, the poor are taken care of by the voluntary and liberal contributions of all, which are made in a profusion that you could not find in a community of skinflint Presbyterians, iron-sided Baptists, experience-telling Methodists, or with sanctimonious members of evangelical churches in general. No, no. Here there is a brotherly feeling, such as marked the character of the early Christians; and here is understood in its fulness the great truth, "He that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord."

"When I last saw you, in 1851, now nearly four years ago, you expressed your regret that I should connect myself with a church and become a member of a community, the doctrines and rule of conduct of which were repugnant to all the social rirtues and the religious principles which I had been taught from my childhood up to 1846. I had then (1851) lived five wars a believer in the truths of the Book of Mormon -- had steadily, and as faithfully as I knew how, examined the tendencies of those truths, and compared them with the old church of my father -- I may say fathers also, for they were all of one faith for three generations back -- and I had come to the conclusion that I had at last found out what was best for my spiritual wants, here and hereafter. It was after this long experience -- this forty years in the wilderness -- that I became satisfied with my duty, and set out, with my family, for the City of Deseret. Sarah Ann, you know, had her doubts about the move, especially as she had heard awful stories about the Mormons, who, following the example of the old Patriarchs, from Abraham down, had established social laws different from those which she had been accustomed to look upon is sacred. Louisa, our eldest girl, then fourteen, shared the feelings of her mother somewhat, but it had no foundation beyond education, and, I felt, would soon be eradicated.

"When I arrived in this city, I found all the comforts that I had expected, and was treated with a kindness and consideration that I never met with in New York, or any other State. While each person here was intent upon the acquisition of wealth, and all were as busy as bees, their conduct toward myself and all other new comers, impressed me with the belief that they only labored for wealth that they might have a means of benefiting those whom fortune had not favoured. My subsequent observation has not effaced but deepened that impression. There appears to be the greatest pleasure manifested by high and low, and especially by those who are high in the Church, in aiding the poor and helping them to help themselves -- the highest order of charity, in my estimation. Each one seems to feel that "it is better to give than to receive;" and the universal practical rule is, "that he that giveth to the poor lendeth unto the Lord." And the truth of this latter principle has been fully and satisfactorily tested. The poor who are assisted soon become active and useful members of society and the Church, and are enabled to pay back, an hundred-fold, all that they ever received.

"So much for things in general. And now a word about the country. My dear friend, you have read Moore's enchanting description of the "lovely vales of Cashmere." but I venture to say they will not at all compare in beauty or in delicious atmosphere with the charming valleys which are scattered all over Deseret like little Edens, while our mountain scenery is magnificent -- grand beyond the power of description. Here is the place for poetry and song, where one is perpetually surrounded by scenery and associations that develop the highest religious sentiments. The soil of our valleys is good; not as deep as the soil of the Genesee Valley, or as the Illinois prairies, but it is more lively, and produces more than any soil I ever saw in its virgin state. There is scarcely any species of grass, grain, or fruit, that we cannot grow in the fullest perfection, and, if farming receives the attention that it does in England and Holland, as I have no doubt it will, Deseret will be capable of feeding a population as large as three or four States like New York.

"When I first came here, I went at my trade and did well. Last year, however, I obtained a farm at the foot of one of the mountains which surround this valley, and I expect to have a little paradise of a place in a few years. Neighbours are numerous and good, and we shall possess all the educational advantages that you have in the States, and better, I think, for here our schools are better regulated. I still live in the city, that is, my family does, and I am here the greater part of my time, but I expect to take up my residence in the country early next year.

"About the progress the Territory is making, I need not say anything, as you will get it more in detail from the papers I send you. Suffice it to say, that we go ahead at a rate I never expected, however large my expectations were.

"But I suppose by the time, or before, you have read thus far, you have grown impatient, and wonder if I am going to avoid the subject which appears to concern the people of the States, as regards Deseret, more than anything else. No, my dear friend, I am not going to dodge it. There was a time when I might have been disposed to do so, knowing your feelings, but it is not right, and I shall be candid.

"Polygamy! POLYGAMY!! POLYGAMY!!! That is the word which you call it, and one would think, from the holy horror with which your editors, preachers, and politicians utter it, that it is a crime of a magnitude surpassing all others. My dear friend, I do not doubt many of you think so, but it is all the result of education -- nothing else, I assure you; for I speak from experience, as do thousands of others hereabout, who once thought as you do. But you must know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints discards all sectarian dogmas and comes to the plain, simple truths of the Bible -- the whole Bible, not a part of it. It looks to the lives of the Patriarchs and Prophets -- the men of "pure religion and undefiled" -- for principles, as well as to those who came after them. It sees no higher or more heavenly state of society than that which existed under the authority and direction of Jehovah anterior to the Christian era. Not that it opposes any doctrine of Christ, or those authorised to speak for him, for it would leave every one free; no, it gives the highest sanction it can give to every principle elaborated in the New Testament, while it makes the Old and the New entirely harmonize. The doctrine is founded on the Bible -- the eternal rock of Truth.

"But about the practical operation of Polygamy, as you call it. That is what you most probably want to know, and I shall enlighten you from my observation and experience.

"When I came to Deseret there were not many who were in the enjoyment of more than one wife, and many, or most of the new-comers, were opposed to it. But as they saw how beautifully and harmoniously those families lived where there were two or more wives, their prejudices gradually gave way, and among no class was this change more apparent than the women. At the present time, if a vote were taken upon the subject, I venture to say that nine out of every ten women who have lived here two years, would sustain our present social system in this particular. They are more for it than the men, for upon many of the latter it entails heavy burdens; though the truth is, our wives in Deseret make no pretensions to being fine ladies, their highest ambition being to help their husbands and their poor brothers and sisters in the Lord's Church. There are very few men here who have more than five wives, and a large part have but one, while some have none. For myself, I have three. Sarah Ann, your cousin, whom I married in York State, has the largest share of my affections, and takes precedence in the management of the household. Two years ago I married Miss S., formerly of Ohio, and she has charge of the education of the children and attending to the clothing. My other, which I took three months ago, is from near Hamburg, Germany. She is larger than either Sarah Ann or Elizabeth (the name of my second wife), and, I say it without invidiousness or impropriety, is decidedly handsome. Her person is of good size, very round, full chest, bright flaxen hair, and a soft blue eye. She enters into the duties of her new situation with wonderful alacrity, and is very happy, as are also Sarah Ann and Elizabeth. There is none of that jealousy -- that disposition to tear out each other's hair -- which you have probably imagined would show itself in such cases. We are all looking forward to the time when we shall be together constantly in our little Eden, where we can work for each other, and raise our children in "the fear and admonition of the Lord." You may be surprised at this; but you will be still more so, when I assure you that all of my present wives are anxious that I should get another -- one who is fitted by education, and physically adapted, to take charge of the business of the dairy. With such an arrangement of my household, every department of a well-organized establishment, on a patriarchal scale, would have a head to it, and be governed in order. I have no inclination to comply on my own account, as I am well satisfied with those I now have, but if I should do so, it will be entirely out of regard for them.

"My daughter, Louisa, is engaged to be married to a man from Pennsylvania, who has already a wife and three children. It did not entirely meet my approbation, but I did not interpose a single objection, so long as she was satisfied, and the marriage would be in a high degree honorable to her, as well as advantageous in a worldly view.

"Now, my dear sir, you say, what is to come of all this? Let me tell you what has come of it. In Deseret, there are no libertines, with their paramours, no houses of prostitution, no cases of seduction, or those which disturb the peace of families m the States, under your laws. Here, every woman can have what God intended she should -- a husband -- and every man that wants to, may have a wife. And the woman that is the wife of a man who has one or more other wives, is more fortunate than if she were the only one, for in case of plurality the duties of the house are divided. The children here are pretty numerous, I must admit, but this should and does contribute to the happiness of the true followers of the Lord, from whom we have learned that our duty is to multiply and replenish. But, mark this: there are no illegitimate children in Deseret, no children of shame who are ashamed of their mothers, and a disgrace to any but the lowest society.

"I shall not enter into an argument to attempt to convince you that your sentiments in regard to the marriage relation are the result of education and are wrong. I wish you could live here a year or two, however, and I have not a doubt your acts would show you had changed your opinions.

"We learn from the States that you are greatly excited about the Slavery question, and our institutions are much canvassed in connection with the Popular Sovereignty doctrine of your Senator, Mr. S. A. Douglas. We wish your politicians would let us alone; that is all we ask of them. We have none of the breed here. The climate of Deseret is not congenial to them, and our wives will not give birth to children who are adapted to such a low life as the politician necessarily leads. It is said that Governor Young is to be removed, and a Washington politician appointed in his place, very well, let him come. The people of Deseret will treat him politely, and let him alone. He may stay in Washington and have just as many duties to perform as Governor, as if he were here.

"But we believe in the Popular Sovereignty doctrine. It is upon this that we stand, and with it we shall defend ourselves against the assaults of the world. It is the true doctrine, and I am sure it will triumph.

"I have not had an hour's sickness since I came here, neither has any member of my family. I have four more children than when we left Illinois, and it is not improbable that I may have many more. Certainly I hope so.  *  *  *  *

"You can get no true accounts from Deseret from your newspapers. The only way to appreciate, and to learn to love our institutions, is to live here."

---

From The Chicago Press.

We passed half an hour yesterday in the company of two very intelligent representatives of the "Latter-Day Saints" in Utah -- Messrs. John Taylor and N. H. Felt. These gentlemen represent affairs in Utah in a very flattering light. The Saints are rapidly surrounding themselves with the various comforts and many of the luxuries of civilization. Emigration and natural increase are adding daily to their numbers, and the day is not very far in the future when Utah will be "knocking" for admission into the family of States, or preparing to defend an independent sovereignty of her own, in the mountain fastnesses, by the hardest kind of "knocks." The crops of the past season had been somewhat injured by the grasshopper; but still, our informants assured us, there would be the greatest abundance harvested for the use of the Saints, and a surplus for the constantly arriving emigrants, as well as for those who may take Salt Lake in their way to California. Messrs. Taylor and Felt are on their way to New York, for the purpose of establishing a paper in that city, to be devoted to the propagation of the doctrines held by the Saints, and for the purpose of "carrying the war into Africa," whenever and wherever provocation thereto may be offered. Mr. Taylor, in addition to the dignity of the "Apostleship" -- and a jolly, rubicund, wide-awake "Apostle" he is -- brings to the editorship of The Mormon a manifold experience in the profession, and we doubt not its columns will be eagerly and satisfactorily perused by the Saints into whose hands it may fall. Gentile though we be, we shall look for it with some interest ourselves, and our readers will doubtless be delectated with occasional excerpts from its columns touching the polity, politics, and domestic institutions of the Saints, as the same may be developed to the world. The object in establishing an organ in New York, Mr. Taylor assures us, is twofold. First, to defend the people of Utah from the misrepresentations of lying letter-writers and designing politicians; and secondly, to minister to the wants of the Saints scattered throughout the States. The mischief growing out of the two causes above-named has tended much to hinder the spread of Mormonism in the States, and greatly vexed and scandalized the pious souls who play the shepherd over the sheep collected in Salt Lake Valley. Our informants assured us that the people of the States have been led into many erroneous opinions touching the light in which executive appointments for Utah are looked upon. They desire competent and discreet men -- nothing more. Men of this character, they say, they have among themselves, more than sufficient to fill all the offices, and they think the President would only be carrying out his own doctrine of Popular Sovereignty, were he to so far respect the popular wish of the people of Utah as to select his appointees from among them. Nevertheless, they say, any competent, well-behaved man will be well received there as a territorial officer, if he will devote himself to the legitimate business of his office and let other matters alone. But the trouble has been, with a very few exceptions, that while the appointees were notoriously incompetent for the duties of their offices, they also intemeddled with the institutions and domestic relations of the "Saints" in a manner quite extra official, and carried things in a style of lordly superiority over those who considered themselves their equals in every respect. This is what they complain of. They want no tenth-rate lawyers placed over them, and they are by no means desirous that Utah should I be made a Botany Bay of, for the banishment of broken-down political hacks, who have sunk their character and capital in the States. We inquired of them about the Governorship of the Territory." Their answer was, that the people of the territory preferred Brigham Young in that capacity to any other living man. But they would not contend on this point. They would receive any competent man President Pierce might send out. to them as Governor. As for brother Brigham himself, he did not want the office -- would prefer not to be encumbered with it -- had his head, hands and heart full of other and more important matters. The rumors recently circulated respecting this matter, they said, originated at Washington, and were put afloat for political efi'ect. The people of the Territory care but very little about the matter one way or, the other.

As respects Slavery in the Territory we were assured there was but little of it there -- yet it is there. Some slaves had been liberated by their owners since they were taken to Utah: others still remain slaves. But the most of those who take slaves there pass over with them in a little while to San Barnardino -- a Mormon settlement in California, some 700 or 800 miles from Salt Lake City. How many slaves are now held there, they could not say, but the number, relatively, was by no means small. A single person had taken between 40 and 50, and many had gone in with smaller numbers.


Notes: (forthcoming)

 
(Mormon Legion threatens U.S. troops -- under construction)

 


Note: This report from Salt Lake City tells about a serious collision between U.S. soldiers and the citizens, Mormons ordered out the Legion, threatening to destroy the whole battalion of U.S. troops. Col. Steptoe was appointed governor of the territory with Brigham Young as his vice-governor.

THE BEAVER ISLAND MORMONS. -- The Cleveland Plain-dealer states that the Mormons are leaving Beaver Island, in Lake Michigan, en masse, and are selling their property for the most they can get the prophet Strang has left for Wisconsin. The Mormons do not appear to have lost anything of their religious peculiarity, as they have taken all their young wives and left the old women and babies. It seems to be the universal opinion of the lake navigators that Strang and his followers deserve the treatment they have received.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Mother  Lucy  Smith.

                                              WASHINGTON, D. C., July 5, 1856.
ED. MORMON: -- In the 19th number of your paper I read a notice of the death of Mrs. Lucy Smith, mother of Joseph Smith, the Prophet, and who has been for the last twenty-six years familiarly known to all the saints as "Mother Smith."

She was born in Gilsum, Cheshire county, New Hampshire, July 8, 1776. She was the daughter of Solomon Mack, who was born in Lyme, New London county, Connecticut, September 26, 1735. He served in the war against France, and took part in many severe contests, and retired from them suffering many personal injuries, and was discharged in 1759; subsequently married Lydia Gates, daughter of Nathan Gates, of East Haddam, Ct.

He commenced a new settlement in the wilderness, forty miles from inhabitants, his wife adding to the duties of mother those of instructress, as there were no schools in the wilderness. On the commencement of the War of Independence he enlisted into the service of his country; was for a considerable length of time in the land forces, and afterwards -- accompanied by two of his sons, Jason and Stephen -- entered the navel service of the colonies, and continued to encounter many of the stirring and thrilling incidents to which our young marine was constantly exposed until the close of the war. Mother Smith was therefore born in troublesome times, the first seven years of her life being spent in the care of her pious and intelligent mother, while her father and brothers were battling for the independence of their country. They were exposed to every vicissitude which was incident to the distracted state of the colonies, and the absence of the protectors of the family.

In youth, Lucy was somewhat remarkable for a pensive character; her mind being awakened to the death of her sister Lovina, she determined to obtain that which she heard spoken of so much in the pulpit -- "a change of heart." Of this circumstance she says in the history of her life: -- 'To accomplish this I spent much time in reading the Bible and praying in my great anxiety to experience a change of heart." She went to live with her brother Stephen, in Tunbridge, Vermont, and on the 24th of January, 1778, was married to Joseph Smith, by whom she had ten children -- Alvin, born Feb. 11, 1779 -- who died Nov. 19, 1824; Hyrum, born Feb. 9, 1800; Sophronia, born May 18, 1803, at Tunbridge, Vermont; Joseph, Jr., born Dec. 23, 1805, at Sharon, Windsor County Vermont; Samuel Harrison, born March 13, 1808, and died July 10, 1844; Ephraim, March 13, 1810, died March 24, 1810; William, born March 13, 1811 at Royalton, Vt.; Catherine, born July 8, 1812, at Lebanon, New York; Don Carlos, born March 25, 1816, at Palmyra, Wayne Co., New York; Lucy, born July 18, 1821, at Palmyra, Wayne Co., New York. The care of rearing such a family, the labor of opening new farms in a wilderness country, (as Western New York then was), which must have necessarily surrounded a mother, where a family enduring much sickness and distress from accident were her lot. She became a member of the Presbyterian church, and three of her children, Hyrum, Samuel Harrison and Sophronia followed her example; and while Joseph was seeking the Lord with all his heart to know what church he should join, the visions of heaven were opened unto him, and he was entrusted with the Plates of the Book of Mormon, inspired by Revelation to translate them, received the authority of the Priesthood, and laid the foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, which is now so widely spread throughout the world.

During the infancy of the Church, and while the work preparatory to its organization was going on, Mother Smith and her family had severe struggles to encounter by the opposition of the world, persecution, poverty and sickness; her faith and works were sufficient to bear her up against every oppression which men heaped upon her devoted family. Immediately upon the organization of the church, on April 6, 1830, she received baptism for the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost, which buoyed her up against all opposition, and prepared her to rejoice amid the most dreadful persecutions and sacrifices that mortal was ever called upon to endure. In 1831 her husband and family moved to Kirtland, Ohio, where they resided until '37; but the hand of persecution was not arrested by this movement. Her son, Joseph, was followed by a multiplied succession of vexatious law suits, which were invariably unsuccessful, but being attended with heavy expense, served to impoverish the family. On the 25th of March, 1832, Joseph Jr., was dragged from his bed at midnight, daubed with tar and feathers, and otherwise severely injured. Aquafortis was poured into his mouth, he was choked by the throat and left for dead. His infant child, sick with the measles in bed with him, at the time of the outrage, was thereby exposed to night air, and died immediately (she [sic] may be called the first martyr of this dispensation).

In 1837 the persecution in that county became so dreadful that her husband was made a prisoner, and the family were under the necessity of fleeing from Kirtland, and afterwards located in the Far West Missouri -- but it appears only to encounter a more terrible storm. The fatigue of this journey of a thousand miles land travel, and -- performed under indigent circumstances -- were enough to wear our persons of their age, yet they were endured much better than could have been expected; but this labor was hardly dispelled by rest when a renewed persecution burst around the Saints with unabated fury.

The cruelty of this mob, exceeding all possibility of description, was legalized by the exterminating order of Lilburn W. Boggs, Governor of Missouri, and rigidly enforced by Major General Clark, who marched thirteen thousand men to Far West, and executed the cruel decree. Joseph and Hyrum, her beloved sons, were betrayed into their hands under positive pledges of protection.

They were then permitted to bid adieu to their mother and families, and were told that "to-morrow they die at 9 o'clock," from which fate they were providentially saved through the interference of the gallant General Doniphan, who declared to Major General Lucas, "It is cool blooded murder; and if you execute them I will hold you responsible before an earthly tribunal. So help me God!" An imprisonment of six months followed, during which time they were asked how they liked "Mormon beef," having reference to human flesh, on which they had been fed; all the members of the Church of the Latter Day Saints were expelled from the State during the winter and spring, or perished by the violence of their enemies. An aged father and mother arrived in Quincy, Ill., penniless and friendless, surrounded by the wives and children of those imprisoned, and who had perished from murder, exposure or otherwise. Soon after the family arrived at Nauvoo, Ill. The toil and suffering of this persecution was too much to be borne by a man of his age, and Joseph Smith, Sr., died at Nauvoo, Sept. 14, 1840. He had faithfully performed the duties of Patriarch over the whole church, and blessed the fatherless for six years. He was the first to receive the testimony of Joseph, and had borne the heat and burden of sustaining the word of the Lord all day long, and at last laid down to rest, full of faith, integrity, charity and good works, aged [sixty-nine] years and one month and two days.

Mother Smith was thus left a widow, worn out with toil and sorrow -- her house having been filled with sick, like a hospital, from the time of their expulsion from Missouri, many of whom owed the preservation of their lives to her motherly care, attention and skill in nursing them, which she did without any pecuniary consideration, and the extent of which cannot be appreciated but by those only who are personally acquainted with the dreadful scenes of sickness and distress which followed in consequence of the Missouri expulsion. From this time until the day of his death she lived with her son Joseph. She was visited, congratulated and comforted by thousands who had partaken of their bounty, or listened to her testimony, and those who were desirous of making her acquaintance. Her spirit was like a fountain of light, that dispelled error and disseminated truth, wherever its influence was felt. From the time of the commencement of the work until the death of her husband their house was open to all, and tens of thousands of persons listened with delight to her teachings.

On the 7th day of August, 1855 [sic], she was called upon to part with her youngest son, Don Carlos, who was suddenly snatched away from this vale of tears, occupying at the time of his death the position of Brigadier General of the Illinois militia, and editor of the Times and Seasons, leaving a widow and ten children. He was universally respected, and his loss deeply felt and deplored by the community. The assassination of Joseph and Hyrum, under the protection of the Governor of Illinois, so shocked and benumbed her sensibilities and her aged frame, that she never fully recovered. This awful scene, the bringing home of the mutilated bodies, the violation of all legal protection, the moaning cries of widows and fatherless children, brothers and sisters, besides tens of thousands of weeping friends, combined to form a scene that no mother upon the face of the earth was ever before called upon to encounter. As if the blow had not been sufficient to crush a mother's heart, Samuel Harrison Smith, in escaping from the murderers of his brothers, overheated himself, which brought on a fever, that terminated fatally, July 30, 1844.

But recovering somewhat from the effect of her afflictions, she composed a history of her life which contains many thrilling incidents of herself as well as that of her family, which are given in her own style, yet mingled somewhat with evidence of difficulty of her remembering dates. When the Saints resolved to leave Nauvoo for the Rocky Mountains, she addressed a general conference, bearing testimony of the truth of her desire to lay her bones in Nauvoo beside her husband and sons. From that time until the day of her death, she mostly resided in Nauvoo, with her youngest daughter, Lucy Miliken, excepting the two last years she resided with her daughter-in-law, widow of her son Joseph. She enjoyed the gifts and influence of the holy spirit much, and the following hymn was given her in 1833, which she sang in the Nephite tongue, which caused great sensation and tears to flow in the congregation, and the gift of interpretation followed. The hymn has reference to the last great battle of the Nephites against the Lamanites, around the Hill Cumorah, in the State of New York, where the plates were found from which the Book of Mormon was translated. It is called "Moroni's Lamentation:"

I have no home, where shall I go?
While here I'm left to weep below
My heart is pained, my friends are gone,
And here I'm left on earth to mourn.

I see my people lying round,
All lifeless here upon the ground;
Young men and maidens in their gore,
Which does increase my sorrows more.

My Father look'd upon this scene
And in his writings made it plain,
How every Nephite's heart did fear,
When he beheld his foes draw near.

With axe and bow they fell upon
Our men and women, sparing none;
And left them prostrate on the ground;
Lo here they now are bleeding round!

Ten thousand that were led by me
Lie round this Hill call'd Cumorah!
Their spirits from their bodies fled,
And they are numbered with the dead.

Well might my Father in despair
Cry, "Oh! ye fair ones, once how fair!
How is it that you have fallen? oh!
My soul is filled with pain for you!

My life is sought, where shall I flee?
Lord, take me home to dwell with thee;
Where all my sorrow will be o'er,
And I shall sigh and weep no more.

Thus sung the Son of Mormon, when
He gazed upon his Nephite men;
And women, too, which had been slain,
And left to moulder on the plain.
Blessed woman! her name and memory are engraven upon the tablets of the heart of tens of thousands. and will be handed down to millions yet unborn, that will speak her praise and talk of her virtues and goodness, of her motherly kindness, her watchful care and administration to the sick and afflicted, the kind and affectionate mother, the beloved wife, the partner of her aged and venerable husband, for her deeds of love, her virtue, faith, hope and confidence in her God, the trials and persecutions she bore for the gospel of truth, her unvarying steadfastness to truth through all circumstances, and filled with charity to all, her God blessed her and nerved her up to bear the persecutions and trials she was called upon to undergo, and gave her strength and grace sufficient for her day, and in copious profusion poured out his Holy Spirit upon her.

Few indeed are the women that have ever lived or graced this lower world, that occupied the position she did. The chosen of the Lord, to bear and bring into the world one of the greatest prophets the world ever produced; one chosen and ordained of God to bring about His glorious purposes in the dispensation of the fulness of time that all holy prophets have spoken concerning ever since the world began, together with his brother Hyrum, clothed with the holy priesthood of God, holding the keys of salvation, immortality and eternal life to a ruined and fallen world -- conversed with God and his Redeemer, and with holy angels from the courts of the eternal world -- gazed upon the order and glory of the same, and understood the law that appertains to eternal life. Not only so, but the wife, the partner of the early father of such sons and prophets; her husband a patriarch of the Most High over all the church of God, pouring out his blessings in the name of his Redeemer upon the heads of thousands, by virtue of his priesthood and office, and causing the hearts to beat with joy; also many others of her sons, valiant in the cause of truth, clothed with power and eternal life, priests of the most high God. But her labors are closed, and like a shock of corn fully ripe, she has gone down to her grave in peace, full of honor and goodness, there to await the morning of the first resurrection, after having lived to commit to the silent tomb her husband, Joseph, Hyrum, Don Carlos, Samuel, &c.; but she has gone to meet them, kings and priests of the Most High, Noble mother in soul! blessed among women and queen among the mighty ones! thy calling and election has been made sure; and in the morning of the resurrection, with thy husband, sons and daughters wilt thou come forth and take thy place, and stand in thy lot with thy husband and offspring -- no more to be separated, no more to endure persecution, trials, tears, pains and sorrows, but bask in the smiles, fruition and blessings of a celestial world, under the smiles of thy Good and Redeemer while eternity goes and eternity comes. Peace to her ashes! Amen.
                                     G. A. SMITH.


Note: This article was reprinted in the August 23, 1856 issue of the LDS Church's San Francisco newspaper -- The Western Standard. Apostle George A. Smith carefully avoids telling exactly where Lucy Mack Smith died, who preached her funeral sermon, who her family survivors were, etc., etc. He also neglects to name the "daughter-in-law, widow of her son Joseph." As polygamy was openly being professed by the Salt Lake City Mormons at this time, the identity of Lucy's "daughter-in-law," among her late son's many wives is left ambiguous -- except to implicitly admit that it was a daughter-in-law who had not obeyed the LDS First Presidency's order for all straggling Mormons to move west. George A. Smith further neglects to mention that Lucy Mack Smith and most of her family had denounced Brigham Young and allowed their names to be published in support of the holy presidential claims of Elder James J. Strang. Since Lucy never came back into the Brighamite fold, the heavenly glories her nephew George paints as awaiting her, beyond the veil, might be just a little suspect, from the orthodox Utahan viewpoint at least.

Polygamy  in  Utah.

The Progress of Mormonism.

(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

Resignation of Judge Drummond.

To the Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, Attorney-General of the United States, Washington City, D. C.:

MY DEAR SIR: As I have concluded to resign the office of Justice of the Supreme Court of the Territory of Utah, which position I accepted in A.D., 1854, under the administration of President Pierce, I deem it due to the public to give some of the reasons why I do so. In the first place, Brigham Young, the governor of Utah Territory, is the acknowledged head of the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," commonly called "Mormons"; and, as such head, the Mormons look to him, and to him alone, for the law by which they are to be governed: therefore no law of Congress is by them considered binding in any manner.

Secondly. I know that there is a secret oath-bound organization among all the male members of the church to resist the laws of the country, and to acknowledge no law save the law of the "Holy Priesthood," which comes to the people through Brigham Young direct from God; he, Young, being the vicegerent of God and prophetic successor of Joseph Smith, who was the founder of this blind and treasonable organization.

Thirdly I am fully aware that there is a set of men, set apart by special order of the Church, to take both the lives and property of persons who may question the authority of the church, (the names of whom I will promptly make known at a future time).

Fourthly. That the records, papers, &c., of the supreme court have been destroyed by order of the church, with the direct knowledge and approbation of Governor B. Young, and the federal officers grossly insulted for presuming to raise a single question about the treasonable act.

Fifthly. That the federal officers of the Territory are constantly insulted, harassed, and annoyed by the Mormons, and for these insults there is no redress.

Sixthly. That the federal officers are daily compelled to hear the form of the American government traduced, the chief executives of the nation, both living and dead, slandered and abused from the masses, as well as from all the leading members of the Church, in the most vulgar, loathsome, and wicked manner that the evil passions of men can possibly conceive.

Again: That after Moroni Green had been convicted in the district court before my colleague, Judge Kinney, of an assault with intent to commit murder, and afterwards, on appeal to the supreme court, the judgment being affirmed and the said Green being sentenced to the penitentiary, Brigham Young gave a full pardon to the said Green before he reached the penitentiary; also, that the said Governor Young pardoned a man by the name of Baker, who had been tried and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in the penitentiary, for the murder of a dumb boy by the name of White House, the proof showing one of the most aggravated cases of murder that I ever knew being tried; and to insult the court and government officers, this man Young took this pardoned criminal with him, in proper person, to church on the next Sabbath after his conviction; Baker, in the meantime, having received a full pardon from Governor Brigham Young. These two men were Mormons.

On the other hand, I charge the Mormons, and Governor Young in particular, with imprisoning five or six young men from Missouri and Iowa, who are now in the penitentiary of Utah, without those men having violated any criminal law in America. But they were anti-Mormons -- poor, uneducated young men on their way for California; but because they emigrated from Illinois, Iowa, or Missouri, and passed by Great Salt Lake City, they were indicted by a probate court, and most brutally and inhumanly dealt with, in addition to being summarily incarcerated in the saintly prison of the Territory of Utah. I also charge Governor Young with constantly interfering with the federal courts, directing the Grand Jury whom to indict and whom not; and after the Judges charge the Grand Juries as to their duties, that this man Young invariably has some member of the Grand Jury advised in advance as to his will in relation to their labors, and that his charge thus given is the only charge known, obeyed, or received by all the Grand Juries of the federal courts of Utah Territory

Again, sir, after a careful and mature investigation, I have been compelled to come to the conclusion, heart-rending and sickening as it may be, that Captain John W. Gunnison, and his party of eight others, were murdered by the Indians in 1858, under the orders, advice, and direction of the Mormons; that my illustrious and distinguished predecessor, Hon. Leonidas Shaver, came to his death by drinking poisoned liquors, given to him under the order of the leading men of the Mormon Church in Great Salt Lake City; that the late secretary of the Territory, A. W. Babbitt, was murdered on the plains by a band of Mormon marauders, under the particular and special order of Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and J. M. Grant, and not by the Indians, as reported by the Mormons themselves; and that they were sent from Salt Lake City for that purpose, and that only; and as members of the Danite Band they were bound to do the will of B. Young as the head of the Church, or forfeit their own lives.

These reasons, with many others that I might give, which would be too heart-rending to insert in this communication, have induced me to resign the office of Justice of the territory of Utah, and again return to my adopted State of Illinois. My reason, sir, for making this communication thus public is, that the democratic party, with which I have always strictly acted, is the party now in power, and therefore is the party the should now be held responsible for the treasonable and disgraceful state of affairs that now exists in Utah territory. I could, sir, if necessary, refer to a cloud of witnesses to attest the reason I have given, and the charges, bold as they are, against those despots who rule with an iron hand their hundred thousand souls in Utah, and their two hundred thousand souls out of that notable territory, but shall not do so, for the reason that the lives of such gentlemen as I should designate in Utah and in California would not be safe for a single day.

In conclusion, sir, I have to say that, in my career as Justice of the Supreme Court of Utah territory, I have the consolation of knowing that I did my duty; that neither threats nor intimidations drove me from that pat; upon the other hand, I am pained to say that I accomplished little good while there; that the judiciary is only treated as a farce. The only rule of law by which the infatuated followers of this curious people will be governed, is the law of the church, and that emanates from Governor Brigham Young, and him alone.

I do believe that, if there was a man put in office as Governor of that territory, who is not a member of the church (Mormon,) and he supported with a sufficient military aid, that much good would result from such a course; but, as the territory is now governed, and as it has been since the administration of Mr. Fillmore, at which time Young received his appointment as Governor, it is noon-day madness and folly to attempt to administer the law in that territory. The officers are insulted, harassed, and murdered for doing their duty, and not recognizing Brigham Young as the only law-giver and law-maker on earth. Of this every man can bear incontestable evidence who has been willing to accept an appointment in Utah; and I assure you, sir, that no man would be willing to risk his life and property in that territory after once trying the sad experiment.

With an earnest desire that the present administration will give due and timely aid to the officers that may be so unfortunate as to accept situations in that territory, and that the withering curse which now rests upon this nation by virtue of the peculiar and heart-rending in. situations of the territory of Utah may be speedily removed, to the honor and credit of our happy country,

   I now remain your obedient servant,
                                                    W. W. DRUMMOND,
                                            Justice Utah Territory.
March 30, A. D. 1857.


Note 1: See the May 20, 1857 issue of the Salt Lake City Deseret News, for a letter from Drummond's wife, revealing that her husband had abandoned her and taken up with a certain prostitute, whom he introduced in Utah as his actual wife. When Drummond got word of this impending, embarrassing disclosure, he left the Territory almost immediately. While some or all of what he says in his letter may be true, the Judge's dishonest misrepresentation of his marital affairs casts an offensive shadow over his entire tenure in Utah. Whether or not there is any truth in Drummond's allegations regarding Mormon complicity in the 1851 Gunnison massacre remains debatable. No hard evidence in support of his claims has surfaced since he first made them. However, for some of Drummond's reasoning on the inception of the incident, see the Judge's letter of April 14, 1857, published in the 1860 reprint of Gunnison's book, The Mormons.

Note 2: For more on the alleged Danite murder of Elder Almon W. Babbit, see Judge Drummond's letter in the May 20, 1857 issue of the Times.

What  Shall  we  Do  with  the  Mormons?

(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  CONDITION  OF  UTAH.
_______

To the Editor of The N. Y. Tribune.

Sir: Much attention is being directed to the Mormon question. What to do with Utah has become a problem, and must be an important one. To act correctly, the world ought to correctly understand. The isolation of their position, oaths of secrecy among themselves, and deception and falsehood practiced toward outsiders, prevent much being known of what is their actual condition. Any accurate irformation should therefore be acceptable, and consequently I venture to intrude.

I was entrapped into the Mormonism taught in Europe when a boy. In 1853, I came to this country, resided for nearly three years at Salt Lake City, became acquainted with the leading men, was initiated into the "Mormon Mysteries," have seen the system in its private workings; have utterly proved it, and proved it utterly corrupt. My opportunities for knowing the actual facts are undisputed by their most rabid adherents. To be silent as to crime is to connive with the criminals -- and that is to share their guilt. In the first place, permit me to correct a report which, though entirely unfounded, seems likely to be generally believed. Brigham Young has not left Salt Lake City. That item of news came from Carson Valley to San Francisco last February. There were then 800 miles of snow between Carson and Salt Lake Valley; hence they could not have obtained it even if true. When first reported in California, it was mentioned as only a "rumor;" it took some time of being handed about before it grew into a "report." I know Brigham intimately, and the relation he sustains toward the people; and with his influence, power, wealth and family at stake, he must ride on the waves or sink. Wherever the body of the Church sway him, there he will be. His authority is unquestioned, his influence universal; and if the majority of the Church be at Salt Lake, there Brigham is. There are 49,500 Mormons to about 500 "Gentiles" in Utah; hence it cannot be outside influence. The report is without foundation, and to delay action from such a report would be impolitic and unwise.

Whatever may be the course of conduct to determine on with regard to the Mormons, it should ever be remembered that the vast majority of them are already too much sinned against, and not smiling. The sorrows and sufferings endured by their deluded votaries, ensnared in Europe and beguiled to Utah, prove them at least sincere. Imposture is confined to a very limited circle; it is delusion that is spread. It is sad that they be so deluded, but it is monstrous to attempt to punish them for their misfortune. Some call for "an act of justice to sweep them off the earth." They may call such an act justice, but I should call it murder.

Congress, however, as the conservators of the public weal, owe it to the honest and sincere portion of the Mormons themselves to act iu the premises. It is sound policy ordinarily not to notice some delusions. They will collapse with their own bloated rottenness. It has been otherwise with Mormonism; for it has been too long neglected. I confidently and knowingly assert that had the proper men been sent to Utah years ago, Mormonism would not have appeared as it does to-day. Utah is not a field for worn-out political hacks nor sinecures for supple favorites. One man who was sent there had not been there three months before he allowed an Indian squaw to make him the laughing-stock of the community. Against another was a charge of allowing gambling for high stakes in his cellar. Against another was a charge of being accessory to an attempted assassination. It was rumored that another had permitted bribery and corruption. Another permitted his oath as a Judge to subserve his obligations as a Mormon. Others were drunkards and opium-eaters. One, a soldier and a gentleman, was bedazzled and befooled by Brigham, and while the little street vagabonds were laughing at how completely "Brigham had drawn the wool over his eyes," he threw up his own appointment as Governor, got up a memorial to President Pierce and induced his friends, civil and military, to sign it, praying the reappointment of Brigham Young as the only fit and proper person to be Governor of the Territory! Had Col. Sieptoe but seen things as they were at Salt Lake, it would have been a good thing for the world had he remained there. The men whom they send must not be poor enough to be bought, nor weak enough to be woman-led, nor simple enough to be hoaxed, nor so impetuous as to be chafed into premature and inconsiderate action, nor so flaccid as to be useless. They must go, not to enjoy their life, spend their money, nor waste their time, but as public laborers for the public good.

The majority of the Mormons are poor, and many are discontented. Promises of emolument and assistance were made to them in Europe. They did not come to the United States in admiration either of republican institutions or of the American nation. Their political proclivities were rather adverse to republicanism, and hence they tolerate more easily Mormon tyranny. Religious fanaticism did much to lead them there, but incentives of gain did more. The same inducements that led them to Utah would leud them from Utah. There are hundreds there very desirous, but quite unable to leave. Providing every day for that day's food, drained by outrageous civil taxes, and still more by extortionate ecclesiastical demands, they cannot provide the requisite two or three months' food in advance, to say nothing of the wagon to carry, or the team to haul it. With the eye of the authorities constantly on them; the slightest sign of apostasy furiously denounced; the first movement toward leaving indignantly threatened; mouthing declamation, disgusting slanders, merciless anathemas, and often arrests for pretended debt, seizure of property, and in some cases murder, the consequences ot the attempt, they are unable to leave. If Messrs. Coleman and other friends of California were to spend one-third of the money, employ one-third of the talent, and occupy one-third of the time in Utah that they do in these Eastern States, they could obtain in one year three times the amount of emigration to their adopted State from among the down-trodden and groaning Mormons themselves. When Col. Steptoe's command left Salt Lake there were many women who implored his protection to California, and notwithstanding the ferocious calumnies hurled against them by the Mormon dignitaries, seven left. Could such means be adopted as not only to secure their lives from the blood-stained hands of marauding Danites, but also to preserve their reputations from the taint of suspicion, hundreds.of women would gladly leave who are now sighing in want and groaning in anguish. I may, with your permission, propose such a plan at another time.

As to the duty of Congress toward Utah, what I know of the secret organizations and! positive and avowed intentions of the "authorities" there, permits but one opinion. I may take an opportunity to lay these matters before the pnblic. A few days before leaving California (in April) I met Mr. Tobin, who you will remember was with Col. Peltroe on the Santa Clara River 375 miles S. of Salt Lake City, when they were attacked in the night, three of their party seriously wounded and their horses stolen. Mr. Tobin has not, nor have I, the slightest doubt as to their attackers being Mormons. Mr. T. went to Salt Lake with Capt. Stansbury (T. E.), got acquainted with Brigham, was interested in his daughter Alice and became a Mormon. After an absence on business in the States, he returned to Utah in 1856, and renewed his correspondence with Alice Young, lived in Brigham Young's family and worked with his son, Brigham, jr. He began, however, to see that Mormonism as it is and as it was represented to be were two very different things; was forced also very unwillingly to believe that his betrothed wife, Alice Young, had sacrificed her purity; and he therefore broke up the engagement and fled with Col. Peltroe. Mr. T. had aroused the ire of the Mormons at home, excited their fears for the influence he might exert abroad, and the Mormons have but one course toward those who enkindle their hatred or their terror, and that is DEATH! Miss Alice Young, though under another and a written engagement to a Mr. Wright, now in the Sandwich Islands, where Brigham sent him to get rid of him, was hastily and conveniently married to one of Brigham's creatures. These facts Mr. Tobin stated to me in San Francisco, and he expressed his willingness to make affidavit thereto. Confirmed as they are by what I myself know of a part of them, I cannot but believe the whole. As to his would-be assassins being Mormons, I make not the slightest question. It is but one case out of many.

We have been lately startled by an account of the murder of Squire Babbitt, United States Secretary for the Territory of Utah, Mr. Sutherland, and others going to Salt Lake; and Messrs. Margetts, Conroy and families, Mormon apostates, coming from Salt Lake. The Mr. Thomas Sutherland was my own cousin, and the whole were my acquaintances. With Messrs. Margetts, Conroy and their families I was very intimate in England, long before any of us came to this country. And I utter my deliberate, closely-scrutinized and well-considered conviction, when I charge their murder on the Mormon authorities. Were I permitted the room, I am convinced I could make out so clear a case as to produce in every mind moral if not legal certainty.

Mormonism demands the attention of every man. If it be not accorded now, it will not be long before its votaries will compel it. It has lived too long, consummated too much misery, become too glaring a blot on human history, too monstrous a refutation of human progress. To say that it is impregnable, is to acknowledge error stronger than truth. To attempt to use force is to avow a moral defeat. Moral evils demand moral remedies. Mormonism has never yet been checked, because it has never yet been boldly confronted. Thousands of honest, industrious, enthusiastic emigrants have swelled their numbers from Europe almost unnoticed and quite unmet. They have, been crushed into positions at Utah worse than negro slavery in the cotton-fields of the South, increased the harems of jaded and sodden voluptuaries, become the dupes of knaves and the victims of delusion, and almost unwarned. Many lament and deplore their condition, but do no more. "The time has come, gravly and maturely come, for action. In Utah, energetic, strategic, wise and firm action to spread division, discontent, distress, dispersion; to sell their lands, to buy them out, to stop the murders, to protect persons desirous to leave from the doners of attack, the distress of false actions, the impressment of petty and therefore more virulent tyrants; to shield their characters from suspicion; to enforce law; prevent corruption, support the Judges, arrest conspiracy and punish crime. Abroad; among its sincere but outrageously deceived votaries, to expose their errors, doctrinal and practical; to plainly lay before them, neither blackened by prejudice nor extenuated by favoritism, the origin, history, present position and inevitable destiny of the whole system; to labor for the enlightenment of their minds, and the salvation of their souls, as being nearer, dearer and for, more important than that of some heathen who practices purity while worshiping the sun. To this mission I have devoted myself. I thank you for the space. I hope again to intrude, and am, yours very truly,

JOHN HYDE, JR.      

Note: See also the Placerville Mountain Democrat for Mar. 7, 1857.

The Salt Lake Infamy -- What Should Be Done.

In addition to still later intelligence from Utah received by last night's mail, we publish this morning a letter from Judge Drummond, late of that Territory, which fully corroborates the tale of Mormon wrong and oppression presented in our Salt Lake correspondence. The startling facts detailed in these communications can hardly fail to take deep hold upon public sentiment, and through it reach the heart and nerve the hands of the National Administration to speedy and decisive action. Already the tide begins to swell towards Washington, bearing upon its bosom a stern demand for needed succor to our fellow-citizens now writhing beneath the heel of Mormon theocracy; and we cannot but hope, despite Judge Drummond's gloomy forebodings, that Mr. Buchannan will give immediate and practical attention to this subject in preference to the distribution of foreign spoils.

There is much truthful satire in the suggestion of a cotemporary that the surest method of securing Mormon subjugation is to send a dozen runaway negroes into the Terreitory, who will of necessity draw a regiment of troops after them for their capture. If anttempt is made to resist the Fugitive Slave Law, in the case of a runaway here, how quickly are the most vigorous measures of physical force employed to maintain the supremacy of the law: but in Utah we see murders, arsons, robberies and the forcible debauch of defenceless women perpetrated day after day without even an effort to maintain the law and bring the guilty to punishment. These things have occurred for years --- the National Administration has been advised of the facts by every officer sent out there by the Government, -- some of whom were themselves Mormons, but have become disgusted with the iniquities perpetrated in the name of religion -- and yet the strong arm of the Government, raised so readily to strike down the slave and return him to bondage, moves not to the rescue. The return of the negro to servitude is made practically of far more importance than the reseue of white men and women from bondage more terrible than death!

It certainly seems almost incredible that such outrages, such usurpations of power and disregard of all law as are narrated by our correspondents could have been repeated time and again during months and years past, upon the soil of the American Union. Nevertheless such is the fact; for in "Utah's" veracity we have implicit faith. He is an educated· and high-toned gentleman, who writes of what he knows and nothing more. Besides, his statements are confirmed by similar recitals of other parties. Thus we have received the story of Mrs. Sutherland's persecution from two different sources, as well as the affecting narrative of the orphan child of Nash, who over the dead body of her father was told by the Bishop of Provo that she was now defenceless and must become his seventh wife, a command to which he finally found means to compel her obedience. But no further evidence of the reliability of these recitals is necessary than they themselves furnish; and the authorized speeches of Mormon leaders, the published letters from Utah found in Mormon journals, and the notorious fact that they uphold and defend the degrading institution of Polygamy, prepare the rellecting mind to receive these later revelations of Mormon iniquity with less of suspicion than othorwise would be natural.

Is it possible to subdue the rebellious people of Salt Lake? -- or have they become too strong for subjugation to the law? The question is frequently asked, and a doubtful response is sometimes suggested as a reason for the delay of action at Washington. Upon careful inquiry, we find that the Mormons of Utah are far less numerous than supposed, -- that while their census gives them some hundred thousand souls, there are, in fact, less than half that number. We are told that with the view to enhance their importance and their progress abroad, the Mormons gave to the Census takers an immense number of fictitious names, besides repealing frequently the names of actual citizens. For instance, John Smith has a dozen wives, and each may have three or four married children. The Patriarch would give to the Census taker, as his family, the whole number of his children, married and single, together with their numerous progeny: and subsequently these sons and daughters would again record themselves and families as another party altogether!

It is well known that there is widespread disaffection among the Saints at Utah, and that large numoors would avail themselves of the protection of an armed force to secede from the Church and throw off its allegiance; and it is believed by those competent to judge, that even five or seven hundred men, well disciplined and equipped, and under the command of brave and discreet officers, would be sufficient to establish the law in Utah, break down the despotic rule of Brigham Young and his Elders, and give peace and quiet to the country. These troops could easily be drawn from Kansas, Iowa or the force now about to depart under command of Col. Harney, on an expedition against the Cheyennes. Indeed it would be far better to let these poor savages pass for the present, if that be necessary, in order to provide the means to punish the still greater savages who libel civilization, and caricature religion at Salt Lake.

---

Interesting Letter from Judge Drummond.
Real State of Affairs in Utah

                    Chicago, Ill., Monday, May 4, 1857.

To the Editor of the New York Daily Times.

Sir: A valued friend of mine has just presented me an extract of a communication from [Feramorz] Little, of Great Salt Lake City, which made its appearance in some one of the New-York papers, in which this high functionary of Mormonism, this Elder of the Latter Days, this member of the "quorum" of the "seventies," this spiritual brother-in-law of Gov. Brigham Young, this tool, agent and abettor in the blackest crimes that the malignant heart of man can conceive, has had the church duty to perform in denying the allegations in my communications to Attorney-General Black. In the first place he asserts that the books and records were not destroyed. I assert that they were, that Mr. Little well knew it at the time of the black outrage, and that in his capacity of Elder he sat in judgment on certain members of the Church and cut them off, for the reason that they expressed a degree of dissatisfaction at that high-handed outrage of the High Priesthood of Mormonism.

Again he asserts that at the time that he left Salt Lake there were no persons in the Penitentiary of Utah save three Indians, who were convicted in A. D. 1854. This, I assert, is a gratuitous and unmitigated falsehood, and well-known by Mr. Little; and that there were at least four young men in the Utah Penitentiary who were tried and convicted before Elias Smith the Probate Justice of Great Salt Lake City and County, in March, A. D. 1856, and severally sentenced for fourteen, sixteen and eighteen months; and that, too, without those men having committed any criminal act known to the law books save the Mormon Priesthood, and that they were in the Penitentiary when he left Salt Lake City, and that he knew that fact.

Again: I assert that a man by the name of Lewis was tried and convicted before George Peacock, Probate Judge of Manti County, in Dec. last, of assault and battery, and put in the Penitentiary of Utah for five years' time, and that before he was incarcerated in the prison that he was castrated by a Mormon mob, all of which Mr. Little well knew and no doubt had an active hand in this bloody outrage.

Again, he asserts he never heard anything of the murder of the dumb boy, Whitehouse, by the English Doctor named Baker. I assert that Mr. Little's connection with that band of Church-licensed pirates and murderers well-known as Danites or Destroying Angels, is such as to keep him fully and promptly posted in all the nefarious acts of the Church, and in this case in particular, that he well knew that Baker was tried and should have been hung for one of the most brutal murders ever committed by the hand of man; that the Jurors did find him guilty of murder in the second degree, and that he, Baker, was sentenced to the Penitentiary in care of Deputy Marshal Anson Call, on Wednesday, and promptly pardoned by Gov. Young without ever seeing the inside of the Penitentiary, before the following Sunday; that Hosea Stout and John Bair were the lawyers who defended Baker, and that Joseph A. Kelting was the counsel for the Government on the trial; that Lewis Bronson, Wm. Stevens, Allen Russel, George Catlin, John Cavir, Chas. Price, Jeremiah Hatch, John Mangum, Warren Snow, Wm. Holden, and Orville Cox were the Jurors who tried the case.

Again, Mr. Little asserts that the murder of Col. Babbitt, on the Plains, last Fall, is all fancy, &c. Mr. Editor, I wish it was so; that Col. Babbitt was a bad man and a murderer, no man will deny, neither did I expect Mr. Little and his numerous licensed coadjutors in crime to acknowledge that they had murdered Babbitt and Sutherland, while on the way to the "peaceful valleys of the mountains;" but, Sir, it is the base and cruel act, the manner in which it was done, of which I complain. If Babbitt was worthy of death, let him be tried by a constitutional jury of his country, and not by a self-constituted court, known as the Melchisedec Priesthood, or higher law of a Church whose code is stained with the blood of countless scores. Babbitt had been in and out of the Church, as occasion seemed to require, for nearly twenty-nine years, and at times, when under the influence of liquor, told many solemn truths on the subject and design of Mormonism, among which were the secret oaths administered to the male members of the Church, all of which are pregnant with treasonable designs; and for this overt act the poor unfortunate fellow lost his life, in strict obedience to the absolute law of the Church, all of which Mr. Little well knew.

In connection with this communication I send you an affidavit made by Hiram A. Watson, now a resident of the city of Chicago, and a gentleman who enjoys the confidence of all who know him (save the Mormons;) and as Mr. Watson has been a minister of this Church, and was honest enough to leave it after losing several thousand dollars worth of property, I fancy that his statements will be taken for far more real worth than the man who is still in the meshes of the Church, who is still the pliant, willing and obedient tool of the Church, whose duty it is not only to say openly that the charges against the Mormons are untrue, but it is his duty to go into Court and swear that they are false and untrue, which he would assuredly do.

But, Sir, why is it that all the appointees under both Fillmore and Pierce's Administration so nicely agree as to the disloyalty of the Mormons, and their open and secret rebellion to the laws and instructions of the country? Does not the universal language of all these men agree in this state of facts? Certainly, Sir, no man will have the presumption or ignorance to take any other view of the subject. Then you must conclude that these men tell the simple truth as far as they go, or that they have all joined together as enemies to the truth.

Tear up the graves of a Shaver, a Harris, and of Babbitt; call together all the judges, secretaries and Indian agents, who have not been under the baneful influence of Mormonism, and in one universal tongue will they recite the same state of stubborn facts which constitute now a record that will yet agitate this happy country from centre to circumference. The American people, thank heaven, are kind and benevolent to a fault; hence, Sir, those arch-traitors are relying on that benevolence; and while the parent Government deals with this Territory as a rude child, in loose kindness, every effort is being made to bring into that Territory a class of ignorant aliens from foreign countries to build up an independent republic in the midst of the most beautiful republican form of Government that civilized men ever beheld, and after ages will yet point to America as a stench in the nostrils of all refined and civilized countries, unless a firm and speedy step is taken to suppress that spirit of organized hostility to our common country: and I, for one, Sir, confess that I have but little hope of seeing this question fairly and promptly met by this administration; but it will be met in the pulpit and on the rostrum, by politicians in after years, as a stepping-stone to political preferment, which should certainly be avoided; but will it?
  Respectfully yours,
                                                      W. W. DRUMMOND.

---

MR. WATSON'S AFFIDAVIT. -- The following is the affidavit referred to in Judge Drummond's letter:

State of Illinois, County of Cook, ss. -- Hiram A. Watson being first duly sworn on oath, says that he is well acquainted with Feramorz Little of Great Salt Lake City, in Utah Territory; that this affiant was once a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-Day Saints (commonly called Mormons), and lived in Great Salt Lake City for near three years, during which time he took three endowment degrees in the Church, and, that he knows from the order and secret organization in the Mormon Church that Mr. Little, as well as all other male members of the Church of the same degree and standing in the Church, have taken such oaths and obligations as to bind them to open hostility to the form of Government in the United States; that he is acquainted with Judge W. W. Drummond, late a Judge in Utah Territory, has read his letter of resignation in office, and from what he knows of Mormonism, he can fully vouch for much of what Judge Drummond charged against the Mormons in his letter of resignation, and that from what he has heard from reliable information he believes the whole to be true; that he knows Feramorz Little to be worthy of death under the laws of the country, and that the said Little is bound by his oath to the Mormon Priesthood to contradict the charges and statements of Judge Drummond, as well as all other Federal officers, relative to Mormonism, be they ever so true, or forfeit his life to the hands of Mormon assassins for failing to contradict the statements of the Gentiles and that said Little has often aided and abetted in the commission of murders at the request of his brother-in-law, Brigham Young, and that it is a part of the Church duty, of the whole Church, to murder and pit out of the way all who may question the authority of the Church, or disobey the will of Brigham Young; and that the secret organization of the Church is one of determined hatred to the American people, and particularly to the Constitution and laws of the United States; and that Mormonism teaches its Church members neither to obey nor respect any man in office or authority under the laws of the United States or any of them, unless that officer be a Mormon; and that he is bound to execute the will of the Church, and disobey the law of the land, or lose his life, according to the law of the Mormon Church, and further the deponent saith not.

Subscribed and sworn to before me, this 29th day of April, 1857.
                                                  H. A. WATSON,
W. L. Church, Clerk of Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.


Note 1: Almon Whiting Babbit (Babbitt) was born Oct. 12. 1812 in Massachusetts. He joined the Mormons in 1833 and was a participant in Joseph Smith. Jr's 1834 military expedition to Missouri. In 1840 Babbit was temporarily disfellowshipped for supporting President Sidney Rigdon's plan to build up an LDS stake at Kirtland, against the wishes of Joseph Smith, Jr. Eventually the Mormon leadership consented to the Kirtland project and Babbit served as Stake President there for about a year. Elder Babbit was in and out of the Church two or three more times prior to Smith's assassination, and after that he served as Brigham's major agent in Nauvoo for the next couple of years. Babbit went to Utah in 1848 but was not there for very long before he was sent as the hopeful Mormons' delegate to Congress in 1849. He was later made Secretary of Utah Territory and was functioning in that capacity when he was killed (reportedly by Indians) while traveling through Nebraska in the fall of 1856. Babbit's sister Drucilla married Isaac Sheen in 1841, probably at Kirtland (see Will. Bradford, Babbitt Family History, Taunton, MA, 1912, pp. 283-284, 499-501)

Note 2: Judge Drummond's recollection of Elder Babbit, "when under the influence of liquor," telling "many solemn truths on the subject and design of Mormonism," is quite believeable, especially in light of the fact that Babbit was temporarilly disfellowshipped from the Mormons, at Kanesville (Council Bluffs) in May of 1851 for "immorality and intemperance." This ecclesiastical action stands over and above his church trial at the same place, during August of the preceding year -- at that inquiry Babbit admitted: "I have been engaged in dirty and smutty work for this people... [however] the interest of this kingdom [justifies that]" (Pottawattomie High Priests High Council Minutes, 1850; Frontier Guardian, Dec. 11, 1850 to June 13, 1851).

Note 3: Elder Almon W. Babbit died under strange circumstances. He was away from the company he had been traveling with, practically alone on the prairie, where he was supposed to have been attacked and killed by Cheyenne Indians, on Sept. 7, 1856. This mysterious incident reportedly occurred near the confluence of Blue Cr. and the Platte River, at Ash Hollow, (located a couple of miles southeast of modern Lewellen, Garden Co., Nebraska).

ANOTHER  STARTLING  TRAGEDY.
_______

Elder Pratt, the Mormon, Killed -- Seduction of a Wife in California
She Deserts her Husband -- Steals Away her Children, and is
Sealed as the Ninth Concubine to her Debaucher.

From the St. Louis Democrat, 25th.

We have to record to-day another painful narrative of Mormon iniquity, seduction and villainy, followed up in this instance, however, as it will be seen, by a summary vengeance from the injured husband. The account which we publish below is taken from the Van Buren (Ark.) Intelligencer, and gives in brief the facts of the case pretty much as they have occurred. From the Fort Smith Herald and the New-Orleans Bulletin we also have confirmation of the whole story, up to the last act in the drama, the tragic death of Elder Pratt, the mormon apostle. Thus it will be seen what utter ruin and devastation have been wrought in a virtuous family by the designing arts of a saintly scoundrel and the lures of a false and licentious faith. Here is what the Van Buren Intelligencer records of the termination of this affair:

TRAGICAL. -- It is with regret that we have to chronicle the homicide, committed in our vicinity on Wednesday last, by Mr. Hector M. McLean, late of San Francisco, California, upon the person of a Mormon Preacher. More than all we do deplore the melancholy affair that led to its commission. The deceased, whose name was Parley Parker Pratt, was a man of note among the Mormons, and judging from his diary and his letter to Mrs. McLean, he was a man of more than ordinary intelligence and ability. He had been a Preacher and Missionary of the Mormons at San Francisco, California, where he made the acquaintance of Mrs. McLean, whom he induced to embrace the Mormon faith.

She was at that time living with her husband, Hector H. McLean: they were happy and prosperous until she made the acquaintance of Pratt, and embraced the Mormon faith. She is the mother of three children by McLean, two boys and a girl, and seems to be an intelligent and interesting lady: converses fluently, and with more grace and ease than most ladies. About two years ago, and soon after she became a convert to Mormonism, she made an attempt to abduct two of her children to Utah, but was detected and prevented by her brother, who was then in California, and residing with his brother-in-law, Mr. McLean. She soon after, however, found means to elope with said Pratt to Salt Lake, where it is said that she became his ninth wife.

After the elopement of Mrs. McLean, her parents, who reside near New Orleans, wrote to Mr. McLean, in California, to send the children to them. He did so. Several months after this Mr. McLean received news that his wife had been to her father, in New Orleans, and eloped with the two youngest children. He immediately left San Francisco, for New Orleans, and, on arriving at the house of his father-in-law, he learned from that Mrs. McLean had been there, and, after an ineffectual effort to convert her father and mother to Mormonism, she pretended to abandon it herself, and so far obtained the confidence of her parents as to induce them to entrust her in the City of New Orleans with the children; but they soon found she had betrayed their confidence, and eloped with the children.

They then wrote to McLean, in San Francisco, who, upon the receipt of their letter, went to New Orleans, and learning from them the above facts in relation to the affair, immediately started in pursuit of his children. He went to New York and then to St. Louis. While in St. Louis he learned that the woman and children were in Houston, Texas. On his arrival in Houston he found that his wife had left some time before his arrival to join a large party of Mormons en route for Utah. He then returned to New Orleans, and from there to Fort Gibson, in the Cherokee nation with the expectation of intercepting his wife and children at that point.

On arriving at Fort Gibson, and while there, he found letters in the Post-Office to his wife from Pratt, some of which were mailed at St. Louis, and others at Flint Post Office, Cherokee nation. We are unable to give the contents of these letters with particularity, but they contained the fact that McLean was on the look-out for her and the children, and that they were betrayed by the apostates and gentiles, and advising her to be cautious in her movements, and not to let herself be known, only to a few of the saints and elders. McLean then, upon affidavit made by himself, obtained a writ from the United States Commissioner at this place for their arrest, and succeeded in getting them arrested by the United States Marshal. They were brought to this place for trial, and after an examination before the Commissioner, were discharged.

Pratt, as soon as released, mounted his horse and left the city. McLean soon after obtained a horse and started in pursuit, and overtook Pratt about eight miles from the city, and shot him. Pratt died in about two hours after receiving the wound. This is a plain narrative of the facts as we heard them from the most reliable resources, which we give to our readers without comment, as we feel that we are unable to do so with justice to all parties. But deeply do we sympathize with McLean in the unfortunate condition in which Mormon villainy and fanaticism has placed him.

In addition to the foregoing, we have been placed in the possession of some of the letters from Elder Pratt to his victim after she had returned from Salt Lake, in order to get the children from their custody in New Orleans. The latter is addressed "Mrs. Lucy R. Parker, by P. Parker Pratt, from near Fort Gibson, Cherokee nation," dated April 14, 1857.

"Dear Eleanor -- McLean is in St. Louis; he has offered a reward for your discovery, or your children or me. The apostates have betrayed me and you. I had to get away on foot, and leave all save myself. If you come to Fort Gibson, you can hire a messenger and send him to Riley Perryman's mill, and let him inquire for Washington N. Cook, Mormon missionary, and when he has found him, he will soon tell where Elder Pratt-Parker is. Do not let your children or any friend know that I am in this region, or anywhere else on the earth; except it is an elder from Texas who is in your confidence, and even him under the strictest charge of keep you it.

"If you send a messenger to Perryman's mill for Elder Cook, in order to find me, send a note addressed to Washington N. Cook. Everybody knows the place. He may live a few miles distant, but the folks at Riley Perryman's mill know where he is. And they can be made sensible that it requires immediate action, some of them can go and find him. Your messenger can leave the note at Riley Perryman's, or with Elder George Burgess there, and return, but you must state in the note where you can be found, and Elder Cook will probably call on you before he can have time to see me, as I may be some days' journey away, for I don't expect you at Fort Gibson, as I don't believe you received my last letter mailed at St. Louis, March 4th, and addressed as usual in the usual place. Elder Cook knows all, and you can trust him with all necessary information. When I know that you and the children are safe and your circumstances, I will know what to do.

Be sure not to let the Texas company know anything, for all the frontiers are watched, and some of them may betray you there. I must hide you or pass you some other way.

Pray much. Be still and wise. I have made use of some of the late alterations in the alphabet. I am well,     And your own ____ _____ ______."

Other letters we may, perhaps, publish to-morrow, together with some further particulars, as the lateness of the hour and the want of space compels us to withhold them at present.

---

The Last Mormon Hegira -- Departure of Mormons from Illinois.

From the Alton Courier, May 21.

The Mormons of Alton have about all left, "bags and baggage," for the Upper Missouri, thence to take their weary march across the Plains. The most of them intend to go to a new region of the Salt Lake country, some 200 miles from the Great City -- to "the wilderness" as they term it -- and there found a new town. A small number, only, go to the city of Brigham Young. The latter band started from here one month later than the former. At New Florence, a town near St. Joseph, they are to be organized into companies, each two or three persons to one hand-cart, and with some ox-teams following, to carry the heavy luggage, and the aged and feeble; they set off upon their march as soon as the Spring weather permits. We are unable to state precisely how many persons or families have thus left our city, but have heard them estimated at 120 souls, and some 25 families. There is a large Mormon emigration, this Spring, of people who have lived in the various States during the Winter past, and whose eyes should have been opened somewhat to the real state of things in Utah.

The Peru Chronicle says that one day last week over 800 Mormons passed through that place on their way to Salt Lake City. We notice by the Rock Island papers that about 800 passed there about the same time, destined for the city of abominations. The "Outpost of Zion" at Cincinnati has been cleaned out by the citizens, and will shortly be on its way to Salt Lake City several hundred strong. The Cleveland Plain Dealer of a recent date says that about 2,500 will leave that city this Spring for the same place.

This infatuated people have left Alton, and forever -- and what have our philanthropic citizens done towards enlightening them, and causing them to abandon their perilous enterprise? Nothing, alas? This question is extremely applicable to those of our good folks who make themselves quite uncomfortable about the negro and his "citizenship."


Notes: (forthcoming)

MORMONISM.
_______

A  LETTER  FROM  WILLIAM  SMITH,
BROTHER  OF  JOSEPH,  THE  PROPHET.

Correspondence of the New York Tribune.                 

WARREN, Pa., May 19, 1857.        

In looking over affairs relating to Utah, and the development of corruption of the Mormon people, it may not be amiss to remind the people once again of the petition that was drawn up by myself and signed by many of the citizens of the State of Illinois, and sent to Washington at the time when Utah was recognized as a Territory, in which petition were set forth clearly and plainly the facts in regard to the treasonable designs of the Mormons against the United States Government; also the fact that these Mormons proposed establishing the doctrines of Polygamy, all of which statements the leading Mormons positively and peremptorily denied. The charges that are now preferred against Brigham Young and the Mormons generally, by ex-Justice Drummond and others from Utah, are so confirmatory of what was then published upon Mormon doings, that we presume the Government and public will no longer dispute our statement as set forth in said petition, which may now be found on the files of the Congressional journal for 1851. Also the statement made by Mr. Drummond in his letter of resignation, of the manner in which the late Secretary of the Territory, A. W. Babbit, was murdered on the plains by a band of Mormons.

I verily believe, also, the statement that other officers and friends to the Government have been in a most cruel and murderous manner put out of the way by these Mormons, as each action is in strict keeping with their character. I will here remark also, that all the plans for this Mormon treason against the Government were laid in councils at Nauvoo, previous to the expulsion of the Saints from the State of Illinois -- an expulsion caused by the wicked doings of the corrupt Danite leaders, including robberies and murders. While the Mormons were yet at Nauvoo, Brigham Young took the incipient steps toward the organization of the Danite banditti, by administering to such Mormons as he could influence an oath that, from that time forward, they would be the persistent enemies of the United States Government, and the Gentiles generally. Since their removal from Illinois, they have added the Danite and other treasonable oaths and covenants, binding still stronger and stronger the confederacy of traitors in their new and far-off Land of Zion, in the Valley of the Mountains.

I have no doubt whatever of the truth of the charges against the Mormon people of having committed the most wanton and cruel murders in the disguise of Indians; and if the spirits of their victims now sleeping in their graves at Nauvoo could but speak to the world they would reveal tales of cruelty and horror which would make the people stand aghast and cause these murderous, guilty, Mormon rebels to quake with fear, and possibly to recoil at the contemplation of their own wickedness.

I have good reason for believing that my brother Samuel H. Smith, died of poison at Nauvoo, administered by order of Brigham Young and Willard Richards, only a few weeks subsequent to the unlawful murder of my other brothers, Joseph and Hiram Smith, while incarcerated in Carthage jail. Several other persons who were presumed to stand between Brigham Young and the accomplishment of his ambitions and wicked designs mysteriously disappeared from Nauvoo about the same time, and have never since been heard from.

Arvine Hodge, a young woman [sic - Mormon?], was murdered in a most shocking manner within ten or fifteen yards of Brigham Young's house. This was done, as the Mormons themselves admitted, to prevent some developments coming out in exposure of Brigham's guilty connection with a banditti of murderers and counterfeiters, who, in those days of flourishing Mormonism, ranged along the Mississippi river from St. Louis, Mo., to Galena, Illinois. Also, Brigham Young, in connection with John Taylor, A. Lyman, P. P. Pratt, E. Snow, H. C. Kimball, Geo. A. Smith, W. Woodruff, Orson Hyde, Willard Richards, (now dead), Hosea Stout, Orson Pratt, (killed [sic] a few days ago,) and others known as the principal leaders of the Mormons, were the founders of the secret Danite banditti, or "destroying angels," as they are called by the Mormons. In regard to the designs of these Mormons to rob and plunder the California emigrants, and to commit certain depredations upon the General Government -- to hoax, fool, and to gull money out of them under various pretences, I testify that I have heard Mormons boast and talk of these designs in Nauvoo, previous to their leaving for the Salt Lake Valley, and have, also often heard Mormons talk openly of their designs in robbing the Gentiles and of putting to death dissenting Mormons; and that also, when they got among Indians, they would lead them on to the slaughter of the men, women and children of the American people. Suffice it to say, that in presenting to Congress my remonstrance to these views of Mormons at the time I have mentioned, I greatly endangered my life.

I escaped the penalty of the Danite law, which is death; but the Mormons robbed me of all my property -- confiscated everything I possessed, including a library of valuable books; also, valuable manuscripts and records of Church history prepared for the press. One of these manuscripts Orson Pratt, a leading Danite, published in England, which has since been extensively circulated in Europe and various parts of the United States.

The terrible measures resorted to by the Destroying Angels (Danites), in visiting their vengeance upon their foes, should open the eyes of the people of this country, and keep them on guard for their safety. These demon Danites are constantly on the alert for their prey.

In conclusion, permit me to say that I am not a Mormon. The treachery, corruption and murderous practices of the leaders of the Mormon Church long since disgusted me with a doctrine which produces such results, and as a matter of course I left the heaven-defying traitors, as every honest man should do, and leave the guilty wretches to suffer the fate which they so richly merit, and which is certain, sooner or later, to overtake them. The guilty and treasonable oath which the 40,000 or 50,000 Mormons now in the Salt Lake Valley, and many others scattered in all parts of the country, have taken upon themselves at the hands of Brigham Young and the Danite followers, read [sic] as follows:

We quote from Increase Van Dusen's Expose, of the notorious spiritual wife endowment of the Mormons, as practiced by Brigham Young and his accomplices in crime and villainy. Page 26 and 27:

THE  OATH.

"You do solemnly swear in the presence of Almighty God, His holy angels and these witnesses, that you will avenge the blood of Joseph Smith on this nation, and teach the same to your children: and that you will from this time henceforth and forever begin and carry out hostilities against the nation, to keep the same intent a profound secret, now and forever, so help you God."

Again. We quote from page 57 [sic]: "Sixth degree of the Temple," of said Mormon endowment:

"Mormon, though you have eaten of the bread of life, you are still liable not only to the natural but to an eternal death. But such can only befall you through faithlessness to your oath of initiation, for otherwise you are superior to all mortal sin. BETRAY THAT OATH and you hang for all time and burn for all eternity, for in such case no power can shield you from the vengeance of the brotherhood and the punishment of hell! But honor it to the end and no crime which you can commit can deprive you of an everlasting reward in heaven. Look on those skeletons -- they are the bones of faithless Mormons. Behold those captives in that burning lake -- they are their tortured souls, and assuredly such shall be your reward if such shall be your provocation. But be faithful and fear not! Be true to Mormonism and no species of falsehood can effect you. Against a Mormon you must never fight; against a Mormon you must never swear. Your words must comfort them -- your money must succor them. As judges you must deliver them -- as jurors, acquit them -- as brothers and sisters, live and die for them. You must exalt them into all offices which they covet; you must abandon clan, kin and country for their sake; and in fine, you must make Mormonism and everything that effects its interests the great aim and object of your life. And now go forth upon your mission and be this your motto:
An oath I have given
  Let me honor it well;
For to keep it is heaven,
  And to break it is hell. Such was Mormonism in Nauvoo, Illinois -- and such is Mormonism in Utah.

            Respectfully,                 WILLIAM SMITH,
Brother of Joseph Smith, the murdered patriarch, and prophet of the Mormon Church.


Note 1: The above text was reprinted in the July 11, 1857 issue of the Decatur Illinois State Chronicle, and numerous other contemporary newspapers. William appears here to have practically predicted the Sept. 11, 1857 Mountain Meadows Massacre -- however, he is not known to have ever published his reaction to that specific Mormon instance of Mormon cooperation with Indians to murder "the California emigrants."

Note 2: It was not long after writing the above letter, from Warren, Warren Co., Pennsylvania, that William B. Smith married Eliza Elsie Sanborn Brain of Cattaraugus Co., New York. Their first child, William Enoch Smith, was born July 24, 1858 in neighboring Erie Co., Pennsylvania. A probably reliable record indicates that William and Eliza were married at Kirtland, Ohio on Nov. 12, 1857, but another account says that the wedding was held in nearby Erie, Pennsylvania.

Note 3: William Smith was no stranger to northwestern Pennsylvania -- it was there that he met his first wife (and her sister, who became William's second legal spouse) while serving a Mormon preaching mission in 1832. William visited the Great Lakes region in the fall of 1855, when he attempted to form a new organization of the Mormon church, in cooperation with Martin Harris. Perhaps William met the Widow Brain at Kirtland, during his unsuccessful efforts there in 1855 (see notes appended to an article in the Apr. 30, 1855 issue of the Painesville Telegraph). The 1860 Federal census for Erie Co., Pennsylvania shows the couple living in Venango township, near the border with Chautauqua Co., New York, with young William Enoch and Eliza's two children from her previous marriage. The couple's second child, Edson Don Carlos Smith, was born at Elkander, Clayton Co., Iowa on Sept. 6, 1862. According to the recollection of this second son (written down at the request of B. H. Roberts in 1933), William B. Smith moved his family from Pennsylvania to Iowa between 1858 and 1862.

Note 4: William's nephew, Joseph Smith III, recalled in his later years that his Uncle William had once preached for the Baptists in New York or Pennsylvania. It is possible that Eliza Elsie Sanborn's family were members of the Baptist Church and that William joined that religious group for a short period. He says in the above letter, "I am not a Mormon," and that must have been the confession which William shared with his non-LDS friends, c. 1856-59, in northeastern Pennsylvania. -- Erie Co., Pennsylvania and Chautauqua Co., New York are adjoining counties, so the "Rev. William Smith" might easily have preached in both localities before eventually falling into disfavor there, for "teaching heretical doctrine." At about the same time as the War between the States began, William Smith moved his family back to Clayton Co., Iowa. He is said to have served in the Illinois Infantry during the Civil War -- probably in 1861-63 and then again in 1864-66.

Note 5: William speaks with obvious bitterness over his loss of "valuable books; also, valuable manuscripts" at the hands of the Mormons, as well as certain "records of Church history prepared for the press." His complaint here echoes something he wrote to Brigham Young, on July 13, 1856: "I notice also that you have that scroundrel of A. Babbit about you... he is the man who paid Isaac Sheen one thousand dollars [for] my trunk of Books and advised my wife to separate from me..." This same "trunk" William describes in his 1850 legal complaint against his wife, Roxie Ann Grant Smith, as "a trunk containing a large quantity of books, & the records, journals and proceedings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints." The 1954 LDS edition of Lucy Mack Smith's biography of her son, Joseph, contains this interesting summary of the manuscript's history: "Lucy Smith died near Nauvoo, May 5, 1855, but years prior to this date some of her effects were left in the hands of her son, William Smith, among them being the manuscript copy of this history. From William... the document fell... into the hands of Isaac Sheen... When in September, 1852, Apostle Orson Pratt... called on Mr. Sheen... and being shown the manuscript copy, he purchased it... [and] took it to Liverpool with him, where... it was published under his direction in 1853."

Note 6: Regarding the murder of Samuel H. Smith at Nauvoo, by the secret administration of poison to him during the summer of 1844, see the final paragraph of the item "Martyrs of the Latter Day Saints," as published in William Smith's Melchisedek & Aaronic Herald for Oct., 1849. This text (obviously supplied by William Smith) was copied into J. J. Strang's Gospel Herald of Nov. 1, 1849 without any citation. William's nephew, Elder Samuel H. B. Smith, purportedly responded to William's claims in this matter, in the June 6, 1857 issue of The Mormon, however the response may have been written in the nephew's name by Apostle John Taylor. See also the various notes appended to Samuel's death notice, as published in the Sept. 6, 1844 issue of the Bloomington Herald.

Note 7: William's mistake concerning the fate of LDS Apostle Orson Pratt is understandable, in light of the fact that some newspapers erroneously reported Parley P. Pratt's 1857 murder as having been perpetrated upon the person of "Orson Pratt" -- for an example, see the May 26, 1857 issue of the New York Times. William's reference for the supposed "Danite" murder of Almon W. Babbit may be found in the "Resignation of Judge Drummond," as published in the Apr. 14, 1857 issue of the New York Times.

AN  EX-MORMON  ON  MORMONISM.

Mr. John Hyde, late an elder of the Mormon sect, has been discoursing to the Californians in exposition of the evils and depravity of Mormonism. At Oakland City his address elicited the warm approbation of large audiences. The San Francisco Daily Globe publishes several resolutions commendatory of the sayings and suggestions of Mr. Hyde, one of which strikes us as peculiarly pertinent and philosophical.

Resolved, That the plan recommended by Mr. Hyde of destroying this demon of evil by means of railroads, facility of communication with them, and opportunity for the disaffected and wretched to escape, instead of personal persecution and forcible resistance to them, is, in our estimation, the wisest and most effecient that can be adopted to eradicate this foul stain from our land.

We have not the least doubt of the all-sufficiency of this plan. This abominable system of licentiousness, fraud, and spiritual tyranny can exist only while isolated from the rest of the civilized world. No sooner will traveling facilities bring these deluded and deluding creatures into close communication with our monogamic population, than Mormonism, Polygamy, Brigham Young, Brother Kimball, "The Twelve," and all their "whining wives," with the "saints" in general, and the recent importation of young girls in particular, will be a great way from Great Salt Lake City, or else be nowhere.


Note: John Hyde was sent as an LDS missionary to the Hawaiian Islands, but became disenchanted with Mormonism before he arrived in that place. See Hyde's 1857 book, Mormonism, Its Leaders and Designs for his views on the unique religious movement. For Hyde's excommunication notice, see the Jan. 21, 1857 issue of the Deseret News. For information on Hyde's activities in Hawaii, see various articles in the 1850s Honolulu papers, including those for Apr. 1, 1853, for Oct. 18, 1856, and for Oct. 25, 1856. Articles on John Hyde were also featured in several northern California newspapers during the mid-1850s. Hyde also offered the President advice on how to cope with the 1857 "Mormon Problem" in Utah, by way of a letter he saw published in the New York Herald.

ASSASSINATION  OF  PRESIDENT  P. P. PRATT.

Our readers will doubtless be startled with the above announcement; our heart is deeply pained to say it, but we have no reason for doubting the sad intelligence that has reached us, though, as yet, only by the way of the public press. A few days ago we were advised of his apprehension near Fort Gibson; and, close upon the receipt of that information, we learned, by telegraphic despatch, that he had been assassinated near Van Buren, Arkansas, May 13....

As we have not the space this week that we require to enter into details, and may, before another issue, receive additional information on the subject, we shall only say, for the benefit of those who are interested, that his assassins followed him some twelve miles from the place of trial, and, taking advantage of his lonely position, shot him.

Though we deeply deplore the loss to the Church of such a great and upright man, and the bereavement to his family, yet we mourn not. His life has been one of honor and faithfulness; his days have been well spent in the service of his God; his name is revered by thousands and tens of thousands, and will be honored by millions yet unborn; while that of his cowardly assassins, and those who have cheered them on to this damning deed, and who now rejoice over their crime, will be loathsome, and a stink in the nostrils of God and good men.


Notes: (forthcoming)

A Wicked Charge Exposed.
_______

Among the many who have rushed into print recently against Mormonism is one -- whom we would, for the sake of others, fain never name -- William Smith. He has [sent] a lengthy letter to the New York Tribune to help Drummond through the mess he has got into. As he only mentions one thing that has some claim to novelty and a notice of it from a proper person has been handed to us for publication, we bring him before our readers.

                                                                   New York, June 1, 1857.
Editor Mormon -- Dear Sir: I deem it a duty I owe to truth to notice through your valuable paper the letter of William Smith, addressed to the Editor of the N. Y. Tribune, and published in that paper, on the 28th ult., at least that portion of his letter touching the death of my father, Samuel H. Smith. He says:

"I have good reason for believing that my brother Samuel H. Smith, died of poison in Nauvoo, administered by order of Brigham Young and Willard Richards, only a few weeks subsequent to the unlawful murder of my two brothers, Joseph and Hyrum Smith, while incarcerated in Carthage jail."

However much I deplore that such a statement is given to the public I am in no manner surprised. My uncle's course -- since he was expelled from the church, has been such that I am prepared to read from his own pen any calumny against President Young and the leaders of the Church without astonishment.

William Smith knows that my father, his brother, died of billious fever and not of poison.

After the assassination of his two brothers, my father was pursued for some miles, by two of the mob, whose object was evidently to shoot him likewise. Fleeing for his life, he did his ultimate in bodily exertion to increase the swiftness of his horse, and in so doing was necessarily excited in body and mind. In this state he was compelled to ride through a creek which laid him down in sickness on his arrival in Nauvoo. He died of billious fever, of which fact there are many witnesses, and not of poison. The above is the only reliable statement concerning his death,

It is anything but agreeable to expose my uncle, nevertheless hustice to those accused and my own sense of obligation to stand by the truth, compel me to do so.
                I am, dear sir, yours, &c.,
                       Samuel H. B. Smith.

Apostates generally lie so glaringly that we seldom take the trouble to refute their statements. When we do notice them it is more generally with a view to furnishing the Church historian with links in the chain of their career than from any conviction that our labors are required to warm the public against their impositions. Where they are known the odor of their corruptions is sufficient to indicate the state of their being to all whose senses are not impaired by the same dark course, without our drawing aside the veil to expose the putrid mass whence it emenates. The writer of the foregoing letter has considered it his duty to expose his uncle's wickedness, though at the risk of incurring the displeasure of many esteemed relatives; but indisposed to wound others, he has confined his letter to that only which pertained directly to the death of his honored father. We approve of his course; our veneration for Joseph, Hyrum, Don Carlos and Samuel, worthy brothers who died for their faith in a living God, an unchangeable Redeemer, an everlasting Gospel -- in Mormonism; our high appreciation of the virtue that adorned the lives of their worthy and honored parents; our esteem for many of their relatives who have maintained their integrity before God -- men and women who have kept themselves pure and unspotted from the corruptions of an adulterous generation -- induce us to leave William Smith in the obscurity where his deeds have launched him. How has the mighty fallen! William Smith strikes hands with and endorses the "Temple mysteries" of that mean, filthy and corrupt Van Dusen, whose very presence disturbs the equilebrium of our stomach, and a feeling worse than that which springs from the sea-sickness creeps over our system when we look at him -- loathsomeness and disgust. -- ED.


Note 1: William's nephew, Elder Samuel H. B. Smith, purportedly wrote the letter published in the June 6, 1857 issue of The Mormon. Young Samuel was called at the April, 1857 Conference in Salt Lake City, to serve a mission in England, and he evidently reached New York City by June. However the response printed in the LDS newspaper, under Samuel's name, may have been scripted or significantly redacted by the paper's editor, Apostle John Taylor.

Note 2: Samuel Harrison Bailey Smith, the third child of Samuel H. Smith and Mary Bailey Smith, was born in Missouri, in 1838, and was not quite six years old at the time of his father's death, on July 30, 1844. It is very doubtful that thirteen years later he recalled the exact circumstances of his father's passing. His step-mother, Lucy Jane Clark Smith, was in the final days of a problem pregnancy confinement when Samuel H. Smith passed away, and she also may have been mentally isolated from her husband's rapid decline and demise. Lucy took young Samuel to Utah, where he was raised under the watchful supervision of the LDS leadership. Samuel H. Smith's second daughter, Mary Smith Norman, was about seven and a half (a year and a half older than young Samuel) at the time of her father's terminal illness. Her recollection of the matter is probably more reliable than that of young Samuel. Many years after the publication of her brother's communication in The Mormon, Lucy confided, in a Mar. 27, 1908 letter to her cousin, Josephine Donna Smith (Ina Donna Coolbrith), that their uncle, Elder Arthur Milliken and Lucy's father were both being slowly poisoned at the same time, in Nauvoo during the summer of 1844, when the two men were both receiving "medicine" from the same doctors, Willard Richards and an associate physician (John M. Bernhisel?). Elder Milliken stopped ingesting the substance and lived -- while Samuel H. Smith took all that had been prescribed for him and died almost immediately thereafter. According to Mary, after her father took the final dose of his "medicine," the man "spit [it] out and said he was poisoned. But it was too late -- he died." (For documentation see D. Michael Quinn, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, p.152-153 and Dan Vogel, Early Mormon Documents I, p. 488)

Note 3: News of William Smith's claims was carried by telegraph and express mail rider to Utah, and on July 26, 1857, President Brigham Young publicly denied any involvement in the death of Samuel H. Smith: "William Smith has asserted that I was the cause of the death of his brother Samuel, when brother Woodruff, who is here to-day, knows that we were waiting at the depot in Boston to take passage east at the very time when Joseph and Hyrum were killed... a few weeks after, Samuel Smith died, and I am blamed as the cause of his death." (Deseret News Aug. 5, 1857, reprinted in Journal of Discourses, vol. 5, p. 77)

Mrs. McLean, the miserable woman whose husband recently avenged her seduction by taking the life of Pratt, the Mormon Elder, has written a letter to The Van Buren (Ark.) Intelligencer, which only proves the depth of her delusion and the hopeless nature of her insanity. She still persists in her adherence to a foolish faith; which has destroyed her domestic peace, and in regarding the worthless imposter who has been sent to his account as a prophet and a martyr. The letter is evidently the production of a lunatic who should once be sent for medical treatment to a hospital. Nor are we able to see why other unfortunate victims of this astonishing mania might not legally and humanely be treated as acknowledged madmen and mad women are treated. Certamly, there could be no objection to combatting promptly and stringently such a hideous hallucination. The case of Mrs. McLean, although it is not by any means a singular one, affords a striking illustration of the pernicious and demoralizing effect of fanaticism. She fancied that she was converted by the gospel of Joseph Smith. She immediately commenced a series of attempts to worry her husband into the same faith. She managed to have her children clandestinely baptized by P. P. Pratt. She taught their young lips to utter blasphemous nonsense, which she called prayer. She absconded from her husband's house, and finally stole her offspring, that she might take them to Utah. Her insanity is perfect and absolute. She writes incoherently and absurdly. She compares Elder Pratt with our Savior, and admits that she washed his feet and combed his hair. She hardly seeks to disguise the fact that she had been for some time living, with him adulterously.

When, after the perusal of a letter so lamentable, we pause to consider the nature of the pretension which has misled this unfortunate woman, we are astonished to find it so utterly flimsy and meaningless. We have taken some pains to investigate the subject; we have read few Mormon sermons, and we have peeped into Mormon "Bible." We confess that we have never met with a faith so utterly without foundation, so purposeless and so senseless. We are able to trace the origin of many relgious delusions. The followers of Joanna Southcote and of Mother Lee, seem really to have believed in something definite. Mohammedism and Budhism have a sort of fixed creed. The idolaters of the Southern Sea can boast a certain theology, nor is a thread wanting by which we can trace their excesses to a distorted and perverted truth. But Mormonism is a puzzle. It began in the freak of a sick man, who amused himself by writing an imitation of the Holy Scriptures. Its originator was a blackguard, without intelligence, learning or cultivation. Its prominent supporters since that time have been men of the same class. The sermons which are preached in its temples are merely incoherent farragoes of slang, smut and nonsense. Its professors assume to be saints, without vouchsafing even a nominal proof of their saintliness. In truth, the scoundrels who have deluded so many people prove nothing, teach nothing, and come to no conclusion. The Mormon religion is all comprised in an asserted sanctity.

It is clearly evident that such a scheme, so empty and inane, must soon have exhausted its materials of delusion in spite of the diabolical ingenuity of its inventors, had not pains been taken to graft upon it something which, if not religious was at least tangible. The doctrine of polygamy gave to the Salt Lake faith that which it so signally lacked -- an incitement, a temptation and a stimulus -- and this is, in fact, the length and breadth and thickness of it all. Take out the plurality of wives and the whole scheme becomes so nakedly nothing, that all the religious fanaticism in the world would hardly secure it a convert. But there is this low temptation, this appeal to unhallowed lust, this play upon curiosity, this practice upon the morbid minds of men and women. Its main strength is in its novelty and oddity. Bad men think that it must be a very fine thing to have seventy wives, and weak women long to know by actual experience what it is to be the inhabitant of a harem. And it is this promise of a Paradise, infinitely more sensual than that of Mohammed, which has besotted the male and seduced the female converts to Mormonism. It is by taking a strange and bewildering step toward barbarism, that Brigham Young has secured so many followers.

Of course a crime so alien to the spirit of the age and to civilized customs would have but a short existence, if it were committed in a locality accessible to ordinary influences. Unfortunately, it is practiced thousands of miles from the places in which it is preached, and that distance which lends enchantment to the view precludes effective exertion for its abolition. It must, then, either be taken in hand by the Government, which has a clear right to interfere with it, so far as it rebels against federal authority, or else it must be allowed to remain arid work out its own explosion. The Government has thus far done nothing, nor is there any certainty that anything will be done. But we may safely assume that, even without such interference, such an establishment as that at Salt Lake cannot long endure in the nineteenth century on the American continent.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Crescent City Oracle.
______

This lively little paper, established only a few months ago, is out in a bigger dress already -- it keeps pace with the growth of that young city, which, according to the Oracle, is destined to be a mighty grand place. Mr. L. O. Littlefield who has heretofore been editor and proprietor has vacated the editorial chair and made his retiring bow to the sanctum, "yielding to our voluntary inclination of entering into other pursuits." Mr. J. E. Johnson. of Council Bluffs Bugle, hoists his penant -- Editor and Proprietor. Hoping that the "other pursuits" of Mr. K. will not force his pen to the shelf, and wishing prosperity to his successor, we introduce to our readers an article of interest at the present moment.

MURDER OF HON. A. W. BABBITT.

We notice in the letter of resignation of Hon. W. W. Drummond to Attorney General Black, that he there, among other very grave charges, asserts that the Hon. A. W. Babbitt was murdered by white men disguised as Indians, by order of the authorities of Utah. In justice to the parties thus maligned, we will state that we have taken much pains to gather all the information possible calculated to throw light upon the death of our relative, Mr. Babbitt, and the particulars connected with the same; and we have not a shadow of a doubt but that Indians of the Cheyenne nation murdered him for revenge and plunder, and for the satisfaction of his friends, who have not heard the full particulars, we will recount them briefly.

As Secretary of Utah, the late and lamented Col. Babbitt purchased the Stationary and other necessaries for Legislative purposes, &c., and at a proper season started it from Florence across the plains with ox teams under the charge of a Mr. Nichols. Late in August, with only one attendant and in an open carriage, Mr. B. left Florence for Utah. Upon arriving at Fort Kearney, he there found some of his stock, his wagons, and a portion of the goods, and one man wounded from his train, being all that remained, for of the number having been killed, three on the spot, and one (Mrs. Wilson) the next day after capture.

Mr. Babbitt hastened to purchase more cattle, and, gathering up the remains of his freight, started the train again forward, and wrote us two several letters, stating that he would start forward himself with two attendants the day following. These are, probably, the last he ever wrote.

Mr. Babbitt left the fort as had been arranged, and was never again seen by white men. All the emigration were ahead. He intended to reach Fort Leavenworth in three days and was making good his time. Some weeks later an Indian came in to a French trader's station with a gold watch which bore the initials of Mr. B's name and soon another came with a massive ring, which was also marked as a seal ring.

The Indians then being charged with the murder acknowledged they had done it. News was sent to the Fort and Major Wharton immediately sent out a detachment in search, which found Mr. Babbitt's carriage, trunk and many valuable papers; but nothing of the unfortunate victim but a few bones.

The Indians then confessed, that, having been insulted and abused by the parties in charge of the mail, and then were killed by the soldiers, a company of twelve had fallen upon Mr. Babbitt's ox train as being the first they had met, to avenge the wrong. That they had seen Mr. Babbitt arrive at the Fort and knew him, (he having crossed the plains nearly 20 times,) and that he was a big man, and by killing him, they might be likely to get plunder and revenge at the same time. They had gone on ahead and lay in wait' when he passed they followed him at a distance until he had stopped, the second day in the afternoon. Then they rode down upon him, yelling and screaming. Mr. B. shouted at them and motioned them to stop and pointed his pistol at them; but they passed on and he fired at them.

Frank Rowland (a young man accompanying him) stood with his arms by his side until shot down; the other man ran away in some willows. The Colonel fought like a tiger, fired all his arms, then clubbed his rifle and fought the whole twelve savages, disputing every inch as he slowly backed up to his carriage for protection behind. He had seriously wounded several, when one, more cowardly than the others, jumped up into the wagon, and, with a tomahawk, killed a brave and noble man.

Major Wharton still has possession of the ring which he obtained of the Indians, and some other valuables and relics, found on the spot of the murder.

Mr. _____, a French trader, has a fine gold watch which belonged to Mr. B., which he purchased of the Indians, together with some articles of minor value.

All that is now known of the murder of the late Mr. Babbitt, is obtained through the Indians themselves, who acknowledge the murder.

It seems to be a very malicious charge the ex-Judge is thus making against the people of Utah, without anything to justify him in doing so.

The widow of the late Mr. Babbitt is now on her return from Utah to this place. Upon her arrival, we shall, at the earliest moment, announce the receipt of anything further connected with his murder.
                      Crescent City Oracle, May 22.


Note 1: Elder Joel E. Johnson, editor of the Crescent City Oracle, was the brother-in-law of Almon W. Babbit, his sister Julia Ann Hills Johnson having married Elder Babbit at Kirtland on Nov. 23, 1833. Elder Johnson's telling of the story, in which the total blame is placed upon the Indians, is similar to the "cover story" long upheld by the LDS leadership in the case of the 1857 Mountain Meadow Massacre.

Note 2: Babbit's widow came out from Utah to investigate the murder in person. She interviewed various relevant parties, obtained signed statements, etc. In late July, 1857 the New York Herald published her findings -- which were that Cheyenne Indians, who knew her husband, had killed him. In 1914 her son, Don Carlos Babbit, furnished a similar account for publication in the 1914 Babbitt Family History. The text was written by Elder Anthon H. Lund, who quoted the story's essentials from an earlier account written by Orson F. Whitney.

Note 3: It is altogether possible that Almon W. Babbit was killed by Cheyenne Indians -- but, if so, they were assassins who knew that they had nothing to fear from Brigham Young after they had carried out the deathly deed. High ranking Mormons like Babbit enjoyed the automatic friendship and protection of Indian leaders, all along the trail from Council Bluffs to Salt Lake City. It is highly unlikely that even a renegade, leaderless band of Cheyenne would have murdered Elder Babbit, unless other, higher ranking Utahans had made it clear to them that such a man was an "apostate" and "fair game" for plunder. The modern reader can only wonder if a "Lamanite missionary" and "Danite" like Elder Jack Reddin were not standing by, watching from a distance, as the tragic events occurred.

THE  MORMONS.
_______

      Correspondence of the N. Y. Tribune.

WARREN, Pa., June 5, 1857.        

Developments already made upon the Mormon question have been sufficient to fully apprize the Government and the people generally of the necessity of providing a Governor for Utah, by appointment, who is not a Mormon, a man also whom Mormon gold or Mormon treachery cannot reach; because the Mormons will condescend to the lowest meanness possible to fool and hoax the Government, and to accomplish their own wnds and purposes. The Mormons in Utah are already a Church-Military organization, and there is not a man aming ' them, holding any office of either Church or State, of Mormon appointment, but has disfranchized himself from the American Government by the treasonable Danite oath of disloyality; nor is it permitted by the appointment or Council of Mormon leaders in Utah, for any of their Elders, High Priests, Prophets or Apostles to travel out to preach or to make proselytes in foreign countries unless these pretended inspired messengers of God have been sworn into the Danite and other treasonable oaths of the Mormon priesthood. These are facts that Mormons cannot deny. Not even the conductors of their Church oracles are permitted to occupy the position of editors, &c., unless they are Danite proof, they must be men who can look upon the shedding of innocent blood with impunity, and defend the black deeds and villainy of their brethren in the "Bonds of Brotherhood," no matter what their sins may be; and if it should be the murder of seceding Mormons, or robbing them of their goods, or the spoiling of the Gentiles, it is all right, for such is Mormon law and Mormon religion.

Furthermore, the public should know that, in addition to the sworn duties of these Mormons to carry out hostilities tothe nation, they are also sworn to keep the same a profound secret, and if possible to ruin the characters of men or women, if any should dare to expose their iniquity, by all the lies and falsehoods they could invent, and should any escape the vigilance of Danites in this respect, it must be those only who retire from the Mormons in silence -- who dare not speak out the whole truth concerning these miserable impostors, for fear of the Danite vials of wrath. Mormons, no doubt, will try to pull the wool a little, by pretending that these oaths administered in Mormon doings are but trite religious ceremonies, on par with masonic rituals, &c. This is all a fudge. Hundreds of Mormons who have taken these oaths and since left the church, bear witness to their wicked criminality; and the blood that these Danites have shed in Utah and in other parts give a different testimony to the world. It is all folly for Mormon Danites to pretend any longer to Christian honesty or to American republicanism -- at least while they sail under the black flag of treason and murder. One thing more we wish to say before concluding this hurried note, and that is, the fact that these new-made converts to Mormonism in foreign lands are mostly kept in ignorance respecting these secret oaths and the Mormon sharing system generally; and not until these new proselytes are pushed to the extent of their journey to Utah do they find themselves fully ensnared in the Mormon net. Thus it is that these new-made Mormon converts must go the whole figure in Mormondom, or suffer the spoiling of all virtue, the loss of life not excepted. These statements, gentlemen, are facts; nor is it slander upon the character of an innocent class of worshipers. The sermons of Brigham Young and the common talk of these Mormons, with their boldness of the polygamy system, the abducting of other men's wives, with their threats and abuse of the Government, plainly foretell the importance of immediate measures being adopted for the subjugation or complete obliteration of these Mormon impurities, making a fit example of the leaders of this conspiracy against God, religion and the Government.


Note: Although this correspondent obviously asked the Tribune editor to suppress his name in the letter's signature, he could have been none other than William B. Smith, the one surviving brother of Joseph Smith, Jr. Compare the writing style and subject matter with William's signed letter, published in the Tribune of May 28th. The letter also corresponds superficially to the published material that Brigham Young attributed to an unsigned William Smith article, in his Salt Lake City discourse of June 7, 1857. However, there is no way that the June 23, 1857 Tribune's contents could have reached Brigham, in Utah, before he gave that sermon. More than likely, Brigham Young heard through private sources what William was doing, and then fabricated the vague references to an unsigned "long article" composed by the wayward former Apostle.

 
Senator Stephen A. Douglas Speech
Springfield, Illinois, June 12, 1857
(under construction)

... Under this view of the subject, I think it is the duty of the President, as I have no doubt it is his fixed purpose, to remove Brigham Young and all his followers from office, and to fill their places with bold, able, and true men; and to cause a thorough and searching investigation into all the crimes and enormities which are alleged to be perpetrated daily in that territory under the direction of Brigham Young and his confederates; and to use all the military force necessary to protect the officers in discharge of their duties and to enforce the laws of the land. When the authentic evidence shall arrive, if it shall establish the facts which are believed to exist, it will become the duty of Congress to apply the knife, and cut out this loathsome, disgusting ulcer....


Note: Compare the above excerpt to a lengtheir transcript Judge Douglas' speech of June 12, 1857. In the months leading up to Douglas' anti-Mormon speech, the LDS leaders in Salt Lake City had time to consider what their response would be to the new standard-bearer for their old political allies, the Democrats. It appears that the Mormon leaders chose to concentrate on attacking Stephan A. Douglas himself. The Deseret Evening News of Sept. 24, 1856, ran an article that told of a curse placed upon him by Joseph Smith, jr. on May 18, 1843. The "prophecy" is not known from any pre-1856 source, including the journals of William Clayton, from which its wording was supposedly taken. In later years the Mormons would claim that Douglas' failure to gain the Presidency in 1856 and 1860 was a result of Smith's purported "prophecy."

The Mormons Defiant.

We were in the right of it last week, in discrediting the rumour that a portion of the U. S. Utah expedition, five hundred strong, had been cut off by Indians or Mormons. So far no blood has been shed. It is true however that the unclean tribe has commenced open war upon the national forces, and that a train of seventy-five waggons, loaded with supplies and provisions, was captured and destroyed, on the 5th of last month, at a point which it is needless to specify, but which may be set down as distant from Great Salt Lake City about one hundred and eighty miles. Why this train had no military escort -- being midway between two detachments, and some thirty or forty miles from each, it is none of our business to enquire. And a score of similar questions, presenting themselves on the arrival of successive mails, may be left to the military critics of this country, who organize themselves into gratuitous and permanent courts-marshalls whenever and wherever they find food for their in genious comments.

But the loss of a train, serious as it is, is not the sum total of the bad news from Utah. Brigham Young, with matchless effrontry, has proclaimed martial law, and called upon his followers to resist the invasion of their territory. At the same time he has opened a communication with Colonel Alexander who heads the U. S. troops, forbidding his further advance, but offering him, with sarcastic impudence, the privilege of remaining in his encampment, on condition that he deliver up the arms and ammunition of his command. And, having burnt the grass and thus devastated large tracts of the dreary country through which lies the route to the Mormon capital, it must be owned that the ursurping Governor argues his points at considerable advantage.


Notes: (forthcoming)

IMPORTANT  FROM  THE  MORMON  WAR.
_______

Advances of the Army.
_______

PREPARATIONS  FOR  HOSTILITIES.
_______

SPECIAL BOUNTY TO THE SOLDIERS -- THE INDIANS NEUTRAL.
_______

Severe Weather -- Animals Frozen.

From Our Special Correspondent.

                                             CAMP IN THE SOUTH PASS, Oct. 17, 1857.
I have thawed my ink with some difficulty. The thermometer indicates 14 degrees above zero, and there is a cold now storm and a furious wind. The elements have begun to fight in earnest in behalf of the Mormons; but the army has no right to complain, for thus far it has been remarkably favored by the weather.

When I wrote to you on the 13th, announcing the commencement of hostilities, and complaining of the absence, at such a conjuncture, of the commanding officer of the expedition and the Governor of the Territory, we had little idea that two days would bring us such good news... [remainder of article illegible]

---

THE  MORMON  WAR.
______

We have been favored with the following extracts from private letters, written by an officer of high rank in the Utah Expedition...

                                                             CAMP IN THE SOUTH PASS
                                                             Sunday, Oct, 18, 1857.
Here we are, 918 miles from Fort Leavenworth and only 2 1/2 miles from the South Pass of the Rocky Mountains, which divides the waters running east for the Gulf of Mexico from those emptying into the Pacific. Col. Albert S. Johnston of the Second Cavalry, the "Commander of the Army for Utah," joined us two days since with a small escort. He will remain here for five or six days, until all the supply trains are up, as well as some additional troops, and then proceed to join the main forces of the army, which will be soon but four or five days' march from here. When we go, I shall have the cavalry and infantry about 300 men under my command. I shall have to serve as escort (say) 11 trains and (about) 3,000 animals. Before you receive this, you will have known from Brigham Young's proclamation, as well as his letter to Col. Alexander, that Utah is in a state of rebellion, and that we are at open war with them...
[remainder of article illegible]


Notes: (forthcoming)

Army for Utah.

The latest advices from the army, which has been sent to pass the Winter amid the snows of Wahsatch Mountains, are anything but encouraging. In fact, they tend to confirm the worst fears which have been entertained as to the result of this ill-starred expedition. There the troops are, a thousand miles and more from the frontier, isolated amid the snows and among mountains of which the Mormons, and they alone, know all the passes. Already, at the commencement of Winter, their animals were perishing at the rate of a hundred a day. The grass is all burnt, and their supply of provisions, notwithstanding the vast sums of money spent on the commissariat and transportation departments, is so short that a very strict economy, if not, in facts, putting the troops on short allowance, will be necessary to carry them through the Winter. With inaction and short allowance will come disease and discontent, and it is but reasonable to expect that by the Spring the effective force of the troops will be very greatly diminished. -- Without draft cattle or means of transportation it will be impossible for them to move; and instead of marching against the Mormons, they will be exceedingly lucky if the Mormons do not march against them.

It seems highly probable that Brigham Young will represent to his deluded followers that the financial disasters which have visited us are a judgment from heaven upon us for our sin and wickedness in making war upon the Saints; and should the Spring present the soldiers, as seems almost certain, in an enfeebled condition, he may be apt to consider that very fact as a call... [remainder of clipping cut off]


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMONS.
_______

Character of the Mormon Leaders -- Will the Mormons Emigrate? --
Probabilities of their Return to Missouri -- the Secret Temple in Jackson County --
Determination of Brigham Young to Resist -- Fanaticism of his Followers.
_______

From Our Own Correspondent.

                      Sacramento, Thursday, Feb. 4, 1858.

In the time of Joe Smith, the Mormon Prophet, that personage found considerable difficulty in managing his most influential disciples. But, when they refused to believe new theories, or go on certain missions, or to give adequate pecuniary aid to the cause, he would manage to attain his object, and retain their support, by being delivered of a new revelation. These revelations, were, generally, little webs of argument interwoven with arbitrary assertions, wherein the individual, or individuals, offending, flattered to gladness by the Lord's special attention, were ensnared like so many flies. Some of these, along with those of a more spiritual cast, and others that Smith allowed his head disciples to be delivered of, have been gathered into a printed volume, called the "Book of Doctrines and Covenants," which is more perused than the Mormon Bible. In it one gets a glimpse of the foundation doctrines of the present Church, but a perusal of the outside revelations is necessary before one fully sees Mormonism, glaring with the Yankee signet of dollars and cents," and the stains of low desires. Since Smith's death, the occasions upon which Brigham Young has attempted to enunciate direct revelations have been few, and unlike the Prophet's half-persuasive inspirations, his are mere commands, ungarnished with rhetoric or argument. About the last of the kind, directing the present location of the Mormons, was given forth the morning after the encampment of the first company of pioneers upon the present site of Great Salt Lake City. By abstaining from the direct assertion of revelations, Young has rather increased than diminished his power over the Mormons. He possesses considerable caution and judgment, and not even such unfortunate events as the ravages of the crickets and grasshoppers caused him to make any unqualified assertions to quiet the voices of hunger, while, at the same time, he triumphantly pointed to his former exhortations to have the surplus grain hoarded instead of trafficked to the Gentiles.

Kimball is a more visionary character, and, once in a while, gives the outlines of a prophetic revelation, keeping clear, however, of offence to Young by avoiding new theories. As for Wells, he never was supposed to be guilty of revealing anything by words but what urgent business called for. The Twelve are very fond of their little revelations suited to their particular exigencies, when away from Brigham's eye; but are content to merely rearrange the doctrinal patchwork when in his presence, and none of their new points are considered aught else than theories until approved of by him. It will, therefore, be seen that Young, although he maintains a cautious reserve, and makes no vain boasts of his power of receiving revelations, has so wrought the enchantment of his authority as to occupy a higher appreciation in the index of divinity than Joe Smith in his falmiest day. The greater body of the Mormons receive the assertions of Young as coming from a mind continually illumined by revelation, and according to the prominence he gives those assertions so are they exalted in the eyes of his disciples. Nothing is clearer, than the fact that Young, when he puts forth any unmodified prophecy concerning the future movements of the Mormons, has fully considered its meaning, and intends to sustain it if possible.

In the winter of 1855 I heard Brigham Young deliver a discourse in the Tabernacle, wherein he discouraged outside settlement, particularly that of San Bernardino, and tried to throw a light of sanctity over the individual misfortunes of his disciples. The pith of the sermon was contained in the following remarks: "Now, brethren mark my words; whenever any portion of this people find a place where the soil is excellent and the climate mild, a place, in fact, where they can live with but little work, there they will find persecution and will be driven out. It has been so in all the places where this people have sojourned, and will be so in any place of settlement with more favorable circumstances than are to be found here. And I tell you, brethren, when this people again move, it will not be West into California, nor North into Oregon, nor south into Mexico." This was spoken with an exphasis and tone of voice that seemed to giveit the intentional cast of a right prophecy, and, as such, it is recorded in the memory of half of Utah's population. From the lasy sentence, the only conclusion deductible was that the next immigration would be eastward. And that such a migration is the general intention of the Mormons, when they finally quit Utah, I will now endeavor to show.

Before the Mormons abandoned Jackson County, Mo., a chosen number secretly laid the foundation of the future Temple, and then, carefully covering all traces of their work with dirt, planted it over. The location of this spot is held as a church secret. The idea of shortly returning to build this Temple is continually fostered by new anexdotes, passing current from time to time, to the effect that the Lord is suffering the hearts of the people of Jackson County, who desire their return; that some of the present possessors refuse to sell the land wrested from the Mormons, professing to only hold it in trust until their return, &c.

Those different off-shoots from Mormonism, known as Rigdonites, Strangites, Wm. Smithites, Gladdenites, &c., though differing as to the true successor of Joe Smith, look back to him as their foundation pillar, and forward to the Jackson County Millennium. And, it is said, that the number of Mormons passively residing in the States is large; while returning missionaries report finding in those localities where the Mormons formerly had their head-quarters, hundreds secretly professing Mormonism, and awaiting the gathering. This faithfulness to religious views is nothing new in the world, but the unity of Mormon designs is worthy of notice in this connection. The individual object of a pilgrimage to Utah is to undergo the secret ceremony known as "receiving endowments," after which each Mormon considers himself duly ticketed for Zion. Some of the men turn again to the States to bide the[ir] good time. Two years ago an old gentleman quietly proposed to lead back five hundred wagons to Jackson County, direct, and appointed a secret rendezvous in the mountains. Two weeks after his departure, Young publicly and significantly remarked, "He is still waiting there." Among Young's arguments for the Saints to remain together, and build towns in spite of expectant mobs, is that thus they are perfecting themselves, not only in religious knowledge and duties, but also, in the matter of architecture, which will be an essential thing in Zion...

(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

FROM  UTAH  AND  THE  WEST.
_______

ACTION  OF  THE  KANSAS  PEOPLE.
_______

Interesting from Salt Lake City --
Escape of a Disgusted Mormon.
_______

Probabilities of a Peaceful Result --
Brigham Likely to Retreat --
Lack of Military Material --
Condition of the Females, &c.
_______

From Our Own Correspondent.

IMPORTANT  FROM  UTAH.
___________

THE HEGIRA TO THE SOUTH.
___________

Salt Lake City Almost Deserted.
___________

40,000 SAINTS EMIGRATING

                                                  St. Louis, Tuesday, June 15, 1858.

Col. Thomas L. Kane, from Camp. Scott May 16, passed Boonesville this evening. He reports that Gov. Cumming had returned to Salt Lake City after making an ineffectual attempt to stop the Mormon hegira to the South. Salt Lake City and the northern settlements were nearly deserted, a few persons only remaining to guard the buildings. Forty thousand persons are said to be in motion, their trains extending for miles down the valley. The advanced trains were already 300 miles distant.

To evade answering where they are bound, they say they are going south, but their supposed destination is Cedar City or [the north part of] Sonora. There were 50 males at Camp Scott. Col. Hoffman's train was [just] twenty miles from the Platte Bridge. Col. Johnston would wait the arrival of the Peace Commissioners.

The Indians were annoying the Mormons. They call them squaws and say that they won't fight. Brigham Young had delivered the great seal, records, &c., which it was supposed had been destroyed, to Gov. Cumming. The recent heavy rains etended far to the west, and all the streams are full.

St. Louis, Tuesday, June 16, 1858.      

A dispatch dated Leavenworth the 13th inst., brought by the United States Express to Boonesville, says, that two gentlemen names Molsen and Nickerson, arrived there last night in 29 days from Camp Scott. They left Fort Bridger on the 14th of May, eight days subsequent to the last express. Gov. Cumming was still at Salt Lake City. These gentlemen report that Gen. Johnston had provisions sufficient to last him until the 10th of June; that they bore a request from him to Col. Hoffman to hurry the supplies forward, and that they met Col. Hoffman May 22, 15 miles beyond Platte Bridge, and 250 miles from Camp Scott. His command was progrerssing well, but had lost fifty mules in the snow storm previously reported. Col. Hoffman, on receiving the order, immediately dispatched twenty-five wagon loads in advance of his column to the assistance of Gen. Johnston. They also met the peace commissioners at Platte Bridge who would overtake Col. Hoffman. The same day they met Col. Andrews, 32 miles beyond Fort Kearney.

On June 5th Col. Munroe was one hundred miles beyond Big Blue. June 7, Col. May was in camp at Big Blue, and Col. Morrison was at the Nemeha.

On the 9th of June nothing had been heard of Capt. Marcy.

The army at Camp Scott were in very good health.

When about sixty miles west of Fort Laramie Messrs. Molsen and Nickerson were passed by a Mormon express from Salt Lake City, May 11, bound to Council Bluffs. The express party reported that Gov. Cumming had returned from Salt Lake to Camp Scott with themselves, but that they expected he would go back again to the city immediately. They also represented everything as quiet and indicative of peace in the Mormon Capitol.

---

From  Washington.
SPECIAL DISPATCHES TO THE N. Y. TRIBUNE.

Washington, Thursday, June 10, 1858.      

The President's Message announcing the close of the Utah war, was received in the House with derisive laughter. It is a virtual acknowledgment that the millions he has spent on it were wasted needlessly. His recommendations of economy, after his Administration has crowded through Congress the most reckless and extravagant appropriations known in our history, are eminently Buchananish. As he recommends economy and concedes that the new regiments are needless, the Republicans will strive to defeat the fifteen million loan yet pending in the House....


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMONS.
_______

Colonel Kane’s Statements on the
Way Home from Salt Lake.

Correspondence of the New-York Times.

Sweetwater Bridge, Sunday, May, 23, 1858.        

Long before this can reach you, you will probably have heard in person from Colonel Thos. L. Kane, who went out to Salt Lake, via California, some time since, as a secret agent of the President, to induce the Mormons to retreat from their false postition of antagonism to the United States Government. We met the Colonel yesterday, about 30 miles west of this, on his way to the States, with an escort of half-a-dozen Mormons. I had only time for a few words with him, in which I learned that the Mormons had all left Salt Lake and gone to Provo -- a Mormon town, some 80 or 90 miles to the Southward -- that a small party of Mormons, at the request of Governor Cumming, had consented to stay in the city to guard it from wanton destruction; by irresponsible parties; that the Governor had returned from Salt Lake to the Camp; that the difficulty between the United States and the Saints was settled; and that the only question remaining was, whether the latter should leave altogether, burning the city behind them, or should be induced to return to it and live there in peace.

I asked the Colonel if they were on their way to Sonora. His answer, though not a direct affirmative, was such as to satisfy me that Sonora was their destination. The Colonel did not tell us how the Mormons were to he induced not ruin themselves by the destruction of their homes -- but proboably the, condition is the withdrawal of the troops without marching into the Valley. Fortunately the President in his Proclamation which I sent you the other day from Fort Laramie, saved that point, and while yielding all else to the "saintly" rebels, declares that the Army shall go in. It is to be hoped that this will be insisted upon. I showed Col. Kane a copy of the Proclamation. He manifested no surprise at the tenor of a document which has fallen like a clap of thunder from a clear sky upon every man on the plains who has been personally familiar with the history of Mormon aggressions. He certainly seemed to have anticipated it. I have heard a rumor which I fear is true, to-wit, that Mr. Buchanan, desirous of evading the responsibility of carrying the issue with the Mormons to a vigorous end, selected Col. Kane -- for his well-known sympathies with the people of Salt Lake -- to go out there months ago, and prepare them for the reception of a Proclamation of a general amnesty for past treasons and seditions, such as that which the Peace Commissioners are now carrying out with them. I have no time to comment on this whole proceeding, for I write this note while our mules rest for a few moments, and we are already notified that our "outfit" is ready to proceed.

We are in a high, healthy country -- six or seven thousand feet above the Gulf of Mexico -- and have had a little snow-storm on this morning of the 23d of May. Still the weather is very agreeable. S[imonton].

---

Movements of the Mormons -- Where they
are Probably Going to.

WASHINGTON, Tuesday, June 22, 1858.        

To the Editor of the New-York Times:

DEAR SIR: The mystery relative to the movements and purposes of the Mormons, is to some extent explained by information which originates with Captain Gibson, of Dutch East Indian celebrity, who seems to keep his attention fixed upon the Indian Archipelago. Some time in June of last year, as I learn, he submitted a plan to the Mormon Delegate, Mr. Bernhisel, for the emigration of his constituents in Utah, to the island of New-Guinea, in the Indian Archipelago. This plan was cordially approved of by the chief Saints of Salt Lake City; and, in accordance with their approbation, Mr. Bernhisel submitted a proposition, entirely based upon the Captain's plan of emigration, to the Government in February last; the consideration of which was wholly rejected by the President. During the month of March, Captain Gibson took some pains to induce the Government to give his plan a favorable consideration; -- he urged that Mormonism was a growing power, and that as a Mormon war in Utah had assumed more threatening proportions than the Mormon war in Illinois, so a Mormon war in Sonora, or other territory on this Continent, some years hence, may present obstacles to tax the highest energies of the Republic. This was the golden opportunity to remove this fanatical antagonism to our institutions forever from this Continent. He set forth, based upon reliable information, that the active spirits in Utah were eager for a more genial field, than their desert bound retreat, for the exercise of their skill and industry, and for the maintenance of their peculiar political and social institutions; and in the great, fertile and unappropriated island of New-Guinea, in the vicinity of Oriental polygamist communities, they hoped to find a congenial home for their community; furthermore, whilst the Government was actively pushing its war preparations, Capt. Gibson urged that a Peace Commissioner should be sent to treat with the Mormon leaders, either with reference to this plan of emigration or other adjustment of difficulties; but the Captain's peace proposition was rejected, alike with the proposition to emigrate, submitted by the Mormon delegate, and he (the Captain) was informed by the Government that no other course could be pursued by the United States authorities, than to unconditionally "maintain the supremacy of the laws in Utah." A correspondence on this subject with some members of the Cabinet, took place in March. Subsequently, Capt. G. submitted his views to leading Southern members of Congress, who have been active friends of the Captain's claim against the Dutch; and it is presumed that their influence induced the Government, or the President rather, to change his uncompromising attitude with regard to the Mormons; and the result was the appointment of Commissioners, though by no means such men as were proposed, who would have been far better calculated to conciliate the Mormons, than the Texan ranger, McCulloch, so hated by them.

These statements can be relied on as being supported by official documentary evidence. To explain the present movements of the Mormons, I am enabled to give you these particulars. The Mormon hatred of the present United States officials in Utah who are notorious, even among frontier men, for excesses of brutality and lust -- the hatred of them is such that, rather than remain to hold any intercourse with them and their followers, they prefer to sacrifice all the advantages or indemnities that might be negotiated for, in order to preserve the integrity of their families in the wilderness. They are also moving in the direction of unsettled Mexican territory, for the purpose of selecting a point on the Pacific coast, where they can, undisturbed, make their preparations for the exodus across the Pacific Ocean, of which was suggested and prepared by Capt. Gibson. He has prepared a series of maps on a large scale, which illustrate the island-world from Madagascar to California. His grand map of the Malay Archipelago has been much admired. It was gotten up by order of the State Department. But I wish to speak of his splendid map of New-Guinea, and of Solomon's Archipelago, including Birera, and the islands of the New-Hebrides, and New-Ireland groups. In addition to what has been compiled from the costly works of D'ENTRECASTEAUX, D'URVILLE, LESSON and others, gotton up by the French Government, Captain Gibson has been gathering information from a host of Boston and Salem, and English and Dutch Oceanican navigators, and furthermore from Malay chieftains of the Indian Archipelago, who keep up an active commercial intercourse with New-Guinea or Papua, and neighboring islands, and with whom he has maintained a constant correspondence through friends at Singapore and Batavia, since he left the Indian seas. These maps of this portion of Oceanica, along with other original maps, of Southern Polynesia, are prepared for the information of the Mormon leaders. A pioneer vessel is now being fitted out to bear a Mormon vanguard to Oceanica. Captain Gibson gives as his chief reason for taking the interest that he does in Mormon emigration to Papua, or other great unoccupied island of the Pacific or Indian Oceans, that such an event, the settlement of great islands, some as large and some twice as large as Utah, now possessed by a few miserable savages and the beasts of the jungle, by a race speaking our language and possessing all the arts of our civilization, must he productive of beneficial results to the civilized world. It would destroy Malay piracy and Dutch monopoly, the two curses of the Indian seas, and would make the Anglo-Saxon race and name preeminent throughout Oceanica and throughout the Indian seas. A. M. C.

---

Gov. Cumming and His Movements in Utah.
From the Washington Union.

By the arrival in this city of Col. Kane we have been able to gain a little more insight into the peculiarities of Gov. Cumming's administration in Utah, or rather into the tone and character of his government. We have, for instance, the distinct authority of Col. Kane for saying that Gov. Cumming resolved to enter Salt Lake City in the Spring without having made any arrangement, through Colonel Kane or otherwise, in reference to his visit. It was Governor Cumming's intention, last Winter, to have separated himself from the army, and to go to the Mormon capital. Not only, then, does it appear that Governor C. acted with great energy, but it turns out that in all his addresses to the rebellious people he demanded unconditional submission. He would recognize the Mormons as brothers only on the express ground that they should recognize the laws and Constitution of the United States as binding upon them. This bold, fearless language, uttered by a man of a large heart and commanding intellect, won the respect of the Mormons; and hence we have the extraordinary events which have been so liberally reoorted and published by the return party of Colonel Kane.

We shall look with profound interest to the development of affairs in Utah. There is a mystery in that Territory which it will require time to solve. The power that moves a whole community at a signal, is worthy of calm investigation, and its future may well be watched with extraordinary interest. Such a people have a future. This is an important fact to be kept in view -- the Mormons have a future. They are encumbered with vices and moral excrescences which it will take time to remove, but with the vast field before them in the interior of the Continent it is certain they have a future!

We regard it as fortunate that one so intelligent, firm, and sagacious as Governor Cumming is charged with the delicate duty of administering the Government of the Mormon people.


Notes: (forthcoming)

INTERESTING  FROM  UTAH.
_______

Preparations of the Army for the March
on Salt Lake City.
_______

ARRIVAL OF COLONEL HOFFMAN AND CAPT. MARCY.
_______

Provisions Plenty and Transportation Ample.
_______

The Burning of tfte Supply Trains in October --
_______

Other Mormon Outrages.
_______

Interesting Particulars of Capt Marcy's
Trip to New-Mexico.
_______

Peculiarities of the Indian Tribes in Utah.
_______

From the Special Correspondent of the New-York Times.

CAMP SCOTT, Bridger's Fort. U. T., Friday, June 12, 1858.      

My next communication will be dated on the march towards Salt Lake -- for the present week has brought in all the supplies and troops for which the army of Utah have been postponing its advance. First came Colonel Hoffman with his supplies of provisions, clothing and forage; and on the 9th instant Captain Marcy came into camp with over 900 mules and about 150 horses of the stock which he went to New-Mexico to purchase. This gives us over 5,000 animals of all kinds, which will furnish abundance of transportation. Fortunately, the loss of animals during the Winter was scarce a twentieth part as great as was anticipated in view of the condition of the herds when the army went into Winter quarters. Under the judicious care of Mr. Milles, the head wagon-master, I believe less than 50 mules were lost during the Winter out of somewhere about 1,000 head, and his stock this Spring is in fine working condition, although wintered upon the dry grass which the animals hunted out from under the snow. Marcy's stock also is in fine order, so that there is nothing to be cone now but pack up and be off towards Zion.

In anticipation of these arrivals the commanding General issued the following preliminary order on the evening of its date:

HEAD-QUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF UTAH, }      
CAMP SCOTT, U. T., June 5, 1858. }      

GENERAL ORDERS NO. 26. -- 1. Means of transportation and renewed supplies being near at hand, this army will, in execution of the orders of Government, at an early day resume its march to Salt Lake City.

2. In the meantime the transportation present will be held in readiness, and each Chief of Staff and each Commander will complete the preparations for the march in his own department or command. Transportation will be furnished at the rates established in Central Orders No. 25, Headquarters’ troops, serving in Kansas, of 1857.

3. Commanders will, without delay, make requisition for such clothing now on hand as is needed for immediate issue and for the march, and have prepared, by the arrival of the trains, requisitions for shoes and stockings. These requisitions will be made only on personal inspection and examination, by company commanders, into the wants of their men, in order that no articles may be drawn except those needed for the march. A small supply of clothing, for issue according to necessity, to the respective commanders, after arriving in the Valley, will be turned over to the Regimental and A. A. Quartermasters tor transportation.

4. A command of at least three companies, to be designated in Special Orders, will constitute the guard at this Depot.

The Medical Directors, on or before the arrival of Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel Hoffman, will designate medical officer to remain with the command. The sick who are not able to march, will be left at this Depot.

Supplies to be taken from those in charge of the Medical Purveyor will be liberally furnished the hospital attached to each regiment and to this Depot. The remaining hospital supplies will be prepared as required in paragraph 997 Army Regulations, and turned over to the Depot Quartermaster (to be designated) for transportation ac a future day to Silt Lake Valley.

By order of Brevet Brigadier-General A. S. Johnston.     F. I. Porter, Ass't Adj.-General.

The publication of the second clause of the fourth paragraph of this Order had a remarkable effect upon the hospitals, rapidly depleting them of their tenants, for every man is anxious to move forward to the Valley. There has been very little sickness in camp, however -- much less than might have been anticipated, in view of the hard fare to which officers and men were alike subjected during the Winter, and also in view of the extraordinary changes of temperature peculiar to this region -- where the thermometer ranges from 18 degrees to 70 degrees often within twenty-four hours. The principal ailing is what is known as mountain fever -- a modified and easily-managed intermittent. We have had several hail storms during the last week, and, on the morning of the 10th, were visited by a furious snow-storm, which lasted until noon. Nevertheless, the atmosphere is usually very dry -- so much so that we often witness the fall of condensed vapors from clouds overhanging the heights all around us -- the vapors never reaching the earth, being entirely absorbed by the atmosphere in their descent.

The week has been one of busy preparation for the march, and yesterday the whole army rejoiced when the following order, directing the movement, was issued:

HEAD-QUARTERS, DEPARTMENT OF UTAH, }      
CAMP SCOTT, U. T., June 11, 1858. }      

GENERAL ORDERS NO. 28. -- The troops will march from this Camp in three divisions, in as many consecutive days, commencing with the First Division, and moving in the order of their number.

Special instructions with regard to advanced, flank and rear guards will be given immediately after the execution of the preliminary movement herein directed.

The following will be the order of march, subject to an additional change on leaving Muddy Creek:

1. Division composed of the Second Dragoons, Phelpp's Battery, and the Volunteer Battalion: to advance to the Muddy and await the arrival of the Second Division.

2. Division, composed of the Fifth Infantry, Reno's Battery, and Company "B" Seventh Infantry.

3. Division, composed of the Tenth Infantry, and Col. Loring's Battalion.

The morning after the arrival on the Muddy of the Second Division, the First and Second Divisions (Reno's Battery and "B" Company, Seventh Infantry excepted,) forming one division, will continue the march.

Reno's Battery, Company "B" Seventh Infantry, and the Third Division, now constituting the Second, will continue the march on the second day. The Head-Quarters will be with the Second Division as far as the Muddy; beyond that with the advance.

By order of Brevet Brigadier-General A. S. Johnston.     F. J. Porter, Ass't Adj.-General.

Detailed orders have also been issued to the force comprising the First Division, directing them to take up the line of march to-morrow, the 13th inst. It will be seen that the route to be pursued is not designated in the orders, being kept from publication here, at present, from motives of military precaution.

Lieutenant W. D. Smith's squadron of dragoons left camp yesterday morning with pack mules, to escort Capt. Newton, of the Engineers, who goes to reconnoitre the road and examine its condition and report. He is expected also to go to the Bear River, ascertain whether or no the bridge over it is still standing, and if not to select a suitable place for throwing across another. Gen. Johnston has had several strong portable bridges made here in camp, which will be carried along in the advance of the army, and used if occasion requires. The route which the army will take is not absolutely settled yet, but unless I am much mistaken, it will avoid the Canyons. The General wisely argues that military roads should never lie through Canyons for the reason that if assailed therein two important arms of the service -- the artillery and cavalry -- are nearly paralyzed, as they cannot be brought to bear upon an enemy under such circumstances except it be just at the point of attack. If there was any probability of Mormon resistance it would be the part of prudence to avoid the Canyons, and if there is no such danger, there is no need of special haste upon the march. In either event, therefore, the General probably sees no reason why he should not break a new road over the table lands north of the Canyons, or along the valley of the Bear River; in doing which a new road will be opened of advantage, perhaps, to emigrants and traders as well as to the military forces.

It is believed that a good route for a road lies between Echo Canon and Bear River Lake, which would be only thirty or forty miles longer than the Canyon road, and I have little doubt that it will be the route pursued by our army. If unexpected obstacle are met with there, the course of the Bear River will probably be followed all the way into Salt Lake Valley. This route would be very circuitous, adding two hundred miles or more to our march, as the river, from where we strike it, runs northward on the east side of the Wasatsh Mountains until it turns the northernmost spurs of the range and then hugs the same range again, as it pursues its course southward on the westerly side of the mountains. There is hardly a possibility, however, that this longer route will be found necessary or advisable. The time occupied in the march will be longer than I anticipated in my last, and we shall do well to find ourselves in Salt Lake City by the 1st of July.

The officers of the army of Utah are all required to keep a journal and itinerary, on which the geographical and topographical facts coming under their observation are all carefully noted. Suitable books for this purpose were provided by Gen. Johnston, one of which is handed to each officer as he starts out upon a scout, or to visit any portion of the surrounding country. It will readily be seen that these notes are rapidly accumulating a mass of valuable data, upon which to get out a complete and accurate topographical map of this entire region. Already Capt. Newton has sketched, from these and other data collected during the past winter, a very complete map of the route to the Valley, on which all the water courses, comprising grounds and settlements, are marked. Capt. Marcy's observations during his recent trip to New-Mexico will prove a valuable contribution to geographical science; -- but of that more in another branch of this communication.

It is now nine days since the Peace Commissioners and Governor Cumming left the Camp for Salt Lake City, but are yet without any intelligence as to the result of their conferences with the people of the Valley; but that fact will not retard the movements of the army for an hour now that it is ready to advance.

Early on the morning of the 8th instant a Mormon party arrived here from the city, headed by Groesbeck, the man who carried up a train of supplies to the city late last Fall, including more or less powder. His companions, in conversation smooth, quiet and plausible, carried with them, with an exception or two, the veriest scoundrelly faces that I have met in sometime. They brought down a few horses and provisions to sell, while on their way to Platte Bridge, whence they go to carry up part of their train left there by Groesbeck last Fall, for fear it should fall into the hands of Colonel Johnston. In order to forestall the latter result, they pretended to sell the train out to John Richard, the trader whose post is at the Bridge, having first cache all their goods that they could not pack on mules. These men state that they met Governor Cumming and the Peace Commissioners on the Weber River, whence they would reach the city on Monday the 7th instant. They state further that Brigham Young was not in the city to meet them, but had gone down to Provo, and that the people were still moving to the southward, not five hundred of them remaining in the city.

When the party came into camp, one of their number, named John Hoagland, was immediately recognized by a volunteer as one of the ruffians engaged in burning the supply train on the Big Sandy, on the 5th of October last, and who robbed Jack Gunn, one of the teamsters on that occasion, of his Colt's revolver. Complaint was made at once, and Lieut. Grover, Provost Marshal, "jerked" Brother Hoagland suddenly, and placed him in the guard-tent of the 10th Infantry, with a file of well-armed soldiers, to keep him company. Before the arrest was made another volunteer, who was also a teamster, stated to Mr. Groves that he could identify Gunn's pistol, having often used it on the road; that it was a Colt's revolver, number 26 328. The Provost Marshal took the weapon from his prisoner's belt, and found the number corresponded with that stated by the witness. Thus man and pistol were clearly identified. A complaint was filed against him for robbery, and the preliminary examination was had on the 9th, before Mr. Carter, an excellent and conscientious merchant, who is acting Justice of the Peace for this county. The witnesses testified to the facts above stated, and gave the following account of the proceedings of the Mormon party:

The train had camped in a hollow near what is known as the bend of the Big Sandy, when a party of Mormons under Lot Smith, well mounted and armed rode up, with their rifles cocked and held in position for instant use. A glance at the surrounding hills showed that there were others of the party poted as a sort of picket guard, to give notice of the approach of any relief which might possibly be in the vicinity. The assailants declared themselves Mormons, said said they had come to burn the trains, and ordered all "the boys" to get out their arms and lay them down in a pile. Conceding at once that resistance was useless, the teamsters obeyed the order. After some conversation, which resulted in Smith's agreeing that the attacked party should keep two of the wagons, with rations, to enable them to join their friends, the leader told his men to -- "get to work" -- whereupon the Mormons proceeded to break up the ox yokes and bows, and to pile them up on the wagons preparatory to burning. This done, they set fire to the train, with all its contents.

About, the time the fire was kindled, Hoagland, by permission of Lot Smith, went to Gunn and told him be wanted his pistol -- that they were going after Captain Magraw, of the Wagon-road Expedition, and would probably have use for it, which he (Gunn) would not. Hoagland and Gown had been acquainted before in Salt Lake City, and Hoagland, while taking the weapon without Gunn's consent, promised to return it to him when he should meet him in the Valley. Telling the teamsters to stay where they were and see the trains burn, Smith and his party rode off. When they reached the neighboring heights Smith fired his pistol, at which signal a party of his men, not before visible, rode up and joined him as they moved away from the scene of their villainy.

The prisoner is a son of the Mormon Bishop of the Eleventh Ward of Salt Lake City. He is a young man 22 or 23 years of age, with sharp features, a narrow, low and receding forehead, with bluish-gray eyes and tow-colored hair. The expression of his face is stolid, betokening a man ready to execute unfalteringly and without questioning the will of a superior intellect to whose influence he had once surrendered himself. Of course he was not without means to employ a lawyer. His counsel at first put in a plea of not guilty, but after the evidence for the prosecution was developed, he withdrew that plea and put in the President's Proclamation, claiming that his client had been guilty of treason -- the lesser crime having been merged in the greater -- and demanding that the accused be set free under the provisions of the pardon offered by Mr. Buchanan for all the seditions and treasons of the past. The Justice anticipating this plea, had consulted Judge Eckels, and at once decided to release the defendant. Thus it will be seen that every species of crime in the past that can be made directly or indirectly a part of the system of outrage perpetrated by the Mormons in opposition to the Government is to be held to be covered by the Proclamation, even though the sufferer is a private citizen, and the property stolen or destroyed is private property. I leave to the legal profession the discussion of the interesting question involved in this connection.

It is evident that these emissaries of Brigham Young have been schooled into a sentiment of perfect contempt for the authority and the power of the Union. Some of them have behaved in a most impudent and unbecoming manner while here, swaggering about the camp, boasting of their participation in the burning of the supply trains, and describing all the details of their arrangements for the accomplishment of that act of treason, as if it were something to be proud of. Said one, in a group of three of them, speaking to attaches of the camp, " It's d__d lucky that we are pardoned -- for if we were not, we would burn up the whole d__d army." This is a fair specimen of the men upon whom the President of the United States has obtruded "a full and free pardon" before they had sued for it, and while they exhale treason in every breath. Nothing but the strict discipline of camp could have saved the scoundrel, whose remark I have quoted, from summary and severe personal chastisement. But his case is not an isolated one. It has its daily counterpart, as often as the "Saints" are met with, inside or outside the pickets. As the case stands, the soldiers give vent to their indignation in energetically cursing the insulting traitors, and most religiously damning James Buchanan.

Conversing with a bright-eyed, good-looking young Mormon, a day or two ago -- one whose face betokened more of frankness than one could expect of most of his fellows -- I asked him about the outrages upon Gentile merchants and United States officials in the "Valley." He did not attempt to deny, nor offer to excuse them. To him they were evidently perfectly natural and appropriate results. "If a man comes into the Valley" said he, "and minds his own business, he has no trouble; but if he begins to meddle with affairs that don't belong to him, I'll be d__d if he don't get h__l." Pressing him as to what he meant by intermeddling, he replied that the Gentiles had offended by writing to the States and to Europe abusive statements in regard to affairs in Utah, or had harbored and attempted to protect persons who had been "cut off" from the Church, or had spoken evil of the Prophet, &c. The same complaint applied to the civil officers, who, he declared, with wonderful simplicity, had vexed Brigham Young, and other good men, by official acts or decisions obnoxious to the interests of the Church, and therefore deserving of severest reprehension. "What else could they expect?" continued my young expositor. "If a man comes into this Valley, and lets us alone, he would have no trouble." It was the old story of tyranny and oppression, which has been dinned into the ears of the Government and the people of the United States for a year or two, but which seems almost impossible of realization by those who live at a distance from the influence of this accursed Theocracy. The Church finds itself unable to endure free criticism of its faith as exemplified in the lives of its exponents, and so feels justified in resorting to outrage and murder in order to suppress the liberty of speech. A man witnessing the enormities of the Valley, must not "meddle" so far even as to write to his friend in New York or Massachusetts or Louisiana, narrating the facts. Neither must he respond to the demands of common charity and give food or shelter to the helpless female who has been turned out to perish in the pitiless winter storm, because she shrinks from the touch of some vulgar "Saint" who desires to add her to his polygamic household. Nor must he resist the spoliation of his property when the Church has need of it. Nor venture an appeal to the Courts for redress. All this is "meddling" and justly subjects the imprudent perpetrator to the Mormon inquisition and its mysteriously executed penalties. Your Utah correspondence, a year or more ago, presented case after case, each well authenticated, illustrating forcibly the foregoing interpretation of what the Mormon Theocrat means by Gentile meddling. The United States Courts were "meddling" when they undertook to assert the rights of the citizen Hockaday, against the interests and the edicts of the Church; and so they were, broken up by violence and dispersed. Surveyor General Burr was meddling when, as the agent of the Government, he undertook to cut wood in the Canons to make land section stakes, and so he was driven from the Territory. Captain Gunnison "meddled" when he published to the world his observations of the iniquities of Mormondom, and as a consequence, he was butchered with all his band by Mormon Thugs; and the followers of Brigham Young seem to believe implicitly that in thus punishing "meddling" they do nothing deserving reprobation or rebuke. It is to such a people as this that James Buchanan has yielded in such meek submission, flinching from the stern execution of a high duty, and imploring them to accept a pardon, and save him from the labor of hanging them.

A trifling incident, the other day, illustrated the servile subjection to which woman is reduced under the Mormon harrow. Among the party who recently arrived here from Salt Lake, on their way towards the Missouri, was a Frenchman, who, though glad to escape from the tyranny of brother Brigham, was still fast in the faith. He had with him three women, one of whom was his legal wife, and another his mother. The third was a German woman, who having occasion to appeal to the judicial authorities here for aid, presented the following statement, which was confirmed in its essential points by fellow-travelers. The Frenchman, whom she met as a Mormon preacher in St. Louis, made love to her there, and as she was already a convert to the faith, easily persuaded her to go with him to Salt Lake to be "sealed" to him as a "spiritual" or second wife, promising her that the ceremony should be performed as soon as they came into the presence of the Prophet. This promise he failed to keep, but on arrival in the Valley, he sent his victim out to herd his cattle, which she did all last summer and winter. This spring, when the Frenchman was about to leave the Valley, she insisted upon his taking her back to the States. To this he consented on condition that she should give up her bed and spare clothing to be sold in order to aid in the purchase of the team and necessary supplies for the journey. Accordingly she made over her furniture, and stripped herself of every article of apparel which could be spared without absolute indecency -- the value of which was equal to half the cost of the rickety "outfit" in which the party finally started. It seems to have been the fellow's intention to drive her out of his company as soon as possible afterwards by cruelty; and in the trip from the Valley to this point, he compelled her to walk all the way, quarrelling with her and abusing her continually. Arrived here, she determined to join our Camp, where she could find abundant employment as laundress -- and accordingly she took legal measures to obtain a return of her share of the outfit. The District-Attorney and David A. Burr, with myself, proceeded to the he Mormon Camp, and made the demand in her behalf. The fellow did not dispute her story in the least, but put on airs of the most lordly superiority, sneering at the idea of a woman's being able to bring complaint against one of the "Sons of Zion." Until the fact was suggested to him, he had evidently forgotten that he was no longer in a Mormon community, but in one where a woman has rights of her own. As the suggestion dawned upon his mind, his lordly air vanished, and he burst into a vehement passion, applying an opprobrious epithet to the woman, which was instantly resented by one of his own associates, who warned him not to repeat the slander. Finally, under threat of being subjected to suit for the value of his victim's property, and also for wages as a "herdsman" he paid up and was permitted to depart.

It is to be feared that the very enormity of the wrong perpetrated in Mormondom, or under its influence, have rendered the Eastern public Incredulous as to their commission. It is difficult to conceive that humanity can become so debased under the cloak of religious fanaticism. The class of facts which it has been my duty to cite from time to time, illustrative of the practical working and disastrous effects of the Mormon system, have been attested time and again by many living witnesses, speaking from personal knowledge and experience -- witnesses who certainly appear to be honest and reliable, and who are certified as veracious by those who have known them long and well. I have had opportunity to test the accuracy of some of their statements by questioning other parties in reference to facts which they have detailed, and a comparison of notes thus obtained, would seem to afford irrefragable evidence of their truth. Take, for instance, the narrative of Mr. Loba, who the St. Louis Republican thinks "sold" your correspondent. I seriously have no fault to find with their incredulity, nor have I any personal interest in having Mr. Loba sustained and indorsed, as I gave his interesting story avowedly upon his own authority, making myself responsible only for his intelligence, his apparent truthfulness, and the reputation for honesty and veracity which he enjoys in the circle of gentlemen in which I found him.

It is of a good deal of importance to the public, however, that his reliability should be ascertained, so that baseless suspicion of his integrity may not destroy the impression which his startling declarations ought to make upon the public mind -- for, depend upon it, this Mormon question is no trifling, ephemera, issue, but one which is destined to force its importance in upon the future, compelling politicians, statesmen and citizens of all classes, to take earnest, decisive position in regard thereto. I have had frequent opportunities during the last month to learn of Mr. Loba from those who know him -- both Gentiles and seceding Mormons. All speak well of him, and vouch for his truthfulness. I had heard of him, and something of the particulars of his escape, from Mr. Burr, of Washington, late U. S. Surveyor-General in Utah; and the Mr. Morell who went among the Snake Indians to rescue himself and wife, and carry them to Laramie, is our Postmaster in this camp. Jno. M. Hockaday, U. S. Attorney tor the Territory, also knew him, and their testimony fully corroborates Mr. L.'s statement in various particulars with which they were familiar. I have questioned also some of the seceding Mormons now here in regard to specific facts stated in his narrative, and their answers, without having real his statements, are identical with his own. I have questioned these particularly in regard to the journey of death made by the hand cart train, the sad remnants of which Mr. L. saw enter the valley in the depth of the Winter. Mrs. Sutherland, to whom I before have had occasion to refer, tells me that she started from the Missouri only four days behind that train, frequently coming up with it on the way, and then falling behind, as it was not the desire of her party to pass them. With her own eyes she saw pits dug into which fifteen to twenty corpses were rudely thrown at once. Although this occurred before the poor emigrants arrived at their point of greatest suffering and mortality, the deaths were too numerous to admit of providing them with separate graves. At last it was found impossible to do more than throw a thin covering of earth over the bodies, which the wolves speedily displaced. So callous did the survivors become at last. Mrs. Sutherland informs me -- so horribly used to the presence of death -- that she frequently witnessed the living sitting upon a corpse for convenience, while eating their scanty meal, upon a corpse awaiting burial. The lady whose authority I give for this statement is fitted by education to grace any salon in your City. The few remnants she has been able to preserve of the fine library which she carried into the Valley add silent but impressive testimony of her refined and cultivated tastes.

Mr. Sutherland was of the party who came out from the Valley to meet the emigration, and he estimates the number of the party in question who entered the Valley at not to exceed three hundred. Mr. Loba's estimate (for he did not profess to have counted them) was two hundred and forty. We know that the party numbered 2,500 on leaving Liverpool, and that at least 2,300 of these started together from the banks of the Missouri. A Gentile merchant of Salt Lake City, also, now in camp, tells me that the general understanding was, that less than three hundred of the party arrived alive. Another mentions a fact, which I heard from L., but believe I omitted to state before -- to wit: that Brigham Young sent out a party of men to scatter the human skeletons from the road side, so that the ghastly evidence of past horrors might not be visible to these who should follow them, and thus become a scandal to the Church. So, too, I have confirmatory testimony in relation to the persecution of Jarvis, and in relation to various other facts; but why extend the list? Those who would resist such evidence as this would not yield their credulity though an angel of revelation were to vouch for its accuracy. The suggestion of somebody at Washington, that Loba is an agent of Brigham's to deceive our Government, and prevent the reinforcement of the army here, is unworthy of consideration. On two points Mr. Sutherland states that the condition of the Mormons has been improved since Mr. Loba left the Valley. They have now two or three six pounders, which were either brought from the Pacific coast last Summer, or were carefully concealed prior to that time. They have recently, also, got same good gunsmiths among them, who are making a small number of very fair-looking revolvers, although several of these have burst in the hands of their owners, showing that they are far from perfect. As to army reinforcements here, it is the opinion, I believe, of every officer of any note in camp, that the present force of 1,800 men is amply sufficient to force a way easily into the Valley, despite all opposition of the Mormons, and to march over any portion of it. General Johnston has collected a mass of information in regard to the physical character of the great bug-bear Idaho Canyon, and does not hesitate in the belief that it could be forced if necessary, even admitting the wildest Mormon boasts of their fortifications to be all true. The evidences accumulate that Brigham Young never dreamed of armed resistance to the United States, and that his impudent braggadocio has always been his reliance for maintaining his influence over his own people, as well as for deterring the present, as he has former National Administrations, from persisting in an effort for his subjection to law. He now seems likely to avail himself of the tendered pardon, covering his retreat as well as may be. You will remember how defiantly, a few months ago, he declared in a letter to the commander of these forces, that if he persisted in bringing the troops into the Valley, he would hurts swift destruction upon them. Then our Army was to be "sent to h__l across lots" if they did not go back whence they came. Well, the Army is here, just about to march into the city -- the President's proclamation says they shall go in, and Brigham will accept it with all its conditions, without a blow. Had no pardon been tendered, the result would have been the same, except that Brigham and the other leaders most deeply involved in crime, would have tried to evade the law by keeping out of the clutch of its ministers. A month or two of firmness on the part of the President would have effectually wiped out the stain which the Mormon theocracy has fastened upon the National escutcheon, and that with little shedding of blood except upon the traitors' scaffold. The pretence that a universal pardon was necessary, in order to save the effusion of innocent blood, and the punishment of the least guilty with the leaders in the rebellion, is puerile; for the President would always have had it in his power to pardon the lesser offenders in detail, while making terrible examples of those whose superior intelligence and position among the Saints have enabled them to bring about a state of affairs so lamentable.

I do not believe, however, that the pardon will prevent ultimate collision between the troops and the Saints. On the contrary, its tendency will be to encourage and provoke collisions; for the ignorant masses of Mormondom will look upon the unasked pardon as an evidence of our weakness, either moral or physical, and will thus be more easily led into resistance to the officers of the law than they would have been had the army entered the valley without qualifications or conditions. The President, of course, cannot prevent nor interfere with civil suits, of which there will be many brought at once upon the return of the Gentiles to the Valley. The Church of Latter Day Saints is a corporation, holding property and liable to suit. It will be sued for damages to private citizens; judgments will be obtained, and these will he collected at any and all risks, Various prominent men in the Church will be sued also by those who have suffered at their hands, and many of them will be prosecuted for murders, robberies and other crimes committed prior to, and therefore not constituting any part of the acts of "sedition and treason" covered by the President's Proclamation. The lenient course of the Executive is well calculated to embolden the Mormons when thus followed up to venture upon resistance, especially when some sudden element of excitement is thrown in as a torch to light the flame. It is the general belief of those here who have had longest experience among the Saints that the volunteered pardon has created the only probability of armed collision, but this effect will not be immediately developed.

What has become of the Associate Justices of this Territory, Mr. Potter, of Ohio, and Mr. Sinclair, of Virginia, without whose presence no term of the Supreme Court can be held? Judge Eckles, the Chief Justice, received his commission on the 21st July last took the oath of office on the 22d, and was on the road on the 27th. His associates were appointed earlier than he, but neither of them have yet been here. Surely they should either betake themselves at once to their post, or vacate in favor of others who will; for there ought not to be a day's delay in opening the United States Courts upon the arrival of the army in the Valley to sustain and protect the civil authorities. John Hartnett, Secretary of the Territory, who has been absent for some months, returned yesterday and started to-day for Salt Lake City to join the Governor.

In my last I noticed the statement, made upon Mormon authority, that Colonel Thomas L. Kane was re-baptized in the Mormon Church, and received his endowments, upon his arrival in the Valley from California. I have heard since then that Governor Cumming denies the statement very emphatically, although how he should be possessed of this negative sort of knowledge in respect to a matter which was not subject of discussion until after the Colonel started for the East, I can not well understand. I give him however, the benefit of the Governor's disclaimer which has had little effect upon opinion here.

Captain Marcy's trip to New-Mexico and back, has developed some points of considerable interest. You will remember that he left Fort Union upon his return on March 13 last, and proceeded to a place called Rayado, where the expedition was organized. Leaving that point on the 17th, he took the Raton Road to Fort Leavenworth, which he followed to Purgatorie (pronounced Pick-a-twa) Creek. Thence he struck out in a direct line for the Old Puebla, on the Arkansas River, at the mouth of the Fontaine Quiboille which he followed to the Congress Water Spring, at its head, and from which it takes it name. Here, nearly about 300 miles from Fort Union in nearly a northerly direction, he found an excellent encampment, where he remained thirty days, awaiting the escort which had been ordered to accompany him from New-Mexico. On April 28, the escort having arrived, the entire party moved forward, and encamped upon the crest of the elevated ridge which divides the waters of the Arkansas from those of the Platte. The weather had been clear, mild, and exceedingly pleasant ail day, but about dark a terrific snow-storm set in, impelled by a violent gale of wind, and continuing with unabated fury for sixty hours. The snow fell to the depth of three feet upon a level while the drifts piled up from ten to twenty feet in height.

During the storm, a herd of about 300 mules and horses stampeded, breaking away from the control of the herdsmen, and ran back to the Arkansas River, a distance of 50 miles, before they could be turned. Of three herdsmen who followed them, one perished from the cold, actually freezing to death, while endeavoring to force his way in the teeth of the storm; and another was found crawling over the prairie, after the storm ceased, in a state of temporary insanity, with his limbs badly frozen. He was brought into camp, and subsequently recovered. Another man perished within 200 yards of the camp, and the chaired remains of a fourth were found where a fire had been built, with the flesh entirely burned off. It was supposed that the latter had lain down by the fire when so chilled and benumbed as to be quite helpless, and that while in this condition he accidentally fell into the flames, from which he could not extricate himself. The deceased were all New-Mexicans. After the storm subsided, the stampeded animals were found scattered over the country on the Arkansas, but nearly all of them were recovered. Two veteran mountaineers, who were in the party, state that during twenty years experience in this region, they never witnessed so fearful a storm.

The party were detained here seven days, and then marched on to the South Platte, which they found too high to admit of fording. They accordingly constructed a flat-boat, with which to ferry over the seventy five wagons attached to the train. From the South Platte the party proceeded to Cashe la Poudre Creek. For a distance of 200 miles up to this point, from the base of the Raton Mountains, the road had skirted the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, passing through a beautiful country, abounding with luxurious grass, plentifully watered, admirably adapted for stock grazing, and perhaps for general agriculture. Capt. M. pronounces it by far the finest country which he has yet seen in the great interior between Missouri and the Sierra Nevadas. The New-Mexicans nave frequently attempted to occupy it, and commenced settlements upon its water courses, but have invariably been driven off the Arrapahoes, Cheyennes or Utes. Another attempt was to be made during this season by a party of Americans and New-Mexicans already organized, who, probably are now upon the ground, at the head-waters of the Arkansas. It is to be hoped that their enterprise will be more successful than that of these who preceded them.

Capt. Marcy's road now, bearing to the left, turned into the mountains, and ascended by very gradual slopes to the waters of the North Platte -- passing several branches of the Laramie River -- until it intersected Bryan's Bridget's Pass Road from Fort Kearney, at a point about 80 miles distant from Fort Laramie. Bearing around the northern base of the Medicine Bow butte to the Cherokee crossing of the North Fork of the Platte, and thence crossing several branches of Lage Creek, the road next passed for an hundred miles over an elevated plateau -- the highest level between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans -- to the head of Bitter Creek, and down this stream to its confluence with Green River, and thence by the old Laramie road to Bridger's Fort. The entire road thus marked out by Marcy's train is solid, firm and smooth, devoid of abrupt ascents or declivities, and wish the exception of the Raton, crosses no mountains.

The Rocky Mountain chain seems to be intercepted upon this route, and the interval being an elevated mesa or plain. Throughout the entire distance there is an abundance of the best grass and water, with the exception of that portion lying between the north fork of the Platte and Bitter Creek -- a distance of about 120 miles, where, in a very dry season, there would be a scarcity of water. The distance between this point and New-Mexico or Fort Leavenworth, is quite a 100 miles shorter by this than by the road via Laramie and the South Pass. As a route for the Pacific Railroad, it would seem to be preferable to any other.

The Captain started from Fort Union with about 1,200 horses and mules, and has brought them here in much better condition than at the beginning of the journey, having lost on the way only the small number always incident to such a trip. If it had not been for the detention en route in waiting for his escort, he would have been in Camp Scott on the 1st day of May. The party suffered not the least attempt at interruption by the Indians or Mormons, nor did they discover the least indication of a hostile disposition towards them anywhere. The forty men whom the Captain took over the Mountains with him, and who suffered so severely, have all come back with him except two, in fine health and spirits. The Captain speaks in the highest terms of their energy and faithfulness. On the return trip they have obtained any quantity of game, grizzly bear, buffalo, elk, deer, antelope and mountain sheep. Quite a contrast this to their experience on the outward journey, when for twelve days they subsisted entirely on mule and mare meat. It is astonishing how much of this food men will eat under such circumstances. Captain Marcy states that he would kill a mule at night, and his 69 men would dispose of it all before morning, the average consumption being about six pounds per man.

The route which Capt. Marcy took on his journey out, was that through Kutehetope Pass, which was examined by Capt. Gunnison, to ascertain its practicability as an avenue by which to carry a railroad across the Rocky Mountains. It is round to traverse on exceedingly broken and mountainous region, and the country, for nearly two hundred miles, is covered with deep snow all winter; so much so, as in Capt. Marcy's opinion, as to render it wholly impracticable for winter travel. This expedition has established the fact that animals and supplies can be brought from New-Mexico to this point, so as to reach here much earlier in the spring than they can be brought from Missouri. The total distance between Fort Union and Fort Bridger is estimated at nearly 800 miles, by Marcy's return route, which is an 100 miles longer than the route he took on the outward trip. The Captain's eminent success in the execution of the duty confided to him, has elicited the cordial approbation of General Johnston and General Scott, who, it will be remembered, complimented him handsomely in official orders upon receiving the report of his outward trip.

During the winter, while up in the Mountains, the Captain found the White Ptarmigan, a bird of the Grouse species, whose range it has heretofore been supposed did not extend south of 54 degrees north latitude. He obtained several specimens and sent them to the Smithsonian Institution, being the first ever found within the limits of the United States. Indeed, only two or three specimens are known to exist in any Ornithological collections in the world. It is a bird about the size of a Northern Pheasant, with plumage white as snow, and is only found in the highest part of the Rocky Mountains. The provision rations of the army are now found abundant, but we have no vegetables, except a small quantity of the desiccated article. Our beef is now pretty fair -- quite a different article from the "Russell and Waddell" upon which the army were fed upon during the Winter. These were the starved cattle of Russell & Waddell's trains, who began to die in great numbers from sheer exhaustion, after the troops got in camp last season. Poor as they were, the commander of the forces saw that they were the only reliance for his men. So, "to save the lives of the beasts" they were killed, and all hands set at work to cut up the blue stringy looking meat into strips to be smoked and dried for preservation. Stepping into the depot at the Fort, the other day, my attention was called to a pile of it which still remains. A more miserable apology for meat could not well be imagined. It is no exaggeration to say that it resembled more a pile of bark strips or of Buffalo chips, than anything else -- dry, tough, utterly devoid of fatty particles, and seemingly possessing little or no nutrition. The most successful mode of treating it seems to have been to grind it in a mill, reducing it to a sort of ash. You may well suppose that those who fed on such fare during three months or more, know how to appreciate their present improved circumstances.

In a former letter I gave a brief description of our camping ground and its arrangement. The mountains which I referred to as "the Wasatch" are known as the Uinta range, although, in fact, a great spur of the Wasatch, and running nearly at right angles with the general course of the latter. The Uintas are thirty or forty miles distant from us at the nearest point, while the highest peak is about eighty. In an ordinarily clear day the view of them from Camp is very fine, especially when they are covered with the freshly fallen snow, which never entirely leaves them, even in midsummer. On several occasions we have seen the snow falling upon them, while in the valley all was sunshine. One does not often witness a prettier natural scene than these mountains present the day after a storm, with the clear noonday sun shining on their dazzling white peaks, and a dark shadow sometimes crawling along their sides as a heavy bank of overhanging clouds is impelled before the wind. One who has not tried it would hardly think it possible to endure life in tents, much less enjoy it. We have here some hundreds of these canvas habitations, dotting in picturesque lines many acres of the valley. Indeed, we have nothing else except some half a dozen cabins with sod walls and canvas roofs, erected by a portion of the civilians. The United States Court-house bears not the slightest resemblance to the same institution any where in the States. It is a large hospital tent, furnished with a carpet of gunny bags, a pine table, several long wooden benches, a bull's-hide chair for the presiding Judge, and an old-fashioned box-stove, with its pipe fastened to a post, poking through the canvas roof. Besides these fittings, you may generally find half a dozen saddles and bridles stowed in one corner, and a pile of bedding in another. The post-office is a large bell tent, pitched against a sod chimney, such as have been erected for most of the wall tents occupied by officers. My own tent is a Sibley. The peculiarity of these tents, is a hole in the top of them from which the smoke of a fire in the tent may make its escape. Its support is an upright pole or column, standing upon three iron legs, between which the fire is usually made. When in a somewhat permanent camp, they are often stretched upon poles, after the fashion of an Indian lodge. My mansion is rigged after this "gorgeous" style. In its centre stands an inverted sheet iron tunnel stove, which warms it comfortably with little fire, -- although the door of the tent -- a slit in one side -- is always more or less open. We have a convenient table made of the tail-gate of a supply wagon, perched upon green willow legs. For chairs we end-up our valises. The seat of a wagon, supported upon four sticks driven in the ground, affords us a somewhat permanent sofa. My "room-mate’s" bedstead is constructed of willow frame-work, with slats of an odoriferous whisky barrel. For myself, I am content to make my couch of grizzly bear skin and Mackinaws, upon the "floor" so neatly carpeted with grass, except in spots where the salaeratus comes up too freely to admit of healthy growth. Our company sofa consists of an inverted feed trough; but the chief article of luxury in the establishment, is a small Powhatan pipe, at which my comrade labors incessantly. He has puffed away one trunk full of Lynchburg since our arrival, and bids fair to end in smoke. We eat voraciously, and sleep so sounded as seldom to hear the reveille, although sounded almost in our ears.

What can be the matter with our mails? I have no letters from New-York latter than the 26th of April, although we have straggling New-York papers to the 8th of May. The complaint is general in camp. The difficulty lies somewhere in the States, for the overland service from the Missouri River is now being performed in fine style. By the last mail we received an occasional paper of November's date, and the manner of making up of the letter mails betrays grossest ignorance or carelessness somewhere. Postmaster-General Brown will do well to have some investigation instituted into the affairs of the North Western offices. Before I left the States I was informed that St. Joseph's, Mo., had been made a distributing office in view of the fact that that town was to be the Eastern terminus of the Salt Lake route. No instructions to that effect, however, have reached the office here, and the mails are accordingly made up for Independence, by which New York packages are delayed about twenty-four hours. The Department will remedy the evil, I am sure, when its attention is called to the necessity therefor. I omitted to mention among the army items, that Col. Loring, of the Mounted Rifles, came up with Captain Marcy in command of the escort, consisting of three companies of the 3d Infantry and of Rifles. These troops having been placed at General Johnston's disposal by General Garland, to enter Salt Lake, City, will proceed with us into the Valley, and thence return to their posts in New-Mexico. The mail of the 22d ult. arrived here night before last, in eighteen days from St. Joseph's, Mo. The intelligence of the death of General Smith did no surprise us, for it has long seemed evident that his days were numbered. His decease leaves a Brigadier Generalship vacant, and the universal expression of hope by this army is that it will be conferred upon Brevet Brigadier General Johnston, who combines Military genius of a high order, with unflinching courage and great caution. In view of the possible future of the Utah question, it is eminently desirable that a man of these qualities and eminent rank should be in command of the military forces here -- one who will risk nothing rashly, precipitate no conflict, yet never shrink from whatever duty presents itself for accomplishment. Such a man is General Johnston, whose soldierly qualities, unfailing equanimity, and unaffected urbanity, challenge the admiration and love of his entire command. S[imonton].

---

CAMP SCOTT, UTAH TERRITORY, }      
SATURDAY, June 12, 1858. }      

Your other correspondent from this Camp, may have given you an account of the recent assembling here of sundry Indian tribes for the purpose of making treaties of peace and friendship; but some further notice of these Rocky Mountain savages may be made, I think, with profit and interest. The Territory of Utah is occupied by various tribes, all speaking the same language, except the Snakes (or Shoshonees) and Bannacks, -- who more properly belong to Oregon, but spend a great portion of their time among the Snakes, with whom they are closely connected and allied by intermarriage. The Utahs, who are by far the most numerous, are divided into various bands, known as the Uinta Utes, -- or those who live in the vicinity of the Uinta range of Mountains -- the Valley Utes, the Piedes living in the South, and the Diggers--the most numerous of this division -- who inhabit the mountains, and live principally upon roots which they dig from the ground with sharpened sticks, or with knives when fortunate and wealthy enough to possess them.

The traveler in these regions who has derived his ideas of the American Aborigines from the depictions of the novelist, and who expects to find the whole tribes of "Deer-Slayers" and "Leather-Stockings" is sadly disappointed. If ever the Red Men of our continent justified the eloquent word-paintings in which a Cooper has presented them, contact with civilization, or some other cause, has effaced nearly every trace of their former title to such going pictures. As a general rule, the remnants of the race which once contained the undisputed masters of the New World are degraded, and wretched almost beyond conception. True, here and there we see some brilliant exception to the rule -- some single chief who shines out from the ignorance and bestiality of his nation like a meteor flashing across a darkened sky. But it is an exception. There are degrees, too, between tribes, some of them, even in this distant wilderness, exhibiting much more of intelligence than their neighbors, and sinking less deep in the abyss of squalid poverty and misery.

Contact with the white man unquestionably has been most disastrous in its effects upon the Indian. It is a melancholy, but, I believe, well-established fact, that such contact speedily destroys what little native dignity the aborigine has preserved prior to this strangely fatal association. In this view I am inclined to coincide with the opinion of many intelligent men who have had opportunities of careful observation in this connection, to the effect that the policy of our Government in distributing presents among them is productive of serious evil. The Indians are constitutionally indisposed to labor, and necessity, alone, impels them to it. When supplied by the Government with clothing and blankets, and sometimes even with food, they become exceedingly indolent, refusing even to hunt; but devoting their time to gambling, begging and stealing; while in the expectation or hope of getting something more from the white man, they will hang about him continually, copying and exaggerating all his vices, without appropriating any of his virtues.

The Snakes and Bannacks seem to have suffered least from these causes mentioned. Indeed some of them still preserve a dignity of manner and a native nobility of character as remarkable and gratifying as it is rare in these days of aboriginal degeneracy. The Utahs, certainly, are the most degraded Indians I have met with. The denizens of Camp Scott have been seriously annoyed by them throughout the Winter. If any man in camp was generous enough to divide his greatly abbreviated ration with one of the miserably looking half-starved red devils, the latter was sure to return at precisely the same hour next day with half a dozen companions as ravenous as himself, and if the impromptu host was imprudent enough to extend his liberality to these also, the day following was sure to find his tent or shanty smarming with Indian Bucks, Squaws, Papooses and dogs, all expecting to be fed to the extent of their gluttonous appetites; and nothing less than the rudest ejection, accompanied by demonstrations of more dangerous violence, could convince them that one's stores were not inexhaustible and their company not desirable. They consider it a great breach of etiquette not to eat up clean everything that is set before them -- an error into which they never are in danger of falling. It was no uncommon thing for them to besiege the cook-houses of the camp or of the civilians residing therein, and the nuisance became so great that it was necessary to lock all doors at the approach of meal time. Finding themselves debarred an entrance, the wretches would hunt for some hole or crevice through which they could watch the operations within, seeming to derive some satisfaction from seeing the food, even though beyond their reach. Rather than undergo the fatigues of hunting, they would devour the entrails of the miserable cattle butchered for the army, -- picking them from the filth in which they had lain sometimes for days and weeks. Indeed, it is a mooted question in camp which are the filthiest, the ravens, the wolves, the Indians or their dogs. I confess that I should question the prudence of committing such statements as these to paper, were they not attested by every officer or soldier who spent the last Winter here. These Indians scarcely ever wash themselves; and their hair, innocent of combs, is permitted to hang in matted masses around their faces, filled with dirt and with disgusting life. They are extravagantly fond of red paint, which they daub profusely over their faces, whenever they can get it of the traders. In business they are very shrewd, making the most of a bargain. Make them an offer for the skins they may have brought a hundred miles or more to dispose of, and they straightway affect the most perfect indifference about selling, asking, the while, five or ten times as much value in exchange as their articles are worth, or as they expect to take.

Loathsome disease, which has become constitutional and hereditary among these Indians, is rapidly wasting them away, and a few generations hence will probably extinguish their lodge-fires forever So, too, the game, which once covered the valleys and mountains of their wilderness homes, is rapidly disappearing before the white man's advance. Not a solitary buffalo of the great herds which, a few years ago, roamed over the extensive tract of country between the Sierra Nevadas and the Rocky Mountains is now to be seen and the elk, the deer and the antelope, also, are fading from the land pari passu with the decline of their Indian co-inhabitants. Man and beast -- the hunter and his game -- seem alike doomed to speedy extinction.

The Snakes would seem to illustrate in their own history the proposition that the Indian's condition is best when furthest removed from contact with white men, for they are far superior to any of their neighbors. Never, before last year, have they received any presents from the Government. It was their chiefs who complained of this to Judge Eckles, shrewdly suggesting that they had been thus neglected because they had never killed a white man. This chief, Wash-A-Kee by name, is the only noble-looking specimen of an Indian in this region. He is tall, straight as an arrow, with features of Grecian mould rather than Indian, and a form full of graceful dignity and conscious power. His hair is slightly gray, and his eyes are keen as the eagle's. Untutored though he is, his every word or step clearly marks the soul of a nobleman of nature's own commissioning. Taught in no school, totally unskilled in the conventionalities of polite society, this proud chieftain, nevertheless, is as nobly jealous of the respect due to him, and as truly polite to others, as is any cultivated gentleman of the East. His is a politeness of the soul, born In him, and as natural as are the rays which beam from the morning sun. All feel its attraction, and no white skinned gentleman fails to respond with sympathetic warmth to his outspoken demand for the deferential civility, which is the true nobleman's due. Such is Wash-A-Kee, -- for this is no overdrawn picture. At the recent conference at Camp Scott, called by Dr. Jacob Forney, Superintendent of Indian Affairs, he declined accepting any presents for himself, saying that he had money sufficient to purchase all that he needed. The quiet dignity with which he refused, satisfied the Superintendent that to press the gifts upon him would be an insult. When an effort was made to reconcile his tribe to the "Utes" with whom he has been many years at war, he replied in a brief, sententious speech, fall of poetic fire and beauty, displaying rare power as an. orator, almost reconciling one to faith in the truthfulness to nature of that remarkable production which an American statesman has placed in the mouth of Logan. He frankly declared that he had no confidence in the Utes, -- that he feared any treaty with them would lead only to temporary peace, for they had made repeated, treaties, and always violated them. The contemptuous scorn with which these suggestions were made could spring only from the heart of one to whom bad faith is a loathing. At the request of the Great Father at Washington, however, he was willing to make peace again. He evidently had a high appreciation of the Great Father -- the chief of so powerful a people -- and he especially charged Dr. Forney to write to the President, and tell him that Wash-A-Kee had always been a friend to the white man, and that he made peace with his red brethren now only because he wished it. He was perfectly willing, he said, to comply with his request; henceforth let their horses drink from the same stream, and feed together upon the same grass, -- that they should sit together in the same Wick-a-ups, (lodges) smoke the same pipe, and hunt the elk, the mountain sheep, the deer and the beaver together in the mountains. He proudly declared that he had no apologies to make and no favors to ask of the Utes, -- that he had in no single instance ever broken his word to them, -- that they had invariably commenced hostilities with his people by stealing their horses or attacking some of his hunters while alone in pursuit of their game. It was to him matter of indifference whether they decided upon having peace or war. If they wished peace and would preserve it, so let it be. The Chief's whole bearing, as he stood out in front of the assembled tribes, was characterized by consciousness of truth, honesty, and unflinching courage. Dr. Forney, who is evidently exceedingly desirous of fulfilling faithfully the duties of his position, exhorted the several tribes to keep faith with each, and when any of them was wronged to make complaint to him or their proper Indian Agent, who would see him righted. He assigned the boundaries between them, which had never been done before, each party agreeing to adhere strictly to the limits thus set. He is the only Government Agent, I am told, who has ever had any official communication with the Bannacks and Snakes. They expressed themselves much pleased with him, -- and at their request he promised to make a reconnoissance of the Valley of Henry's Fork to see whether it is suitable for the purposes of an Indian reservation. Wash-A-Kee stated that his people had never begged, but that the game was gone, and unless the Government did something for them, by teaching them how to plant and reap, they must soon starve. I understand that the Superintendent will report all his operations to the Department of the Interior at the last of June.

The Bannacks are by some supposed to have a different origin from that of the other tribes in this country. Certainly there is a marked difference in their features. Their camp, while here at the conference, was situated in a semi-circular bend of Black's Fork, where it approaches the base of a high bluff, closing in this Valley on the north. The Indian lodges were pitched in the willows skirting the creek, which sheltered them from the wind. The first thing attracting the attention of the visitor as he approached their camp was the multitudinous bear, buffalo, elk, antelope and deer skins spread out upon poles, being supported by forked sticks, which the squaws were busily engaged in dressing, for, as you already are aware, it is the squaws who perform all the labor in an Indian camp. The process of dressing these skins is very simple, yet perfect in its results. A skin after being thoroughly saturated with water is scraped on the flesh surface with a flat stone having sharp edges, until all the fleshy matter is removed. It is next spread out smoothly upon a flat surface and rubbed with the brains of some animal until it becomes measurably dry and very soft, which completes the operation.

Passing from this primitive tannery, the next scene challenging the attention was that of a number of squaws seated in a circle upon the ground, (each with a solitary exception, having an infant strapped upon her back with its black eyes peering over the mother's shoulder,) so completely absorbed in a game of "stick" as scarcely to be conscious of the approach of strangers. The parties opposed to each other were some Bannacks and some Ute visitors. The game resembles in its general features the well-known Western game of "Nuts in the hand" or "Hull Gull." It is played with Elk teeth, two of which the player dexterously passes from one hand to the other, moving his hands now horizontally and now perpendicularly, accompanying the motion with a continuous humming or whining noise, in which all participate. The opposite party when ready to guess in which hand the player holds the "cache" as the teeth are called, indicates his purpose by a clap of the hands, and then by a movement of the finger to the right or left the guess is made. The hands are now opened, and the "caches" displayed. If the guess is correct the "caches" are passed over to the opposite party; if wrong, a stick is thrown over to the winner, and he continues to play until the entire twenty sticks are won and the game decided, or until the opponent makes a right guess. To a looker-on this game, of course, possesses no Interest, but the tribes of Utah are passionately fond of it. They bet their horses, their skins, lodges, trinkets, and even their clothes, frequently returning home with nothing save a scanty breech-cloth to cover their nakedness even in the coldest weather. I am assumed by those who have lived long among them in the mountains that so violent are their gesticulations and so intense their excitement at times while engaged in this game, that the blood frequently gushes from mouths and nostrils in consequence of the rupture of some blood vessel. They will continue the game night and day without cessation until one or the other party is reduced to beggary. Although the Indians become very expert in this game, it is said that the white man seldom tails to beat them, as by continually watching the motions of the eye, he can judge more accurately in which hand his Indian opponent holds the "cache."

These Indians have all left the camp, with some straggling exceptions, and returned to their homes. Whether the peace which was here celebrated is to be preserved is a problem still to be solved. Certainly it will require the most careful and judicious management, on the part of the Indian Agents here, to prevent new outbreaks -- for the Utes are inveterate thieves, as Wash-A-Kee so pointedly and frankly told them at the conference. Not an hour had elapsed, after the Peace-pipe had been smoked, ere the Utes were detected in stealing again from the Snakes, notwithstanding almost all their wars have had their beginning in these petty robberies, for which the red man knows no other redress than the bloody chastisement of the thief and his band.

From all the information collected here by Dr. Hurt, the excellent and intelligent Indian Agent, it does not seem probable that any large body of the Indians of Utah will, in any event, join the Mormons in offensive demonstrations against the United States Army, although there are a few bands which are and long have been under Brigham Young's control, doing his bloody work for him upon offending Gentiles or apostate; Saints, whenever it was desirable to transfer the responsibility of demoniac deeds to the savages, of whom little better things could be expected. I referred to one of these bands in a former letter, as the Paravants. The true name is Pahvantes, or “Small Creeks." It was these who, under Mormon influence and guidance, murdered Capt. Gunnison and his party, -- a deed the responsibility for which is boastfully claimed by the Mormons among themselves. I have made this a subject of careful inquiry since my arrival here, and am satisfied that the evidences of Mormon complicity in the butchery of Gunnison and his command are ample and complete. A party of Ute Indians, having reason to suspect the truth of the case, inquired of the Pahvantes why they killed "the American Captain" who had always been kind to them, and given both tribes so many presents. They replied that the Mormons had told them that the Captain had "plenty money" that he was not the Indians' friend, but that the Mormons were, and that if they would kill the Captain and take his money, they could trade with the Mormons and buy flour and meat. It is also clearly established that it was this band which, under Mormon instigation, attacked several of the smaller parties of the Arkansas emigration last Fall, not long prior to the Mountain Meadows Massacre. This massacre was perpetrated by the Piedes, or Santa Claras, under Mormon leaders. Your readers will remember the case -- one in which one hundred and fourteen men, women, and children, were butchered almost before they had time to see their assailants. A trusty Indian spy, who was sent down among the Piedes to ascertain the facts, reported that they expressed deep regret for this act, and said they never would have perpetrated the outrage, except for the counsel and exhortations of John D. Lee, President of the Mormon Stake at Cedar City, Iron County. Lee came to them, they said, told them that the Americans "always killed Indians whenever they saw them, and advised them, therefore, to go and kill them." He stated, also, that the Americans killed Mormons, (this was not long after Parley P. Pratt was killed,) and therefore that they didn't like them either. The Indians expressed the fear that they were not strong enough to attack the large emigrant party with safety. Lee replied, that if they would undertake it, the Mormons would help them -- a promise which they fulfilled by furnishing a party of Danites to lead the fray and make it horribly successful. Lee also told the Indians that they should have all the plunder, including the blankets and cattle, except the wagons, which the Mormons wanted for themselves. After the massacre, the Mormons cheated their savage allies, and appropriated the cattle also, which came near creating a row between them at the time, and left the Indians in no amiable mood toward their saintly employers, who left them with all the responsibility and scarcely any of the spoil. It was this bit of bad faith, probably, which made the Indians so ready to expose their prompters in the evil deed.

Intelligent Mormon seceders now in our Camp testify to the fact that there was a sort of general understanding among the "Endowed" brethren and sisters confirmatory of the foregoing story, and that the Mountain Meadow massacre was intended both to avenge the death of P. P. Pratt and to punish imprudent strictures upon Mormonism made by some of the murdered emigrants while passing through the settlements. These disclosures of the secret workings of Mormondom give an idea of the exceeding difficulty of dealing successfully with this people so as to repress outrage and give security to life and property, so long as they are permitted to live together in separate communities, overpowering in numbers, and bound together by secret ties and oaths far more powerful in their hold upon them than any statute laws can be practically made to be. There is reason to fear that Mr. Loba and others, who have had long experience in the Valley, are correct in their belief that the evil can never be abated, and can scarcely be modified, except by the absolute extermination of the Mormons, or their entire disintegration as a sect or people.   S[imonton].


Notes: (forthcoming)

IMPORTANT  FROM  UTAH.
_______

A Week's Later -News from the Army and Salt Lake
_______

The Army to be Received Peaceably by the Mormons.
_______

Brigham Young and his Followers Still at Provo.
_______

MOVEMENTS  OF  TROOPS.

ST. LOUIS, Monday, July 12.      

We have dispatches from Leavenworth to the 9th inst., by steamer War Eagle to Booneville, which say that letters have been received by the St. Joseph mail from the Army.

An officer, writing from General Johnston's camp on Bear River, June 16, says the Army would resume its march next day.

General Johnston had received an express from the Peace Commissioners, informing him that the army would be received peaceably by the Mormons. The General did not, however, feel any increased confidence in the peaceful attitude of the Saints, and the army was kept in readiness to repel any treacherous demonstrations.

A proclamation had been issued to the people by General Johnston, in which he tells them the army is as ready now to afford them assistance and protection as it was to oppose them when in rebellion against the Government. It was thought this guarantee would cause many Mormons to evade the despotism of Young, who has sedulously inculcated the belief that the army was particularly hostile to them.

The troops were in fine condition and glad to be released from inaction.

The garrison at Fort Bridger consisted of Captain Hendrickson's and Lieut. Smith's companies of the 6th Infantry, and Captain Stewart's troops of first Cavalry.

Col. Hoffman had lost ninety mules, but only one horse, in his march across the plains.

The St. Joseph Gazette, of the 8th inst, noticing the arrival of the Utah mail, says that General Harney was encamped just beyond Fort Laramie. Col May's command was met 35 miles this side of Laramie. A large body of infantry was at Ash Hollow. Major Emery was encamped on the Big Blue, and another commander (name not given) was at Fort Kearney. The provision trains were progressing finely. The Sioux Indians were scattered all along the route, but. were friendly. There was a heavy fall of snow at Fort Bridger, June 10.

A dispatch from St. Joseph, dated 7th July, by the United States Express Company, to Booneville, says that, the Salt Lake mail of June 19 had arrived. Gen. Johnston and his command was met at Echo Canon fifty miles from the city.

The army was in excellent health and spirits.

Brigham Young and his followers were still at Provo. Young had been to Salt Lake City to confer with Governor Cumming and the Peace Commissioners, but the result of the conference was not known. It was the established opinion that the Mormons would offer no resistance.

Col. Hoffman left the command of Fort Bridger to Capt. Marcy, and accompanied Gen. Johnston.

Everything regarding the future movements of the Mormons was veiled in mystery. Rumors were still rife, however, that they meditate an occupancy of Sonora.

Conjectures were numerous in the Valley that the United States Government intend to purchase the Mormon improvements in the South Platte.

The roads were very high, but good. The mail party neither met nor saw any Indians on the Plains, but met a great many traders at different points on the road. The mail was nineteen days going from Salt Lake to St. Joseph.

The same dispatch says that Judge Sinclair, recently appointed Judge of Utah, would leave St. Joseph on the 10th inst., accompanied by Mr. Dodge, District-Attorney for Utah.

Our Leavenworth correspondent, under date of the 8th inst, says an express arrived at Fort Leavenworth this morning from Fort Kearney, passing the Utah mail for St Joseph.

It was said that Governor Cumming and the Peace Commissioners had concluded a treaty of peace with the Mormons.

General Harney was in camp nine miles beyond Fort Kearney on the 3d inst. The express with or-ders for him to halt must have overtaken him on the 6th inst.

The U. S. steamer Mink leaves the fort, to-morrow, with Capt. Lovell's and Lieut Lee's Companies of Second Infantry for Fort Randall. She also takes recruits for the same regiment.

Judge Cato has resigned his position as District Judge.


Notes: (forthcoming)

U T A H.
_____

General Description of Salt Lake Valley.

Narrative of an American Citizen held
as a Prisoner of War.
_____

VIEW OF MORMON AFFAIRS.

From Our Own Correspondent.

Great Salt Lake City, Saturday, June 26, 1858.

General View Of The Salt Lake Valley.

There has been no other time, during many years, probably, in which the valleys of the mountains could have been viewed by a stranger to so great an advantage as the present. You are already aware that your correspondent emerged from Wasatch Mountains to the great table overlooking Salt Lake in the midst of a severe rain storm. A shower of an hour's duration, at this season of advanced verdure, was never known here before during the occupation of this region by the Church of the Latter-Day Saints. It came upon them just as their crops of grain and grasses were up finely under the influence of the Summer sun, having derived their needed moisture from the Winter snows and Spring rains. But this moisture was now exhausted, the earth had begun to be parched, and the time had arrived when the tedious labor of irrigation must be undergone to save the crops. Just then came the three or four days' rain, settling and fastening the dust, reviving the grass, raising the drooping heads of the now-forming grain, and clothing the whole country in its most beauteous garb of green. Viewed from the point where the pass of the mountains opens on the plain, the scene was enchanting beyond descriptions upon the day of my arrival; dripping with rain though I was, chilled and weary with a long ride on horseback after a comfortless night's bivouac in the storm, I could not help checking my pony, and gazing awhile, with profoundest admiration, upon the enchanting scene. But I have already given you a general idea of the appearance of the city and valley, from the "bench" overlooking them. The term "bench" as you are probably aware, is applied to level and smooth elevations of land lying above the valleys -- the same which are sometimes designated as steppes. The bench here is covered with gravelly soil, bearing, however, a thin coat of grass and weeds. It slopes down gradually from the mountain base to the site of the city. The Wasatch range realizes to the traveler the idea of mountains more perfectly than many other ridges of greater altitude, for the reason that they rise almost perpendicular from the plains.

The City, lying upon the western slope their base, is regular in shape, laid out in squares, or blocks, of ten acres each, nine of which form a ward, governed in detail by a Bishop of the Church. The streets are about eighty feet in width, intersect each other at right angles, are generally planted with shade-trees brought from the mountains, and are watered by little streams, conducted on each side in shallow graveled ditches, by which the water is brought from the mountains. The popular idea that the City is six miles square is certainly erroneous -- at least its buildings do not extend over a space more than three or four miles long, by two and a half broad. The buildings do not stand close together. Every house nearly has a large garden attached, and sometimes there are only two or three buildings to a square. In this way dwellings for perhaps ten thousand people are extended over the surface I have named. The buildings are all constructed of the same material -- a well-molded but sun dried brick, and of a light clay blue. The walls are laid up evenly in line, and are pleasant to the eye. The neighborhood affords great abundance of limestone, as well as of plaster of Paris, for finishing. The dwellings generally are very simple, a story, or story and half high-though those of the poorer classes are little more than mud hovels, and there are a few belonging to the higher Priesthood which are spacious and elegant, and furnished, when open, I am assured, with much richness and taste.

The most casual observer cannot fail to be struck by the fact that this people have done wonders to build such a city in the comparatively short period of their sojourn here. Surely, the task was an unpromising one in the beginning, for the soil must have been barren and forbidding. The streets have been graded and graveled where they needed it, many acres of gravel bed having been redeemed and are now in cultivation, and miles upon miles of canals, dykes, and ditches made for purposes of irrigation as absolutely essential to the raising of crops. Without irrigation nor an ear of corn, or wheat, nor a hill of potatoes could be grown here; and so far as the Valley of Salt Lake is concerned, I can now say from personal observation, that there is not arable land enough to support decently the population already ere, even by dint of the most laborious industry— more than half of the land is full of saleratus, or covered by gravel or salt-water. Among the spurs of the Wasatch, lying nearest to the city, is one known as Ensign Peak. It is estimated to rise to the height of over tow thousand feet above the Valley. I supposed it far higher, when it cost me three hours' hard labor, the other day, to reach its summit. That attained, I had a glorious view of the valley below, with the Jordan -- the outlet of Utah Lake, far to the south -- winding, like a silver thread through the emerald bottoms, away off towards its debouch into Salt Lake. The Lake, too, is plainly visible from the Peak for a distance of thirty or forty miles, and on a clear day the white shore of the desert, bounding it on the West, is easily discernible, though, probably, forty five miles distant.

We have often heard of the great wall "surrounding" the city. This too is a little imaginative, for the wall has never been even commenced in some places. At most, the wall extends two thirds around the settlement. It is a miserably poor affair, consisting of the sod and gravel piled up to a heigh varying from 3 to 8 feet, provided with embrasures at intervals pierced for cannon. It never could have been proof against the lightest of artillery, and is now fast falling to ruin, crumbling and washing away with every Spring thaw or rain. Its estensible purpose when erected was defence against Indians. A glance shows us the insincerity of such a pretence, for even if the entire population of the valley had been numerous enough to defend the wall during a siege at every point on its contemplated length of twenty-four miles, the heights upon the north and west command it so completely that riflemen upon the hill could send their bullets across it with all ease. Even the Mormons themselves now admit that the real object in building the wall was to furnish labor to the thousands of idle men who were here in 1854, and who would have been dangerous to the existence of Mormon theocracy, had not this plan of keeping their hands employed been devised. You can have little appreciation of the deserted appearance of the city upon our arrival, with scarce a building open and nobody in town except the guard of two or three hundred who were left to take care of the property and apply the incendiary torch upon order.

There were only two females in the city when the Gentiles entered, and even they were sent away at once; so that today there are absolutely no ladies here except the wife of Governor Cummings and a lady who spent the Winter at Camp Scott and who returned in our company. There are now here probably five hundred men, the number having been increased by farmers who came up from their families to look after the crops. The house windows still remain boarded up, and the gardens are luxuriant with the weeds that have checked out all more useful vegetation. It would be difficult to imagine a scene of sadder desolation than that presented by this city now. Indeed it looks as though some terrible pestilence had swept over its face, leaving the traces of it dread path vividly marked as the course of a tornado through a vigorous well-grown forest. The workshops in Temple Block have all been despoiled of their roofs, and the foundations of the Temple covered with sods to hide them from the gaze of Gentile curiosity. Temple Block, as is already known, is the square devoted to the construction of the great Mormon Temple, now in process of erection. It is surrounded by a superior wall of stone, covered with a plastic, and some ten or twelve feet high; within the walls stand not only the wreck of extensive workshops, but the "Bowery" -- or present church-meeting house -- also, and the Endowment House, that scene of horrible mysteries which the initiated apostates from among the "Saints" unite in denouncing as the hell of hells. The "Bowery" is also closed up now. It is an extensive building, fully capable, I should think, of seating three thousand persons, as claimed by it constructors.

The square adjoining Temple Block, is occupied chiefly by the "Tithing House" and two of Brigham Young's palatial residences, including the celebrated "Lion" house, which he constructed with especial reference to the accommodation of an extensive and well-regulated harem. The "Lion" house is two stories and a half high, with a row of twelve Gothic gabled windows on each side, to the upper story, each window opening, it is said, into a separate room. Directly alongside this building, and connecting with it by a range of offices, is another of liberal proportions, in which Brigham chiefly domiciles himself and the elder Mrs. Young, who is divided off from her numerous rivals by a high fence. This building is surmounted by the "Bee Hive" emblem of the Territory; -- but a profane wretch at my elbow insists, that the more fitting location for this emblem of industry, would be upon the Lion House aforesaid. I neither ask his reasons for the suggestion, nor discuss its soundness.

The tithing stores and Brigham's "domestic institutions" are surrounded by a fine and impenetrable wall of cobble-stones laid in cement, rising to a height of ten feet, three feet thick at the base and one foot thick at the top. This wall is divided into sections by columnar buttresses, which rise above the wall about two feet each, and are designed eventually to form pedestals for a collection of statues. The walls are entered by heavy gates, constructed so that no outsider could hope to got a peep at the mysteries inclosed, nor any discontented female hope to escape from the grounds without the friendly aid of a turnkey. Indeed, the whole establishment has very much the air of the desperate nunnery of the romances, the walls of which are understood to bury forever from the world those females who once pass their portals. Within this wall, too, Brigham has extensive stables and barns, sufficient in size for a stud of fifty or sixty horses. The dwelling which he first constructed for his own use, and which is now occupied by one of his children, stands on the lower edge of the bench on the square east of that containing the Zion house. This building is the best located, and is altogether the cosiest house of the group. Back of it stands another of Brigham's spacious barns, looking much more like a large country church. Opening the gate by which it is approached we read the injunction, "Shepherds, feed your flocks."

Near by is a small saw mill, which is rim exclusively for the purpose of cutting Brigham's fire wood. The grounds about Young's dwellings are not extensive nor elegant, although kept in the finest order. They are filled chiefly with fruit trees, strawberry beds, and kitchen gardens, They are carefully guarded, and strangers are generally excluded, although your correspondent was favored with an opportunity to ramble over them, and to luxuriate at some length in the luscious mysteries of the strawberry beds.

The square, north of Brigham's, is occupied chiefly by the group of a dozen houses, occupied by Heber C. Kimball and his polygamous family. These, also, are surrounded by expensive and impenetrable walls. The dwellings of the Youngs, and other leading men in the church, are generally fine, exhibiting in all their surroundings a vast amount of the hardest of later wrung from the people. This fact is evident to the most superficial observer. Brigham is immensely rich, yet has he not toiled, and one cannot fail to see that this is no country in which a man may become wealthy without labor or adventure, for scarce a blade of tame grass can be had without effort. Brigham's grounds occupy a site formerly covered by hard gravel, and every inch of soil has been carted upon it from a distance. The same is true of Heber C. Kimball's but the people, in their blind fanaticism, bow their necks readily to the yoke, and seem quite content to remain poor, that their prophets and priests may roll in wealth. On every hand, too, we see evidences of Brigham's policy of keeping his people hard at work. I do not exaggerate in the least, when I say that it is with the utmost difficulties that the masses can eke out an existence by the most laborious industry; for their tithes and taxes, paid in work, time and produce, take so largely from their means, and their soil is naturally so barren, that nothing less than the closest application saves them from starving. I would not be misunderstood. Their crops of grain and of vegetables are superior, when not cut off my insects, but the labor of reclaiming the soil and of irrigation, is so great as to absolutely forbid the cultivation of more than a small patch of land by each. On this score, it is clear that the most shameful imposition is practiced upon proselytes in the east and in the old world, who are continually urged to come to "Zion," a land flowing with milk and honey, and assured that the earth here yields abundantly upon slight wooing. Thus thousands have been deceived into abandoning comfortable homes, and bringing their families here to suffer all the pangs of keenest poverty. If those who ontemplate coming here will but send some trusty agent in advance to examine and make honest reports, fewer families will finally decide to come here, where they must necessarily wear out a wretched existence.

SALT LAKE.

Among the natural curiosities of this region, Great Salt Lake is preeminent. It has already been so fully described that I can add nothing new. A party of us visited it a day or two ago, and tested its saline virtue, floating like logs upon its surface, and strangling desperately when a drop or two of the brine succeeded in penetrating nostrils or mouth. This inland sea certainly is among the most remarkable facts in the geography of the world. If I remember aright, Capt. Stansbury's soundings make it only thirty-five feet deep in its deepest part. Three rivers -- the Weber, the Bear and the Jordan River -- all empty into it, pouring large bodies of fresh water into the basin continually; nevertheless, although it has no visible outlet, the water of the Lake maintains its character of strongest brine unimpaired. Standing upon the jutting point of Black Rock, distance eighteen miles from the City, and looking thence down upon the water, it seems of a bluish white color in body, though quite clear when taken up in a glass. The salt-boilers upon the banks state that four buckets of water will usually make one of salt, and a clearer, purer article could not be desired. I tried a bath, and found it impossible to sink; wading out far enough to bring the water up to one's arm-pits, it becomes impossible to keep one's feet upon the sandy bottom, so buoyant is the water. Lay upon your back, double up your limbs, and lock your arms around your knees and you bob around in the ceaseless swell of the Lake like a stray cork. The water is so excessively salt as to be bitter. A drop in one's eye is painful as would be the same amount of tobacco juice, and the greatest care is necessary to prevent strangulation if the swimmer "ships" the smallest mouthful.

We found only one salt-boiler at work. All the rest had "gone South," as we were informed by the now solitary monarch of the spot, Mr. Warn, formerly of Salem, Mass. At his shanty, near the Black Rock on the shore of the lake, we found his wife -- an intelligent and practical woman from Cushing, Me., and a pretty little flaxen-haired daughter nine or ten years of age, bringing vividly to the mind of your correspondent a blue eyed, brown-haired little one two or three thousand miles away in a happier land It is a sad sight to witness a naturally bright child growing up in such a spot, without a companion of her own years, or any means of education. Mr. White and his wife came here several years ago, undoubting disciples of the Mormon faith. Some time since they lost several head of cattle, the responsibility for which they traced directly to Phineas Young, a nephew of the Prophet. White did not hesitate to accuse him of the theft, and to demand justice. In response he was told by his priestly leaders to "shut up," -- and as he persisted in scandalizing the Church by making oath that the Prophet's nephew was a thief, he was cut off from the Church. This, however, had no terrors for him, as he and his wife had already become satisfied by the "fruits" of Mormonism, that the tree was vicious and corrupt, They assured us that even within a few days post, since the arrival of the Governor and the arrangement made by the Peace Commissioners, the Mormon Bishops have been engaged in driving the people away from his neighborhood, some of them being reluctant to go South, but were afraid to "disobey Council." The effort was made to send the Whites away, but they positively refused, notwithstanding they were told very distinctly by the Bishop that the fractious Apostates would be put out of harm's way. Mr. White states, upon his own knowledge, that very many families went South under orders, who were loth to do so grumbling audibly at the tyranny to which they submitted. I am assured that not a few of the people have been made to believe that Batons, as "Governor," has the right to order them where he will. We have abundant evidence of these tyrannical orders to leave the city. I saw in Emigration Canyon yesterday several apostatizing families, who had come up from the South. They desired to stop in this city and await the arrival of the army, but the "Saints" told them positively that they would allow no women to be in town while the army was here, and so compelled them to start to the Eastward. These and a dozen other families similarly situated, who are now camped on the "bench," will come in here with the army and test the question with their persecutors.

THE HOT SPRINGS.

Returning from, this digression, I must say a word of the Hot and Warm Springs. The former boil up out of the Valley at the foot of the mountain three miles above the city; they are sulphurous, and of so high a temperature as to be unendurable, Indeed there can be little doubt that they would cook an egg, although I have had no opportunity to try the experiment. A story is told of a big Missourian; an emigrant to California, who, passing these Springs in 1850 stripped for a bath. He had been assured that the Mormons bathed here, and so when cautioned against trying the experiment, swore that he'd be d___d if he couldn't stand anything that the Mormons could. With this declaration he plunged into the seething pool. A yell of pain brought the bye-standers to his aid. They dragged him out, -- for he was helpless to aid himself, -- and carried him to town, where he lay for weeks before he was able to proceed on his journey. The Warm Springs are just outside the city wall upon the North. Their temperature is lower than that of the Hot Springs, affording an exceedingly agreeable bath. There is a bathhouse within the walls, supplied from the springs, but, like all else here at this time, has been broken up and left in ruins. Some of the Gentiles not long since went in, as the house was open, fixed up a bathing tub, and arranged it so that it could be used; but this was too much of luxury for Gentile brethren, and some good Mormon brethren accordingly cut off the water and destroyed our plans of comfort. Fortunately they can't choke the springs themselves, which well up out of the ground, forming two or three natural basins, from 12 to 18 inches deal), in which we roll and plunge ad libitum. The water is both sulphurous and saline, very clear, and possessing cleansing qualities which cannot but be healthy and invigorating to the skin.

PEACE UNCERTAIN.

Nobody has any confidence that the present season of peace can last. Indeed, I venture the assertion that if Commissioners Powell and McCulloch -- who have fulfilled their duties here with prudence, judgment and fidelity -- can be induced to give expression to their views upon the subject, it will be found that they have no idea that this people can live in peace under the Constitution and laws of the Union, to which they all profess attachment the most profound. We see the symptoms of collision on every hand The Mormons themselves, though subdued, are surly, gloomy and discontented. They are impudent, too, in their manner and conversation, and will provoke personal difficulties by their conduct, out of which a general collision may spring at any hour. Get a Mormon in conversation, and, ten to one, he will tell you very soon how brave he is, and how they would have whipped the Army if the President had not offered so large a price for peace. An amusing instance of this sort occurred between a private of Magraw's company of volunteers and two Mormons, who went out to camp the other day with produce to sell. The soldier, after listening to their braggadocia awhile, suggested that they numbered about the same proportion to him that the Mormon army did to that of the United States, that this was a fair opportunity to test their relative strength, and that be intended to whip them both for their impudence. The braggarts were saved the flogging by the timely appearance of an officer.

Again there are many Gentiles here and in the neighborhood, who have long been under the heel of Mormon oppression, suffering great loss and many hardships, as well as personal indignities. These begin to feel a little security now, and are turning upon their persecutors with a good deal of bitterness. One of them, a Mr. McNeill, whose experience I propose to note more at length before I close, meeting "Adjutant-General" James Ferguson, last evening, in the presence of sundry Government officials and others, denounced him bitterly as a scoundrel who had oppressed him, and demanded of him satisfaction at any given number of paces, with weapons to be selected. Ferguson did not accept the invitation. Scenes of this character will become more and more frequent day by day, and fan the insane zeal of not a few of the fanatics of these mountains who seem anxious to be made "martyrs for the faith."

But polygamy is the rock on which they are most certain to split. To any interference with it they say they will not submit under any circumstances. This I have been told repeatedly by the chiefs among the Mormons here. They declare tha come what may, they will recognize no attempt to break up the plurality system. They admit that their legislature has passed no law legalizing and establishing polygamy, and give as a reason therefor the certainty that Congress would disapprove and so annul such a law. This being so, there can be little doubt that the old Mexican law on that subject prevails here, and that polygamy can be punished under it. At any rate, Judge Eckles will make the experiment, unless he should get instructions from Washington to the contrary, which is hardly to be anticipated. The people themselves evidently expect a collision to arise out of this or some other cause, and I think they are carefully considering the policy of leasing the country altogether, and going to some place where they can wield the civil as well as ecclesiastical authority. Meantime, a strong body of troops should always be stationed near the city, ready for instant duty, to maintain the laws and to prevent bloodshed by private hands.

Already the Mormon leaders here are at work to get rid of a portion of the federal officials sent among them, Major S. M. Blair told me that they had already petitioned for the removal of Judge Eckles, Postmaster. Morell, and Indian Agents Hurt and Craig. Eckles has excited their hostility by his official course in Camp Scott last winter, where he had the unparalleled impudence to hold the Mormons to be traitors, and to indicate his disposition to execute upon them the laws against treason and sedition. The other officials mentioned have been among them be- fore; and of course as they drove them out by force, it is annoying and humiliating to find them back again. Dr. Hurt certainly is a most honorable and excellent gentleman, loved and respected by all who know him, and one who has proven his patriotism within a year past by desperate public service, in which he has sacrificed comfort and health, and it is to be feared, has even cut short his life. We shall see now whether justice or the Mormons are strongest in their influence over the Administration of James Buchanan. Governor Cumming, who seems to have been taken into full communion by the brethren, evidently sympathizes with them in their kind intentions toward his brother officials, and will, doubtless, exert his influence in support of the petitions of removal, which, I am inclined to think, he forwards by this mail. The President, however, will be apt to await the return of the Peace Commissioners before he acts upon the petitions; and I am greatly in error if they do not see, what every other "Gentile" here sees clearly, that it is the Governor who should be removed from a position which he is utterly unfit to fill. His official intercourse with the Mormons here is making smooth sailing for himself at the present; but it will assuredly, in time, complicate the difficulties which cannot be avoided. Firmness and dignity are required in the Governor, but Cumming substitutes for these vulgar familial fly. Besides, he is naturally excitable, and notoriously gets steam up to an alarming point over the whisky-jug. He is not the man for the position, and should be replaced forthwith by some one who will command respect for himself, and so be better able to exact respect for the Government he represents. He is, withal, vain as a boy of 13, and offensively imagines himself the embodiment of all that is great and grand. There can be no question that former Administrations have sent some appointees here, justly obnoxious to the people; and it is of the highest importance that those who, in future, are sent to preside over them should be unobjectionable men in all respects, Probably the best mode of dealing with this people would be to repeal the organic act altogether, and then appoint some such man as Gen. Johnston both civil and military Governor. Blair, and others of the most influential men in this community, do not hesitate to say, even today, that they will be d___d if they will submit to have Morell, Eckles &Co. admininister the Post Office and other offices of the Government here. They demand, too, "as a right," a share of the offices for themselves its well as the appointment of men to all of the offices, whom they shall approve, and he adds that there are a thousand who will jump when he gives the word. I suggest that Mr. Buchanan send his nomination here for confirmation, rather than to the Senate of the United States. It is rumored that Blair rather expects to be appointed to Judge Eckles place; and if he falls to get it, I should not be surprised if Dr. Bernhisel is requested to resign, to give the Major a chance to go to Congress.

ADMISSION OF UTAH AS A STATE.

The Mormons have determined to make an earnest effort for immediate admission into the Union, in order that they may pass laws establishing the eminently "domestic institution" of Polygamy, and so defy interference therewith. If they fail in that -- as I take it for granted they must -- they are likely to get out of the country as quickly as they can. Notwithstanding Brigham so recently declared the determination of himself or his people to "live or die in these mountains," it is very evident that he has not altogether rejected the propositions made to him by Colonel Kinney for the sale of 3,000,000 acres of land in Mosqueto. Messrs. Cooper and Harbin, the Kinney Commissioners, are still at Provo in consultation with Brigham, and the chances are that he will make some conditional arrangements. At least, such are the indications. If so, it is supposed that Major Hunt the old Mormon pioneer -- and another person will be sent down to take a look at the country and report, and if their report is favorable, that Missionaries will be sent there to receive and look after the foreign immigration of proselytes, who will be directed to that new Mecca, and he followed, in time, by all of the faithful from this "Zion" as rapidly as they can get means of transportation. All this, however, is very vague and indefinite yet, and may never obtain further development.

AMERICANS HELD AS PRISONERS OF WAR.

There are now in this city two American citizens, who have been held, for months past, prisoners of war, and treated, in some respects, most shamefully. One of these is Mr. F. E. McNeill, of New Orleans, La, who came to Fort Laramie last year, as a guide to the Fifth Infantry. He came from Laramie to Fort Bridger in November last, with Rosser, & Waddell's team, and arrived in this city on the 1st December, with several other teamsters, all of whom proposed to proceed at once to California, from here. McNeill went to see Brigham Young, on learning that no one could move safely without his aid and assistance Young advised him not to go south, as the Indians were very bad, but said that, if he insisted upon going out of the Valley, he would give him and his friends an escort eastward as far as Fort Laramie. The escort offered was to have been under the command of "Cherokee Thompson," the scoundrel who has been all Winter, and still is, a prisoner in Gen. Johnston's camp, and whom McNeill , heard declare his intention to incite the Cheyennes to activity in cutting off "American" travelers across the Plains. It is a significant fact that this Southern route, on which the Indians are so bad, according to Brigham's account, is the same over which the California and Salt Lake mail has been carried now for two and a half years, by Mormons, without over having been interrupted in a single instance. Yet very many travelers have there found graves, according to Mormon accounts, entirely by Indian hands! The fact adds seeming corroboration to the charge so frequently made against the Mormons, of having a secret understanding with the savages, by which they receive aid in, tied immunity for, robbing and murdering others, so long as they let the Saints pass unmolested.

McNeill had seen enough of the Saints already to satisfy him that he must he very circumspect if he hoped to escape with safety, so he concluded not to accept an escort, and never called for it. After remaining in the Valley for a month or more, during which time he traveled north a ways, to see the people, he determined some time in January to start for Fort Bridger, which he did with three others, to wit: Mr. C. L. Miles, of Michigan, -- Brown, of Southern Missouri, a one eyed and one-armed man, and Henry C. Fadens, of Salem, Mass. This party of four plunged at once into the mountains, where they floundered about for 21 days in the snow, which oft times was neck deep. For six days they were entirely without food. They were discovered at last near Yellow Creek by the Mormon out-post force under Capt. Winans, brought back to this city, and put in imprisonment, under a guard of eight armed men Brown, however, escaped while at the Mormon station on the Weber River, and is understood to have reached the Army in safety. After the prisoners had been in custody four weeks, the Mormons wanted McNeill to start for California with the mall, which he refused to do, having been warned by friendly apostate Mormons that he would assuredly be murdered if he went. Upon his refusal a heavy ball and chain were put upon him, and he was again confined. Subsequently he succeeded in getting the guard drunk one day, and then got the Captain to go with him to Brigham's. Not finding the Prophet in he left a letter upbraiding him for his oppression. Half an hour later an order came from Brigham directing the fetters to be removed. When Governor Cumming first came into the city McNeill again succeeded in getting his guard under the influence of liquor, and then under pretence of going after beer, slipped away from his custodians and proceeded to see the new Governor to claim his protection. He found Stains' house, where the Governor was stopping, rigorously guarded, -- but he pushed his way in, told the Governor his own story briefly, and claimed his protection. The Governor, who seemed to be alarmed and fearful of personal danger, failed to respond to his plea more than to take his name down. He also stated to the Governor that he could tell him of some shocking murders perpetrated by Snake Indians, with the cognizance and under the influence of prominent Mormons; and of cattle stealing under the direction of Chauncey W. West, Bishop of Ogden. One case in particular, he mentions, is that of an Arkansas emigrant, who got his cattle back subsequently, by contracting with West to give him a portion of them for returning the remainders. A teamster, named Rhodes, who assisted in driving the cattle, while at the Indian camp of Ben and Jim Simons, was told by the Indians there that prior to the robbery West asked Jim to undertake the running off of the cattle. Jim replied by suggesting to West the propriety of running his own hand into the fire, promising if it didn't burn him, he also might be induced to try. The Indian cautioned him, however, that it would burn badly. Somebody else was found to do the job, however, for the cattle were carried off immediately after, and the owner, besides paying West to find them for him, was also compelled to pay for their herding during the Winter. McNeill further states, that while on the Weber River during the Winter, some time, he saw the cattle which, were stolen from Gilbert & Gerrisu, and John Radford, sutlers and merchants, while on the plains last Fall, herding under the care of a Mormon named Thurston.

As Governor Cumming could not or would not help. McNeill , he returned to his prison. This was on Saturday. On Monday the Mormon guard renewed the ball and chain upon their victim, an American citizen, against whom no crime is alleged, and who was only held as a prisoner of war, as was confessed to me by prominent Mormons to whom I have addressed inquiries on the subject within the last day or two. On the midnight following the renewal of his fetters, McNeill was suddenly seized by an armed force under Adjutant-General Ferguson, and sent to the Penitentiary in irons, while his fellow prisoners were left in the City, in total ignorance of his fate. There can be no doubt of the fact that this step was taken to prevent him from again communicating with the Gentile Governor, Three weeks later he was taken out of prison by an armed guard, carried over two hundred and fifty miles to the southward to the settlement of Beaver, and there turned loose in the vicinity of the most vicious Indians in this region, without provisions or arms or ammunition of any kind with which to help himself. The point of his desertion he supposed to be about 400 miles distant from California, the road lying in part across the Great Desert. He walked down as far as the scene of the Mountain Meadows massacre, where he saw the bones of the murdered emigrants lying in heaps; but no traces of the wagons or other property belonging to them. He saw in the care of good Mormons in that neighborhood a large number of cattle, which he was informed, by men who were secretly apostates to the Church, were those taken from the murdered emigrants. This corroborates the testimony of certain Indians, referred to in a former letter, who declared that the Mormons carried off the cattle, although when they induced the Indians to go into the massacre, they promised them that they should have all the plunder except the wagons. While upon this subject, let me add the testimony of a very intelligent gentleman who has been traveling in the vicinity of the Mountain Meadows massacre, and who wormed out of some of his Mormon friends additional facts in connection with that catastrophe. According to these admissions the emigrants, finding themselves the subject of a continuous succession of Indian attacks, which were fast reducing and weakening them, (again confirming the Indian story of my former communication,) to that extent, resolved to make a stand and prepare for vigorous defence. They accordingly camped by a little stream, made a corral with their wagons, the wheels of which they sunk into the ground so as to make a sort of breastwork, and in this position recieved the assaults of their savage enemies under "Saintly" leaders, determined to die there rather than yield their, wives and children to the fury of their asailiants,.Thus they defended themselves nearly three weeks, killing, it is estimated, over one hundred of the enemy, and they were beaten at last only by strategy -- the assailants turning the stream of water away from the besieged, and then killing them as they came out one by one in search of the means of quenching their maddening thirst. It is fully admitted that this affair occured almost within sight and sound of the Mormon settlements, and that the Mormons knew day by day the progress of the fight. Had the "Saints" been disposed to assist the little band and save them, they could have sent even to Salt Lake City for horsemen and had them upon the ground within the first week of the siege -- for a hundred miles a day is no uncommon travel for these mountaineers. The conclusion is irresistable that they were content to see the Gentiles slaughtered and when we have this evidence of the extent to which their hearts were steeled against the pleadings of the commonest claims of humanity, it is easy to believe the declarations of the Indians that they engaged in the affair under Mormon influence and leadership, I learn also that a number of the children of the murdered emigrants are in the hands of Indians and Southern Mormons. Dr. Forney, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, designs taking a trip southward very soon, with a view to ransoming them and also of inquiring into the facts relative to the massacre. I fear, however, that the Doctor will never get at the bottom of the mystery -- for although apparently an honest man, who desires to do his duty faithfully, he is exceedingly simple, easily influenced, and completely disarmed of all suspicion by the most superficial kindness. Already he has been taken complete possessession of by this people, and upon their own testimony, is satisfied that they have been greatly abused and lied about, and that they are in reality among the most honest and most pious people upon earth, -- notwithstanding their polygamy. Indeed, hath he and Governor Cumming seem to be in the best possible frame of mind for the sowing of Mormon seed, and I should not be surprised if they became full converts to the doctrines of Joseph Smith before another month passes. I would be sorry to do the Doctor injustice -- and wish again to express my full conviction that he desires to do right, -- but he seems to me to be moulded of entirely too malleable material for an independent and discriminating public officer among a people whose system and practice are entirely at war with the moral sentiment of the civilized and Christian world.

But I have unintentionally wandered from the history of Mr. McNeill, who on viewing the ghastly skeletons of his murdered countrymen, and obtaining evidence of the fact that they were victims no less of Mormon than of Indian iniquity, determined at once that it would be madness for him to attempt the passage towards California. He accordingly returned at once to Great Salt Lake, arriving here two or three days ago, having walked two hundred and fifty or three hundred miles in six days, supporting himself on the way upon wild rabbits, which he killed with a rifle furnished by a sympathizing apostate Mormon in one of the southern settlements. On his way he learned that peace had been made -- but, in any event, he felt that his chance of life was better while wandering in the neighborhood of settlements than it would be in plunging away from them into the southern wilderness, where there would be no witnesses of any outrage to which it might be desired to subject him. I add the following items upon the testimony of McNeill, some of which you will recollect have been already referred to by evidence from other sources.

Last Fall six young men, came into the Valley from California, intending to go to the East through the camp, of the U. S. Army. They were arrested here, searched, robbed of a portion of their personal property, and then sent southward, to return to California, escorted by a band of Danites, under Porter Rockwell. Arriving at one of the southern settlements, Rockwell told the men to go ahead, and he would soon overtake them They passed on, and that night were attacked, and some, if not all of them, were killed, by a party in ambush on their road. This was related to McNeill by men professing to be privy to the facts, one of whom saw Rockwell riding back on a mule belonging to the travelers. This incident is probably the same narrated much more fully in the story told by Richard James, in my letter of the 29th May, from Fort Bridger. It will be remembered, that a man named Yeates was murdered in the Mountains last Fall, as was supposed, because he had sold ammunition to, the Army in hostility to Mormon interests. The horse of the murdered man is now in the possession of a Mormon named Conover at Provo.

A young man, whose name McNeill does not remember, came here from California last year, and went to board with a man named Terry, at Springville. Some time afterwards his revolvers were stolen from the house during the day-time, and his horse carried off from the field. Terry told him that they had been carried off by Indians, and he was never able to get any trace of them. On a Sunday evening, a little subsequent to the thefts, Terry started for Church, as he said, and the young man went out with him -- which is the last time the latter was ever seen alive. Three days later an Indian reported a corpse lying three and a half miles below in the woods; which, upon examination, proved to be that of the young stranger; and the next day Terry was seen riding the stolen horse about town with the pistols of deceased in his belt! The facts of this case are certified by certain honest Mormons who knew them, who denounce them privately, and will probably testify to them as soon as the protection of the army is afforded. One of these, an old gentleman named. Warren, for expressing his opinion on the subject rather freely, was dragged out of his house in the night, and would probably have been murdered had not his son come to his rescue in the nick of time with one of Colt's revolving persuaders. Of such crimes as these the theocracy with which Brigham Young has practically displaced the Government and laws of the Union takes no cognizance whatever. A Mr. Rhoades, of Arkansas, was stopped in broad daylight upon the streets in Ogden City, and robbed of his brestpin and finger-ring. He represented the facts to Bishop Chauncey W. West, who took no notice of his complaint, nor made the least effort to ascertain who of his flock had thus earned their title to a call in the Penitentiary. A young man named C. L. Miles, was in the employ of Bishop Mellow Andrus, of Cottonwood, a settlement a few-miles from here, and boarded in his family. Andrus had eight wives, of one of whom he became exceedingly jealous, suspecting her of improper intimacy, with Miles. He did not profess to have any proof, but said to Miles one day that if he was sure his suspicion was well grounded he would not hesitate to shoot him and cut his wife's throat. Miles protested his innocence, but, becoming alarmed, ran away from the Valley, and attempted to reach the army. He was subsequently arrested, however, by the Mormon out-post at Yellow Creek, this side of Bear River, and brought back with several others, as already stated above. Upon his return he sent a Mormon to Andrus to ask for his buffalo robe which he had left with him when he went off. Andrus refused to deliver the robe, and told the messenger that he would kill Miles if he got where he was. The messenger, a man named Sheen, who has the reputation of having murdered some one on Council Bluffs a year or two ago, replied significantly that he must murder Miles then, because he was in his charge, intimating that another opportunity might be made. Five or six days later Miles was sent North, under Mormon escort, to meet a party of Cailfornians whom the Mormons said were going West by the northern route, since which time nothing has been heard of him by Gentiles here. Do his friends in Michigan know anything more of his fate? If they have not heard from him of late, there can be no doubt that he, too, was murdered. Within a fortnight after Miles' departure Andrus went to the house of his suspected wife's father in this city, and cut her throat, but Brigham has passed the occurrence by without even a word of rebuke. Contrast this single incident with the fact that Mormons have kicked and beaten Gentiles to death here in Salt Lake City, confessedly for imprudent denunciation of the doctrines and practices of the "Saints!'' These facts were narrated coolly and with evident satisfaction, by full-fledged Mormons, to Mr. McNeill and to a Mr. Fabens, whose narrative I will give hereafter. Mormons have also boasted to him that the mules lost by General Johnston's picket-guard this Spring, during one night when Colonel Kane was in camp, were taken by the Mormon escort who accompanied him into Fort Bridger, and were sent at once into the Valley by one of their number. General Johnston suspected the theft, and complained of it to Colonel Kane who, upon repeating the complaint to his Mormon friends, was answered by the suggestion that the mules had doubtless strayed away, and would turn up again. It is a favorite joke with the Mormons here, now that their treasonable robberies have been pardoned, to bay, with a contemptuous laugh, that the animals of Johnston's army "strayed" into the herding grounds of the church.

Mr. McNeill has had considerable opportunity for observation here, and confirms the declaration that there are large numbers of men and women ready to abandon this community as soon as they see an opportunity to do so safely, and to carry with them the means necessary for the long journey to the States. John M. Stewart, one of the counselors of Bishop Johnson, at Springville, attempted to escape to the Army this Spring -- went up one canyon towards the East, but lost way, and came down another canon back to the Valley when he was arrested and brought back. For this act of apostacy he was cut off from the Church, and his wife has abandoned him.

Wm H. Fabens, of Salem, Massachusetts, is another of the late prisoners of war in the Mormon hards. He started from the Missouri last year with Russell & Waddell's trains, with the intention of pushing on to California. He was with the trains burned on Green River last October, and arrived in Salt Lake City with his own horses on or about the 21st of October. Upon his arrival here he went to Brigham Young, told him of his desire to go to California, and received from him a pass, which stated that he was a "teamster from the expedition against Utah," and requested that he should be permitted to pass freely. Noticing that the pass was different in form from others issued by Brigham, and which did not state the former connection of those who held them with "the enemy," he was afraid to use it. He started, however, for California by the Southern road, in company with three others, James Donahue, of Indiana County, Penn., and two Irishmen who had been with Russell's train, one of them called Peter, and the other Jimmy. The party went down to Fillmore. Here Donahue and Fabens stopped a little while to get feed for their horses, and the Irishman wont or ahead. When Fabens and his companion followed they found the bodies of the Irishmen only four miles below the town, lying on the roadside, entirely stripped of clothing. They returned at once to Fillmore, and were told that the murders were committed by Indians, but Fabens states that he saw no signs of Indians anywhere in the vicinity. Feeling unsafe, Fabens and Donahue rode back to Springville hard as they could drive. Finding their horses broken down they concluded to remain at that place a while to recruit, so they hired a horse and proceeded to keep bachelors' hall. After they had been here for a fortnight, a Mormon, named Moses Daly, told Fabens that his two sons were going to California, and offered to take him through safely if he would give his horses for the service, and money to buy provisions for the road. Fabens agreed to the terms, when the Daub took the horses, sold them immediately, and then went north to do business as grain threshers. Fabens went to the old man and demanded the fulfillment of the contract or the value of his horses. Daly told him to hush up or he would get into difficulty, and that many a man had had his throat cut for far less than he had said. From this time Fabens found himself the subject of continued surveillance of a sort of secret police. On the 8th of February he escaped from Springville and went to Provo, from where he started with the Brown alluded to in McNeill's narrative, across the mountains towards Camp Scott. In Weber Canon they met McNeill and Charles Miles, and proceded together. When within twenty or thirty miles of Camp, they were taken by the Mormon outposts and brought back. The party were entirely without arms, and were without provisions during several days. The day subsequent to their capture, they were taken to the Weber, where they were detained in a log hut five days. During the 4th day, Brown, who being a sort of cripple, was not watched very closely, slipped out while his guard were at "evening prayer," (they forgot the scriptural injunction to watch, and pray,) and it is understood, made his way in safety to Fort Bridger. Fabens fully confirms the story of McNeill in various points, and especially in respect to the robbery and murder of the young man who boarded with Terry. The fact that when the young man's body was found several days after death, his clothes were still upon him, presents abundant evidence that he was not killed by Indians. A Mr. Henlett, as well as Mr. Warren, knew the name of the murdered man, and are both understood to be able to fasten the crime upon his Mormon assassin. Fabens was sent south with McNeill, shared his fortunes there and returned with him. He seems to be a of some education, and good natural abilities, but is physical endurance has been subjected to a serious test by his recent sufferings.

INHOSPITABLE TREATMENT OF GENTILES.

We are still living out of doors. It is evident that the people are pursuing a system of police, designed to render the neighborhood unpleasant to the Gentiles. Thus it is quite impossible yet to hire a room anywhere. So universal is this Mormon exhibition of Christian charity which compels a man to sleep out of doors who would gladly pay for shelter, that we are entitled to consider it the result of something else than accident, -- although "General" Ferguson requests me to state that the Church has not issued any orders to the people directing them to close their doors upon us. As he evidently feels that such an order would reflect discredit upon "the Church," I wonder if it has occurred to him that an exhortation to the people to exhibit at least savage hospitality towards strangers whom they recognize as gentlemen, would be a more practical method of saving "the Church" from the suspicion which the General manifests a desire to avoid.

MISCELLANEOUS.

As Mr. Frederick Lobahas been assaulted by some of your rivals, because of his narrative published in the Times, it is but just to him to say that I have found no man where who ventures to make any specific charge reflecting upon his character. The worst anybody will say of him is that they don't think him as "smart" a man as he pretends to be, -- but, so far as I can judge, I have no found his equal here yet, either in natural intelligence or scholastic acquirements. I met here, a day or two ago, one of the victims of the misrepresentations to which Mr. Loba referred as being continually made in Europe by the Mormon missionaries, who assert there that the ancient power of healing the sick, and the lame and blind has been fully restored to the Prophets here in "the Valley." A young Englishman, affected with paralysis, and having some little property, was converted to the faith, induced to cross the ocean and traverse the plains to get to this modern pool of Bethesda, where he fully expected to become whole again. Of course, he was sadly disappointed. When the people went South, he was left here to starve and is subsisting now upon the charity of the Peace Commissioners and others.

I omitted to mention sooner, that one of the causes which make it difficult for families to leave this community after having lived some time in the Valley, arises from the fact that they have no titles to their lands, and so cannot leave then except by entirely abandening all their property. The public lands here have never been sold at all, and no man has a clear. title to a single foot of it, even in this city. It would be good policy for the Government to bring these lands as quickly as possible into the market, issue patents therefor to those entitled to preemptions and so make basis for titles. When this is done, the process of Mormon disintegration will be promoted, because dissatisfed Mormons can then set readily and go away, while their places will often, be supplied by Gentiles. It certainly is important that the Federal Government should avail itself of all proper means of allaying the exclusiveness of the Mormon element by diffusing as widely as possible its antidote.

It is not impossible that the will he quite a large emigration from this region to the Pacific coast before Winter, if the road is found to be safe. The Mormon horsemen, militia and missionaries, tramping over the country in every direction, have found a now route to California, which, seems to be a much better route than any now in use. Its direction is almost on a bee-line west from this City. It; distances are estimated as follows:

To Black Rock on: Salt Lake 18 miles. Thence to Scull's Springs Valley -- 30 miles. Thence to Redding Springs Valley -- 11 miles Thence to March Springs Valley -- 18 miles. Here the road strikes Reba Valley, in which there is an abundance of wood and water all the way down to the sink of the Humboldt, estimated to be a distance of 250 miles. At this point the route strikes the old California road to Carson Valley, supposed to be distant about 50 miles. Total 380 miles.

If these estimates prove to be correct upon examination, it will be seen that the route hence to California may be shortened nearly one-half, simply by substituting a direct line for the circuitous one now in use. It is hoped that the army here will avail itself of an opportunity to make a satisfactory reconnoissance of it.

The new overland mail contracts are doing finely. The mail which left St. Joseph's, Mo., on the 5th of June, arrived here on the evening of the 24th, nineteen and a half days' time, or two and a half less than that stipulated in the contract. The conductor states that with the arrangements now completed, there will be no difficulty in making the time through regularly in sixteen or eighteen days.  S[imonton].


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMONS:
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INTERESTING  LETTER  FROM  UTAH.
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Interior View of Mormonism

GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Friday, July 9,1858.        

To the Editor of the New-York Times:

SIR: At a time when not only the United States, but every civilized community in the world, is watching with serious interest the course of events in Utah -- when a question of vital importance to freedom has to be decided -- it is of no small moment that the authority to decide should be vested in the hands of men endowed with minds incapable of being turned from their purposes by the sophistries of interested parties, and possessed of souls superior to corruption.

As one anxious for universal freedom -- one who has long and intensely watched the movements of the Mormon people -- having every earthly tie to bind me to them, and nothing but freedom of speech and liberty of conscience to gain by renouncing them, I trust I may be considered as one qualified to speak impartially, and, moreover, as one who has been grieved at heart to see the sad and soul sickening bondage which has long oppressed all who have dared to assert the right to think for themselves in this city. I hope I may be excused if I take it upon me to call the attention of the public to matters of a more personal nature than I could wish were necessary. Some facts of a startling character, bearing more immediately upon the present Administration in Utah, have induced me to address this communication to the Press. In order that no false delicacy may prevent censure from falling where it is justly due, upon those who prostitute position and influence to serve private ends, the facts to which I desire more particularly to call your attention are these: Two men were confined, last Winter, in the City Hall, whose names did not then transpire publicly. During Governor Cumming's visit here, in company with Colonel Kane, it was rumored that one of these men had, in the dead of night, contrived to elude the vigilance of his guards, visit Governor Cumming and then return to his prison. A day or two after some sensation was created by whispers that this man had disappeared.

A few days since I was introduced to a gentleman named McNeil, whose brother, I am told, is Auditor of Public Accounts at New Orleans. In the course of conversation, he stated that he was the party who had so mysteriously disappeared. He had traveled with the army, last year, up to Laramie. He then quitted them and came on to Salt Lake, was seized, and confined in the City Hall. One of his guards, not quite a full-blooded Mormon, informed him he was in hourly peril of his life, which was indeed re-peatedly threatened. "Gentlemen" said he upon one occasion, "you can do as you please. I am willing to die to further freedom, for I warn you I have succeeded in informing Colonel Johnston of my capture." During Governor Cumming's visit, having succeeded in getting the guard intoxicated, he went to the Governor, called him up and requested his protection, stating that if he refused it he believed that twenty-four hours would find him a dead man. Governor C. told him he could not protect him and he returned to his prison. The next, or night following, he was taken by three men to the Penitentiary, under an order signed by a man named Ferguson, and there loaded with ball and chain. He remained there until taken South, whence, after breaking off his chain, he returned, starting ten days before. Gen. Johnston entered Salt Lake City, and reaching here after traveling near three hundred miles on foot, through mountains, and with the companion of his captivity. Col. Fabens, joined the United States army. Colonel Fsbens, (of Nicaraguan notoriety) had been arrested by the Mormons on his road to California, incarcerated with McNeil and detained thus, simply for the offence of being an American citizen, going where he pleased in defiance of Brigham Young.

They have applied for redress, which I believe they will obtain; but in case of failure, I should not be surprised if they took the law into their own hands -- two such men are not to be played with.

With these two gentlemen was imprisoned another a teamster of the United States army, who had, been suspected of improper intimacy with one of the wives of a Milo Andrus; the latter, on this bare suspicion, (during Gov. Cumming's visit also,) went to his wife's room and deliberately cut her throat. The poor creature did not immediately expire, but protested her innocence, as also did this young teamster.

Another case was that of a teamster, one of five or six who entered the territory last Fall, and who, with this single exception, were murdered down South by the (so called) Indians. This man, named Jim Miller, told of his escape by creeping into the brush, while a party, greatly exceeding their number, murdered his comrades in their sleep. The particulars would harrow the feelings of a stoic. He too, in company with a man who is still here, visited Gov. Cumming and told his tale; the reply he received was to this effect: "Oh! you did not see it -- you only heard of it." These were the very words both used to me in repeating the story at separate times.

Now, if Gov. Cumming was powerless to protect these men during his first visit, why is he the man to side with the Mormons now? Can he conscientiously regard them as an injured and slandered people? or is he wilfully blinding himself to facts in order to court popularity and office? In either case he will be miserably mistaken, for the Mormons, if they succeed in making him their tool, will despise him for the very service he renders them.

Still, while the conduct of two or three officials is calculated to bring disgrace upon their national flag, the majority are high-minded men -- in one or two in- stances unusually so -- and these are precisely the men the Mormons desire to have removed. I trust that Government is too well acquainted with their wis-dom, honor and integrity, to acquiesce. I am told that the Mormons have had the assurance to propose a fellow named Seth M. Blair for the office of Chief Justice, in lieu of D. R. Eckels, Esq., who, I hear, is a man eminently qualified for his office, and likely to become popular with the masses. Hence their desire to have him removed. The late Indian Agent, Dr. Hurt, who the Mormons so cordially hate, because they could not corrupt, is a man, in every sense of the word a gentleman, high-minded, honorable, and utterly incapable of the actions charged to him. The Indians almost worship him, and it were to be wished that the present Superintendent possessed a little of his unflinching determination. We should not then here the Mormons boasting of the gullibility of Dr. Forney. It is a matter of great surprise to me that Government officials coming here for the very purpose of redressing grievances and establishing laws, can be so easily blinded. No one need wonder at the followers of Mormonism in other countries being infatuated, for there it wears a totally different as-pect, and its devotees are trained so gradually that it is not strange they find it difficult to free themselves from the mental bondage they have been for years inured to; -- but men coming here with their eyes open to the true state of the case, that they can be so easily beguiled of their common sense, passes belief. The common epithet applied by Mormons to Gov. Cumming is "old swill tub" and they boast of having him constantly intoxicated -- while on the other hand they stigmatize the present Indian Agent, Mr. Craig, as an habitual drunkard, and on these grounds petition for his removal! Passing strange, that what should be so pleasing in Gov. Cumming, should be so obnoxious, if true, in Mr. Craig. Such, however, is Mormon consistency -- and such I feel grieved to hear is the way they are able to speak of a man like Gov. Cumming.

Gov. Powell and Major McCulloch, the Peace Commissioners here, are even almost above suspicion, and yet the Mormons have endeavored to represent them as having made pledges in regard to the disposition of the Government troops which are utterly without foundation. The Mormons still boast that they could have whipped Gen. Johnston's command had they chosen, forgetting that their very entrance falsifies the whole of Young's and Kimball's statements for the last year. Never should they come in, "no, never, if the people lived their religion." Either then the people have failed to do so, or the prophets have been mistaken, and these poor people have submitted cheerfully to every whim of their leaders, have destroyed property, sacrificed stock, neglected their farms, abandoned their homes, and yet they have not lived their religion! Such a state of affairs as exists here can never continue without a collision between the Gentiles and the Saints, and inasmuch as I know the Government officers are picked men and gentlemen, who are resolved not to be first to offend, I am constrained to utter my belief that the fault will be with Mormondom.

That there are numbers of good excellent people among the Mormons, no one will deny, but they belong to the class of dupes, not of deceivers, and I have no hesitation in asserting that their leaders are the most accomplished scoundrels, the most consummate and polished villains that earth has ever produced, to prove how low humanity may be degraded. Many even of their own followers have been disgusted, (hearing the anathemas of Young against the officers of the United States Army, -- "d__d infernal scoundrels" being one of the mildest terms applied to them,) to see the sons of the Presidency and Brigham's chief clerks among the first to hawk out provisions to the camp. This traffic, too, could only be in such articles as butter, milk or vegetables, the Army being liberally rationed with every staple article of food. Traffic with the Gentiles on the part of the masses was at first prohibited by the authorities, but finding that some were sensible enough to notice that Young had no scruples about opening the Globe eating-house, which virtually, though not ostensibly, belongs to him, and that they drew the very natural conclusion if twenty-one Gentile dollars per week per head did not hurt his orthodoxy, selling a few vegetables need not affect theirs, I presume the prohibition has been withdrawn, for I see stately bishops as well as laymen carrying sundry cargoes of fruit, etc., on their orthodox shoulders to the doors of the various officials, "serving the Gentiles" with the produce of "the Kingdom." Alas! how are the mighty fallen! Now is the fine gold become dull.

Monopoly would seem to be a fundamental principle of the Mormon Church. The people were forbidden on pain almost of excommunication to let their houses to these corrupt Gentiles. W. C. Staires, an adopted son of Young, was the first to break the rule by sheltering Governor Cumming. Captain Hooper, the whilom Secretary for Utah, was the next to harbor Dr. Forney and Mr. Hartnett, while the other officers were applying in vain to private individuals, nobly declaring that if their money was not permitted to benefit the masses, they would not stoop to obtain accommodations from the leaders and help to fill their pockets. The Church stores, and the stores whose owners were orthodox sons of the Church, were next, after much delay, rented at exorbitant prices to the Gentile merchants, thereby obliging the latter to raise the prices of their goods and so further oppress the poor.

The Commissioners, Messrs. Powell and McCulloch, could obtain no better sleeping place than their own carriages for many days after their entrance until Governor Powell obtained a room at the 'Globe" and Major McCulloch went to the Army. Such is Mormon hospitality when a Gentile requires shelter under existing circumstances. Mr. Dossos, the United States Marshal, happening to own a small cot here, fifteen Gentile officials sleep in one room with him, and even your own special correspondent S[. has no better choice than that between a back porch and a peach tree! A Mr. Townsend, keeper of a boarding-house for years past, presumed to re-open it the other day, when Heber C. Kimball threatened him with the anathemas of the Church unless he immediately closed it again. Brigham's Globe must have "no rival near the throne." The unfortunate boarding house keeper went to the Postmaster, who had hired a room from him, and begged him for God's sake to leave, or he was a ruined man, and after a considerable struggle between love for the money and love for the Church, I believe the latter gained the victory in Mr. Townsend's bosom, and his premises were closed. I am told they were consecrated, and if so, it was simply making a virtue of necessity.

I hope I am not encroaching too largely upon your space, but it seems to me that existing evils here cannot be too widely known, for the satisfaction of those who are aiding to support the expense of sending Government troops here, and maintaining them in sufficient force to awe their lawless leaders.

Should you be induced to give my letter room in your columns, I shall probably feel emboldened to convey to you occasionally such matters as I think likely to interest the public, and in the meanwhile I remain, Sir.   Yours, very respectfully,

A CITIZEN OF UTAH.         

Note: A letter signed: "A citizen of Utah." He tells of current events in Salt Lake City, the Peace Commissioners, Colonel Kane, Gov. Cumming, etc.

PROBABILITY  OF  ANOTHER
MORMON  EXODUS:

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BRIGHAM YOUNG AND THE GENTILE REPORTERS
CESSATION OF PREACHING -- INACCESSIBILITY
OF THE PROPHET.

(under construction)

INTERESTING FROM UTAH.; Brigham Young and the Gentile Reporters--Cessation of Preaching--Inaccessibility of the Prophet-- The Road-Cart Trains of 1856, &c. Probability of Another Mormon Exodus. The Proposed Location on Col. Kinney's Nicaraguan Grant.  


Notes: A letter signed: "A citizen of Utah." He tells of current events in the Territory.

UTAH.

CONDITION  OF  MORMON  AFFAIRS.
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DELUGE OF BRIGHAM YOUNG - HIS CLAIMS AGAINST THE ARMY
POLYGAMIC PRACTICES, THE COURTS, ETC.

(under construction)

  Condition of Mormon Affairs. We give, in this morning's TIMES, several important documents from Utah. A dispatch from Gen. JOHNSTON to the War Department, dated at Bear River, June 16, states that the Army, which was on its march from Fort Bridger to Great Salt Lake City, would probably reach its destination on the 22d.


Note: A letter signed: "A.B.C.," dated Great Salt Lake City, Saturday, July 24 1858 He tells of current events in the Territory.

U T A H.
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300 MORMON WOMEN RENOUNCING THE FAITH.

(Letter from Brigham Young, etc. -- under construction)

 

Notes: (forthcoming)

CALIFORNIA...

From Our Own Correspondent.

...As an event of no little importance in the field of California journalism, I would mention that Thos. S. King, editor of the Bulletin, retires from the editorial chair of that paper, to make room from Mr. Jas. W. Simonton, so long and well known as the able and energetic Washington correspondent of the New-York Times. The retiring Editor has excited much ill-feelimg here by his frequent bitter personal assaults upon private character, betraying too much malignity of purpose to be mistaken for zeal, in behalf of the public welfare. Nevertheless, the Bulletin, which attained its position among the leading journals of San Francisco under the management of the lamented Jas. King of William, has been highly successful pecuniarily. That its success will be greatly agumented under the direction of Mr. Simonton, none who knows him or his pen will question. Mr. S. is already familiar to California readers through many a graphic contribution to the columns of the Bulletin from Washington and Salt Lake. All his friends at the East will be gald to learn that his new connection insures him a speedy fortune. He is expected here with his family in March. A hearty welcome awaits him....


Note: For a sample of James W. Simonton's reporting of events in Utah, see his "Special Correspondence" letters, as published in the New York Times and San Francisco Bulletin, 1858-59.

"A Gentile And His Mormon Bride
Separated In Utah"

(public whipping of bride by LDS -- under construction)

 


Notes: (forthcoming)

IMPORTANT  NEWS  FROM  UTAH --
ALARMING  CONDITION  OF  AFFAIRS.

St. Louis, Monday, April 25.        

The Overland California mail of the 4th April arrived to-day, having made the trip in twenty-one days eight hours, the quickest trip yet.

Advices from Utah represent the affairs in that Territory as worse than they have ever been, either before or since the arrival of the Army there. The ill feeling had reached its culminating point, and the people were on the eve of open hostilities. Differences also exist between Governor Cumming and General Johnston touching their respective powers; and there is likewise an open rupture between the Executive and the Judiciary. The Federal Courts find it impossible to exercise their functions, the Grand Jury refusing to find bills, and using every other means to screen parties accused of murder and other crimes. Judge Cradlebaugh had discharged the jury, and had been compelled to discharge, also, all the prisoners in custody. On the occasion of the discharge of the juries, the Judge charged the Mormons with having obstructed the officers of the Court, suppressed testimony, and refused to make provision for the confinement and maintenance of the prisoners for the confinement and maintenance of prisoners. Owing to the excited state of the popular feeling, a detachment of one thousand troops had moved from Camp Floyd, and encamped near Provo. Governor Cumming had issued a proclamation, taking part with the Mormon sentiment. It is not stated whether he had demanded the withdrawal of the troops from Provo, but his actions had laid him open to the charge of complicity with the Mormon theocracy. Much bad feeling also existed between the Mormon and United States troops, though these of the latter, who are stationed at Provo, had behaved with remarkable forbearance. A collision, however between the two parties, was considered imminent.

A series of letters published in the Salt Lake Valley Tan, giving the proceedings of Judge Cradlebaugh's Court at Provo, explain to some extent the difficulties and disturbances in the Territory. The misunderstanding between Governor Cumming and General Johnston seems to have grown out of a refusal of the latter to withdraw the troops from Provo, which had been sent there under a requisition of the Court to protect witnesses. Judge Cradlebaugh passed severe strictures on Governor Cumming's proclamation, which has not been received here, characterizing it as informal, as evidently designed to exasperate the people against the troops, to obstruct the course of justice, and to excite insubordination in the army. He also says that instead of the presence of the troops tending to terrify the inhabitants and to intimidate witnesses; the jurors and parties testifying in behalf of the prosecution have been compelled to seek the protection of the troops against the threats and intimidations of the very inhabitants, said to be so terrified.

Judge Cradlebaugh, who was sitting merely as a committing magistrate, would go to Camp Floyd the following week to continue the investigations; the testimony elicited implicating several Bishops and Presidents, civil authorities of the Territory, in murders at various times, all of whom fled to escape arrest. Four Grand Jurors, discharged by Cradlebaugh, had also fled. Cedar City and several other towns in the vicinity of the Mountain Meadows massacre are almost depopulated. It is also stated that the Indians, about a thousand strong, headed by white men had mustered in that neighborhood, who express a determination to prevent the arrest of any one in that section. Judge Cradlebaugh emphatically denies that the Grand Jury protested against their discharge, as stated by the Deseret News.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE UTAH MASSACRES. -- The Commissioner of Indian Affairs is in receipt of a letter dated at Provo City, March 18, 1859, from Superintendent Forney, having charge of Indian affairs in Utah. The Superintendent reports that he left Salt Lake City to visit the southern Indians, and bring back 17 children saved from the massacre of September, 1857. He was detained at Provo City to give testimony before the United States Courts concerning the murders of last June and October, and the Mountain Meadow affair. He says that he has reliable information in regard to the butchery at Mountain Meadows, by means of which he hopes to recover some of the property. The facts warrant the belief that a few days after the massacre there was distributed among the church dignitaries property worth $30,000, besides, it is presumed, a considerable amount of ready money. The Superintendent will make such investigation as circumstances admit. He thinks that it has proved exceedingly convenient to implicate the Indians in all such cases, that an investigation may involve other parties into the crimes. -- Constitution.


Notes: (forthcoming)

LATER  FROM  SALT  LAKE.
________

From The St. Joseph Journal, May 27.

From The Valley Tan of May 3 we learn that Dr. Forney, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, arrived in that city from his visit to the southern portion of the Territory. The Doctor reports the Indians in that vicinity as peaceable. He brought with him three of the children, survivors of the Mountain Meadows massacre; the others, thirteen in number, are at the Indian farm at the Spanish Fork, where they will remain until the Commissioners arrive, who have been appointed to receive and restore them to their friends. The children are very intelligent and have a Iively recollection of the bloody deeds that consigned their parents and friends to death.

A negro boy, Shep, belonging to Capt. Hooper, was shot several days since by another negro boy, belonging to Col. Johnson, and died from the effect of his wounds.

It was reported that several white men openly boasted in the vicnity of Santa Clara, that they were present and assisted at the Mountain Meadow massacre. This thing, says The Valley Tan, has got to come to a head and it rests with the Government, officials, who are premised to exercise some power in this Territory.

Capt. A. B. Miller, of the firm of Miller, Russell & Co., and Mr. C. C. Branham, came over with the mail.

There were several rumors afloat in the Holy City, that had set the Mormons to boarding up their markets and preparing for fight. and preparing for fight.


Notes: (forthcoming)

FROM UTAH.
_____

The conflict of Authority in the Territory
-- The Mormon Leaders Returning from the
Mountains -- The Mountain Meadow Children, &c.

Correspondence of the New-York Times.

GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Friday, June 10, 1859.

The action of the Administration in regard to the conflict of authority between the Executive and Judicial Departments in this Territory, by which the conduct of Gov. Cumming has been fully sustained. has greatly elated the Mormons. The Bishops, Elders, &c., who fled to the mountains to avoid arrest for the terrible crimes committed by them of late years, have returned to their homes, confident that they cannot be arrested without the intervention of the troops, the assistance of which is now practically denied to the United States Marshal and Judges.

The Valley Tan, which was established here as a "Gentile" paper, you may now consider as a Mormon organ, more dangerous to the truth than the Deseret News, for the News is openly Mormon, whilst the Valley Tan pretends to be "Gentile." You are aware of the change which has taken place in the publication of the paper. Kirk Anderson, its late editor, has been compelled to retire from the editor's chair, because he did not support Gov. Cumming; and Mr. Hartnett, Secretary of State for the Territory, a warm supporter of Gov. C., and the proprietor of the press, has taken it in his own hands, and refuses to sell it to any one who will not support the Governor.

During the last few days this City has worn the aspect of times past -- of last year, at least. Yesterday a large train of merchandise -- thirty-eight mule-wagons -- arrived for Livingston, Kinkead & Co., having spent the Winter on the plains. This be the first train in from the East this year, through several had come in from California. Within the past week numerous emigrants from Pike's Peak have reached this place, and, after recruiting and exchanging their stores and animals have passed on for California. They represent the "Peak" as the tallest humbug of America.

We may consider the present a season of arrivals. The last mail coach from the East brought as passenger the Hon. J. M. Bernhisel, Congressional Delegate from Utah. By last evening's California coach we had the person of Capt. Cooper, agent of Col. Kinney, set down among us. Whether he again comes to sell to the Prophet the fee simple of the Mosquito Kingdom or not, we are not informed. Chief-Justice Eckels, and the newly appointed Indian agent, are soon expect in, as they were at Kearney on the 15th ult.

Another of the Mountain Meadow children has been recovered from the hands in which they have been held since the massacre of their parents. Still another remains undiscovered, whose age is greater than that of any yet obtained. The Indians, who have heretofore been accused of that horrible murder, say they know the child, and will find her if she lives. Of the sixteen already in Dr. Forney's charge, we have seen several, little boys from five to eight years of age. All of these seem to have a recollection of that bloody time, and to hear them lisp the story of their wrongs, with childish sorrow in their countenances and voices, is enough to sadden one.

The following petition has been addressed to Gov. Cumming by Mrs. Parish:

DEAR SIR: I have heard that you have come here to execute the laws of the land; if so, I would like to have the murderers of my husband and son taken care of, for they intend to be gone before Court sits; -- A.F. McDonnel, Wilber Earl, A. Durfey and ___ Carnes Captain of the Police. I had one span of horses stolen out of the stable at Springville and Lysander Gee has got my horses at Tooila. Please rescue those horses, and arrest the man who has got them in his possession and make him tell where he got them. From your friend,

            [signed]      Alvira L. Parish.

The following is the petition of citizens of Springville, praying for the protection against Mormon outrages:

We the undersigned petitioners, would present that we are inhabitants of Springville, Utah County, U.T. that we have been long been satisfied of the wile and corration of the Mormon theocracy. The most of us are anxious to leave here and all are desirous to be relieved from Mormon tyranny and oppression. The statute law, as practiced here is only a farce : the law is given by the Mormon priesthood from time to time, as it suits our rules. Our rights and privileges are taken away our citizens are seized and taken into private rooms or places, and there extraordinary confessions are extorted, and oaths administered that they will never at any time, or under any consideration go before any Court of the United States to give evidence against those in authority, who have been guilty of the commission of crime. Our property is driven off, and men, whose names are here up to aprended, have been dragged out in the night, with bowie knives to their throats or pistols to their breasts; to seek redress would be certain death. Our lives are threatened, and we have the most undoubted evidence that the secret council has passed sentence of death upon many of us, which we have only been able to elude by our own vigilance. We are watched by a lawless, mmurderous police; our house are turned into sentry boxes, to our danger and annoyance -- evils which increase with the lapse of time.

Our only hope at present is that you will detail a military force, to be stationed here ; for, if not, many of use must soon fall by the already blood stained hands of an unholy priesthood. We would, therefore ask that if consistent with your instructions and authority, you will send us the military protection herein petitioned for. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray.

Dated at Springville U.T., Feb 2, 1859.
(Signed)          H.G. WHITLOCK
                        THOMAS SPRAGUE, and 24 others.

_______

MORMON OUTRAGES -- RESULTS OF JUDGE
CRADLEBAUGH'S INVESTIGATIONS.

Kirk Anderson writes from Salt Lake City to the St. Louis Republican:

"Since the adjournment of Court at Provo, Judge Cradlebaugh has traveled South through his district as far as the Santa Clara -- a distance of near three hundred and fifty miles from here -- visiting the scene of the Mountain Meadows, &c. He says that he did not see a bishop, bishop's counselor, or president on the route, although particular to inquire to them, and reports that all have been non est comatibus, except the Bishop of Spanish Fork, a Danish settlement some twelve miles south of Provo -- this being the only settlement, to his credit be it said, throughout his journey, in which he was not saluted with reports of horrid murders committed within the last two years. The Judge took affidavits, and issued warrants for about sixty of the offenders -- forty in the massacre of the Mountain Meadows, ten in the murder of the Aikens and others, making in all from eighty to one hundred persons that has issued for. He reported that more than eighty white men were engaged in the massacre of the Mountain Meadows; that after reaching Pariwan -- eight miles this side of the Santa Clara -- at almost every camp the herders and soldiers gathering good, would come across skeletons, some indicating that they had been killed last Fall and Winter by their condition. To such an extent was this that the herders with the command that Judge C. accompanied could not be induced to keep the herds out at night. No doubt teamsters and discharged soldiers wending their way to California, most of whom no doubt have been killed by the Indians, in pursuance of the example set them by their Mormon allies in the Mountain Meadows massacre, and who they see act impertinently and with impunity in that matter.

Atrocities too horrible to be related, and which seemed to shock the brute savages themselves are related by persons who claim to have been compelled to join in that massacre. The number of persons in the train was about one hundred and fort: seventeen small children alone are saved. The property confiscated amounting from $60,000 to $80,000, counting 700 cattle, horses and mules, some very fine stock, and forty wagons and carriages. The personal effects were taken to the tithing office in Cedar city, and there sold out. Many of the clothes, stripped from the murdered persons, were piled in a room in the tithing office, and not selling readily on account of being filled with blood, were allowed to remain in that condition until the room has become so mush scented that it is very offensive to stay in. May it remain a stench in the nostrils of such saints for all time to come.

And here let me say, at a time when Judge Cradlebaugh has been using every exertion to expose these horrible transactions, word has reached here that he has been removed, and the Mormons are consequently rejoicing. The last mail brought certain instructions to both Gov. Cumming and Gen. Johnston, the tenor of which is to place the military, for civil purposes, entirely at the disposal of the Governor. The effect of this, in my judgment, will be to paralyze to a greater degree than ever any efforts upon the part of the Judges here to execute the laws."


Notes: (forthcoming)

FROM UTAH.
_____

Departure of the Mountain Meadow Children --
Reception of the Instructions to Federal Officials.

We have received files of the Deseret News and the Valley Tan to the 29th June, The news from Salt Lake City is interesting. The official instructions to the Federal officers in the Territory, (published some weeks ago in the Times,) had been received with great glee by the Mormons. The Deseret News (Brigham's organ) prints Attornery General Black's two letters in full, accompanied by the following editorial comment.

"Fully do we indorse the spirit of both letters. The Constitution and laws of the United States should be a bright, unblemished mirrow, to reflect the whole nation and discover their scabby spots.

On that subject, so much talked of outside, on which so many comments have been made, and of which so little appears to be truly known -- the 'Mountain Meadow Massacre,' as it is termed -- we have heretofore said but little. We have published much of what others have had to say about it, good or bad, as it came. Connected with this, we now expect that Judges shall sacrifice the flesh for the little time required to investigate this whole matter, do their legitamate duty, and no more; that the public accuser shall be the same straightforward, independent officer he has heretofore shown himself to be; and that the accused be tried by their peers, and their witnesses secured from treacherous arrests!

Give us a full record, "the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" and, as an honest journalist we will give a full and honest transcript to the world!

Hold up the mirror! Hold it up in the bright, broad, daylight. But hold it where there are no bayonets to glitter and dazzel the Juror's eye."

The Children rescued from the Mountain Meadow Massacre, left Salt Lake City on the 28th June, in charge of Dr. Forney, for Fort Smith. They were eighteen in number, of ages ranging from 2 to 8 years.

The Valley Tan says:

"The first arrangements contemplated their transportation to the States with ox teams, but Gen. Johnston kindly and promptly responded to a request from Dr. Forney, and has formshed for their better accommodation three spring ambulances and one baggage wagon, with teams of six mules each.

The change in the mode of transportation will, we think, contribute greatly to the comfort of the children and those in charge of them; From the circumstances connected with their orphanage, they are perculiarly objects for sympathy, and we are pleased to see the efforts of Dr. Forney to make the road on which they travel in search of relatives or friends as smooth as possible.

They will travel with, and are under the protection of Capt. R. Anderson, Second Dragoons, who is en route to Fort Kearney with his command. Mrs. Worley, Mrs. Nash, and two other ladies have been engaged as matrons to attend to the wants of the little ones, and three men as accompany the party as camp assistants. The names of the children, so far as can be learned, are as follows:

John Calvin, Lewis and Mary Sorel. (thier father being held in rememberance as "Joe Sorel;") Ambrose Miram, and William Taggett; Frances Horn; Charles and Annie Francher; Besse and Lane Baker; Rebecca, Louisa and sarah Dunlap; Sarhronia or Mary and Ephraim W. Huff; Angeline and Apple (surname unknown;) and a little boy of whom there is no account, the people with whom he was found called him William.

The children are supposed to have resided in the same neighborhood, and in Johnston County, Arkansas. These children have been in charge of Dr. Forney since last fall, and we know that he has given his interested and personal supervision in order that they may be property and comforably cared for. We learn, moreover, that Dr. Forney has obtained the guardianship of these children. There was a large amount of property in the possession of the party massacred at the Mountain Meadows, and the children have now an agent here, who will undoubtedly use his best endeavors to recover the property of which they have been despoiled."

The Valley Tan has passed into new hands: Secretary Hartnett having given place to Mr. George Adams. Hartnett attacks a correspondent of the San Franciso Bulletin for the assertion that the paper was coerced by himself and Gov. Cumming. He not only repels this imputation, but indulges in the somewhat strong statement that the correspondent aforesaid "tells not the truth -- that he utters falsehoods -- that he is a liar." This, however, is simply the Utah manner. The new editor relieves Judge Sinclair of the onus of threatening to quarter troops in the city, to protect his court, and comes to the defence of His Honor as follows:

"We have been reliably informed that the accusation is grounded and that Judge Sinclair did not even intend to have court in May, as he was awaiting the arrival of Chief Justice Eckels; which fact of itself is all sufficient to refute such an allegation as has been made, and show what credit can be at ached to the statements of the writer. If one portion of the testimony of a witness is invalidated, it is held that the testimony in general is worthless, so that writers should be careful in regard to all their statements."

The Mormon paper puffs Gen. Wilson, the United States District-Attorney. It declares that "he has the esteem and confidence of the citizens of this Territory."

The Army Paymaster was reported on his way to Utah with upwards of $400,000 in specle for the army, and about five hundred recruits.

The saints were getting discouraged about their crops. The News says:

"From the reports that have been recieved, from nearly every country and settlement in the Territory within the last few days, the prospects of an abundant harvest this season are not generally very flattering, and in several locations the whear crop will be almost an entire failure. Comparatively speaking there was but little wheat sown last Fall, and much of what was put in was either killed by the severity of the Winter of injured by the old blasting winds of April and May to that extent that many fields, especially in the northern counties, are not worth harvesting, and in some instances, the owners are mowing them, there being more cheat than ther is wheat growing, and, consequently, the crop is not of any value only as feed for stock."


Notes: (forthcoming)

INTERESTING FROM UTAH.

From Our Own Correspondent

Camp Floyd, N. T., June 30, 1859.         

Since the return of Chief-Justice Eckels to this Territory, there has been a full and free consultation and interchange of views among the federal officers -- with all the advantage to be derived from the light of new instructions from Washington -- as to the mode and manner of enforcing the laws of the land upon this stiff-necked and rebellious people. There are now in the hands of the United States Marshal more than 40 warrants against inhabitants of this Territory, accused of capital crimes, among others against the perpetrators of the wholesale slaughter of over a hundred men, women and children, at the Mountain Meadows in the southern part of this Territory. Abundant and conclusive evidence of the direct and personal participation by leading Mormons in the southern settlements in this brutal butchery has been laid before the Judge of this District, and thereupon warrants for their arrest have been placed in the hands of the United States Marshal. A detachment of our troops recently returned to Camp Floyd from the scene of the Mountain Meadow massacre. They found the ground, strewed with the bleaching bones of the murdered emigrants, their bodies having been left to be preyed upon by wolves and ravens. One gentleman brought back with him more than a bushel of human hair that he had gathered from the ground -- gray locks of age, the long dark tresses of early woman, the curls of fair-haired children. He brought with him, also, a number of skulls; some with round bullet holes in them, and others with ghastly gashes from the ax. Quite a large number of orphan children of the murdered emigrants, some fifteen or twenty, are now on their way to the States. Only those were spared who were supposed to be too young even to bear testimony of the murder of their parents and relatives. The ringleader of the band which committed this fiendish massacre is a man by the name of John D. Lee, who formerly lived in Indiana. Warrants against him and two of his associates are in the hands of the U. S. Marshal. He has formally notified the Governor of the Territory that he is unable to execute them, and called upon him for adequate assistance to enable him to do so. Governor Cumming has heretofore strenuously contended that it was not necessary to have recourse to the military power to enable the federal jndiciary to administer the laws in Utah. At the conference above referred to, he undertook to vouch for the appearance for trial of the parties implicated in the Mountain Meadow massacre. It is not doubted that it was the intention of the church authorities at one time, that the parties accused should go through the forms of a trial, and Governor Cumming, who appears to be high in the confidence of the Mormon hierarchy is still willing to answer for the appearance of the accused, if Chief Justice Eckels will pledge himself beforehand to abide by and conform to a recent act of the Territorial Legislature, which empowers a tribunal of their own creation, styled a County Court, to select the jurymen who are to serve in the Federal Courts. This act Judge Eckels considers it his duty to disregard, for the very sufficient reasons that the organic act expressly provides that all Judicial power in the Territory shall be vested in a Supreme Court, District Courts, Probate Couits, and Justices of the Peace. County Courts, which appear to have been created for the express purpose of packing juries for the Federal Courts, are nowhere mentioned in the organic set, and the three Judges, upon consultation, consider it their duty to disregard the existence and action of these so-called County Courts, and will, therefore, provide themselves with juries by a venire facias addressed to the United States Marshal. It is not at all probable that, even with juries obtained in this way, any amount of evidence or stringency of law will ever ensure a verdict against any of the proteges of the Mormon hierarchy. A jury must be unanimous to find a verdict of guilty, and as long as there shall be one Mormon upon a Jury, that unanimity cannot be attained. An attempt has heretofore been made in an extreme case, that of the murder of the deaf and dumb boy by the policeman Christianson. No man on the Grand Jury, connected with the Mormon Church, would even vote for putting him upon his trial, and he has not been indicted. It is not supposed for a moment that the Marshal, in making up his Jury list, will exclude from it the Mormons, who constitute the bulk of the population of the Territory. It may, therefore, be assumed as a fixed fact that, no matter what crimes have been committed iu Utah, nobody will ever be convicted in the Federal Courts.

Among the Courts enumerated in the organic act between which the judicial power of the Territory is to be distributed, are Probate Courts. What portion of the general mass of jurisdiction properly appertains to Courts of Probate is a matter well settled in law, and it is equally well settled that cognizance of crimes and offenses can never be of their competency.

Very recently a man of the name of Foy, a Mormon, was tried by the Probate Court of San Pete County, on a charge of having murdered another of the Saints. He was convicted, and has been sentenced to be shot on the 8th of July. * All the Federal Judges here consider the Probate Courts totally without any lawful criminal jurisdiction, and that to take life in pursuance of their sentences is simply murder in all concerned. In the case of Foy, just mentioned, a writ of habeas corpus has been lesued by Chief-Justice Eckels, addressed to those having him in charge, and the Deputy Marshal is hourly expected to make return upon it. The case is certainly a singular one. Courts which can execute sentence cannot convict, and Courts, which can convict cannot execute. We appear to be perpetually revolving in a vicious circle here. We are constantly coming out of the same hole we go in at, and then we go right in again. The problem of civil government in Utah appears to be not only "how not to do it" yourself, but also "how "not to let anybody else do it."

__________
* The following singulatr provision is to be found at page 206 of the Revised Statutes of Utah: -- "Whenever any person shall be convicted of any crime, the punishment of whom, according to the provisions of this act, is sentence of death, said person shall suffer death by being shot, hung or beheaded, as the Court may direct; or the person so condemned shall have his option as to the manner of his execution."


Notes: (forthcoming)

AN  OVERLAND  JOURNEY.
_____
XXI.

TWO  HOURS  WITH  BRIGHAM  YOUNG.

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH, July 13, 1859.

My friend, Dr. Bernhisel, M. C. (Mormon Church) took me this afternoon, by appointment, to meet Brigham Young, President of the Mormon Church, who had suggested a willingness to receive me at two PM... After some unimportant conversation on general topics, I stated that I had come in quest of fuller knowledge respecting the doctrines and polity of the Mormon church and would like to ask some questions bearing directly on these, if there were no objection. President Young avowed his willingness to respond to all pertinent inquiries. The conversation proceeded substantially as follows:

HG: Am I to regard Mormonism (so called) as a new religion or as simply a new development of Christianity?

BY: We hold that there can be no new Christian Church without a priesthood directly commissioned by and in immediate communication with the Son of God and Savior of mankind. Such a church is that of the Latter day Saints, called by their enemies Mormons; we know of no other that even pretends to have present and direct revelations of God's will.

HG: Then I am to understand that you regard all other churches professing to be Christian as the Church of Rome regards all churches not in communion with itself -- as schismatic, heretical, and out of the way of salvation.

BY: Yes, substantially.

HG: What is the position of your church with respect to slavery?

BY: We consider it of divine institution and not to be abolished until the curse pronounced on Ham shall have been removed from his descendants.

HG: Are there any slaves now held in this territory?

BY: There are.

HG: Do your territorial laws uphold slavery?

BY: Those laws are printed -- you can read for yourself. If slaves are brought here by those who owned them in the States, we do not favor their escape from their owners?

HG: Am I to infer that Utah, if admitted as a member of the Federal Union, will be a slave state?

BY: No, she will be a free state. Slavery here would prove useless and unprofitable. I regard it generally as a curse to the master. I myself hire many laborers and pay them fair wages. I could not afford to own them. I can do better than subject myself to an obligation to feed and clothe their families, to provide and care for them in sickness and health. Utah is not adapted to slave labor.

HG: Let me now be enlightened with regard to more especially to your church polity: I understand that you require each member to pay over one tenth of all he produces or earns to the Church.

BY: That is the requirement of our faith.

HG: What is done with the proceeds of this tithing?

BY Part of it is devoted to building temples and other places of worship; part to helping the poor and needy converts on their way to this country; and the largest portion to the support of the poor among the Saints.

HG: Is none of it paid to the bishops and other dignitaries of the Church?

BY Not one penny.

HG: How, then, do your ministers live?

BY: By the labor of their own hands, like the first Apostles. I am the only person in the Church who has not a regular calling apart from the Church's service.

HG: Can you give any rational explanation of the aversion and hatred with which your people are generally regarded by those among whom they have lived and with whom they have been brought directly into contact.

BY: No other explanation than that which is afforded by the crucifixion of Christ and the kindred treatment of God's ministers, prophets, and saints in all ages.

HG: How general is polygamy among you?

BY: I could not say. Some of those present (heads of the Church) have each but one wife; others have more; each determines what is his individual duty.

HG: What is the largest number of wives belonging to any one man?

BY: I have fifteen; I know of no one who has more; but some of those sealed to me are old ladies whom I regard rather as mothers than wives, but whom I have taken home to cherish and support.

HG: Does not Christ say that he who puts away his wife, or marries on whom another has put away, commits adultery?

BY: Yes, and I hold that no man should ever put away a wife except for adultery -- not always even for that. Such is my individual view of the matter. I do not say that wives have never been put away in our church, but that I do not approve of the practice....

Such is, as nearly as I can recollect, the substance of nearly two hours conversation. [Brigham Young] spoke readily, not always with grammatical accuracy, but with no appearance of hesitation or reserve, and with no apparent desire to conceal anything. We was very plainly dressed in thin summer clothing and with no air of sanctimony or fanaticism. In appearance, he is a portly, frank, good-natured, rather thick-set man of fifty five, seeming to enjoy life, and in no particular hurry to get to heaven. His associates are plain men, evidently born and reared to a life of labor, and looking as little like crafty hypocrites or swindlers as any body of men I have ever met.

I have a right to add here, because I said it to the assembled chiefs at the close of the above colloquy, that the degradation (or if you please the restriction) of women to the single office of childbearing and its accessories is an inevitable consequence of the system here paramount. I have not observed a sign in the streets, an advertisement in the journals, of this Mormon metropolis, whereby a woman proposes to do anything whatever. No Mormon has ever cited to me his wife's or any woman's opinion on any subject; no Mormon woman has been introduced or has spoken to me; and, though I have been asked to visit Mormons in their houses, no one has spoken of his wife (or wives) desiring to see me, or his desiring me to make her (or their) acquaintance, or voluntarily indicated the existence of such a being or beings.

...one remark made by President Young I think I can give accurately, and it may serve as a sample of all that was offered on that side. It was in these words, I think exactly: "If I did not consider myself competent to transact a certain businesss without taking my wife's or any woman's counsel with regard to it, I think Iought to let that business alone."

The spirit with regard to woman, of the entire Mormon, as of all other polygamic systems, is fairly displayed in this avowal. Let any such system become established and prevalent, and woman will soon be confined to the harem, and her appearance in the street with unveiled face will be accounted immodest. I joyfully trust that the genius of the nineteenth century tends to a solution of the problem of woman's sphere and destiny radically different from this.   H. G.


Note: For more sympathetic patter on "Utah and the Mormons" by Editor Horace Greely, see his article in the 1859 Tribune Almanac.

THE  CONDITION  OF  UTAH.
_______

The Aims and Methods of the Mormon Hierarchy
State of Society -- Call for Intervention.

Correspondence of the New-York Times.

CAMP FLOYD, U. T., Wednesday, Feb. 1, 1860.        

The President is singularly silent in his Message concerning the condition of affairs in Utah; but the Secretary of War frankly admits that there is no known law to meet the present attitude of the Mormon people. In the absence of any new legislation, it is not easy to see how the Secretary could come to any other determination than that of removing the force now here. If this is done, the question will resume nearly its original shape -- embarassed, however, by the professedly loyal con-dition of the Mormons.

It will be many years before the condition of Utah will cease to vex and disturb the Government -- and each year will bring the Territory more prominently to the notice of the country and the world. When Congress resumes the transaction of the pressing business of the country, some legislation will be attempted for Utah. Whatever its nature, the full authority of the General Government can only be established and maintained among the Mormons by the strong arm. A people professing to be led by God from day to day will not yield willing obedience to other than their own leaders.

In a former letter I attempted briefly to show the essentially foreign nature of the Mormon people, their ignorance and entire lack of sympathy with our institutions and laws, and their blind adherence to the Church. It is as though some foregn State had been transported bodily to this continent, and the inhabitants thereof, in almost utter ignorance of their new duties and changed relations, become the infatuated followers of a few wicked and cunning men. The few Americans in the Territory are leaders, not followers. I give them no credit for sincerity, but believe they make use of the machinery of the Chuch for selfish and criminal ends.

The people are bound to the Church by every interest which can be aroused by fear. Through the ceremony called "consecration" Brigham Young has obtained possession of deeds of half the farms in Utah, and apostacy is followed by beggary, and perhaps by death. Considering it as an established fact, that the mass of the people are religious fanatics, acknowledging but one spiritual and temporal head, holding it a religious duty, and bound by every interest to obey the decrees of the Church, it becomes an important question to ascertain the purposes and pretensions of the Church.

The Mormon religion has for its foundation a belief that Joseph Smith was sent of God -- that a new revelation was made through him -- that he was ordained as an Apostle by the spirits of Peter, James and John, and received a dispensation for the gathering of Saints from all nations. Brigham Young is the divine successor of Smith -- and like him receives from God revelations for the guidance of the Saints. The doctrine of a plurality of wives is one of the results of the revelations made since the writing of the Book of Mormon. It is also claimed that the Apostles and Elders have the power of working miracles, and in one of Orson Pratt's works numerous instances are given, where the blind have been made to see, the crippled to walk, &c., &c. Those initiated into the Church are bound by the most solemn oaths to secresy, and violation of these oaths is followed by terrible punishment. However the existence of the Danites or Destroying Angels may be denied, their victims are too many and too well known to make the denial of much value.

It is the aim of the Mormon leaders, with the machinery above described, to gather together all who will become subjects of the one man power, and minister to the lusts and wealth of Brigham Young and his associates.

The unexpected success of the Mormon religion may have given birth to grander views. The disciples of the Mormon Church are now to be found in every land and every clime. Visions of empire and unlimited power over a million subjects may now hunt the brain of Brigham Young. This almost unparalleled spread of Mormonism ought surely to move the American people to a just consideration of the evil, while yet within bounds in our own country.

As long as Brigham Young can enjoy his present power and position here, so long he will stay here, and there will be trouble in Utah. The Army may be moved now, but in a few years, when the evil shall have swelled into more gigantic proportions, it will be needed again. Not until Young and his associates are obliged to make a quick decision between the halter and banishment, will the difficulty be at an end, and the harems of Utah transplanted to some other land. We have no law to meet the emergency. Repealing the organic act will only temporize with it; placing the Territory under martial law will only exact a sullen submission, while that law is in force. Between the Mormon religion and our Republican Government there is an "irrepressible conflict." In the one case the power is in the hands of a single man; in the other, in the hands of millions. A lasting settlement cannot be anticipated until Mormons cease to be Mormons, or cease to inhabit the United States. An army of a million of men cannot make this people willing and loyal subjects until their leaders are out of the way. They have a "higher law" than any emanating from the Constitution, and have much to unlearn, as well as much to learn, before they become good citizens.

All legislation on the subject, if the Mormons are to remain in our midst, must necessarily look to the overthrow of the Mormon Chuch, and history gives us no example of a religious sect having been subdued by force. The only remedy is the severe one of removing these polygamists from the country, or depriving them of their leaders, and patiently teaching the people to become republicans and freemen. They are now under an absolute despotism. Once masters of their own persons, their own time and property, and learning by experience the blessings of a free and liberal Government, they would perhaps abjure Mormonism.

The women especially are slaves, with the exceptions of a few favored first wives. The subsequent wives are servants -- one cook, another chambermaid, each one performing some particular household duty. They are poorly clad, without education, without gentility, and infinitely removed from the exalted position held by their sisters in more favored lands.

As might be expected, the children are little cared for, have few educational advantages, and grow up accustomed to every scene of vice: such abominably dirty children as swarm the streets of the Mormon villages are to be found nowhere else outside of the filthy alleys of our large cities. The mortality among them is unusually great, although this Territory is remarkably healthy.

The evil of Mormonism is vastly underrated in the States. It is worthy the most careful attention of Congress, and presents an "impending crisis" more formidable than the one over which our Representatives have been so long squabbling.

OBSERVER.          

Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMONS.
_______

A  SCHISM  AMONG  THE  SAINTS.
_______

Important Movement In the Mormon Camp --
New Organization under Joe Smith, Jr.,
as Prophet, to Oppose the Mormon
Church in Utah.

Correspondence of the New-York Times.

AMBOY, ILL., Friday, April 6,1860.      

Young JOE SMITH has at length acceded to the proposal to take upon himself the place of his father in the Mormon Church, with a view to clear it of those enormities which in Utah are so disgracing to humanity. This day, at the Conference, he offered himself for acceptance as the Prophet, and was accepted.

The Mormon Conference assembled at this place at 10 A.M., and occupied the morning in preaching. Much of this preaching consisted in denunciation of the apostacy of the Church in Utah, and the evils promulgated by Brigham Young and his satellites were vigorously attacked. Polygamy was especially adverted to as being the great evil, and as being the evidence of the falling away of the Saints.

In the afternoon, it being understood that young Smith would be installed, quite a number from the Gentile world were present. Your correspondent was on hand, of course, occupying for the nonce a high seat in the synagogue, in the midst of more high dignitaries of the Church and saints than ever he met before. There was much anxiety, on the part of both priests and faithful, manifested. There was a fear that they might experience now, that
"'Twixt cup and lip
There's many a slip." Nor was this anxiety allayed until Smith took the rostrum and delivered himself of his offer as prophet as follows:

I will say to you, brethren, as I hope you are now, and will continue to be, in the Lord, that God tries his people with sore afflictions. He has tried us, but the day of our deliverance is at hand. I come to you not of myself, but at the bidding of a greater and a mightier than I -- even the Holy Spirit. For some time past I have been receiving manifestations through the Holy Spirit of the will of God, and nothing but this has moved me now to come up here to take upon myself the position that I feel that I am about to assume. I shall assume that position only at the bidding of the Lord God, for I do not propose to be dictated to by anything save only that which comes of a power not of me or of myself, but only by that power which is above all -- the power which has brought me here. God works in a way and by means best known to himself, and for us it is not to discern his ways except by the revelation which he gives thereof.

For two or three years past the conduct of the Church of Christ has been exciting God to wrath; its ways have been the ways of evil and in the paths of unrighteousness, and now he has proceeeded to its reorganization, that his people maybe redeemed from error and blessed with great blessing.

In assuming the position I am now about to offer myself for, I am well aware that all sorts of improper and unworthy motives will be ascribed to me. It will be asserted that it is the work of selfishness, the desire of name, honor or fortune; but I do not propose to accept this office as a means to wealth. I do not accept the position for a name. I assume it only as I feel that I am called upon by God to take it. Neither do I take the position without having considered the unworthy motives that the world will ascribe to me. All of these things have I considered, and the power within me was so great that not even for the space of a moment could I hesitate as to my duty and my course. There is no selfish reason for my assuming the position in which my father stood.

Neither would I come to you without some guarantee that I should be received; that the power within me would prompt you to receive me, else hereafter I should be accused of motives of evil.

Neither would I come to you advancing doctrines that to me it would seem would and should be held in abhorrence; nor with doctrines which the Lord God must abhor. My desire is to come to you teaching such doctrines as all must feel to be, and accept as true doctrines: the doctrines of religion and morality. To this end, I have through life kept myself unbiased by all offers of gain which have been made to me, to induce me to take a step like this. Never did I converse with J. J. Strang, for I was a boy in his day, even as I am but a boy now. In his day I had not acquired a sufficient knowledge of him to be influenced by his opinions, so much deplored now.

I hold in entire abhorrence many of the doctrines preached and promulgated by Brigham Young. I have been told that my lather promulgated these same doctrines -- the doctrines of Young. This I never did believe, and I never can believe it, for the doctrines were not promulgated by divine authority; and I believe that my lather was a good man, and no good man could have promulgated such odious doctrines.

I believe in the unity of the church and in truth and honesty, and all these I find in the Bible, and in "the Book of Mormon" and in "the Book of Doctrine and Covenants" which latter books are but auxiliaries to the first.

Now, I have my own peculiar notions in regard to revelation, and I am happy to say, in the face of this meeting, that the voice of those with whom I have conversed among this people is, that they concur with me.

I cannot find such doctrines as are promulgated in Utah in the books wherein I believe, and so odious are those doctrines to me, that the time was when I held in view the idea of becoming the head of the Church in utter abhorrence, so much was this so. So repulsive was the very idea, that it did not seem to me that I could take the position which my father held upon myself. The idea that I was to assume the headship of the Church, however, came slowly upon me. I received many works upon that subject and many writings, but these I have avoided the reading of for fear that they should influence me to some wrong action, or that I should be biased in my judgment in relation to the truth of the revelation of God or the truth in the Church. The course I determined to pursue was, to do right.

I come then to you free from any taint of sectarianism. I am unbiased, and have no selfish end to serve, although I have come in contact with men that have advised me to take this course, as one which would build up for me a great name. It has been said to me, that a Mormon elder, though but a stripling, possessed a greater power than any man, and it was told me that this power arose from the depth of feeling in the breast of the saint; but with so sacred a sentiment I did not wish to trifle. I had no idea of being made use of by some talented, but unscrupulous man; I do not propose that any such man shall take me as a leader. I knew that if I allowed myself to take upon myself this office, being urged by any considerations unworthy of it, such as will be ascribed to me, I should not have the power of God. But this step has not been of my own dictation. The spirit has moved me to it, and all I ask is, that my shortcomings be dealt with in mercy.

I believe that a man owes duties to the country in which he lives -- that he is amenable to the laws of his land, and that he is liable to have that duty enforced upon him by those laws, and I say that Mormons can so act that they shall have as many friends as the people of any sect. I have always resided among the l people of Hancock County, who are strong Anti-Mormons, and I have never known that I had an enemy, I have been engaged with Anti-Mormons; I have mingled with them, and never have made an enemy, although I have often found it necessary, not only not to give offence by remarks of my own, bu also to smother my own feelings when I have heard the remarks which others made. I hold no feelings of enmity toward any man living who has fought this doctrine.

In conclusion, I would say I come to you. If you receive me, I will give my ability, the influence of my great name, and what little power that may give; and I trust by your prayers of faith to discharge the duties of the position faithfully, and I pledge myself to promulgate no doctrine that shall not be approved. If you do not agree to receive me, say so freely.

I do not care to say more. I have simply to add that I hope the spirit which prompts my coming will also prompt my reception.

High-priest Sheen then moved that he be chosen President Prophet, and a unanimous aye was heard. Smith then in form accepted the post; the Church was given over into his charge by the President of the Conference, Gurley, and his mother was received into the Church by unanimous vote.

He was then ordained by the laying on of hands.

THE  APOSTLES.

On motion, the following "Saints" were unanimously appointed and ordained to be members of the Council of the Church:

John C. Gaylord, Wm. Aldrich, Edwin Cadwell, George Morey, Calvin Beebe, Jacob Doan, Oliver P. Dunham, Zenos Whitcom, Lyman Hewit, Dwight Webster, and Winthrop H, Blaire, G. Jackson.

The following Elders were then ordained Presidents of the Quorums of Counties: James Blakeslee, Ed-mund C. Briggs, C. G. Lamphier, W. D. Morton, Arch. M. Wilsey, and George Rarey and John A. Macintosh were selected to like office, but being absent were not now ordained.

S. J. Stone was ordained as President of the Quo-rum of Elders, and Israel L. Rogers was ordained as Bishop.

Thus we have a new organization of the Later-Day Saints opposed to the organization in Utah. Whether any action will be taken to depose Young and his "false prophets " and "fallen saints" as these denominate them, time will tell. Likely some-thing will turn up to-morrow.   M.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMONS.
_____

YOUNG JOE SMITH  BECOMES  "PROPHET,
SEER, AND REVELATOR  IN ZION."

The "New Organization" of the Mormons convened at Amboy, Ill., on the 6th inst., the meeting being only an adjourned session of a conference held last October at Sandwich, Ill. The "New Organization" was ordered in 1850, by a revelation given to Zenas H. Gurley which he did not obey; later revelations pointed to the Young Joe as the man who should be the head of the movement, and to the 6th of April, 1860, as the day "when he should take upon himself the oaths of office, for this day was the thirtieth anniversary of the original organization under the elder and original Joe.

At the appointed time, nearly one hundred Mormons, male and female, collected at Amboy. The majority were elders, and mostly from the hard-working walks of life. As a general rule, they were not tidy in their personal appearance, nor were they even entirely clean, and the men had a tendency to whiskey to such a degree that many of them fell asleep under the ministrations of the preachers.

Prominent among the crowd were "Emma Bideman and her son, young Joe Smith. She appears to have married since the decease of the prophet, a publican or inn-holder, and it is hinted that the celebrity attaching to her name draws customers to the house. The personnel of young Joe is said to be disappointing at first siglft; not only does it not show signs of more than ordinary intelligence, but is lacking in cleanliness. His face is mild; his eyes are gentle; his head rises to a peak; his hair is long and black; he has a mustache, likewise black, and in sad disorder. In the doctrines of his Church he is not learned; he says he had often cast off the idea of the movement, and when installed he did not poesess a Book of Mormon, nor even a compilation of the Doctrine and Covenants.

The "New Organization" Conference met in the morning, and received three sermons. After a recess, "Brother Joseph" was invited to address the Saints, which he did, mainly as follows:

SPEECH  OF  JOE SMITH.

I will say to you, dear brethren, as I hope you are now, and will continue to be in the Lord, that God tries his people with sore affliction. He has tried us, but the day of our deliverance is at hand.

I come to you not of myself, but at the bidding of a greater and a mightier than I -- even the Holy Spirit. For some time past I have been receiving manifestations, through the Holy Spirit, of the will of God, and nothing but this has moved me now to come up here to take upon myself the position that I feel that I am about to assume. I shall assume that position only at the bidding of the Lord God, for I do not propose to be dictated to by anything save only that which comes of a power not of me or of myself, but only by that power which is above all -- the power which has brought me here. God works in a way and by means best known to himself, and for us it is not to discern his ways except by the revelation which he gives thereof.

For two or three years past the conduct of the Church has been exciting God to wrath; its ways have been the ways of evil and in the paths of unrighteousness, and now he has proceeeded to its reorganization, that his people may be redeemed from error and blessed with great blessing.

In assuming the position I am now about to offer myself for, I am well aware that all sorts of improper and unworthy motives will be ascribed to me. It will be asserted that it is the work of selfishness, the desire of name, honor or fortune; but I do not propose to accept this office as a means to wealth. I do not accept the position for a name. I assume it only as I feel that I am called upon by God to take it. Neither do I take the position without having considered the unworthy motives that the world will ascribe to me. All of these things have I considered, and the power within me was so great that not even for the space of a moment could I hesitate as to my duty and my course. There is no selfish reason for my assuming the position in which my father stood.

Neither would I come to you without some guaranty that I should be received; that the power within me would prompt you to receive me, else hereafter I should be accused of motives of evil.

Neither would I come to you advancing doctrines that to me it would seem would and should be held in abhorrence; nor with doctrines which the Lord God must abhor. My desire is to come to you teaching such doctrines as all must feel to be, and accept as true doctrines; the doctrines of religion and morality. To this end, I have through life kept myself unbiased by all offers of gain which have been made to me, to induce me to take a step like this.

I hold in entire abhorrence many of the doctrines preached and promulgated by Brigham Young. I have been told that my father promulgated these same doctrines -- the doctrines of Young. This I never did believe, and I never can believe it, for the doctrines were not promulgated by Divine authority; and I believe that my father was a good man, and no good man could have promulgated such odious doctrines.

I believe in the unity of the Church and in truth and honesty, and all these I find in the Bible, and in "the Book of Mormon," and in "the Book of Doctrine and Covenants," which latter books are but auxiliaries to the first.

Now, I have my own peculiar notion in regard to revelation, and I am happy to say, in the face of this meeting, that the voice of those with whom I have conversed among this people is, that they concur with me.

I cannot find such doctrines as are promulgated in Utah in the books wherein I believe; and so odious are those doctrines to me, that the time was when I held in view the idea of becoming the head of the church in utter abhorrence, so much was this so -- so repulsive was the very idea -- that it did not seem to me that I could take the position which my father held upon myself. The idea that I was to assume the headship of the church, however, came slowly upon me. I received many works upon that subject and many writings, but these I have avoided the reading of, for fear that they should influence me to some wrong action, or that I should be biased in my judgment in relation to the truth of the revelation of God, or the truth in the Church. The course I determined to pursue was, to do right.

In conclusion, I would say I come to you. If you receive me, I will give my ability, the influence of my great name, and what little power that may give; and I trust by your prayers of faith to discharge the duties of the position faithfully, and I pledge myself to promulgate no doctrine that shall not be approved.

If you do not agree to receive me, say so freely.

I do not care to say more. I have simply to add that I hope the spirit which prompts my coming will also prompt my reception.

Joseph and his mother were then received, and he was unanimously chosen President and Prophet. Prayer was offered in behalf of the Prophet, his mother, "and brethren, and the Saints in bondage in Utah." Joseph was then ordained to the Presidency of the Melchisedec Priesthood by the following ceremony:

President Gurley -- Brother Joseph Smith, I present this Church to you in the name of Jesus Christ.

Prophet -- May God grant in his infinite mercy that I may never do anything to give this Church cause to regret the position I assume, and I pray that he may give it to us to recall the scattered ones of Israel. I ask your prayers.

He was then ordained by the laying on of hands.

Twelve Apostles were then appointed and ordained.

The numbers of this "New Organization" repudiate many of the outrageous doctrines of Utah Mormonism, including, it is beiieved, Polygamy, stealing from the Gentiles, keeping trained bands of men for the execution of summary justice or vengeance, and the shedding of blood for the remission of sins. It appears, however, that, if they take the "Book of Mormon for their guide, they must give their sanction to some of these practices.

The second day's Conference presented nothing important till a list of backsliders was presented to the newly ordained Prophet, to be by him unchurched or dismembered. When this list was presented, Smith aroused himself and said, amid a general amazement:

"I hold in my hand a list of names that have apparently been presented for dismembering. Now, I am opposed to anything that shows an uncharitable spirit in the commencement of this work. These members, although they may now be in darkness, as soon as the knowledge of this organization shall reach them, it may create a panic in them, or in other words, it may bring them right. I do not feel that I could give my sanction to the dismembering of a single individual who has had connection with the Church. I could not, and I hope the brethren will uphold me in that."

Later in the day, one Blakeslee, President of seventy, who had previously confined himself to ejaculations, made an oration, somewhat eccentric in its style, and remarkably florid, treating of the future glories of the Church, &c., which closed thus:

"What is our position? Thirty years ago this day the Church of Jesns Christ was organized by the will and commandment of God, agreebly to the laws of our country, with six members. It has progressed; it has held forth from that time to the nations and to the kingdoms of the earth; it has visited many of the lands of the Eastern Continent, South America, and Polynesia; it has extended into Asia, and has reached Africa and the isles of the seas; and there are under the sound of my voice witnesses who have gone like the ancient servants of God did, when they were commanded to take neither purse nor scrip, and preach the Gospel of Christ. The Church since then has experienced many bitter afflictions, trials, and tribalations, but the foundation of God standeth sure, and notwithstanding the hope of men, like that of Israel, has almost been lost -- notwithstanding the light has been obscured and almost totally eclipsed from the mind of some, yet what have we witnessed in this hall to-day? We witness the fulfillment of the promise made to us by the Spirit of Truth, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, notwithstanding the darkness that has hung over us, shall be reorganized on the 6th of April, 1860 -- just thirty years from the time when it was first organized with six members. Could it be organized, unless the vacant place of the deceased Prophet should be filled? Could it be done? Has any body got any testimony in regard, to this thing? By no means -- by no means!"


Note: For a more complete transcription of the speech made by Joseph Smith III, see the New York Times of April 11, 1860.

"UTAH  AND  THE  MORMONS.

A pleasant hour with Capt. Walter M. Gibson, just returned from a Winter's sojourn with the Latter Day Saints ar Salt Lake, has supplied us with some additional items of interest respecting that singular people and their fortunes.

The oft-revived story of the Mormons wishing or consenting to sell out their landed possessions, in Utah, is a baseless fabrication. They like that country better and better; they are vanquishing the difficulties and impediments incidental to pioneer adventure, and are fast surrounding themselves (at least the magnates are) with the conforts of civiized life. Of cattle and grain they have good store; sheep are multiplying among them; wollen factories are beginning to turn out fabrics; excellent porcelain clay has been discovered among them, and emigrants from the English Potteries will soon be converting it into elegant and serviceable wares. Of iron ore, they have abundance, and most of the ruder manufactures are already naturalized among them. Fuel has been their chief desideratum -- miserable wood (cotton or quaking asp) being usually $15, and often $20 per cord in Salt Lake City, and abundant hardly anywhere. But mineral coal has lately been discovered in Salt Lake Valley, which, though poor in quality, gives promise to better; and a choice article is being mined on the waters of the Weber, hardly 30 miles from the Saints' metropolis. There are intervening mountains (the Wahsatch), but they can be passed by means of canyons, and a tram road from the Weber mines to the City will reduce the price of coal in the latter to $5 per ton at most. And then let New York look to it that she be not outstripped in the race for American preeminence!

Timber is fearfully scarce in Utah. In all its vast area, there is not today a stick growing (unless recently planted) that would furnish forth an ax-helve, much less an axel-tree. This dearth must be overcome by irrigation and planting. Trees are nowhere more thrifty than in the irrigated streets of Salt Lake City, and, though these are mainly the worthless bitter cottonwood, there is no reason to doubt that the oak, pine or hickory would flourish just as well. A great nursery and plantation of choice timber is greatly needed in Salt Lake Valley, and would afford a magnificent return. Meantime, the lucky inroad of the Federal Army has obvisted any present sense of need. Great provision wagons, whose axels had borne the jerks and strains of twelve hundred miles of travel over unmade roads and unbridged gullies, bearing loads of two or three tons have been sold in profusion...


Notes: (forthcoming)

MORMONISM.
_______

Joseph Smith, the Mormon Leader.

In the Rochester Union & Advertiser we find the following account of the peculiarities which marked Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, previous to the publication of his Revelations:

"I knew him well before his book was published. He was then a wood-cutter on my farm, more willing to live by his wits than his axe, and worked through the winter in company with some twenty or thirty others, rough backwoodsmen. He and his two associates built a rude cabin of poles and brush, covered with leaves and earth, in the woods open to the south, with a camp-kettle in front for cooking; and here, at night, around a huge fire, he and his companions would gather, ten or a dozen at a time, to tell hard stories and sing songs and drink cheap whiskey, (two shillings per gallon), and although there were some hard cases among them, Joe could beat them all for tough stories and impracticable adventures, and it was in this school, I believe, that he first conceived his wonderful invention of the golden plates and marvelous revelations. And as these exercises were rehearsed nightly to his hearers, and as their ears grew longer to receive them, so his tales grew the more marvelous to please them, until some of them supposed that he also believed his own stories. But of this fact, there is no proof. He was impudent and assuming among his fellows, but ignorant and dishonest, plausible and obsequious to others, with sufficient low cunning to conceal his ignorance, but in my estimation, utterly unqualified to compose even such a jumble of truth and fiction as his book contained.

The most probable theory of the origin that I remember to have heard, is that it was that strange work of an eccentric Vermont clergyman, written to while away the tedious hours of long confinement by nervous debility, and this idle production, after his decease, fell into Joe's hands, and that having learned something of the gullibility of his cronies, this incidental matter incited in him the first idea of turning his foolish stories to account, and thus enable him to make the surreptitious manuscript the text book of his gross imposition. I speak understandingly in saying he was shameless as well as dishonest, and I relate a small matter to prove it. During the winter he was chopping for me. I was in the habit of riding through the clearing daily to see that the brush was piled as agreed, the wood fairly corded, and no scattering trees left uncut, and in this way became well acquainted with the conduct of every man; and on each Saturday took an account and paid the hands. My mode was to ride around while each party measured their ranks and turned a few sticks on the top to show they had been counted. In this way I one day took Joe's account, he accompanying me and removing the sticks on the top of each rank. After thus going the rounds and returning to the shanty, he said that he had another rank or two that I had not seen, and led me in a different direction in a roundabout way, to wood that I had already measured, but the sticks on top had all been laid back to their places. I saw the trick at once, and could only make him confess his attempt to cheat, by re-measuring the whole lot; and all this he thought would have been a fair trick if I had not found it out. So much for the man in small things.

After he left in the spring, I lost sight of him, until my friend Judge Whiting (long deceased) of the very respectable firm of Whiting & Butler, Attorneys, who was then loaning money on mortgages for a trust company, asked me if I knew anything about Joe Smith. I told him that I knew him for a great rogue in a small way, when he informed me that he pretended to be a prophet, and was about publishing a Book of Revelations, and had induced two credulous men in Palmyra to apply to him (Judge W.) for money on mortgages to publish it.

I learned afterward that Joe and an associate had prevailed on a worthy citizen of Waterloo (Col. C._____) who was then in a state of great depression from the recent loss of his wife, to join their fraternity and cast in his lot among them; and that while they were at his home taking inventory of his effects for the purpose, his son, a spirited young man, came in and on finding what they were about threatened them so strongly with a prosecution as swindlers, that they left for the time until his father had recovered from his delusion and escaped them.

I know nothing further of his doings here, but after his removal to Ohio, when he established a bank that failed, I was shown one of his bills, and I recollect that on examining it I thought the device on the face of it was most admirably appropriate, viz.: A sturdy fellow shearing a sheep."


Notes: (forthcoming)

AN  INDIO-MORMONITE  ROMANCE.

In 1847 the Pringle family, consisting of husband, wife, two sons, and four daughters, having adopted Mormonism, left their home in Oneida County, N. Y., en route for Salt Lake City. They had accomplished but half their journey, in company with other converts whom they had encountered, when they were desperately attacked by mounted Indians, whom, however, they finally discomfitted. But the safety of five of the Pringle family was dearly purchased by the loss of one of its number -- the youngest child, John, a beloved and interesting lad, only ten years of age. The more the members of his family mourned his loss the more they became convinced of the hopelessness of rescuing him. Broken-heartedly they proceeded on their way; were received into the Mormon Church, of which William, who was two years John's senior, became, in time, a pillar; and, with the passage of years, same to look upon their lost, beloved relative as dead. William Pringle became, at last, so enthusiastic a leader in Mormonism, that about six weeks ago he left Utah for Liverpool, there to promulgate its doctrines, and, on his way thither, stopped, on the 13th of last December, at Cleveland Ohio. Throughout all John Pringle's captivity, although he had adopted many of the manners and customs of the Indians, he had constantly pined for his family and home. In 1859, while accom-panying his captors on a horse-stealing foray into Texas, he escaped to New-Orleans, gradually civilized himself, joined the Rebel army, and became one of Beauregard's most skillful scouts. At length, with early remembrances still throbbing, he resolved to revisit his boyhood's home in Oneida County. On his way thither he arrived in Cleveland on the 13th of December, and entered a saloon on Seneca st., drank a glass of ale, and seated himself by the fire. He had not long sat thus, when a stranger entered, and not only drank himself, but also invited the bystanders to join him. They complied, invitations became mutual, the company grew joyous, songs were sung and stories were told, until John Pringle, in a burst of convivial confidence, commenced the tale of his capture and captivity. The first few words had hardly been spoken when a change was visible on the stranger's face. His cheeks flushed, and then grew pale; his eyes filled and glistened; his lips quivered, his breast heaved. "My God! it's John" he cried; "It's little, little John;" and, in another moment, he was sobbing and panting on the bosom of his new-found brother. William abandoned his trip to Liverpool, and the two brothers started next day for Utah.


Notes: (forthcoming)

POLYGAMY  IN  SALT  LAKE  CITY.
_____

THE  WAR  BETWEEN  BRIGHAM YOUNG  AND  THE SONS  OF  SMITH.
_____

A correspondent of The San Francisco Bulletin gives the following account of the recent contest in Salt Lake City on the subject of polygamy.

Joseph F. Smith, son of "Hiram the Martyr," and cousins of his opponents, David and Alexander Smith, sought to prove in a public meeting that the original Joe Smith actually received a revelation establishing polygamy, and that both he and Hiram his brother, practiced polygamy secretly, and in the face of their positive denials contained in The Times and Seasons, a Mormon paper published at Nauvoo. The first witness introduced to the congregation by Joseph F. Smith was "Elder Howard Coray." All who have read Mary Ettie V. Smith's book, "Fifteen Years Among the Mormons," will at once recognize this name as that of the "older brother Howard," often mentioned by her. His narrative was somehwat amusing, but it ended in leaving no other impression upon the mind than that of disgust for its flippancy and pity for the weakness of mind which it betrayed. He stated that his wife had a dream, in which "Brother Thompson sealed her on the five points of fellowship;" that she told part of her dream to Hyrum Smith, but felt a delicacy about telling it all; and that Hyrum Smith then explained to Coray and his wife the entire revelation authorizing polygamy. He further said that Hyrum Smith's sister-in-law soon after moved to Hyrum's house, and another sister had her house built alongside of Hyrum's, so there was a passage to his bedroom. Joseph F. Smith manifested great nervousness and excitement throughout the meeting. He commenced by stating that many would run after David and Alexander Smith simply because they were the sons of Joseph. In view of this fact, it had been determined to hold a series of meetings to answer the statements of David Hyrum, and before they were through they purposed to present testimony to convince any honest mind who heard it, and damn any who rejected it. He stated that he would present the affidavits of 12 women now living that they were the spiritual wives of Joseph Smith, and so continued to the time of his death; that he had the evidence of hundreds of men who had been taught the doctrine by Joseph and Hyrum, and that he knew to a certainty that his father, Hyrum Smith, had two other women while his mother was still alive. As an excuse for the published denials of his father and Joe Smith, he said: "I cannot help the position this places my father and Joseph in as to their denials. I only know these facts. But everybody knows the people then were not prepared for these things, and they had to be cautious. They were in the midst of their enemies, in a State where this doctrine would have sent them to the penitentiary. There were traitors on every hand; the right-hand man of the Prophet, one Marks, was a traitor of the blackest dye. When Joseph and Hyrum left Nauvoo, intending to come to the Rocky Mountains and pick out a refuge for the people, when the mob were after them, that man Marks and Emma Smith joined in writing them a letter urging them to come back. They came back, delivered themselves up, and were murdered. And the blame rests upon that woman, their mother, Emma Smith. And I say the blood of Joseph and Hyrum is upon the souls of Marks and Emma Smith, and there it will remain until burned out by the fires of hell." During this recital the audience were gradually worked up to a high pitch of excitement, and their suppressed breathing and fixed gaze manifested to the observer the intensity of the excitement. Whenever the Brighamite leaders wish to carry a point or accomplish a purpose they seek to arouse the passions of the people by a recital of harrowing details -- false, it is true, but nevertheless fully calculated to effectually accomplish the purpose designed. So the details concerning the death of the "prophet" were artfully contrived to excite the passions of the people and overcome the cooler judgment. The denials of Joseph and Hyrum Smith referred to above were contained in a card published in The Times and Seasons in February, 1844, denying that they had received any revelation authorizing polygamy, and also in a published address by Hyrum to the Elders starting on a mission, in April, 1844, in which he denied the doctrine and forbade its being preached. About the same time Hyrum wrote a letter to the Mission in LaPierre County, Michigan, denying that polygamy was a doctrine of the church, and these denials were all published in the church paper, and of course, are not denied by the Brighamites If Joseph F. Smith proved that polygamy did exist -- and I think he did -- he thus proves his father and Joseph Smith to have been deliberate liars.

On Sunday afternoon, Aug. 22, David Smith preached against the errors which he says have been grafted on the doctrines of Joseph Smith since his death. The congregation was larger than any heretofore assembled to hear the Smiths preach and great interest was manifested by most of those present. Brigham Young, however, adopted the plan of calling upon 20 polygamists out of each ward to go and fill up the house in order to exclude those who would probably become converts. The Brighamite leaders seem to be employing against the Josephite Mormons the same weapons of ridicule and scandal which they complain so bitterly have been used against themselves by the world at large.

On Sunday evening, Joseph F. Smith, the avowed champion of polygamy, again occupied the stand. He made no quotations from the Book of Mormon, that authority being against him; nor from the Book of Doctrine and Covenants, that being equally so; but he quoted from the Bible. Many passages in the singular number referring to marriages were construed by him to mean the plural also. He said: "It has been said that I have proved my father a liar. I will show that he has not lied. There is a difference between telling a lie and not telling the truth. Webster says: 'Polygamy, a man having several wives, or a woman having several husbands.' The latter part my father meant to deny, and not the former; therefore he did not lie." Unfortunately, however, for Joseph F. Smith's argument, it has been proved by a great many witnesses, some of whom, now leading men in the Brighamite church, made affidavits to the fact, which were placed on file in the archives of the State of Illinois, and therefore could not be destroyed by them when they fell into the arms of Brigham Young, that a promiscuous intercourse of the sexes was carried out in Nauvoo by Joseph Smith and his leading men, and that a woman had several husbands as well as a husband several wives. Meanwhile the war between Josephism and Brighamism continues, and it is thought by many "Brighamites," as well as "Gentiles," that it will lead to important results. Notwithstanding the misrepresentations of one Mormon journal, and one only -- The Telegraph, which would have the outside world believe in the very face of facts that the Smiths are creating no excitement, receiving no sympathy and support from any respectable numbers -- Brigham fears them, or he would not argue against them. The Brighamites believe the time is at hand when the great split, long prophecied, will take place in this branch of the Mormon Church.


Note: The above article was condensed from San Francisco Bulletin of Sept. 1, 1869. It was reprinted in the Semi-Weekly Tribune of Sept. 13th. See also the Utah Daily Reporter of Aug. 15 1869, as cited in Valeen T. Avery's From Mission to Madness: Last Son of the Mormon Prophet, copied from Autumn Leaves XXV, Nov. 1912, pp. 507-510.

MORE  ABOUT  THE  MORMONS.
_______

The Expulsion of the Editors --
What is Thought of Honest
Differences of Opinion in "Zion."

Correspondence of the Chicago Evening Journal.

Salt Lake, Utah, Sunday, Oct. 31, 1869.      

There is a rumpus in the "Camp of Israel," and the "Saints" are troubled. But it bodes well for the dawning freedom of thought and of conscience among this deluded and fanatical people. The editors and proprietors of the Utah Magazine have just been excommunicated from the " Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." For attempted free expression of thought on purely secular matters. The "Saints" are directed by Brigham Young "not to patronize or read the said magazine." Now the "head and front of the offending" of said editors is this and nothing more, to wit:

The Church authority -- which is Brigham Young, "the Prophet, Seer and Revelator" -- has always discouraged the opening and development of the mineral resources of Utah Territory, and has thus signified his his sovereign will to his obedient Saints. The editors of the magazine have taken a different view, and have dared to advocate the development of the mineral wealth. The same Church authority, in the plentitude of his benevolence, insists upon the reduction of the price of labor in this Territory. The editors of the magazine have dared to express a different opinion. Whereupon the "Prophet" is filled with wrath that any of his subjects should presume to have an option adverse to his, not only upon Church matters, but on matters wholly temporal.

On the 23d inst. these editors were arraigned before the "High Council" for apostacy and heresy, and were tried and expelled from the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."

He who desires to see an absolute salvery of soul and body, fully equal to that of the dark ages under the reign of the most beastly if Popes, let him come to "Zion." A few incidents of the trial of those editors before the "High Council" will give some idea of the tyranny and blasphemy of this "High Council" under the dictation of the "Prophet." After the charge of apostacy had been preferred by Elder George Q. Cannon, on the ground of articles in the magazine containing views on financial questions differing with those of Brigham Young, as well as on account of an expressed belief that members of the Church had not only a right to think, but to express their ideas on such subjects, the question was put by the editors to Elder Cannon, one of the Council, whether it was apostacy to differ honestly with Brigham Young? To which he replied: "It is apostacy to differ honestly with Brigham Young. A man may be honest even in hell."

D. H. Wells, also one of the Council, said, in relation to the above question, "You might as well ask the question whether a man had a right to differ honestly with the Almighty!"

Eli B. Kelsey, one of the Council, was instantly cut off from the Church simply for voting against the expulsion of the editors. Now, to understand the full force, in this community, of an expulsion from the Church, and the effect of the order to the "Saints" not to patronize or to read the proscribed magazine, you must know that this people have been taught to believe, and do believe, that Brigham Young is the vicegerent of God on earth, and is infallible in all temporal as well as spiritual matters.

These editors feel themselves in danger of personal violence, and even assassination, by the pious and fanatical "Saints," for to take their lives would not be shedding "innocent blood," according to Mormonism. The proscription of the Utah Magazine will be strictly observed by ninety-nine in every hundred of the "Saints," and hence it will probably utterly ruin the proprietors financially. While we Gentiles rejoice at the little spasmodic efforts of those editors for free thought, yet we have not much sympathy for them, for they still believe in Mormonism -- in the divinity of Joseph Smith's bible, and polygamy, and advocate them in their magazine. One of them has four so-called wives, and hence is in the meshes of the "whoredom of Babylon."

It is to be hoped that the strong arm of the Government will this winter do something to suppress this "twin relic of barbarism," and free this ignorant and stupid people from their manacles.


Notes: (forthcoming)

AMONG  THE  MORMONS.
_______

Response to the Alleged of Brigham Young, Jr. --
The True condition of Affairs Among the Latter Say Saints.

(CORRESPONDENCE  OF  THE  WORLD.)

SALT LAKE CITY, November 1.      

Brigham Young, Jr. (Having been interviewed by a reporter of a Philadelphia paper), made a series of statements, many of which are false. The usual Mormon effrontery, so largely possessed by "old Brig," has been inherited by his son, "young Brig," and he unblushingly lies to the reporter of the Philadelphia paper for the purpose of deceiving the public, and giving a false impression concerning affairs in Utah. First, this unworthy descendant of an unworthy sire, says: "The women in polygamy are protected by law." Your correspondent has been for several years a practising lawyer in this city, but, after a careful examination of the statutes of the Territory has utterly failed to find anything in the shape of a statute regulating marriage. There is no such thing as a law upon the statute book protecting women in polygamy, and if there was, it would be in conflict with the anti-polygamy law and consequently void. Mr. Young, Jr., also says, there are a large number of public schools in Utah. It is well known to Utah that the Mormons have not a single free school in the Territory. True, there is a law upon the statute book providing for the levying of a school tax, and by virtue of that law thousands of dollars have been collected, which went -- into Brigham, Sr.'s, capacious breeches pocket. It was demonstrated during a recent school-tax case in the United States District Court, that the act was one of Brigham's many schemes for fleecing the people, and it was declared null and void. The only free school in the Territory is the one established by the Episcopal missionaries, in which there are a number of children, of poor Mormon parentage, who are educated gratuitously. Brigham, Jr., talks largely about the gold and silver mines of the Territory, but he does not relate how his father issued secret orders to bis gang of assassins to drive away all prospectors and ''Gentiles" about to work mines. It is only within the past year that the life of a miner has become safe while engaged in following his occupation. Brigham, Jr., also tries to throw the Mountain Meadow massacre upon the Indians. This is the old Mormon story, so effectually exploded by Judge Cradlebough when he was Chief Justice of Utah. Bishop John D. Lee and other leading Mormons organized the party of Mormons and Indians and planned the whole affair. Affidavit after affidavit has been made, showing that Mormon savages committed the brutal murder of 147 men, women, and children in cold blood, for plunder, and to avenate the death of Parley P. Pratt, who was killed but a short time before in Arkansas by McLane, while abducting his, McLane's, wife and children. It is well known in Utah that Brigham Young, Sr., and other leading Mormons shared in the plunder.   Brigham Young, Jr., says the Mormons are not vindictive. The recent murders of Brassfield, Dr. J. K. Robinson, the assaults upon Mr. I. Watters and J. H. Beadle, editor of the Reporter, display a spirit of truly Christian meekness, as the Mormons understand it, and of course cannot be called vindictiveness. The most ludicrous part of Brigham Young, Jr.' s statement is that the Mormons consider Major Hempstead, the United States Attorney for the Territory, their enemy because, in the discharge of his duty, he is endeavoring to enforce the anti-polygamy act. In other words, any officer of the government who endeavors conscientiously to do his duty, and enforce the laws of the United States in Utah, is an enemy to the Mormon, if he happens to tread on Mormon corns. Brigham Young, Jr., made an admission, unintentionally no doubt, which shows the animus, felt by the Mormon leaders, against the government, laws, and officers of the United States, which may yet tell with painful weight, when the Mormon question is handled by Congress. Lack of space prevents your correspondent from noticing other statements equally false, made by Brigham Young, Jr., at present.

The following notice appeared in the Deseret Evening News, of October 26.

"TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN -- This certifies that Wm. S. Godbe, E. L. T. Harrison, and Ell B. Kelsey, were cut off from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, on Monday, the 26th day of October, 1869, by the High Council of Salt Lake City, for harboring and spreading the spirit of apostacy.

"WM. DUNFORD, Clerk of Council."          

The proceedings during the meeting of the "School of the Prophets" are described by a person present, as having been rather stormy. Henry Lawrence, a Mormon merchant, opposed the cutting off of Godbe, Harrison, and Kelsey, for the offence alleged, and was silenced by Brigham, who will also excommunicate Mr. Lawrence, unless he repents and asks forgiveness.

The following is a synopsis of the objectionable articles which recently appeared in the Utah Magazine, and for the writing and publication of which, Godbe, Harrison, and Kelsey were excommunicated:

"Obedience, considered abstractly, is neither a virtue nor a vice. It may be either; there are abundance of instances, indifferent individuals, where it is both. It is a characteristic of the most exalted and the most debased intelligences. It is powerful for good or evil; a blessing or a curse; an instrument of order and happiness or au engine of oppression and misery, according to the motive whicn prompts it and the power to which it is subject. Obedience is just as possible to Satan as to God; to the leader of a band of highway-men as to a servant of the Most High; but no one would contend that it is praiseworthy in the former cases. Obedience, to be virtuous upon earth and acceptable to heaven, must be the result of the thorough conviction of the soul that the individuals or the principles, or both, asking our obedience, are to accordance with the laws of heaven and of nature, having for their object the highest good of humanity, and, as such, worthy of our implicit confidence. Blind obedience, like blind unbelief, 'is sure to err,' and lead its votaries into a thousand errors, inconsistencies, and difficulties. God has never required it of His creatures, though men often seek to enforce it from their fellows. * * * God has endowed men with certain faculties and powers of mind and body, for the use of which they are held responsible. This responsibility could not exist, were they required to yield obedience without exercising their own judgment, and without testing the requisition by the light of their own souls. * * * It is quite time mankind understood this distinction -- that they should learn wherein righteous obedience consists, and be free from the self-imposed mental tyranny -- far worse than African slavery -- which compels to a blind, unintelligent obedience at the sacrifice of conscience and self-respect, through an unfounded fear of incurring the Divine displeasure."

"All countries, before they can become rich, must develop some specialty or product of which they have a great surplus for sale, or remain poor. * * * Home consumption brings no money into the Territory, and we imperatively need something that will. And we ask wherein is that something, and the answer comes back from all parts of the Territory that it is in MINERALS! We are one of nature's vast mineral storehouses -- a mineral territory, in fact. From one end to the other we walk over worlds of mineral wealth awaiting development. We have mountains of coal, iron, and lead, and enough copper and silver to supply the world, to say nothing of more precious metals."

These articles are a little too liberal for Brigham, who excommunicates the editors, and would suppress the magazine if he could. Stenhouse is still on the fence, undetermined whether to fall over into Brigham's lap on the one side or the arms of the opposition on the other. Mr. I. Watters, a wealthy jeweller of the Hebrew persuasion, called by the Mormons a "Gentile;" was severely beaten by Joseph F. Smith, one of Brigham's apostles, assisted by other Mormon ruffians. Mr. Watters is the gentleman who punished Sloan, the Mormon polygamist, for calling the ''Gentiles" thieves, &c., during Mr. Colfax's speech. Outrages by the Mormons are getting common again. Mr. J. H. Beadle, editor of the Utah Reporter, was nearly beaten to death within the precincts of a Mormon court, and the perpetrators of the outrage are carefully screened by the Mormon authorities. After the first dawn of civilization, Utah is relapsing into barbarism again; and the only light sufficient to penetrate the gross mental darkness of the people is that which would, he reflected from two thousand glittering bayonets in the hands of as many boys in blue. Utah murderers should grace the end of a rope, and hang as thickly upon the trees as fruit in autumn.  H. W. I.


Notes: (forthcoming)

BRIGHAM  AND  NEWMAN.
_______

THE PROJECTED DEBATE ON POLYGAMY
AN IGNOMINIOUS FAILURE,
_______

FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE CHAPLAIN OF
THE SENATE IN MORMONDOM
A DESPERATE MAN AND AN UNCIRCUMCISED PHILISTINE.
________

(under construction)

Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  DOOM  OF  DESERET.

The frantic outcries of the Mormon leaders at Salt Lake City show only the desperation of their case. After fourteen years of temporizing and experimenting, the National Government has at last obtained such a foothold in the Territory of Utah that we see before us the doom of that imperium in imperio, the so-called State of Deseret. In considering the Mormon problem superficial, people have too commonly allowed their attention to be fixed only on the institution of polygamy, which is but one of the chief characteristics of Mormonism. The truth is, polygamy is not so much the strength as the weakness of the great hierarchy which the United States Government it now trying to break down. If the destruction of this fraudulent, insolent, and foreign power is to follow the present commotion in Utah, it will be through polygamy, but not because of that unnatural practice.

When the Mormons settled in Utah, they fancied that they had got so far away from the political and commercial centers of the Republic that they would be able to nurse their peculiar institutions and practice their peculiar tenets unobserved and undisturbed. They committed the error of supposing that they could, in the territory of the United States, build up an empire of which the autonomy and independence would be complete and unquestioned. The discovery of gold in California, attracting across the continent a large and permanently increasing stream of travel, gave the first rude shock to this fond belief. But the Mormons clung to their traditions and revelations, and, strengthening in every direction the bulwarks of their new Zion, the State of Deseret, they adhered to the infallibility of their leader, Brigham Young, who has declared: "As the Lord lives, we are bound to become a sovereign State in this Union, or an independent nation. I am still, and still will be, the Governor of this Territory." Inspired by words like these from one whom they believed to be in daily receipt of direct messages from Heaven, the Mormons yielded to the formation of a hierarchy which not only was the political government of Deseret but slowly absorbed all the powers which regulate commercial and social intercourse. Buying and selling, marrying and giving in marriage, the government of households, the rates of wages, texture and cost and fashion of dress, amusements, and religious belief, were all determined and regulated by the mind which was at once Prophet, Priest, and King. The rank and file of the Mormons are for the most part foreigners; they have not been in the country many years; the majority have not even taken the first steps toward naturalization; and they came, as they say, "not to America, but to Zion." They despise and condemn the authority of the United States; they deny the right of the Republic to interfere with any form of social, religious, or political order that they may elect; they recognize no government but that of the State of Deseret, no higher law than that of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, and hold the seal, arms, and flag of their so-called State (for they ignore the Territory of Utah) above every other symbol of authority in the world. So long as this peculiar and anomalous state of things was left to itself and was fortified by the absurd policy of giving the Governorship of the Territory to Young, the peace of the Deseret Zion was unbroken. But, after a few failures, Gen. J. W. Shaffer was sent to govern Utah, and the vigorous and sensible policy which he inaugurated has been carried out so far successfully by Gov. Wood and his judicial associates. The completion of the Pacific Railroad, the discovery and opening of rich gold and silver mines in the Territory, and the natural influx of a non-Mormon, or Gentile, population have simplified the problem. The Mormons, like the Southern Rebels, are shrieking, "Let us alone!" It is "interference" that they object to. Under Territorial laws, adultery is a grave crime, and polygamy is claimed to be a defense against prostitution. United States Judge McKean, impanelling a jury to try a case of adultery, excludes from the panel persons who believe and live in polygamy. So that for the first time in Utah, a jury of men is formed of Gentiles. Nor are polygamous Mormons only excluded, but also men who believe the dicta of Brigham Young to be of higher authority than the Constitution of the United States. George Q. Cannon, who now exhorts his fellow-Mormons to rejoice that the devil (the United States Government) is not dead, but lives to discipline their sweet souls, testified that a revelation from Young is paramount to the laws of the United States. So swore they all. We cannot tell what offenses will yet be tried before this "packed" jury. It is certain that men who in Utah assume that they can keep harems will be tried for adultery under their own Territorial law, administered by officials of the United States. It is an undoubted fact that many secret murders have been committed by the Danites, or Angels of Destruction, probably under orders from the Mormon dignitaries. The massacre of Mountain Meadows, by which a colony of immigrants was secretly exterminated, was the work of Mormons. Immigrants crossing the Plains to California were waylaid, robbed, murdered, and harassed in every possible manner. Were such men as Sidney Rigdon and William Hickman, alluded to in late correspondence of The Tribune, to turn State's evidence, we should doubtless have unfolded a chapter of horrors and crimes that would condemn to death a regiment of the specious hypocrites of the Mormon priesthood, whose conviction otherwise will be difficult. Though polygamy is not the real point of attack in Utah, it is doubtless the instrument which, in the hands of the United States Courts, shall break the brittle hierarchy in pieces. The day of its doom seems near. Not only must the people of Utah be taught that polygamy cannot be tolerated in the United States any more than widow-burning can be permitted in Montana, in obedience to pretended heavenly visions, but the impudent assumptions of their Church-and-State Government must be destroyed forever. With the advance of liberal ideas everywhere, some light has dawned in the dark abodes of Mormonism itself, and intelligent schism and recantation of error are not only troubling the hierarchy but aiding the United States authorities to tear away the refuge of lies which, however it may resist the present attack, is bound to go down before this decade shall pass away.


Notes: (forthcoming)

It has been so often stated without contradiction, that we suppose it may be considered a fact that the so-called "Mormon Bible" was written for his own amusement by a clergyman named Spaulding. This gentleman is dead, and buried in Washington County, Pa., and it is now proposed to erect a monument over his grave. Why this should be made a public affair, we do not know; for certainly the country has no special reason for being obliged to the author of "The Mormon Bible," a farrago of nonsense which has occasioned greater mischief than ever such nonsense did before. The MS. was given, according to tho story, by Spaulding to the Rev. Mr. Pattersen, and was copied by Sidney Rigdon, who gave his transcription to Jo Smith. Possibly we might have been spared all the Utah botheration if the Rev. Mr. Spaulding had pleased amuse himself in a more sensible way. On the other hand, Jo, having a passion for getting up new religions, might have started his new faith upon some other basis. It is a great comfort to us to feel that Mormonism hasn't enough of solid truth in it to save it from ultimate oblivion; and we are surprised, considering how well the leaders have managed secular matters, that they should have constructed such a shabby ecclesiastical scheme, by the side of which the Moslem faith seems not merely respectable but venerable.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  HORSE  IN  AMERICA.
______

PROF. MARSH'S DISCOVERIES IN FOSSILS.
THE ANCESTRY OF THE NOBLE ANIMAL -- THE MORMON
BIBLE CONCERNING HORSES -- SKETCHES BY PREHISTORIC
MAN -- THE FAMILY TREE OF THE HORSE.

(From The Special Correspondence of The Tribune.)

New-Haven, April 18 -- Few facts in the history of the race have been the occasion of wider generalizations than the circumstance of that the horse -- the most important of all the animals which man has pressed into his service -- was utterly unknown on the continent of America at the time of the discoveries of Columbus. Not only the horse, but all the related family -- the ass, the zebra, and the quagga -- were equally wanting. The Western hemisphere, in this total deficiency of both its divisions, presents a marked contrast to the Old World, since Europe, Asia, and Africa are each the native habitat of one or more members of this large family.

But the recent labors of science have opened a new page in the horse's history, and have changed entirely the scope and nature of the inquiry. It is now known that in the eras with which geology deals, America was not only for countless ages the home of the horse, but of an immense variety of animals of the horse family or nearly allied to it: and in the long series of these varying forms there seems to be presented evidence of change, progress, and development, which is welcomed by the believers in the theory of evolution as supplying many of the missing links in the ancestry of the noble animal...

Did the horse exist in America after the advent of man, and become extinct between that period and the date of the discovery of America? This is a question of more interest than would be at first supposed. The horse of Europe was probably cotemporary with the earliest man, and there are traces of the existence of that animal among some of the most ancient relics of the cave-dwellers....

But Brigham Young has hailed the discovery of fossil horses in America as an evidence of the truthfulness of the sacred writings of .tho Mormons. Years ago, in a discussion in England, the representative of the Mormons was worsted in argument upon the point that these writings make the blunder of describing horses as existing in America coeval with man, but prior to the advent of the Spaniards. There may be other instances in the Mormon Bible, but the following will serve to illustrate the point:  The book of Ether describes a period subsequent to the building of the tower of Babel. It gives the particulars of construction, under divine command, of a number of covered barges, "exceeding tight," that would "hold water like a dish," each provided with an air-hole in the top, closed with a stopper, to be opened when needful for ventilation. These remarkable vessels were loaded with provisions; a small colony embarked upon them, and a strong wind, miraculously provided, drove them across the ocean. The voyagers were 344 days afloat, without light or fire; but at last they reached the promised land, where, it is stated:

In the space of. sixty-and-two years they became exceeding rich, having all manner of fruit and of gram, and of silks, and of fine linen, and of gold and of silver, and of precious things, and also all manner of cattle, of oxen, and of cows, and of sheep, and of swine, and of goats; * * * and they also had horses and asses, and there were elephants, and cureloms, and comoms; all of which were useful unto man, and more especially the elephants, and cureloms, and comoms.

Now there is not a trace of the horse among the antiquities of the Indian tribes on this continent. Not a legend, not a fragment to mark its coexistence with man, in all the records that have been compiled, in all the mounds that have been opened -- unless the two following incidents be accepted as evidence to the contrary: (1) Dr. P. W. Lund was the first discoverer of fossil bones of the horse in South America. He found in 1841, in a cave in Brazil, among other remains of "animals, the greater part of the skeleton of a young horse which he described as Equus neogus, and declared to be identical with a specimen found in another cave associated with human bones. But Owen says, after critically reviewing this case, that it affords no evidence of the contemporaneity of the human and equine races in the Brazilian caves. (2) Prof. Marsh has in his possession a bone picked up by an explorer among the ruins of one of the deserted cities of Central America; it is the coronary bone of a horse; i. e., the first bone above the hoof. There is no doubt of the antiquity of the ruined city; as to that of the coronary bone the reader may form his own judgment....


Notes: (forthcoming)

A  DEPARTED  MORMON  SAINT
_____

DEATH OF ONE OF THE AUTHORS OF
THE MORMON BIBLE.

From the Cincinnati Commercial.

Martin Harris, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, has just departed life at Clarkson, Utah, at the advanced age of 92 years. Mr. Harris first appeared in print in the year 1830, at which time, in company with Oliver Coudery and David Whitmer, he subscribed to the solemn affidavit which appears on the title-page of the Mormon Bible.

Joseph Smith, the Palmyra impostor, having noticed Harris' relish for religious wonders, and his capacity for receiving and retaining all the bosh that folly and knavery could furnish, took it into his head to use Harris in the matter of getting up a new religion. Harris had seen the devil in a dug-way near Palmyra, and his contact with that distinguished personage had so improved his swallowing apparatus that Joe Smith's angels, revelations, golden Bible, sword of Laban, etc., went down in a single gulp. He had been something of a Friend, then a Wesleyan, then a Baptist, afterward a Presbyterian, and, if not halted by the Mormon fraud, he would, in all probability, have gone the round through all existing sectaries. Having advanced $50 and accepted the position of a scribe to Joseph, he found himself fully committed to the "fullness of the Gospel," and earnestly proclaimed whatever foolishness or blasphemy Joe might put into him. Mrs. Harris, knowing her husband's credulity and Smith's trickery, did all she could to stop the expenditure of money; but Smith not only plied Harris with "revelations," but explained the certainty of making a spec out of the publication of the manuscripts. An edition of 5,000 would cost, say, $3,000. Joseph had a revelation that the books would sell for $1.25 each, and he went on to assure his victim that there was a chance to clear $3,250. Mrs. Harris objected. Harris explained the gain to be derived from the investment. She railed at his folly, and, egtting hold of the manuscript, burned "the more history part" of Lehi. Harris quarreled with and beat her; they separated, and Smith got his Golden Bible printed at the expense of Harris. Any other knave than Joe Smith would have been backed out by the burning of Lehi by Mrs. Harris, but, as Joe told Ingersoll, "he had the fools into it, and he proposed to put it through." So with promises of advancement to Harris, he had a "revelation" that his father (old man Smith) should help sell the Bibles. But the old man was arrested with a basket full of Bibles, and to pay costs he had "to cut" on the Lord's price ($1.25) and sell the lot for 80 cents apiece! This interfered with "prior revelations" given in favor of Harris, and troubles increasing, Smith, Harris, Coudery, and the Whitmers cleared out for Kirtland, O. Here the "Twelve Apostles" were appointed, -- Harris being left out; but as he still had some money, a little honesty, and increased capacity for credulous business, Smith smoothed him with new promises and daily revelations. In 1833, the Mormons in Jackson County, Mo., having excited the wrath of the Jacksonians by their immoralities and fanatical insolence, were ordered out of the State. On learning this, Joe Smith, Harris, and perhaps 200 others, started for Missouri to "redeme Zion." On the way they ran into the cholera; and, notwithstanding Harris was saved in articulo mortis by Divine interposition, twenty of the Saints turned their toes to the lines, in spite of Joseph's "laying on of hands." In Missouri Bishop Partridge succeeded in getting old Harris to advance $1,200 more to purchase land on which to establish Zion -- Zion never to be removed! Too many birds of a feather having got together, Joseph found his hands full in trying to settle the difficulties which beset the Church without and within. Many of the Saints were whipped, jailed, and shot for bad conduct, and some of the chiefest among the Apostles turned against the Prophet. Cowdery and Whitmer, two of the witnesses, were "cut off" for lying, theiving, counterfeiting, etc.; and the brethren mooted it openly that Joseph was bad -- real bad. Some of the sisters said so, and Coudery believed it. Coudery with Whitmer were turned over to Satan. Poor Harris, who had helped Joseph to get up the Mormon business, lost $3,000 in the Bible investment, and had recently lent the Lord $1,200 to fix the foundations of Zion, did not escape the troubles which excessive piety had brought upon the brethren. In company with Parish, who had been charged with swindling, Harris was kicked out of the camp of Israel. His earnestness and ignorance had served Joseph to their fullest extent; his money was gone, and he was named among the "negroes with white skins," and the Prophet posted him publicly as a "lackey," one so far beneath contempt that to notice him would be a sacrifice too great for a gentleman like himself (Smith) to make!

Packing his valise, he cut sticks for Kirtland, where he lived unto 1870, when he went to Utah and ended a miserable life, raving in his last delirium over the Book of Mormon -- witnesses, facts, and fictions of the most deplorable fraud recorded in history. Never was credulity or avarice more useful in a bad way or knavery more successful than in the lives of Joe Smith and Martin Harris.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMON  POLITY.
_______

A Letter from the Late Bishop, George A. Smith.
_______

A Virulent Narrative of the Alleged Grievances of
the Latter-Day Saints.

To the Editors of the Evening Post:

The press of late has been commenting on an atrocious massacre perpetrated by a combined force of Indians and outlaws in Utah eighteen years ago, one of the whites having been arrested and brought to trial.

Travelling extensively in that region during the last two years, I have in various publications placed before the public facts and impressions concerning the country and people, which I have endeavored to write out with impartiality. That these essays have been criticized was to be desired, inasmuch as a spirit of inquiry has been elicited; and that every [----iage] favorable to the great majority of the inhabitants among whom I sojourned has been made the groundwork of personal abuse by a journal in Salt Lake City, which assumes to be the organ of the minority, was naturally expected. For [affirmations?] [coming] from a Mormon source I am grateful, as they afford proof that a middle path has been pursued, the missiles coming from both sides of the road.

I offer no apology for the length of the enclosed communication. It was addressed to me last winter by Mr. George A. Smith, a prominent "apostle" of the Mormon church, who, but for his unexpected death yesterday, might perhaps have been the successor of Brigham Young. I have before referred to him as "a man of unimpeachable integrity."

His paper is interesting in various particulars. That part of it devoted to railroad enterprises will commend itself to gentlemen engaged in those undertakings; the romance of frontier life will gratify others; the enthusiasm of religious belief will call to mind the tales of the old Covenanteers; and the defence of Mormonism by one of its most sincere supporters, whose conscientious services the Mormon system has just lost, is at least entitled to the consideration of the curious.     J. C.
    New York, September 2, 1875.

---

                          St. George, Utah, December 4, 1874.
John Codman, Esq., Salt Lake City:

Dear Sir: Your letter of November 20 is received, and also your book entitled the "Mormon Country." I have hastily read it with great pleasure, as I had never had the privilege of doing so before. I should have been pleased if you could have visited this country, I was glad to learn that your tour through Sevier, Millard and Juab was agreeable and instructive.... [two or three paragraphs missing]

... Joseph Smith and his counsellor were tarred and feathered, in the spring of 1832, as a piece of modern Christian discipline, two Christian (?) ministers presiding on the occasion. A child sick with the measles died from the exposure caused by breaking into the house and tearing Joseph out of bed. In 1833 the Rev. Isaac McCoy, a Baptist clergyman, and the Rev. D. Pixley, Presbyterian, were foremost in administering Christian discipline to the Latter-Day Saints in Jackson county, Missouri, aided by lesser lights in the Christian faith, tore down homes, destroyed printing offices, pillaged goods, whipped, tarred and feathered; killed wounded, and drove fifteen hundred people disarmed and destitute to perish in the wilderness, burned two hundred and sixteen of their houses, which stood upon lands for which they had paid their specie to the United States Treasury. The same Christian discipline, in a milder way, was again administered in Clay county. They were driven to the naked, uninhabited prairies of Caldwell county, their enemies even declaring that it was such a worthless country, and so destitute of timber, that the Mormons were welcome to it. Two years of industry and enterprise, with great faith on the part of our people, made Caldwell one of the most flourishing counties in the state... [paragraphs missing]

... your book, written with such apparent fairness, [bases] upon the extreme utterances of men, many of them extremists, a faith almost as brutal as that practised upon us by our religious trainers, the Christian clergy, and their assistants in the United States. Page 156 of your book says: "It is scarcely pretended that Brigham Young gave the order for the 'Mountain Meadow Massacre,' but he took no steps to bring the murderers to justice."

... Now the facts of this are, President Young, who has been superseded as Governor by Alfred Cummings, requested him and the United States District Attorney Wilson to investigate this matter. He offered to go with them; guaranty their protection, and use his influence for the arrest of every party desired; and that a fair trial be had. This was refused by the judiciary, notwithstanding it was urged by the Governor and Attorney., as an investigation of this subject would not bring guilt upon those whom political and religious [intriguantes?] wished to criminate. We are still desirous for a fair investigation of this subject, but do not want it investigated before a religious bigot or political trickster. Let the officers who handle this matter be just, high minded men....


Note: Unfortunately this clipping, containing these very interesting letters by John Codman and George A. Smith is fragmentary and partly illegible. Once a proper copy can be located, the entire text will be posted here.

A FOUNDER OF MORMONISM.
_______

DEATH OF SIDNEY RIGDON
HIS CONNECTION WITH THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE MORMONS.

From the Pittsburg (Penn.) Telegraph, July 18.

The early history of Mormonism is intimately blended withthe history of this county and of Western Pennsylvania, the Book of Mormon -- the bible of the polygamists -- having been printed in this city, and two of the most noted founders of the "twin relic" having had "a local habitation and a name" in our midst. Solomon Spalding, the author of of the Book of Mormon, lived in this city from 1812 to 1814, when he removed to Amity, Washington County, where he died and was buried. Sidney Rigdon, who died in Friendship, Alleghany County, N. Y., on Friday last, was born in St. Clair Township, this county, Feb. 19, 1793. The manuscript of the Book of Mormon was set up in a printing office in Pittsburg in 1812, with which young Rigdon was connected. Soon after getting possession of a copy of Spalding's manuscript he left the printing office and became a preacher of doctrines peculiar to himself and very similar to those afterward incorporated into the Book of Mormon. He gained a small number of converts to his views, when about 1829 he became associated with Joseph Smith. It is asserted that through Rigdon's agency Smith became possessed of a copy of Spalding's manuscript. Smith and Rigdon then set about to establish a Church having at first vague and confused ideas as to its nature and design, but with the Book of Mormon as their text and authority, they began to preach this new gospel; and Smith's family and a few of his associates, together with some of Rigdon's followers, were soon numerous enough to constitute the Mormon Church, as it was styled by the people around them, or the Latter Day Saints, as they presently began to call themselves. The Church was organized in Manchester, New York, in 1830.

The following year the believers were led by Smith and Rigdon to Kirtland, Ohio, which was to be the seat of the New Jerusalem. Here converts were rapidly made, and Smith and Rigdon established a mill and store, and set up a bank without a charter, of which Smith appointed himself President and made Rigdon cashier. The neighboring country was flooded with notes of a very doubtful value, and in consequence of this and other business transactions, in which Smith and Rigdon were accused of fraudulent dealing, a mob, on the night of March 22, 1832, dragged the two prophets from their beds and tarred and feathered them. About a year afterward a government for the Church was instituted, consisting of three Presidents, Smith, Rigdon, and Frederick G. Williams, who together were styled the First Presidency, a revelation from the Lord having declared that the sins of Rigdon and Williams were forgiven, and that "they were henceforth to be accounted as equal with Smith in holding the keys of His kingdom."

In January, 1838, the bank at Kirtland having failed, Smith and Rigdon, to avoid arrest for fraud fled in the night, pursued by their creditors, and took refuge in Missouri. The Mormons soon became involved in quarrels with the Missourians, and toward the close of 1838 the conflict assumed the character and proportions of civil war. The Militia of the State was called out, and Rigdon and Smith were charged with treason, murder, and felony. Rigdon was released on a habeas corpus. Shirtly after this Rigdon and Smith established themselves in Illinois and built the City of Nauvoo.

After the death of Joe Smith, Sidney Rigdon aspired to succeed him as head of the Church, but Brigham Young was chosen First President, and Rigdon being contumacious, was cut off from the faithful, cursed, and solemnly delivered to the devil "to be duffeted in the flesh for a thousand years." Having thus been turned out of the fold, Mr. Rigdon returned to Pittsburg and tried to establish a church. Not succeeding, he moved to the Genesee Valley, New York, and has there remained up to the time of his death, a period of about thirty years. After abandoning his religious ventures, he devoted himself to the study of geology and supported himself in a great measure by lecturing upon that subject. He was in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and is said to have been high;y respected by his neighbors during the declining years of his life.


Notes: (forthcoming)

MOUNTAIN  MEADOWS.

JOHN D. LEE'S REJECTED CONFESSION --
A FRIENDLY MORMON VERSION --

HOW BRIGHAM YOUNG WEPT UPON
RECEIVING TIDINGS OF THE MASSACRE.

The Salt Lake Herald, a paper sympathizing with the Mormon authorities, publishes the substance of the confession made by John D. Lee, as furnished to it by W. W. Bishop, Lee's attorney. The Herald says, the statements being contained in its correspondence from Beaver, Utah:

Mr. Bishop said after he got to Beaver he found the excitement against Lee great. He believed he could not get a fair trial in Utah, and consented that his client should turn State's evidence to get immunity for his own acts. The prosecution agreed to enter a nolle prosequi as to the first indictment absolutely, Lee to take his chances as to future indictments. After a long consultation with his associate counsel he agreed to it, and so advised Lee, and the prosecution agreed that if the confession was satisfactory they would dismiss all kinds of indictments against Lee. After Lee made the confession the prosecution found it did not implicate the high church authorities, but only those of brief authority in the Iron military district, so they refused the statement, believing, Mr. Bishop presumes, that they could, by trying Lee, procure testimony reaching nearer the apostolic centre, and so disregarded their agreements and placed Lee on trial. Lee's statement opens as follows:

"It now becomes my painful though imperative duty to chronicle the circumstances that led to, and fully describe that unfortunate affair known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre, in Utah history, which has been shrouded in mystery for the last fifteen years, causing much comment, excitement, and vindictive feeling throughout the land. The entire blame has rested upon the Mormon people in Utah. Now, in justice to humanity, I feel it my duty to show up the facts as they exist, according to the best of my ability, though I implicate myself by so doing. I have no vindictive feelings whatever against any man or class of individuals. What I do in done from a sense of duty to myself, to my God and to the people at large, so that the truth may come to light and the blame rest where it properly belongs. I have been arrested on the charge of being engaged in the crime committed at the time and place referred to; I have been in close confinement over eight mouths since my arrest: I was in irons three months of the time during my confinement; for the last seventeen years -- in fact, since the commission of the crime -- I have given this subject much thought and reflection. I have made the effort to bear my confinement with fortitude and resignation, well knowing that most of those engaged in this unfortunate affair were led on by religious influences, commonly called fanaticism, and nothing but their devotion to God, and their duty to him, as taught to them by their religion and their church leaders, would ever have induced them to have committed the outrageous and unnatural acts, believing that all who participated in the lamentable transaction, or most of them, were acting under orders that they considered it their duty, their religious duty, to obey. I have suffered all kinds of ill-treatment and injury, as well us imprisonment, rather than expose these men, knowing the circumustances as I do, and believing in the sincerity of their motives, as I always have done; but I have a duty to perform, and have, since I was arrested, become convinced that it was not the policy of the Government or the wish of the court to punish those men, but rather to protect them and let the blame rest on their leaders, where it justly and lawfully belongs.

After much thought and meditation I have come to this conclusion that I cuuld no longer remain silent on this subject, but no far as I can bring to the light the circumstances connected therewith and remove the cloud of mystery that has so long obscured the transaction and seemed to agitate the public mind, believing it to be my duty as a man -- a duty to myself, to my family, to my God, and humanity -- to cast aside the shackles so long holding my conscience in silence, and in pursuance of the disinterested advice of my attorneys I now submit the facts so far as I know them, stating nothing from malice or for the purpose of revenge, holding that I can state of my own knowledge, willing that the world may know all that was done and why acts were committed, I submit the following as the exact, unvarying statements of facts and circumstances connected with the crime known as the Mountain Meadows Massacre."

(At this point the pages of the confession relating to the details of the massacre were refused to reporters for the present, but their character was permitted to be stated us follows. -- Reporter.)

Lee gives at great length a detailed, concise and alleged perfect statement of the acts and facts connected with the massacre, giving the names of persons, dates and places. He claims to fully expose all classes of men and every man connected with the outrage. He starts with his first knowledge of the emigrant train, following through their unfortunate experiences and conflicts up to the termination of their sad career. He describes all that was done by the murderers after the commission of the crime, and the action of all connected with it; also the action of Brigham Young and the proesthood; also the acts of those in authority, the disposition of the children saved, and the particulars of their delivery to Doctor Forney, the agent of the Government, who removed them to Missouri.

The statement of Lee fully explains why, for what reason, and how the tragedy was accimplished, stating the justification relied upon by the participants for the commission of that fearful crime.

The details fix the responsibility for the crime upon Isaac C. Haight and John M. Higbee, commanding officers, the former standing on an eminence and giving the signal agreed upon for the slaughter. After the emigrants had been decoyed out of their stronghold by a flag of truce the wounded were hauled out and dispatched. There were engaged in the massacre thirty white men and a large number of Indians. The details of the killing of the men, women and children surpass in horror all that has ever been written concerning the massacre, and are more terrible, atrocious and bloody than the most vivid imagination can conjure.

In conclusion he writes as follows:

"A few days after the massacre I was instructed by Major Isaac C. Haight, next in command to W. H. Dame, in Iron military district, to carry a report of what had been done to President Brighum Young at Salt Lake. Haight directed me to give my report and stand up with manly courage, and shoulder as much of the blame as possible, he saying to me that if I did so I should receive a celestial reward. It is my nature never to bind burdens on others that I am not willing to bear myself. I went to Salt Lake and reported to Brigham Young the exact facts connected with the transaction, shouldering a greater degree of responsibility than justly belonged to me.

In justice to Brigham Young I must say that when he heard my story he wept like a child, walked the floor and wrung his hands in bitter anguish, and said it was the most unfortunate affair, the most unwarranted event, that had ever happened to the Mormon people. He said 'This transaction will bring sorrow and trouble upon us in Utah. I would to God it had never happened.'

After hearing this I returned home with a drooping heart and reported the result of my mission to those in authority over me."

Lee says that seventeen children were saved and were all delivered to Dr. Forney, who promised to take them to their friends in Missouri and Nebraska. None of them were killed after the massacre. He sets out that the massacre was the result of military orders, Utah then being under martial law, under command of Brigham Young as Gvernor. Johnston's army being on the east in Echo Canyon, and an invasion being expected from the west by way of California, the Mormon people were in a state of excitement, and acted as desperation dictated.

Attorney Bishop alleges that Lee offered to give the prosecution the names of twenty-five of the murderers and where they could be found, as he believes.


Notes (forthcoming)

THE  MORMON  MASSACRE.
______

THE STORY OF MOUNTAIN MEADOWS AS TOLD BY AN
OLD FRONTIERSMAN AND CONFIDENTIAL FRIEND
OF LEE.

San Francisco, March 25. -- The Call publishes an interesting interview with Capt. John Morse concerning the Mountain Meadows massacre. The gentleman referred to has figured during many years of an eventful life as a frontiersman, prospector, trapper, and trader, and was in Utah prior to the Mormon settlement, and for many years after it. At the time of the massacre he was living with some bands of Indians not more than thirty miles from Mountain Meadows, and two days after the tragedy, he visited the scene, and saw the mangled bodies, of the slaughtered emigrants lying on the ground as they had been left by the destroying horde of Mormon fanatics and their allies, the Indians. Capt. Morse was an intimate acquaintance of Lee, and this departed saint, in a conversation occurring years before the trial, admitted to Morse his complicity in the atrocities, but, as to his confession, so consistently in his off-hand declarations, threw the responsibility of the butchery upon the leaders of the Mormon Church, and directly implicated as accessory before and after the fact Brigham Young; Morse disputes Lee's statement that there were 500 Indians present, claiming that there were not more than 300 in that whole section of the country. The butchery was planned by Mormons, and almost entirely done by them, the Indians not killing over half a dozen. He says plunder was the chief incentive to the massacre. At that time the Mormons were excessively poor, having no money and scarcely anything else. They would trade their produce with the Indians even for old clothes.The train was a very rich one, and excited their cupidity. Morse was very much with Lee during his residence in Southern Utah, and the latter unbosomed himself freely on the subject of the massacre, which seemed to so dwell on his mind that he constantly reverted to it.Concerning the implication of Brigham Young with the massacre, Morse relates an interview with Lee:

The last time I saw him was in Mahon County. I went to his ranche, and he received a letter -- in fact I brought it to him myself from a place called Kanab -- which stated that troops were on Lee's track hunting him up, and he had better move on a little further. He showed me the letter, and said: "Lee, this is all an infernal lie; there are no troops on your track at all. This is all put up by those Mormons in St. George, where Brigham Young was, whom Brigham has influenced to get you out of the way." I told him, "You take my advice and go into the Gentile camp and give yourself up and make a clean breast of the whole thing, and you will get along first rate. I asked him if Brigham Young was interested in the massacre. He at first said "No." I said I knew better, and he said: "Of course there is no use lying to you; as a matter of course I was under orders. Brigham Young knew everything; he was with me from the time we left Salt Lake, but the intention was to let them pass onto Muddy and then catch them at Muddy. Do you suppose that any of those men -- you know more of them -- do you suppose they would have entered into this arragement if they had not believed in the Mormon Church, and that this thing emanated from Brigham, their Mormon prophet?"

Capt. Morse says no attempt was made to procure his testimony further than that he was sent for to attend the first trial, but he did not appear, being down on the Colorado River, near Fort Yuma. Lee was confidential with him on account of their frequent solitary companionship on prospecting and other expeditions, and because he knew Morse had other sources of information from the Indians. Capt. Morse is now a resident of this city.


Notes (forthcoming)

JOE  SMITH, THE  MORMON
_______

THE ROMANTIC STORY OF HIS LIFE.
_______

Digging Gold Plates from the Side of Mormon Hill
Deciphering with a Moonstone. -- Tragic Death
of the Founder of Mormonism.
_______

Special Correspondence of The Times.

MANCHESTER, N. Y., May 12.    

Away up here, in the top of New York State, where the snow still lies deep in fence corners and gullies, I have found the birthplace of Mormonism. It was in the northern part of this county, Ontario, that Joseph Smith, the father of the polygamous clan and the victim of his own folly, sowed the seeds nearly half a century ago that have grown and ripened into the Mormon sect, as we know it now.

The shooting of John D. Lee, the bishop-murderer, called strongly to mind hereabouts the fact that the first little band of Latter-Day Saints set out from this county on their journey westward, and that it was from the side of a neighboring hill that Smith pretended to dig the golden plates on which were graven the teachings of the Mormon Bible. It had nearly passed out of mind, it was so long ago, but this last excitement has brought it all out fresh again, and the people of this quiet country point rather proudly toward Mormon Hill.

A careful search through this town, which lies fifteen or twenty miles south of Lake Ontario, has resulted in the unearthing of three reliable stories, from which the accompanying brief history of Smith, the Mormon, is compiled.

    The story of the Bible:
    The story of young Joe Smith, and
    The Printer's story.

THE  STORY  OF  THE  BIBLE.

The Rev. Solomon Spaulding was a young minister, just out of college, with a good education, a lively imagination and very little cash. In 1809 he took charge of his first parish, in a little town among the ancient mounds of Ohio. His congregation was almost as small, proportionately, as his salary, and he had time to spare for wandering among the mounds and working up in his mind a romance whose plot was laid in the supposed time of the mound-builders. He remained over the little church for several years and in 1812 the romance was finished. Spaulding had a friend in Pittsburg, a Mr. Patterson, who was a publisher, and to him he sent the embryo book for publication, under the blood-curdling title of "Manuscript Found." The country had a war on its hands and Patterson was afraid to touch the book, and after keeping it on hand for four years he returned it to the author, who, meanwhile, had removed to Amity, N. Y., where he died in 1827. One of the printers employed in Patterson's office was an intelligent young man named Sidney Rigdon, who afterward lived in this town, and it is generally believed that he copied the manuscript while it was in Patterson's office, and either gave or sold his copy to Joseph Smith, for in 1829 Smith had a copy of the Rev. Solomon Spaulding's unpublished romance. This manuscript, that the country clergyman wrote to occupy his leisure hours, is the Mormon Bible.

THE  STORY  OF  YOUNG  JOE  SMITH.

Joseph Smith was the son of a small farmer in this town. His father, with only a few acres of land, a large family and a disposition that kept him from doing any more work than was absolutely necessary, went through the world on the from-hand-to-mouth plan, and his indolent disposition was his only legacy to his children. Young Joe soon reduced the science of living without work to a fine point. As a boy he is represented as lazy and shiftless, a nuisance to the neighbors, a constant lounger in the few available loaferies, always ready to drink if there was anybody else to pay. In this way he grew up on his father's little farm, with no education and without giving any signs that he had brains in his head. This is the Joseph Smith into whose hands fell the stolen copy of Solomon Spaulding's romance.

Whether in his twenty odd years of idleness this young man had been thinking out a plot for gaining for himself fame and wealth, or whether the purchase of the manuscript was a sudden freak, no one can tell. But his movements as soon as the book came into his possession show plainly that at that time the plan was laid. He had the manuscript that the publisher had refused to print; the next thing was to make it available.

On his father's farm was a high hill, rocky and ragged; and Smith made frequent midnight excursions to its summit. His strange movements soon attracted attention, and when he was asked what he was doing, "digging out gold plates," he replied, adding that he had been told of their whereabouts by a dream and that they contained strange inscriptions. Sure enough, there was a huge hole in the hillside where he had dug, and the hole is there to this day. The plates (if there were any) were carefully concealed, and Smith set about deciphering the mysterious characters. He sent pretended copies of some of the inscriptions to many of the learned men of the day, but of course, nobody was able to decipher them. Then a dream came to the rescue again. This time Smith dreamed that with the aid of a certain curious stone, which he would find at a designated place, he could read the strange writing. (It is a curious stone, and is still in existence.) He found the stone and set about the translation. Sidney Rigdon, the printer, was his amanuensis. In due time the hieroglyphics were all deciphered; the translation was carefully written and made a great heap of manuscript. Then the copy of Solomon Spaulding's book was produced as the result of this labor. The story of Smith's finding the plates had made a great sensation; the finding of the stone had made another; public curiosity was excited; the plot was ripe.

THE  PRINTER'S  STORY.

The mysterious book was ready to be printed, but Smith had no money. Neighboring printers were consulted, but the pile of manuscript was formidable, and nobody would print it without security for the pay. So after all of Smith's plotting his scheme seemed about to fall through for lack of funds. But his success in fooling the public up to this point apparently quickened his intellect. He changed from the lazy, dirty farmer's boy into a spruce young man, with a winning way and a pleasant manner, and set about ingratiating himself into the affections and the pocket-books of some of his wealthier friends. Many of the neighboring farmers believed implicitly in the story of the plates, and wondered that young Joe Smith, the vagabond, should turn out so great a man. To one of the firmest of his believers Smith told his story -- the part of it that he meant the public should know -- and appealed to him for money to have the wonderful book published. He was successful. This man, Martin Harris, was a wealthy farmer near Palmyra, only a few miles from the mound that has ever since been known as "Mormon Hill." He mortgaged his farm for $3,000, and a contract was soon made with the proprietor of the Wayne Sentinel, in Palmyra, to print the book. It was long before the days of the great publishing centres, and the work was to be done in Palmyra. It was a long, slow piece of work. Rollers for inking type forms had not yet been invented, and the ink was applied with the old-fashioned balls covered with sheepskin, the printing being done on a hand-press capable of making, with hard labor, not more than two hundred and fifty or three hundred impressions an hour. The paper was made in Shortsville, a neighboring village; it was a home production throughout.

Five thousand copies of the book were printed, under the title of the "Book of Mormon," and they kindled the little flame into a great blaze. Hundreds of followers flocked about Smith. Allah was great and Joe Smith was his prophet. The clan grew larger and larger, and Smith was a demi-god. His most absurd notions were taken as Gospel truths. The seeds of Mormonism were sprouting finely.

Polygamy was openly practiced by this little band, and what to do with the offenders soon became a serious question. The go-to-church community would stand no such abomination in its midst. but it was feared that any legal measures would be looked upon as persecution, which would only increase the evil. The faithful, however, soon settled the question themselves by emigrating to Ohio, and thence to Nauvoo, Ill., where a furious mob made a quiet protest against polygamy by shooting Smith dead as he was trying to escape through a rear window.

The printer who set nearly all the type for the Mormon Bible is still living and still occasionally stands before the case. The books have nearly all disappeared, but one is occasionally found on the parlor table of some last-generation farmer. The story that Macaulay tried unsuccessfully for years to buy a copy is probably untrue, for I have met half a dozen farmers who would have sold me one gladly, for cash or barter.       DRYS.


Note: Although this clipping is marked as coming from the New York Times, it appears more likely to have been published in the Chicago Times.

..."I see you differ with the Herald correspondent about peace in Utah?"

"Of coure I do. Salt Lake is as peaceful as New York and Brigham Young and his Mormons are as law-abiding as Gen. Shaler and the Seventh Regiment. Because Gen. Shaler drills once in a while, is it any sign that he is going to attack the United States? Salt Lake is as quiet as a country village. Governor Emery the Gentile Governor says so -- so does Gen. Crook, sent there by the Government especially to find out; and so do Frank Leslie and every tourist who has been there within the last six weeks. Yesterday the Herald had a half column making out Mayor Little of Salt Lake a liar and an assassinator. Why, why Mayor Little is one most modest and childlike men in Utah -- a man beyond all guile. He is a very wealthy man and has travelled in Europe very extensively. I was in Salt Lake a week. I waa with the officers a good deal, rode repeatedly with Hiram Clawson, the Adjutant General of the Territory, rode with General Crook and rode with Brigham Young. Now I tell you for the last time that there is no trouble and no anticipated trouble in Utah."

"The fact of it is," said EIi, "when I write unless I'm writing pure fiction, I tell the radical truth so startling that the reader can hardly believe it. I haven'y time to lie. It would be easier to fall into a newspaper rut and lie about the Black Hills and Utah and * * * Brigham than to be bold enough to tell the truth. But when there's a big lie to be told -- an innocent one for fun -- I'm on hand ready to lie with the rest of 'em. You know one half of the fun in this world is made by telling big lies, any way."

"How is that?" asked our reporter.

"Why, what were Gulliver's travels but big lies? What is Don Quixote -- and Baron Munchausen? Didn't he just live on lies? Mark Twain is a fearful liar -- and so is Bret Harte and the Dansbury News man! Isn't half of Bailey's book made up of what old Mr. Covell did in Nelson Street? and do you know that there is no such man, and that there naever was such a street in Danbury? Oh! an awful liar is this same Danbury News man! And still I don't believe Twain or Harte or Bailey would tell a lie about an ordinary transaction -- that is unless it were to make fun. "No, sir," said Eli, "when I lie I lie for pure fun -- no animus in it; and when I tell the truth, I tell it srtraight ahead. I don't tell it like Beecher higher than a kite, nor like Colfax, on my Sunday School honor. Neither would I lie like George Francis Train, just for pure cussedness, nor like chivalric Joannes just for the pleasure of seeing my lies in print. No sir! when I lie I lie like Baron Munchausen, simply to amuse the reader; but when I start out to tell the truth, as I have in the Mormon and Black Hills matters, you can rest assured that I shall tell the exact truth, let it cost what it may."


Notes: See also the Sun of Aug. 31, 1877, which contained Melville D. Landon's first published interview report following the death of Brigham Young. Writing under the name "Eli Perkins," Landon was known for occasionally telling a tall tale or two. The editors of the Deseret News therefore saw fit to print this quote from his pen in their paper's issue of July 11, 1877: "when I lie, I lie like Baron Munchausen, simply to amuse the reader; but when I start out to tell the truth, as I have in the Mormon and Black Hills matters, you can rest assured that I shall tell the exact truth, let it cost what it may." Other than his overly optimistic salesmanship on the part of John W. Young, Landon's Salt Lake City reporting appears to be reliable. Brigham probably did tell him that he knew about Joseph Smith and the forthcoming Book of Mormon as early as the fall of 1827.

BRIGHAM YOUNG'S CRIMES.
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Springfield, Ill., July 12. -- Capt. John Tobin, formerly a resident of California, later of St. Louis, and still later of Springfield, will be one of District Attorney Howard's principal witnesses to prove Brigham Young's personal connection with the massacre of the Gentiles. His name is mentioned in Lee's confession. He tells a long story, which is, in substance, that having gained the confidence of Young by aiding Mormon emigrants, he was appointed instructor of the Territorial Militia, which position he resigned because the cavalry were used as avengers. Subsequently he undertook to guide a party of three strong, outspoken anti-Mormons to California, but the party was overtaken by a band of mounted Mormons led by Brigham Young, Jr., and compelled to stop under the pretense that they were going to California to misrepresent Mormonism. They finally proceeded, but were continually dogged by Mormons, who at length fired upon them as they were encamping at night. The party were left for dead, and the Mormons, taking their horses, rode away. Sixty hours afterward the United States mail-wagon and a party en route to San Bernardino took them up, but two of their number died soon after. Tobin received a shot in the right eye, which made him nearly blind. He claims to have important documentary evidence of plottings against the Government and the Gentiles on the part of Brigham Young.


Notes: (forthcoming)

OBITUARY.
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BRIGHAM  YOUNG.

Salt Lake City, Utah, Aug. 29. -- Brigham Young died this afternoon at 4 o'clock. He was attacked by cholera morbus last Thursday night, which was followed by inflammation of the bowels, which prevented from the first all passage through them, and by continued swelling toward the throat finally stopped respiration. He was conscious as long as failing breath permitted him to speak, but only briefly answered questions during the last forty-eight hours.

---

Brigham Young, Prophet and Ruler of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints, is dead. The singular religious delusion commonly called Mormonism, compounded of Judaism, Mohammedanism, Paganism and perverted Christianity, has been kept alive for the past thirty years in spite of the influences of civilization and modern morality, chiefly by his force of character and his remarkable talent for leadership. He was an extraordinary man. With scarcely any education, and with no such gifts of eloquence and spiritual insight as are possessed by the founders of most new sects, he established a powerful theocracy in the midst of a vast desert, gathered adherents from all nations of the earth, and introduced a system of domestic life wholly at variance with the religion, moral ideas and temperament of the peoples from whom he drew his proselytes. Polygamy, an institution confined in all ages to the luxurious races inhabiting warm climates, he domesticated among the rocks and snows of Utah, and so associated with religious fanaticism that it has held ground in defiance of the laws of the United States. He became possessed of great wealth, and ruled with an absolute sway thousands of men accustomed to the traditions and methods of self-government, interfering at his pleasure with their business and private affairs, disposing of their lives, families and property with the tyranny of a Tartar Khan. Recent times have produced few such phenomenal characters. Most famous men achieve prominence by dexterity and power in riding on the current of their age, but the Mormon leader successfully antagonized all the forces of modern thought and civilization. His wonderful career was made possible only by the fact that there is, even in the most advanced communities, a sediment of superstition, fanaticism and bestiality which a strong and unscrupulous man can stir-up and utilize to serve his selfish ambition.

Brigham Young was born at Whitingham, Windham County, Vt., June 1, 1801. His grandfather was a surgeon in the French and Indian war. His father, John Young, was born in 1763 in Hopkinton, Middlesex County, Mass., served under General Washington in three campaigns, married Nabby Howe in 1785, settled in Vermont in 1801, and removed to Sherburne, Chenango County, N. Y. Brigham was the ninth of eleven children. All of the family became Mormons, and the father died in 1839 at Quincy, Ill., with the honors of first Patriarch of the church.

The chronicles of Mormonism are silent as to the youth and early manhood of Brigham, except to say that he learned the trade of a painter and glazier, was converted and baptized as a Baptist, and it is said, showed some ability as a religious exhorter. It does not appear that he did anything remarkable for a working mechanic until his thirty-first year, when he was converted to Mormonism by Samuel H. Smith and Eleazer Miller, who were then preaching the new gospel in Central New-York. The Book of Mormon had been printed two years before, and the first company of the Saints had already gathered at Kirtland, Ohio, at the house of Sidney Rigdon, whither Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum proceeded in January from their home in Manchester, Ontario County, N. Y., where Joseph pretended to discover the golden plates of the original volume. Young made his way to Kirtland soon after, and was there "gathered" with the Saints and ordained as an elder. He began preaching, and although deficient in education, he had a certain rude, strong oratorical power, and succeeded in making converts. He displayed great shrewdness and knowledge of character, and his powerful will enabled him to impress his opinions upon others, so that he soon gained a firm footing in the infant church.

ORIGIN OF MORMONISM.

It was an epoch of great religious excitement, a season of ferment, and gave birth to many new forms of faith. The Campbellites or Disciples, now a large and respectable denomination, arose about the same time -- indeed, the first converts made by Smith and Rigdon at Kirtland were Disciples, who had just seceded from the old sect. Millerism, or Second-Adventism, was just beginning to make headway. A number of other new sects that have since died out or dwindled down to small dimensions, were then vigorously proselyting in the same field where Mormonism made its first efforts. The Latter-Day Saints were at first looked upon as only a new sort of Christians, and their revelation pretending to be a sacred book of one of the lost tribes of Israel, was only put forth as a supplement to the Old Testament. They were not polygamists as long as they remained in Kirtland, and their departure from that place was caused more by the failure of their bank and the pressure of their debts than by hostility to their religion. In 1835 Young was ordained as one of the Twelve Apostles, a body organized for the special purpose of spreading the faith. Four years before Joseph Smith had received a revelation that the final gathering-place of the Saints was to be in Missouri, and in the Summer of 1831 he had founded a Mormon settlement at Independence, in Jackson County. Smith went backward and forward between the two colonies, but Young remained in Kirtland until after he was made an Apostle, and thus escaped the dangers of the miniature war between the Missourians and the Independence settlement. Receiving the "gift of tongues" in 1835, Young was sent on a mission to the Eastern States, and returned with a number of converts. His next advancement was in 1836 [sic -1838?], when he was chosen President of the Twelve Apostles. In 1837 the Kirtland colony was abandoned, the fine stone temple erected there (still standing) was seized for debt, and Young with Smith and others went to Davis [sic - Caldwell?]county, Missouri, where the town of Far West had been founded by Mormons driven from Independence. As the city of revelation Independence had grown to be the principal Mormon settlement, and the religionists, when expelled by the Missourians, had gone to the Counties of Davis, Carroll and Caldwell, then quite new. In Davis County new troubles arose, conflicts occurred between the Mormons and the militia in which blood was shed on both sides, and Young, who failed to distinguish himself as a military hero, fled for his life to Quincy. Shortly after, Gov. Boggs of Missouri, the "Nero" of Mormon historians, called out 15,000 militia, and drove the Mormons from the State, declaring that they should be expelled "even if it were necessary to exterminate them." They scattered through the Western counties of Illinois, where they were kindly received by the settlers. They began to gather in 1839 in the new town of Nauvoo, laid out by Joseph Smith on a high plateau on the bank of the Mississippi, and christened by a name which he said was reformed Egyptian, and meant "The Beautiful."

From this new city of promise Brigham Young departed in the same year with a company of Apostles and Elders to "open up the gospel" to the inhabitants of Great Britain. He landed at Liverpool on the 6th of April, 1840, and commenced preaching. He published an edition of the Book of Mormon, and established The Millennial Star, a periodical still living. Ever since the chief publication establishment for Mormon works has been in England, the largest depositary of church funds has been the Bank of England, and Great Britain has been the most fruitful field for missionary labors. In 1841 Young sailed for New York, having shipped 769 converts in advance and founded many churches. He returned to Nauvoo which had prospered greatly during his absence. The colony continued to flourish until 1844, when Joseph Smith's revelation of polygamy, his arbitrary conduct, his protection of criminals, the habit of his followers voting in a body at elections, dissensions about the civil government, and many other causes gradually irritated the people of the surrounding country until they became bitterly hostile to the new sect. The whole region rose in arms. Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were arrested for destroying an opposition newspaper, and were murdered by a mob in the jail at Carthage. The Church was without a head, Sidney Rigdon, as the first councillor of Smith, assumed the Presidency, but Brigham Young, seeing that the golden opportunity for seizing upon the leadership had come, went hurriedly to Nauvoo, and denounced Rigdon as an impostor, and his revelations as emanating from the devil. Then ensued a sharp struggle for the mastery between the two Apostles, but Young, who was a man of more personal influence than his antagonist, earned the majority with him, and Rigdon, together with about a hundred men who had voted for him, were "cut off" and "handed over to the buffetings of Satan for a thousand years." Rigdon left Nauvoo, and with a small band of followers went to Pennsylvania.

BRIGHAM BECOMES THE LEADER.

Brigham was now supreme. All opposition was driven away or silenced. He hastened the completion of the temple and put the people through the mystical ceremony of the endowments, in which, they swore to obey the priesthood. He claimed the gift of revelation and assumed the authority of a prophet and priestly autocrat. He saw that the blood of the Smiths had only allayed for a time the storm of persecution, and knew that there would be no peace for the Saints among the Gentiles. In 1845 he professed to have a revelation of a Canaan in the West, flowing with milk and honey, where the hated Gentiles should never come -- a land of promise reserved for the faithful. In February, 1846, the whole body of the Mormons abandoned their houses and their temple in Nauvoo, and under his guidance started directly West across Iowa. This terrible Winter journey through a country almost entirely wild is the via dolorosa of the Mormon annals. Hundreds perished of cold and exposure, but the fanaticism and the firm will of their prophet drove the survivors on. In the following Spring they concentrated at Council Bluffs, and next Fall they crossed the Missouri and built five hundred log huts for Winter-quarters at a point six miles below the present city of Omaha. Here, on the 27th of December, 1847, Brigham preached to his followers, and by imitating the voice and manner of Joseph. Smith, he made them believe that their dead prophet stood before them. They declared that the mantle of Joseph had fallen upon Brigham, and immediately elected him President of the Church. Before he had governed only as President of the Twelve Apostles. The great event at the Winter-quarters was the enlistment of 500 men as volunteers in the Mexican War, by the direction of Young. lt is charged that he received the bounty of the men, amounting to $10,000, and that with this money he fitted out the expedition of 143 men and 70 wagons, with which, he started in April, 1847, to find a home for his followers in the valley of the Jordan. They arrived July 24 at a gap in the Wasatch Range, from which they saw the valley before them. It was covered with a growth of stunted bushes and had a soil the color of ashes. Anything but a land of promise it seemed to be, walled in by bare and savage mountains and washed by a lake as salty and lifeless as the Dead Sea. Young saw that irrigation was all that was needed to make the soil productive, and that the mountain streams would furnish plenty of water. A dam was made and a few fields of potatoes planted. Some of the party remained, and Brigham returned with the rest to the Winter-quarters on the Missouri. In1848 the whole body of Mormons, under his orders, made the journey over the plains, suffering severe hardships and marking the road with the graves of their dead. When they arrived at the valley, they found it a desert that looked as forbidding as anything they had passed through. Starvation stared them in the face. Brigham quelled all mutinies, however. He scolded, pleaded, threatened and prophesied. With a resistless energy he set them all at work, directing their labors and controlling their domestic affairs. He told foolish anecdotes to make them laugh, got up dances and theatrical performances, and sought in every way to make them cheerful and contented.

HOSTILITIES IN UTAH.

After a year or two of privation the colony began to flourish. In 1849, after the cession of the territory to the United States, a convention was held, and the "State of Deseret" was organized, with Brigham Young as Governor. Congress refused to admit it, and organized the Territory of Utah in the succeeding year. President Fillmore appointed Young Territorial Governor. The other officers were Gentiles, and did not arrive until 1851. The stream of emigration to California, passing through the Mormon settlement, rapidly enriched them, by making a constant market at high prices for the cattle, grain and vegetables, which the Territory began to produce in abundance. In 1854 Col. Steptoe came to Utah with 300 troops and a commission in his pocket as Governor, but the adroit Mormon leader was determined not to lose his civil authority. With the aid of two Mormon women he entrapped the new Governor, and forced him to sign a resignation and a recommendation of himself for continuance in office. He held the place, quarrelling all the time with the Federal Courts, until 1857, when President Buchanan appointed Alfred Cummings to succeed him. An armed Mormon mob had broken up a United States court. The Federal authority was openly defied, and the Judges left the Territory. The Mormons were now in open rebellion. President Buchanan sent an army of 3,000 men across the plains, under command of Col. Albert Sidney Johnston, to subdue them. Brigham Young proposed to defend the passes leading to Salt Lake Valley, and armed his militia. The Mountain Meadows massacre, the blackest blot on Mormon annals, occurred during the excitement caused by the approach of the troops, when a fierce hatred was developed against the Gentile population. Young gave up his war plans as Johnston's army neared the Mormon settlements, and opened negotiations which resulted in his acceptance of the new Territorial Governor. He was often in hot water with the Federal authorities afterwards, and rumors of a Mormon war frequently came over the plains; but he was too sagacious to provoke an actual collision. His subsequent history is the history of the development of the Mormon element in Utah, the culmination of power, and its decline by reason of the growing strength of the Gentile population brought in by the Pacific Railroad. Young maintained his hold on the great body of his superstitious followers to the last. There were a number of schisms, however and the contact with the civilization of the East, through the travel over the railroad, and the opening of mines by Gentile capital and labor, was steadily undermining his power.

"POLYGAMY.''

The institution of polygamy may be said to be of Brigham Young's own establishment. It is true the first revelation sanctioning it came to Joseph Smith and the Prophet preached the new doctrine of plurality, but this was done in a furtive kind of way, with many denials to calm the rising anger of the surrounding Gentiles and of many of the Mormons.

The revelation is said to have been first given at Nauvoo in 1843. The denials were made publicly, repeatedly, and with all possible solemnity over the signatures of Smith and his chief associates. It was not until the Mormons were firmly established in Utah that Brigham ventured to proclaim to the world what had been for nine years the most characteristic, although esoteric, doctrine of the church. The disclosure was made at a meeting of the Saints in September, 1852. "You heard Brother Pratt state this morning," said Brigham, "that a revelation would be read this afternoon which was given previous to Joseph's death. It contains a doctrine a small part of the world is opposed to, but I can deliver a prophecy upon it. Though that doctrine has not been preached by the Elders, this people have believed in it for years. The revelation will be read to you. The principle spoken upon by Brother Pratt this morning we believe in. Many others are of the same mind. They are ignorant of what we are doing in our social capacity. They have cried out, 'Proclaim it!' but it would not do a few years ago; everything must come in its time, as there is a time for all things. I am now ready to proclaim it. This revelation has been in my possession for many years, and who has known it? None but those who should know it." Then the revelation was read. It is long, verbose, and ridiculous. The important section is the following:

"If any man espouse a virgin, and desires to espouse another, and the first give her consent (Note: the next section lays a heavy punishment upon any wife who refuses her consent); and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery, for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to none else; and if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him and are given unto him; therefore is he justified. They are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment."

The revelation made a tremendous stir among the Gentiles, and for a while broke up numbers of the missions in England and the States; but the Mormons in Utah were well prepared for it: Brigham himself had long been a polygamist. His first wife was Mary Ann Angell. His second, Lucy Decker Seely, he married in Nauvoo, and his third while in Winter-quarters in Nebraska; and as soon as he got his people established in Utah, he urged all Mormons, especially the bishops, apostles, and elders, to follow his example. Polygamy became general, and a supply of women was obtained from the converts in England, Wales, Denmark, and other countries, who were usually of the ignorant peasant class, and were told nothing of the peculiar institution of Utah until they arrived there. From being permitted to the Saints, polygamy came to be enjoined, and Brigham promulgated a revelation to the effect that the men who had great numbers of wives and children would have the highest glory and authority in heaven.

BRIGHAM'S WIVES.

It was never easy to ascertain in Salt Lake City how many wives Brigham had. The Gentiles had different reports, and the Mormons; when questioned, usually replied that they did not meddle with "the President's family affairs. The most authentic accounts in late years placed the number at twenty-three and the number of women "sealed" to him brought the total up to fifty-two. In 1866 he had twenty-nine regular wives, who were all named and described in a work by Mrs. C. V. Waite, called "The Mormon Prophet and His Harem," published by Hurd & Houghton. Most of them lived in a large building called the "Lion House," and had rooms like boarders in a hotel. The first wife had a house to herself however, and for the favorite, Amelia Folsom, who usually accompanied Brigham to the theatre and in his drives, a handsome dwelling was built, with a private passage leading to the President's office. In his later life; Brigham established, homes in a number of the smaller towns of the Territory, which he had occasion now and then to visit. One of his wives -- about the twentieth in order -- Eliza Snow, was a woman of some intellectual ability and a writer of poetry. Brigham practiced entire impartiality in the allotment of affection and worldly comforts among plural wives; but in practice, like Eastern Sultans, he was usually ruled by a favorite. As to the prophet's children, their name is legion. He provided carefully for their education. Some of his sons exhibit good business talent, one being the President of the Salt Lake Railroad. Many of the daughters grew up beautiful and accomplished women. The father instilled his religious fanaticism into their minds, and gave them, as they came of age, in polygamous marriage to his prominent supporters. Two of them married the same man and at the same time, it is said. The fifteenth, or according to some reckonings; the nineteenth wife, was Ann Eliza, whom he married in 1868, and who has recently earned celebrity by lecturing on the horrors of Mormonism and suing the Prophet for a divorce. The United States Court at Salt Lake City denied the petition on the ground that the marriage was polygamous, and therefore null.

There is not space here to go into a history of polygamy as it rose and flourished in the Mormon Church. It reached its climax in Utah in 1856, when a general demoralization seized upon the community and the most abominable practices prevailed, whole families of girls being in some cases married with their mother to the same man. Divorces became exceedingly frequent and there were instances of women being divorced and re-married nine or ten times. Vulgarity of language in public discourses and private speech became so common that many Mormons were themselves disgusted, and a reaction set in. A powerful influence working against polygamy in late years has been the increase of the cost of living in Utah, which has restrained young men from following the precepts and example of their elders. It is as much as they want to do to support one wife now that the women are no longer satisfied with a sun-bonnet and a calico dress, but must have the latest fashions in apparel and must live like the Gentiles instead of on corn and potatoes, as in the early times of the Territory.

THE COURTS AGAINST POLYGAMY.

Only one serious effort was ever made to break down the institution of polygamy by the aid of the Courts. During the year 1871 the Federal officials in Utah, headed by Chief-Justice McKean of the Supreme Court of the Territory, began an organized attack upon the polygamists, which necessarily involved a personal attack upon Brigham Young. At the September term of that Court, objections were made to the acceptance of several Mormons of prominence as grand jurors on the ground that they were living in open violation of the law of the land in practicing polygamy. Chief Justice McKean rendered a characteristic decision, sustaining the challenges with a florid eloquence seldom heard on the bench, and combating the argument that polygamy was a religious practice, and could therefore claim the benefit of a religious toleration secured by the Constitution. He closed his opinion by declaring that "when the burglar is a fit juror to inquire into the crime of burglary; when the robber is a fit juror to inquire in to the crime of larceny; when the assassin is a fit juror to inquire into the crime of murder -- then the bigamist, who swears in substance that his crimes are his religion, may be a fit juror to inquire into the crimes of bigamy and adultery, The Judge concluded: "But, thanks to centuries of Christian civilization that time is not now; and judging from the steady progress of the human race, that time will never come." At the same term of court a number of prominent Mormons were indicted under a statute of the Terrirtory which prescribed a penalty of imprisonment (not exceeding ten years and not less than six months) and a fine to the crime of unlawful cohabitation or "open and gross lewdness." Brigham Young himself was among those indicted, as was also Daniel A. Wells, Mayor of Salt Lake City. Young was brought before the court on the 3d of October. Judge McKean refused to allow him to give bail but granted him the privilege of being imprisoned in own house. The Judge also overruled a motion quash the indictment. One conviction was reached under these suits, that of Thomas Hawkins, whose first wife brought suit against him for adultery. He was sentenced to three years hard labor and a fine of $500. Judge McKean explaining that he did not wish his judgment to be "so severe as to seem vindictive, or so light as to seem to trifle with justice."

This passage from his speech in passing sentence was evidently aimed at the head of the Mormon Church: "My experience in Utah has been such that, were I to fine you only, I am satisfied the fine would be paid out of other funds than yours, and thus you would go free -- absolutely free -- from all punishment; and then those men who mislead the people would make thousands of others believe that God had sent the money to pay the fine; that God had prevented the court from sending you to prison; that by a miracle you had been rescued from the authorities of the United States. I must look to it that my judgment gives no aid and comfort to such men." No other conviction was ever reached, either in these cases or in the indictments found subsequently against Young and others for the murder of Buck at Iron Springs, in 1857, about the time of the conflict with Cummings, the newly-appointed Territorial Governor. These indictments were evidently brought in the hope that they might help to break the Mormon leaders, but they came to nothing. The funds of the court were insufficient to defray the expenses of these trials, and Judge McKean and Attorney-General Bates visited Washington and applied to Congress in December, 1871, for an appropriation. But such slight prospect as existed of their getting funds to carry on the war against Young was destroyed by a unanimous decision of the United States Supreme Court, reversing one of Judge McKean's test cases. In this he had advanced an absurd and fantastical theory to the effect that the Supreme Court of the Territory of Utah was in some way a part of, or allied to, the Supreme Court of the United States. The decision of the court showed plainly that Judge McKean was either ignorant of the law, or willing to pervert it to gain his object, and the judicial crusade against Mormonism was over. It had never gained any great popular sympathy, as it was evidently a fight made by one faction in war upon another, rather than a honest attempt to do away with a great evil,

THE DANITES.

The blackest spots in the history of the Mormon church are the murders and crimes committed by the "Danites." This was the name given to an organization of cut-throats who committed the most atrocious crimes without suffering the slightest penalty of the law, or forfeiting the favor of the Mormon leaders, under whose orders it was often evident that they were acting. It was a sworn society, the members being pledged, according "to the confession of John D. Lee, "to obey all orders of the priesthood of the Mormon Church, to do any and all things as commanded." From this order were selected "the Destroying Angels of the Mormon Church," who undoubtedly acted under the personal direction of Young himself. Books on books might be filled with the record of their brutal murders, mysterious or unconcealed associations, as it was thought best, and wholesale massacres. Many of the instances already on record would seem incredible if it had not long ago been seen that the number and atrocity of these crimes could hardly be exaggerated. One instance that is narrated is that of the revenge which Hickman, the "Danite" captain, took upon a man by the name of Drown, who sued him upon a promissory note. A few days after Drown had obtained judgment on the note, he was in a friend's house in Salt Lake City, when Hickman and seven or eight of the "Danites" appeared and called to Drown to come out. He refusing, they dismounted, burst in the doors, and shot the offending Drown and his friend, both dying of their wounds. The "Danites" were not molested. At the same term of Court, a sergeant named Pike in the United States forces was indicted for assault with intent to kill, upon the son of a Mormon Bishop named Spencer. Pike was arrested and brought to Salt Lake City, and, the next day was shot by Spencer who stepped, up behind him for that purpose. Spencer then rode off with the "Danites." This was all in revenge for a blow, and a leading Mormon paper commended the young man for his bravery. The courts took no action in either case. Ann Eliza Young, Brigham's rebellious wife, after charging upon him the crime of organizing and directing this murderous band, narrates this incident as illustrating their methods : "Henry Jones and his mother lived in a house near where I lived when a girl. We were startled from our sleep one night by loud cries and pistol-shots. No one took any notice of them, but in the morning a wagon was driven through the street of the city, containing the dead bodies of the murdered mother and son, with a placard attached, "Apostates, Beware!" This was done as an example to terrorize the people. Another and more notable instance of the same sanguinary spirit was the "Morrisite massacre." One Morris undertook with others, to start an offshoot of the church. He alleged that Brigham was a false prophet, and he the only true one. He went, with his followers, about thirty miles to the north of Salt Lake City, and encamped there in tents. Brigham Young quickly dispatched the Mormon militia, to root them out, under command of Daniel H. Wells, Lieutenant-General of the Nauvoo Legion (another name for Danites). They were all massacred. Whether true or not, these statements are of a kind with many that are known to be true about this secret society of assassins. Whenever it was necessary to remove an ambitious Mormon or an obnoxious Gentile, to exterminate a whole settlement or surprise and destroy an emigrant train, these men were ready for the work. They were proficient in all varieties of murder, and the least horrible of their deeds was sufficient to prove the existence of that reign of terror which it was their business to sustain, and on which Young's authority so much depended.

CHARACTER AND APPEARANCES.

Brigham Young grew immensely rich. He owned farms, mines and factories, and had large deposits in the Bank of England probably his fortune amounted to several millions, but how much he chose to regard as belonging to himself, and how much to the Church, is not yet known. In person he was tall and stoutly built, and during the last ten years rather corpulent. He had a large head, a broads florid countenance, reddish hair, and a fringe of beard of the same color, and a pair of small, keen, blue eyes. His habitual expression was bland and oily. At seventy he was active and vigorous, and looked no older than many men of fifty. Bayard Taylor, who visited the Prophet at Salt Lake City in, 1870, gave the following description of him:

"I was ushered into a handsome, well-furnished room, divided by a wooden screen from a dim back office. The floor was carpeted; a circular table, with a great globe of gold fish, was in the centre, sofas and chairs were on either side, and the walls were covered with pictures -- portraits of Joseph and Hyrum Smith, Alpine landscapes, and a chromo tint of Blerstadt's "Sunshine and Shadow," which the artist had sent to Brigham Young. We took seats upon one of the sofas, while two or three strangers, apparently Mormons from the country, waited on the opposite one. In a few minutes Brigham Young came out from his office. At the first glance you would take him to be a successful bank or railroad president, and his quick, straight-forward, business-like manner carries out the impression. After he is seated, however, and you have a chance of observing his features more closely, the signs of a quality with which bank presidents are not accustomed to deal begin to manifest themselves. He is both short and broad, but his thickness gives the impression of strength rather than corpulence. Although sixty-nine years old, there is no gray in his sandy hair, and his small blue eyes are keen and full of power. His head is large and approaching to squareness in its form, and his complexion is a strong, healthy red. His thin, firm-set mouth and large jaws express an indomitable energy. The general expression of his face is at once reticent and watchful. In his greeting there was the blandness of an acquired rather than a natural courtesy. His voice is mild, even-toned, and agreeable, and I can imagine that he might make himself fascinating to women, most of whom find a peculiar charm in a playful and purring lion. He said but little at first, and, I thought, seemed to be holding himself secretly at bay for questions which I did not intend to ask. By-and-by, when I referred to the similarity of the scenery to that of Asia Minor, and led the conversation to the resources of the Territory, he spoke freely and fluently, and gave me considerable information concerning the remote southern counties. On all points of material growth he was frankly communicative. While he was talking, I studied his face sufficiently to detect the three chief qualities of his nature -- great prudence, great determination, and great belief in himself."

The reverence of the Orthodox Mormons for Brigham Young exceeded that of Catholics for the Pope, and they sought his counsel in all important business and family affairs. They believed him a God in embryo, destined to reign over a celestial kingdom In the future life. In his death the Mormon Church has undoubtedly received a fatal blow. All its men of intellect and force of character joined it in its infancy, and but few of them are left. Its later proselytes were drawn from the Ignorant classes. Among the second generation, now men in middle life, no one has developed capacity for successfully wearing the mantle of the Prophet....

---

THE MOUNTAIN MEADOWS MASSACRE.

BUTCHERY OF EMIGRANTS BY MORMONS IN 1857 --
JOHN D. LEES TRIAL AND EXECUTION -- BRIGHAM
YOUNG'S ASSERTIONS OF INNOCENCE.

It was in l843-'44 that Joseph Smith outraged the moral sense of the inhabitants of the little town of Nauvoo, Ill., by attempting to put in practice his polygamous principles. When denounced and opposed, he rashly, sought by violence to destroy his enemies, and was shot dead while leaping from a window to escape the fury of a mob mad with vengeance. Brigham Young was chosen to succeed him as head of tho. Mormons, most of whom, soon afterward went Westward, the State of Illinois having revoked their charter. A few who remained behind were expelled at the point of the bayonet. Reassembling at Council Bluffs, all the Mormons proceeded to the Salt Lake Valley, where they arrived in the Autumn of 1848. Salt Lake City was founded, and in 1850 President Fillmore made Brigham Young Governor of Utah Territory. In the meantime the Mormon Church was strengthened by emigrants from Europe, and in 1851 Gov. Young, by threats of violence, forced the Federal Judges to leave the Territory. He was removed, and Col. Edward J. Steptoe of the United States Army was appointed to his place. In 1851, with a battalion of soldiers, Col. Steptoe arrived in Utah, but, being unable to maintain himself soon resigned. Other officers who were commissioned by the General Government went to Utah, but they were also harassed and terrified. In February 1856, an armed mob of Mormons, frustrated by Brigham Young's sermons, broke into the United States District Court, and compelled Judge Drummond to adjourn his Court without delay, and forced all the other Government officers, with one exception, to take flight. In 1857 Alfred Cummings was appointed Governor and 2,500 men were sent to protect him. Brigham Young, still claiming the Governorship, denounced the army as a mob, and called upon the people to resist its advance. Several supply trains were cut off by the Mormons, and the army, overtaken by snow-storms, was forced to go into Winter quarters, Gov. Cummings at once declared the Territory to be in a state of rebellion. While this army was on its way to Salt Lake City, John D. Lee, a most-devoted and fanatic member of the Mormon Church, led the bloody work at Mountain Meadows. The story of that day -- one of the darkest in the history of American border civilization -- as recently related by a citizen of Salt-Lake City, is as follows:

MORMON TREACHERY AND STRATEGY.

During the summer of 1857 a large train of emigrants from Arkansas started for California. They numbered one hundred and forty souls, and, according to an officer of the United States Army, constituted the finest train that had ever crossed the Plains. The train was owned by wealthy men, and had fine stock, richly ornamented carriages for the women and children, and a considerable sum of money in its possession. Reaching Salt Lake City in safety, the emigrants were advised to take the Southern trail, the old route being liable to obstruction by snow. When 200 miles south of Salt Lake they inquired of prominent Mormons where good pastures for their stock could be found, and were directed to Mountain Meadow. The day after they left Cedar City a council of Mormon leaders was held, and it is believed the massacre was then determined upon. On the same night about sixty white men, in Indian disguise, with a large number of genuine savages, followed the emigrants, who were overtaken the next morning while at breakfast. Without a note of warning a volley was discharged in their midst, and ten or twelve persons were killed outright. The astonished emigrants hastily recovered from their surprise, and prepared for defence. For five days and nights they withstood the attacks. Unable to overcome the emigrants in open fight, the Mormons at last resorted to strategy. The firing was suspended, and the Indians apparently disappeared. On the morning of the sixth day a wagon-load of white men, carrying the United States flag, appeared in the valley. The emigrants sent out a girl in gay attire and cordially received the new arrivals as their defenders. Among the men in the wagon were John D. Lee and Isaac C. Haight, who at once charged the emigrants with having poisoned a certain spring from which Indians had drank and died. Lee and Haight said this was the cause of the Indian attack, and offered to bring about a treaty of peace. They then retired, and in a few hours returned, saying that the Indians were greatly enraged, and insisted upon a surrender of the emigrants' property and arms and the return of the whole party to the East by the route they had come. The terms were agreed to by the emigrants, and, with the Mormons as guides, they proceeded northward on foot. After walking a mile they entered a thicket of scrub oaks near a large pile of rocks. Here the Indians and disguised white men were concealed. John D. Lee gave the signal, "Halt!" and the bloody work began.

GRAPHIC DESCRIPTION OF THE MASSACRE.

"Suddenly," wrote a correspondent of The Sacramento Record-Union recently, "Lee brought his gun to his shoulder and fired at a woman in the forward wagon, killing her instantly. It was the signal for the massacre. Indians rose from behind bushes, painted Mormons stepped from behind concealments, and all along the line the men and women were shot down like cattle in the shambles, while Lee and his aids dragged women and youths from the wagons and cut their throats from ear to ear. It was the most heartless, cold-blooded deed that ever disgraced the pages of history. The cowardly assassins could not have performed one single act that would have added to the blackness of their perfidy; they feigned friendship and sympathy; they induced those poor men to lay aside ever; weapon and then shot them down like dogs. The venerable gray-headed clergymen, the sturdy farmers, the stalwart young men, and the beardless youths -- all were cut down one by one, and above their dead bodies waved the Stars and Stripes. Sick women, too ill to leave the corral, were driven up to the scene of slaughter, butchered and stripped. Some of the younger men refused to join in the disgraceful work. Jim Pearce was shot by his own father for protecting a girl that was crouched at his feet! The bullet cut a deep gash in his face, and the furrowed scar is there to-day. Lee is said to have shot a girl who was clinging to his son."

The property of those murdered people was quietly divided among the Mormons, and it was not until a year afterward that it was proven that white men had anything to do with the deed. A man who visited the scene eight days after the massacre said on the trial of Lee in 1875, that he saw the bodies of murdered emigrants left without a particle of clothing, save a torn stocking leg that clung to the ankle of one body. There were one hundred and twenty-seven bodies in all, and all except one -- a beautiful lady -- bore the marks of wolves' teeth and ravens' beaks. Most of the bodies had been thrown into three piles, distant from each other about two and a half rods.

TRIAL AND SENTENCE OF LEE.

All possible efforts were made to prevent any knowledge of this monstrous wickedness from ever coming forth to the world. No survivor was left to tell the tale. Every man engaged in the murders was pledged to secrecy, and Brigham Young commanded his leaders not to talk of it even among themselves. But in the course of time, as fact after fact came out, Lee was generally believed to be one of the guilty men. In July, 1875, he was tried, but the jury disagreed. In September, 1876, he was again tried, found guilty, and sentenced to be executed January 26, 1877. The law of Utah gave him the choice of being beheaded, hanged, or shot; he chose the latter. A stay of proceedings was granted, pending an appeal, but on February 11, 1877, the verdict of guilty was approved, and Lee was remanded to the court below for sentence. On March 23, 1877, he was shot over the graves of his victims at Mountain Meadow, his last words being, "Let them shoot the balls through my heart. Don't let them mangle my body." Thus did justice revenge the horrible deeds of September 15, 1857. Lee declared, on the day of his death, that he was resigned to his fate; that he had used his utmost endeavors to save the emigrants, and that he was "sacrificed to satisfy feelings, and used to gratify parties."

The exact motives which led to the massacre will probably never be known. In his confession Lee said that when he reported the massacre to Brigham Young, the latter said: "Brother Lee, not a drop of innocent blood has been shed; I have direct evidence from God that the act was a just one -- that it was in accord with God's will." As to Brigham Young's part in planning the murders Lee's confession was vague. He made no distinct charge which seriously implicated Young. But his statements of what occurred between him and Young after the massacre, if true, would seem to show that Young was at least an accomplice after the fact. All the statements implicating Young were denied by him at the time. In an article published in 1875, Ann Eliza Young, who was then seeking a divorce from Brigham Young, said: "The feeling has long been entertained by Gentiles and Apostles in Utah, and even among many of the Saints, that Brigham Young gave the order himself for the massacre. Not only was the jewelry taken from the emigrants worn by the leading Mormons, but Brigham Young used for many years to ride in a carriage taken from the emigrants."


Notes: (forthcoming)

BRIGHAM  YOUNG  IS  DEAD.
______

A HISTORY OF THE EVENTFUL LIFE OF
THE GREAT MORMON PROPHET.
______

His Birthplace and Early Days -- His Conversion
to Mormonism -- How He Worked his Way
to Supreme Power -- His Mission Work
and Battles with his Opposition

Brigham Young, the head of the Mormon Church, died yesterday afternoon at Salt Lake. He was born at Whittenham, Vt., on the 1st of June, 1801. His father was a farmer, and had served in the Revolutionary war. Of Brigham's early life but little is known. His youth and his early manhood were passed on his father's farm in healthful toil, and it was not until he was thirty-one years old that he first heard preached the doctrines which were to shape his future. The preacher was Samuel H. Smith, a brother of the prophet, a man of rough and honely eloquence, and of much of that animal magnetism which attracts uncultured audiences. Many years afterward, when Mormonism was an established fact, and Brigham had made his way almost to the supreme power, Elder Samuel H. [sic - William?] Smith apostatized, not so much, perhaps, because the faith was not suited to him as because he was jealous of the growing power and popularity of Brigham.

In September. 1832, having been previously baptized by Eleazer Miller, Brigham joined the Mormon brethren at Kirtland, Ohio. Shrewd, ready, quick-witted, enthusiastic, and practical, the new convert speedily rose among his new associates. In a community where ignorance was the rule, his ignorance passed unnoticed, while his confidence in himself, his power to read the nature of his fellow men like the pages of an open book, and his devotion to the religion of the Latter Day Saints soon raised him into a commanding position. He had not long been a member of the church before he was ordained an elder, and began to preach the most stirring sermons that the infant church had ever listened to. His intimate friend, Joseph Smith, the prophet, pronounced him a "chosen vessel," and from that day forth he became a power among the Mormons.

In 1831 Smith led the Ohio colony into Jackson county, Missouri, whence another colony of the saints had just been driven, under circumstances of peculiar hardship. Returning to Kirtland, Ohio, after an adventurous journey, marked with suffering and death, Brigham was received with open arms, and early in 1835 was ordained one of the Twelve Apostles, Smith having received from heaven a special revelation, pointing out Brigham Young as one of the pillars of the church. The ordination consisted of the laying on of the hands of the three witnesses to the Book of Mormon. It may be mentioned here parenthetically that these three Saints subsequently renounced Mormonism.

When the twelve were sent to preach the Gospel according to Mormon to the outer heathen, Young travelled through the Eastern States, and was the most successful preacher of them all. His presence was commanding, his speech fluent, if not polished, and his vigor and earnestness contagious. If he did not believe what he preached, he certainly acted his part so well that none could discover his secret.

In 1837 Joseph Smith, who seems to have made his religion subservient and contributive to his worldly prosperity -- as Brigham has always done -- failed in the great panic. As he was the banker and storekeeper of the Kirtland colony, and his failure entailed severe loss upon all the saints, there was a howl of indignation, which not even religion could calm. At an opportune moment (indeed, while the mob were clamoring for his life) Smith had a revelation ordering him to go to Missouri, and to take Brigham with him. Prior to this, in 1836 [sic - 1838?], Thomas B. Marsh, President of the Twelve Apostles (fancy engrafting an American title upon a board of saints organized in sacriligious imitation of the New Testament!) had resigned and Brigham took his place, being delegated by Smith to "preach in tongues." He did preach "in tongues" now and then, and although none of the saints understood him his oratory was vastly admired.

In 1838 there were many schisms in the church. Orson Hyde apostatized and testified against Smith; Phelps deserted the cause the Pratts were wavering, and Dr. Arvard, one of the Danites, exposed the hidden machinery of Mormonism. Smith was arrested Sept. 14, 1838, and to save his life, Brigham fled to Quincy, Ill. There he met the remainder of the twelve and some other brethren, and in the next year assited to relay the foundation of the Mormon temple in Independence [sic - Far West?], Jackson county, Mo. The laying of the corner stone was done at midnight, and every man who participated in the ceremonies knew that his life was at the mercy of the enemies around him -- the enemies who had already razed to the ground the habitations of the faithful. Still, there was no wavering, and not one jot of the ceremonial was neglected.

In 1839 Brigham, still faithful where so many had proved false, was sent by the prophet to preach in England. He was penniless, friendless, and alone, and suffered much during the two years he spent in England. Stil, supported by the charity of his audiences, he made thousands of converts, shipped 769 new Mormons to Smith, established the Millennial Star, a Mormon organ which lived for many years, had established a number of churches.

Upon his return to the United States in 1841, Brigham joined his brethren at Nauvoo, being received with great enthusiasm. It was here that he first came in conflict with the prophet; such was his power among the people that he carried his point. At this time he preached throughout the summer and worked in the winter.

In 1844 Smith was shot. Brigham was then in Boston. The Twelve apostles were scattered far and wide. Nauvoo was threatened by the Gentiles. Troops were in arms and rumors of coming trouble flew thickand fast. Sidney Rigdon, who was the legal successor of Joseph Smith, assumed the mantle of the prophet and began to peddle dispensations, confer endowments, and dictate in every way to the saints. It was the rule of a weak man and was destined to be short lived. Suddenly Brigham appeared and Rigdon's power crumbled into dust. He denounced Rigdon as a fraud and a hypocrite; declared that his revelations were from the devil, and finally hurled upon him anathema after anathema. The result was an election that wiped Rigdon out and made Brigham Young the Mormon ruler. Those who had voted against him, the new Prophet cursed and cut off, and by a well devised system of rewards and punishments he soon inspired love in the hearts of his friends and adherents and fear in the hearts of his enemies. Under his rule the temple at Nauvoo was completed, bishops were sent abroad to [make new] converts, and the sect rapidly gathered strength.

Even at the time he assumed the leadership Brigham saw that Smith's prophecies about Nauvoo were not to be fulfilled. He began to prepare his people for migration. The building of the temple still proceeded, but the movement had been decided upon. In 1845, in the middle of winter, the Mormons blindly followed their chief into the wilderness, crossing the Mississippi on the ice, their destination being "somewhere in the Rocky Mountains." [Poor and poorly] provided, but upheld by their belief in their leader, they pressed [steadily] forward, comparing themselves to the children of Israel. They made their winter quarters in Iowa. Here the lack of money began to be felt. The United States having offered a bounty of $20,000 for a regiment, Brigham ordered [-----] hundreds of his followers to enlist and they did so. Thus supplied, Brigham took 143 men and reached Salt Lake on July 24, 1847. Leaving a part of his force to begin farming operations, he returned. Cholera, fever and ague, and other diseases were rapidly [drawing down] his followers.

On the 24th of December, 1847, Brigham was chosen "Presidcent of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in all the World." [There was] much opposition from many of the members of the church, who held the [family] of Smith in deep veneration. [But his] counselors were Heber Chase Kimball and Willard Richards. His next [task] was to move his poverty-stricken congregation 1,030 miles through a [hostile] country to the Canaan of their [hopes]. [------ -----] the journey but they blazed their way with the graves of their dead. Of the trials [---- --- ---] years in their new [homeland it ----- ----]. By unwavering zeal, constant [-----] and indomitable pluck, they soon [settled] themselves in a comparatively [good situation].

In 1850 the Mormons became anxious for admission to the Union. They accordingly drew up a constitution of a State which they wished to call Deseret, and sent delegates to Washington. Congress granted them a territorial government under the name of Utah, and President Fillmore appointed Brigham the first Governor.

From 1850 to 1854 the growth of the church was rapid, both as to numbers and wealth. Almost every country in Europe sent its quota to swell the number. Villages grew into towns, towns into cities. The capital. Salt Lake City, daily increased in size and importance. Brigham inculcated constant industry. In his creed, to be idle was to be vicious; and so all worked.

In 1854 a Governor, not a Mormon, was appointed, and Brigham began to show an inclination to resist. For three years the Territory was in an unsettled condition. The saints, acting upon the orders of Brigham, committed many crimes, the most revolting of which was the Mountain Meadow massacre. In 1857 President Pierce [sic - Buchanan?] appointed Alfred Cumming Governor of Utah, and sent with him a force of 2,500 soldiers. Brigham submitted with a bad grace. As he controlled the courts, the juries, and all elective offices, the power of the new Governor was of the slightest. He could plan reforms, but he could not carry them out.

It was not until the Salt Lake colony had been fairly started that Brigham proclaimed the "celestial law of marriage," which sanctioned polygamy. He said that Joseph Smith had had a revelation in 1843 directing him to promulgate this doctrine; but that he had failed to do so because of the troubled times in the church. Smith's widow and his sons pronounced this a falsehood, but the power of Brigham, chiming in with the wishes and inclinations of his people, soon made polygamy an institution. There was a schism in the church, but the Smith faction were speedily driven to the wall.

Of Brigham's later years little need be said. Keen and far-sighted he piloted his people through all their troubles into a haven of prosperity such as no people ever attained in so brief a space of time. He neither spared himself nor others. "Watch and work," not "Watch and pray," was his motto. Brigham Young was one of the most far-seeing and enterprising business men in the country. He never lost an opportunity. By the establishment of the Zion co-operative stores, the working of mines, the purchase of property in places likely to grow rapidly, and by his railroad operations, he accumulated one of the largest fortunes in the United States. Good authorities say that there is scarcely a city or town in the region over which he so long ruled in which he did not own property. By a system ot tithe collecting, he made the people contribute directly to his coffers. The tithes were for the church, it is true, but Brigham was the church. In the early days of the Pacific Railroad he took a deep interest in the scheme, and was afterward a contractor for a portion of it. That he had confidence in the stability of the national Government is shown by the tact that he was a large holder of bonds purchased in the early years ot the war.

In person Brigham Young was, until overcome by age, large and portly. In conversation he was pointed but affable, especially to strangers, by whom his courtesy was admired. He talked freely and in an off-hand style, occasionally ornamenting his conversation with some quaint epigram or quotation from the Mormon Bible. Of his pulpit oratory one who knew him well says:

I have seen him bring an audience to their feet and draw out thundering responses more than once. Sermons that appear a mere farcical rhodomontade have been powerful when they were spoken by him. His manner is pleasing and unaffected, his matter perfectly impromptu and unstudied. He does not preach but merely talks. His voice is strong and sonorous, and he is an excellent bass singer. His gestures are easy and seldom violent. He feels his sermons; the people see he feels them, and, therefore, they make themselves felt. He makes constant and unmistakable allusions to individuals; imitating their personal appearance and peculiarities, and repeating their expressions. Brigham is a good mimic, and very readily excites laughter. Much that tells, therefore, very gallingly to Salt Lake audiences, who understand the allusions and recognize the parties, seems ridiculous when read. Even on reading, after denuding his sermons of the ridiculous and obscure, there is an evident vein of strong, practical sense. They are, however, much garbled in printing, and are still more coarse and profane, when spoken. Brigham has no education. He never writes his letters, merely dictates them. This was also the custom of J. Smith


Notes: (forthcoming)

DEATH'S  DIVORCES.

The death of the Mormon Patriarch will discussed everywhere, and in all Christian countries men will have their little jests at his peculiar domestic relations. Very few people will think to be worth considering that hotchpotch of notions, of assertions, and of prophet pretensions, which he called religion, and which depended mainly upon the cunning of its priests and the ignorance of its neophytes. The origin of the whole delusion is too well known to give occasion for much difference opinion among sensible people, and the cheat in which the Church (so-called) of the Latter Day Saints originated, has been exposed over and over again, in courts of justice and by the depositions of Joseph Smith's confederates. Whether the Book of Mormon was written by Solomon Spaulding or by somebody else, it a piece of clumsy and ridiculous fiction which has had very little influence in shaping the characteristics of modern Mormonism. Indeed, it lacks the revelation with which Joseph Smith supplemented its dreary narrative -- the divine authorization of polygamy. Unquestionably the doctrine had its origin in the vulgar lust of the early leaders of Mormonism. While the new lights were at Nauvoo, the theory was reduced to practice with a caution to which the laws against it lent force; but Brigham Young inherited it with other hierarchical follies and crimes, and maintained it against the egress protest of the more decent or timid members of the congregation. It was one of the provocations which brought upon the Mormon confessors the weight of popular violence, and ultimately drove them to the wilderness of the Salt Lake Valley. It is but justice to the memory of Young to say that he did not originate it, though the thin and silly corollary may have been his that the heavenly status of a saint; will be fixed by the number of his terrestrial wives and children. He made it part of the polity of his province, and established it as a general practice, himself, setting the example so audaciously that he gave two of his own daughters, on the same day to the same husband.

It is not without reason that the polygamy of Utah has attracted so great a share of the public attention, for not only is it opposed to the theory and practice of Christianity, but it has been for centuries extremely disgusting to all the Western nations. Nor was it tolerated by the more enlightened of the ancients, if we except the Hebrews, by whom, in the time of Christ it had been substantially abandoned its practice has been in some degree considered a matter of climate, and it certainly has adopted itself most generally to the effeminate and luxurious and self-indulgent customs of the East. But it is evident that the habits of the ancients are of no more authority in settling the morality of polygamy than would be the appetites of the South Sea Islanders in determining the propriety of eating human flesh. The perpetuity of polygamy in Utah, does not depend upon the ways of Jewish patriarchs, nor upon the absence of a definite prohibition in the Holy Scriptures, but upon the opinion of the whole country in the nineteenth century. The institution of marriage is either maintained in its purity or it is abandoned altogether. Nor does it rest in its integrity uponthe laws enacted in its defence. It is grounded upon the habits, the tastes, the preference and the conscience of a majority so large that the minority, if there be one, is not worth considering at all. If all laws protecting it were perchance repealed to-day, society would demand their reenactment to-morrow. It has been usually supposed that with the death of Brigham Young would begin the change of the Mormon organization into something less repugnant to the religious and moral feeling of the country. Allowance must be made for the simple fanaticism of many of his followers, and the domestic arrangement of the Mormons are of too complicated a character to be entirely altered in the present generation. But a succession of leaders as clever and cunning as the impostor who has just gone to his account could not maintain polygamy in any territory of the United States for more than a limited period. Tolerated or even approved by the law; it must disappear as civilization advances. The same influences which drove it from Illinois must ultimately drive from Utah. But the Mormons of that Territory will be much more likely to give up the harems than their habitations. They have tasted of the pleasures of repose and of prosperity, and they will stay where they are. If they can only do so by yielding, in unreserved obedience to the laws, they will become obedient, and as, one by one, the fathers of this foul faith disappear, the absurdities which they inculcated will be forgotten, and the curtain finally fall upon that burlesque of marriage which must be abhorrent to all women and should be to all men.

---

The Mormon theology, as expounded by Joseph Smith and perfected by Brigham Young, is a fautastic compound of doctrines and practices borrowed from almost every form of religion; the world has known; Mr. J. H. Beadle, long a resident of Utah, in a book on the Mormons published some years ago, says: "They are Christians in their belief in the New Testament and the mission of Christ; Jews in their temporal theocracy, tithing and belief in prophecy; Mohammedans in regard to the relations of the sexes, and Voudoos or Fetichists in their witchcraft, good and evil spirits, faith doctoring and superstition. From the Buddhists they have stolen their doctrines of apotheosis and development of gods; from the Greek mythology, their loves of the immortals and spirits. They have blended the ideas of many nations of polytheists, and made the whole consistent by outdoing the materialists." The active conflict going on between the various Christian sects at the time Joseph Smith proclaimed a new revelation, seems to have led to his borrowing a variety of controverted doctrines from sources immediately at hand. Thus the Mormon theology takes from the Methodists their "witness of the Spirit," from the Disciples their "first principles," from the Presbyterians their "universal suffrage," from the Second Adventists their belief in the speedy coming of Christ's kingdom and from the Catholics their doctrine of an infallible head of the church. In their faith that only a small portion of mankind will fail of ultimate salvation the Mormons are almost Universalists, and in their idea of the nature of Christ they might be called Unitarians. Their notion that unseen powers produce physical manifestations on earth brings them in accord with the modern Spiritualists, and their belief in evil spirits allies them with the ancient Manichaeans.

---

Dispatches from Salt Lake City show that no marked changes need be expected to follow immediately upon the death of the Mormon leader. There is no excitement, and apparently no general sorrow. The succession will not be decided for some weeks, and the delay will only hasten that disintegration and decline which seem inevitable, but which might have been checked for a time if a strong man had stepped at once into the dead prophet's place.


Notes: (forthcoming)

TALK  WITH  BRIGHAM  YOUNG.
______

INTERESTING  REMINISCENCES  FROM
THE  PROPHET'S  OWN  LIPS.
______

What he Said on his Seventy-sixth Birthday -- His Early Experience --
Brother Joseph and the Visiting Angel -- Brigham's Wives and Children --
The Nauvoo Tragedy -- Rejoicing on Reaching the New Jerusalem.

While in Salt Lake, in June, I spent four afternoons with Brigham Young. As I had written the life of Artemus Ward and had reproduced engravings of his old Mormon panorama, the prophet took a great deal of interest in me, and talked to me without reserve for hours. The last afternoon John W. Young, Brigham's favorite son and successor, called with a carriage and took myself and wife to the Lion House, where we saw the inner life of the prophet, and talked with his wives and children.

As these are, perhaps, the last conversations had with Brigham Young, I thought them of so much value that I was writing them out to be published in book form, when the telegraph came announcing the prophet's death.

I now send them to The Sun.

"I'm seventy-six to-day," said the prophet one afternoon, "and I think I am good for ten years more. Don't you think so?"

I looked President Young in the face then and made up my mind that he was liable to die any time. His physique, once powerful, looked rickety, and his flesh was flabby, while his mind was very active and his eyes had an unnatural brilliancy. His mind had outlived his body. The exposures on the plains, the expulsions from Illinois and Missouri, and the physical hardship he had encountered, had used up the framework around a great and active mind. In person he was a giant. His face was blandly florid and his hair and full beard silver white. With his clean white tie he looked like a retired Methodist minister.

"Mr. Young," I said, as we sat talking with Hiram Clawson and John W. in the group, "I should like to hear something of your early history. I should like to hear it from your own lips."

"But I never talk about myself, Eli. I never ---"

"I know it, Mr. Young," I interrupted," but I want to hear something about your early youth from your own lips."

"How far shall I commence back?" asked the prophet.

"As far as you can remember."

"Well," said the prophet, as he leaned forward with his elbow on his knee, and the palm of his hand against one side of his face, "I was born in Vermont seventy-six years ago. My grandfather Young was a physician. He was in the French wars, but was killed by a rail falling on him after the war. I had one uncle, Joseph, who died in Canada. My father, John Young, lived in Massachusetts first, then went to Vermont, where I was born. Father moved into New York State, the town of Smyrna, Chenango county, thirty miles south of Utica. When I was about twenty years old father moved to Otsego [sic - Owasco?] lake, near Auburn. I never had much schooling -- only a few months each winter at the district schools. When I was twenty-one I learned the painters' and glaziers' trade."

"Couldn't you work at that trade now?" I asked.

"Certainly, I can work at both trades, farming and painting and glazing. I can turn as slick a furrow as any farmer around Salt Lake. And as for glazing, why, I put in all the glass in our first Mormon temple at Kirtland with my own hand," and the prophet rubbed his [silkly] palms together as he thought of the work they had once done.

"My mother," continued the prophet, "was Nabby Howe. I had four brothers and six sisters. I was the youngest but one. My first wife was Miss Miriam Works, by whom I have two daughters, now living, both members of the Mormon Church. My first wife died in Mendon, Monroe county, New York, of consumption. One of my daughters by Miriam married a relative of Colonel Ellsworth and the other married Charles Decker."

"When did you first hear of Mormonism?" I asked the prophet.

"Well, my brother Joseph was a Methodist preacher. I used to be skeptical, but I became converted and I was ordained an elder in the Methodist Church. Then I put my two children in the care of friends, sold my property and went to preaching."

"Had you heard of Joseph Smith and Mormonism then?"

"No; but when I was 26 old -- this was in 1827, and I was living on Otsego [sic - Ontario?] Lake -- I picked up a Palmyra newspaper one day and read this paragraph:

"A young man named Joseph Smith, formerly of Palmyra, but now living in Manchester, N. Y., claims to have received a spiritual revelation from God, They say a messenger from God has visited Smith in person, surrounded by a halo of glory, and given him information in regard to the aboriginal prophets of this continent. The angel delivered to Smith six golden plates, engraved with Egyptian characters. These characters, when translated, go to show that Jesus Christ, after his resurrection, appeared on this continent, had American apostles and prophets, and that one of these prophets wrote an account of Christ's doings in America and hid it in the earth."

"Has this account of Christ's doings in America after his resurrection in the Holy Land ever been published?" I asked.

"Yes; this account is in the book of Mormon. It has been published in six languages."

"What did you do after reading this paragraph about Joseph Smith?"

"I went to Manchester to see him. I had many talks with him, and I was persuaded that Brother Joseph really saw the angel and the plates just as he represented."

"How did he represent the scene and the plates?"

"Well, Brother Joseph said that three years before, when he was eighteen, an angel came to him while he was praying. It was on the night of September 21, 1823. This angel was beautiful, like all angels. Brother Joseph was in Manchester then. The angel informed him that the second coming of Christ was at hand, and that he wanted Joseph to prepare the way for the new dispensation."

"What did Joseph do?"

"He was astounded, but continued to wait a while. But the angel appeared again three times one night, and told him about the aboriginal inhabitants of America. 'Then,' said Joseph, 'the angel told me about the plates on which were engraven the acts and records of the ancient American prophets.'"

"How did Joseph get the plates?"

"Well, Brother Joseph told me that on the morning of September 22, 1827, the same angel conducted him to where the gold plates were in the ground, and delivered them to him."

"Did you ever see the plates which the angel gave to Joseph Smith?" I asked the prophet.

"I never saw them personally, but others did."

"What became of them?"

"Oh they -- they -- they put 'em back in the ground again," replied the prophet, as if driven to the wall for an answer.

"Now," said I, "Mr. Young, honestly, do you believe all these angel gold-plate stories as told you by Joseph Smith?"

"I tell you, Mr. Perkins, that there are a great many true things in this world that you don't understand about. Do you see that pile of cord-wood?"

"Yes."

"Well, that pile of cordwood weighs a ton. I place it on this fire. Everything that comes from it is lighter than air, and when it is burned up not fifty pounds of ashes are left. Where does the 1950 pounds go to?"

"Again. Do you see that steer feeding in the lot over there?"

"Yes."

"Well," said the prophet, "that steer weighs a thousand pounds. Now if I set the dog on him and whip him, and then weigh him when he's mad, he will gain forty pounds -- that is, he'll weigh 1040 pounds instead of 1000 pounds. Now, where does the extra forty pounds come from?"

"I don't know. Where do you think?"

"Why, from that cord of wood, sir."

I found afterward that this idea of asking counter questions was one of the dodges of Brigham Young when questioned too close about his religion.

"To go on with your early history, Mr. Young, what was the first connection between you and Joseph Smith?" I asked.

"Well, Joseph's discovery made him a great many enemies. He was slandered around Manchester. They called him crazy. Then they assaulted him. Finally, on the 6th of April, 1830, Joseph had believers enough around him to establish a church. This he did in Fayette, Seneca County, near Seneca Falls. This church prospered. Other churches were founded in New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, and more especially in Kirtland, Ohio. I went to Kirtland. There I met Brother Joseph chopping in the woods. We had a long talk. I was then more than ever persuaded that Joseph Smith was a true prophet. I told him I had come to stay, and that I would preach the new religion as long as my expenses were paid."

"Did you preach much in Kirtland?"

"Yes, every winter; painting and glazing in the summer. Sometimes I went off on missionary work. As I said before, I glazed and painted our Kirtland temple."

"When did you marry again?"

"I married Mary Ann Angel, of Rhode Island, one of our converts in Kirtland. We were married regularly by a clergyman. We did no practice polygamy then. Polygamy was established afterward by a revelation to Joseph Smith in Nauvoo."

"How many children did you have by your legitimate Kirtland wife?"

"We had five -- Joseph A., who had twelve children; he is now dead; Brigham Young, Jr., with seventeen children; now in town; Alice, who was one of Hiram Clawson's four wives, now dead; Mary Ann, who married George W. Thatcher; and John W., here with us, now thirty years old," and the prophet pointed to a very handsome young man, accomplished and refined, by his side, his favorite boy.

"John W.," said Brigham, "has three wives."

Since the interview, John W. has married a fourth wife, the widow of his dead brother Joseph. John W.'s third wife is Miss Canfield, of Philadelphia, a beautiful young lady, who came to Utah to visit her cousin, John W.'s first wife. While on the visit she fell in love with John W. and married him. She is a woman of power, and is the favorite wife of the man who is to succeed Brigham Young in the Mormon Presidency.

"When did you go to Nauvoo?" I asked the prophet.

"I went there with Brother Joseph about 1835 [sic - 1839?]. In a few years we became very strong in Nauvoo. This made the people jealous. We built a big temple, but were persecuted on every side. One night a mob came over from Carthagena [sic], the county seat, and threatened to kill us all. Then they arrested Brother Joseph, Brother Taylor, one of the best men now living here, and Hyrum Smith and put them in Carthage jail to be tried for treason. While awaiting their trial -- this was in 1844 -- 150 roughs broke in and killed Brother Joseph and Hyrum, but Brother Taylor escaped."

"What did you do then?"

Well, Nauvoo had 15,000 Mormons. We were rich but our prophet was dead. We had a million dollar temple and thousands of acres of beautiful land. But they had killed our prophet and kept on trying to destroy us. The Carthage mob burned our buildings. General [sic - Governor?] Ford said he could not protect us, and we had to leave our homes. We sacrificed our immence property, and in 1846 we got together one thousand wagons and started for the far West. I was chosen president to lead our people forth. My idea was to go a thousand miles beyond any settlement and open up a new country."

"How came you to think of Utah?"

"Well, we read an account of Fremont's explorations, where he spoke of a great salt lake in the middle of a fertile plain. We determined to go to that spot and we did it. We traveled a thousand miles over an alkali country. We were pioneers. There had never been a stage coach over the country. We didn't even have an Indian trail."

"When did you arrive in Salt Lake?"

"On the 24th of July, 1847, we defiled down the sides of the Wasatch mountains, and saw the plain of our new Jerusalem spread out before us. I remember how we all sang hallelujah -- how we screamed and danced with joy when we came down into the silent plain where you now see 40,000 people. Then how we all went to work! We buried the seeds into the ground, but, on account of poor irrigation, we failed to get good crops the first year. The next year we did better. And so we went on increasing until now we are all rich and prosperous."

"How fast have you increased?"

"Well, in 1849 we had 12,000 people. Then the gold fever set in in California. There was a great rush for the Golden State, and, as the pioneers all had to pass through Salt Lake, we grew very rapidly. In 1850 we became a Territory and President Fillmore appointed me Governor. I was Governor for eight years. Our people have been doubling once in six years, and we now have 150,000 Mormons -- all happy and contented."   ELI PERKINS.


Note 1: Other than some initial notices in The Sun when he first arrived back in New York City from his western travels, this article was Melville D. Landon's ("Eli Perkins") first published report on the late Brigham Young. It was followed on Sept. 2nd with an article on Polygamy, and again on Sept. 4th with an installment on how Brigham Young "Strengthened the Mormon Church." The latter piece appeared on the page of The Sun that featured a review of the new theater play, "May Cody; or, Lost and Won," which included a Mountain Meadows Massacre theme, complete with a demonic Brigham Young. Landon is supposed to have interviewed Brigham Young on this very topic, but The Sun evidently neglected to publish that article. Julius C. Birge hinted at the content of that lost Landon interview episode in his 1912 book The Awakening of the Desert: "After a few more interrogatories... Eli propounded a question of a still more searching and serious nature. It was a long question with reference to the recent execution of John D. Lee and the published reports, confirmed by Lee's confession, that authorities high in the church instigated and directed the Mountain Meadows Massacre.... The President continuing said: 'Mr. Landon, there has been a vast deal written concerning affairs here, and some of the writers possibly knew as little concerning the matters which they have written about as you do. To enable you to write more intelligently than you otherwise could concerning this matter, I must state some facts which are generally known by those who are familiar with the history of Utah.' -- Mr. Young then in a skilful manner laid the foundation of his argument and endeavored to show why there could have been no motive on his part for the commission of such a crime, and that the awful massacre was planned and carried out without his knowledge or approval."

Note 2: The text of Landon's visit with Brigham Young contains a number of historical errors, which may have arisen from his method of transcribing the interview. If Landon re-constructed that text from brief notes and/or from memory, an explanation can be found for such journalistic blunders as "General Ford," "Carthagena, the county seat," etc. Less explicable is Landon's use of the New York place name "Otsego." When Brigham Young spoke of a "lake, near Auburn," the obvious identification must be "Owasco," instead of the text's "Otsego." The second appearance of this misnomer in the article, is when Landon quoted Brigham's residence "in 1827" as being "on Otsego Lake." The proper historical information is almost certainly "Oswego, on Ontario Lake." During the latter part of that year Brigham's written recollections place him and his wife in Oswego, where he was employed in the construction of a tannery. There is no reason to suppose that Brigham was then living on far-off Otsego Lake, which could only boast Cooperstown as a place suitable for human habitation on its shores.

Note 3: Brigham Young's recollection of first hearing about Joseph Smith, while he was living at Oswego, on Ontario Lake, sounds reasonable. At the time Smith is purported to have discovered his "golden plates," the little family of Brigham Young was relocating from Bucksville (later Port Byron) a few miles north to Oswego. Brigham no doubt maintained his professional connections in Bucksville at that time -- his employer for the tannery construction probably lived there. At least one such Brigham Young employer in Bucksville (Mr. William Hayden) later recalled his employee's enthusiastic reaction to the Joseph Smith news: "While [Brigham was] engaged in boat building [at Bucksville], the air became filled with rumors of a new revelation, to the effect that a new Bible written upon golden plates had been dug out of the earth at Palmyra, a canal village twenty-five miles west of Port Byron. Each day brought new accounts of the wonder and each account would differ from its predecessor. Finally Brigham determined to investigate for himself, expecting to be able to expose it as a fraud. -- Accordingly, on a Saturday morning he boarded a west-bound canal boat and Sunday morning found him in Palmyra, where he spent the day with those who had been investigating the subject. Becoming interested, he spent several succeeding Sundays in like manner and, instead of exposing the new teaching as a fraud as he had anticipated doing, he became a firm convert to the doctrines there expounded."

Note 4: If Brigham Young was indeed "a firm convert" to Joseph Smith's pretensions in 1827, he waited many months to act upon his new found beliefs. He and his close associates were not baptized into Mormonism until 1832. The one piece of Brigham's early biography which does easily fit in with an 1827 enthusiasm for Joseph Smith's extraordinary claims, is found in the The Utah Genealogical and Historical Magazine of July, 1920, pp. 104ff, under the title "Family Meeting in Nauvoo" -- "[Brigham recalled]: 'The night the plates were found, there was a great light in the East and it went to the West and it was very bright although there was no moon at the time. I gazed at it in company with my wife. The light was perfectly clear and remained several hours. It formed into men as if there were great armies in the West; and I then saw the northwest armies of men come up. They would march to the South West and then go out of sight. It was very remarkable occurrence. It passed on, and continued perhaps two hours. Soon after this the Book of Mormon was printed and came into our section of the country.'" Presumably, at the time of the 1827 autumnal equinox (when the plates were supposedly "found"), Brigham and his wife were at Oswego, on Ontario Lake, viewing the "armies of men" marching through the heavens. Such an experience ought to have been more than enough reason for Brigham to chase off after contemporary "rumors of a new revelation" issuing forth out of Manchester and Palmyra.

A  TALK  WITH  BRIGHAM  YOUNG.

What the Prophet said about the Revelation to
Joseph Smith and Polygamy.

It is generally believed In Utah that polygamy will cease among the Mormons as soon as possible after the death of Brigham Young. The descendants of Joseph Smith are all opposed to polygamy. They denounce it openly, and say the revelation claimed to have been received by the founder of Mormonism sanctioning polygamy was a fraud and a delusion.

John W. Young, the dead prophet's successor, is also opposed to polygamy at heart. Although he has had four wives, he really lives with but one, Lucy Canfield. His first wife was untrue to him, and he got a divorce from her. His second wife lives apart from him, while his fourth wife, the widow of his brother Joseph, is only spiritually sealed to him. He has only one real wife, a superior woman, with whom he lives.

The best Mormons are opposed to polygamy, and are conscious that policy demands its destruction. It will die; but the Mormon Church will stand. In twenty-five years polygamy will be a seven days' wonder in the streets of Salt Lake.

While in Salt Lake, I took occasion to question Brigham Young very closely in regard to polygamy. I knew that he would soon die, and that an interview with a live prophet ought to be valuable after his death. How fortunate it would have been if some one had interviewed Mohammed and Buddah before they died, and left the record.

"What is your authority for polygamy, Mr. Young?" I asked the prophet.

"My authority for polygamy," replied President Young," is the Lord's revelation given to His servant. Joseph Smith, at Nauvoo, July 12, 1843, and the law of Moses."

"Do you believe the Lord ever really appeared to Joseph Smith in person, and revealed a law to him?"

"Certainly. I believe the Lord appeared to His prophet Joseph Smith just as much as He ever appeared to His prophet Moses."

"Did Joseph tell you so?"

"Yes, he told everybody so.

"Now, one of these days, Mr. Young," I said, "they will say the Lord also has appeared to you who are now the prophet, seer, and revelator of the Mormon church, as He appeared to Joseph Smith."

"Yes. I suppose some one will be liable to say so."

"Well, as a matter of fact. I should like to know now from your own lips if the Lord has ever appeared to you -- if you have ever received a revelation directly from tho Lord's hands, as Moses did, or, in fact, it you have ever, while a prophet, seen the Lord at all."

"No, Mr. Perkins," said the prophet," I have never seen tho Lord, as Brother Joseph did; neither have I received any personal revelations: but I have seen visions and dreamed dreams."

"Was the Lord's revelation to Joseph Smith in 1843 the beginning of polygamy in the Mormon church?"

"Yes: we never practised polygamy till then."

"Will you show me a copy of that revelation?"

"Certainly: here it is," said the prophet, handing me a document of seven long pages, headed: "Revelation on Celestial Marriage, given to Joseph Smith. Nauvoo, July 12, 1843."

It began:

1. Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you, my servant Joseph, that inasmuch as you have inquired of my hand, to know wherein I, the Lord, justified my servants Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; as also Moses, David and Solomon, my servants, as touching the principle and doctrine of their having many wives and concubines: Behold! and lo, I am the Lord thy God, and will answer thee as touching this matter:

The revelation went on for twenty-three long verses -- too long for a newspaper article -- and ended as follows:

And again, as pertaining to the law of the Priesthood: If any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, and the first give her consent; and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then is he justified; he cannot commit adultery for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to no one else; And if he have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him, therefore is he justified. But if one or either of the ten virgins, after she is espoused, shall be with another man; she has committed adultery, and shall be destroyed; for they are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment, and to fulfil the promise which was given by my Father before the foundation of the world; and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds, that they may hear the souls of men; for herein is the work of my Father continued, that He may be glorified.

And again, verily, verily I say unto you, if any man have a wife, who holds the keys of this power, and he teaches unto her the law of my Priesthood, as pertaining to these things, then shall she believe, and administer unto him, or she shall be destroyed, saith the Lord your God, for I will destroy her; for I will magnify my name upon all those who receive and abide in my law. Therefore, it shall be lawful in me, if she receive not this law, for him to receive all things, whatsoever I, the Lord his God, will give unto him, because she did not administer unto him according to my word; and she then becomes the transgressor; and he is exempt from the law of Sarah, who administered unto Abraham according to the law, when I commanded Abraham to take Hagar to wife. And now, as pertaining to this law, verily, verily I say unto you, I will reveal more unto you, hereafter; therefore, let this suffice for the present. Behold, I am Alpha and Omega. Amen.

"And that was what the Lord said to Joseph Smith?"

"Yes. That was the revelation on which we all base polygamy: but I have a higher law yet."

"What is that?"

"The law of Moses, afterward affirmed and carried out by Christ himself. Saul had two wives, polygamous wives, and Solomon had a thousand. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had polygamous wives: and still, when Christ warned to reward Lazarus especially, we find him sending him to the bosom of Abraham -- polygamous Abraham, in heaven, too! How many wives had Jacob? Four, and he had twelve, polygamous children who became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel."

"How do you make out Christ in favor of polygamy?"

"Why, Moses established the law of polygamy. Moses was the great law prophet. He made the laws of Israel. What did Christ do? He said, 'Not one jot or one tittle shall pass from the law of Moses and the Prophets, but all shall be fulfilled; that is, he came to carry out the old law of Moses which sanctioned polygamy."

"Where does Moses lay down the law of polygamy?"

"In Deuteronomy, 21st chapter....

"Anywhere else?" I asked.

"Yes, in the 25th chapter of Deuteronomy...

"Christ spoke when he said: 'Think not that am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am come not to destroy, but to fulfil.'"

"David, Christ's [royal] ancestor," continued Brigham Young, "had [many] wives. Yet the Bible says David did that which was right in the sight of the Lord and turned not aside from anything that the Lord commanded but all the days of his life. Now, Christ came directly from the polygamous house of David, and what do we read in the thirteenth chapter of Acts?

"This: I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus [who] came directly from polygamous ancestry..."

"[You] think [most] of the distinguished prophets of the Old Testament were polygamists?"

"Certainly I do. Look at [how] Samuel was a polygamist's son, and he ministered to the Lord in the Tabernacle, while the law of Moses commands that [a bastard] should not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to the tenth generation... But Samuel was a polygamist's son...

"But the Lord reprimanded David for marrying Uriah's wife," I suggested.

"Yes, that was adultery. Uriah was living, and the Lord reprimanded David by Nathan; but, when Uriah finally died, David took the same woman, though he had other wives, and the Lord commended that."

"How did He commend it?"

"Why. David's first child by Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, born while Uriah was living, God struck to death with His own hand as an adulterous son. But how was it with the next son, born in polygamy? The next king, you know, was the great Solomon, a polygamous son. Yet (1st Kings 5:5) God acknowledged him as David's lawful son, and he was afterward blessed and honored by God and was chosen by him after he had taken hundreds of wives, to build the holy temple. David and his son Solomon are splendid examples of how the Lord smiled on polygamy, for from that house, directly, came Christ himself."

"Can you remember any other polygamous prophets?"

"Yes, there was Gideon, who was sent by the Lord to deliver tho Israelites from the hands of the Midianltes -- he had many wives and seventy-two children -- twenty-seven more than I have. The Judges of Israel were polygamists. Jair had thirty sons, another Judge of Israel had thirty sons and thirty daughters, and another had forty sons. Abraham had two wives, Sarah and Hagar. Jacob had four wives. Moses, besides the daughter of Jethro, whom he had married in the land of Midian, had an Ethiopian wife, whom his sister Meriam complained about."

These were the prophet's arguments, as he gave them, in behalf of the twin barbarisms. Now that he is dead they have a new interest. [Eli Perkins]


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE ORIGIN OF MORMONISM.
_______

A THEORY THAT IT WAS FOUNDED UPON AN OHIO
PREACHER'S ROMANCE -- HOW JOE SMITH GOT A
COPY OF THAT MANUSCRIPT.

From the Springfield Republican.

Remarkable local testimony has been discovered by the Republican sustaining the charge that the religion of Joe Smith and Brigham Young had its origin in a romance written by Rev. Solomon Spaulding of Ohio of half a century or more ago. the story is furnished by Mr. J. A. McKinstry of Longmeadow, a son of the late Dr. McKinstry of Monson, and grandson of Rev. Mr. Spaulding. Mr. McKinstry is employed in the Main street store of Newsdealer Brace. Rev. Mr. Spaulding's widow, who afterward became Mrs. Davison, came east from Ohio to live with her daughter at Monson many years ago, bringing the manuscript of his romance with her. She died some twenty-five years ago, but before her death a plausible young man from Boston came to Monson to see and get the Spaulding writing. It was a time of considerable excitement concerning the Mormons, and he claimed to represent some Christian people who wanted to expose Mormonism, He therefore begged the loan of the manuscript for publication. Much against the wishes of Mrs. Dr. McKinstry, Mrs. Davison consented to let her husband's unpublished romance go. Nothing was ever heard from it again, and the family have always considered that the bland young gentleman was an agent of Brigham Young's to destroy the convicting evidence that Joe Smith's Mormon Bible was of earthly origin.

The story of how Rev. Mr. Spaulding came to prepare his romance, which Mr. McKinstry remembers as a child to have seen, is fresh and interesting. He was out of the active ministry in Ohio -- the name of the place Mr. McKinstry does not recollect, but it was near Palmyra, we believe -- running a small iron foundry, and being a man of literary tastes, employed his leisure moments in weaving a romance. It was a time when the work of the mound-builders was creating wild interest, the implements of cookery and war being unearthed showing the existence of a forgotten race. This furnished the inspiration for the chronicles of the story-writer. He entitled his production "Manuscript Found," the idea being that the romance woven by the ex-preacher was dug up out of one of the mounds in the region. It was a history of ancient America, not all written at once, but as leisure spells and the fancy fell to him Mr. Spaulding would add to it. His writing was no secret in the neighborhood. In that then frontier region, with few opportunities for literary enjoyment. Rev. Mr. Spaulding was prevailed upon to read his production to his neighbors as it progressed. It was written in Bible phraseology, and made as quaintly olden as possible, so as to carry out the conceit of its alleged mound origin. Among the attentive listeners at these readings were Joe Smith and Sidney Rigdon, the same who founded Mormonism. Not only did Smith hear the manuscript read, but on one occasion, as Mrs. Davison frequently testified before her death, he borrowed it for a week or so, giving as a reason that he wanted to read it to his family, who had been unable to attend on Mr. Spaulding's readings. Not long afterward it will be remembered, Smith claimed that an angel had revealed to him the existence of a buried history of aboriginal America, the plates of which it is alleged were dug up, and the book of Mormon made as a translation of their inscriptions. the widow of Mr. Spaulding and her daughter, Mrs. Dr. McKinstry of Monson, compared the Smith Bible with the parson's romance, and they were essentially the same. The similarity was so overwhelming as to leave no doubt that Smith copied in full Rev. Mr. Spaulding's writing, and made out of it bodily his divine "revelation."

The character of the minister's romance was such, and his elaboration of it so thorough, as to strike the fancy of Smith, who was given to the mysterious. His family had been noted for divination, treasure-seeking, etc., and so Joe found Mr. Spaulding's work just in his line. That the results of his appropriation of it have been so stupendous was always a great cross to Mr. Spaulding's good widow, Mrs. Davison. She mourned that, even innocently, her husband should have been the means of foisting upon the world so great an evil. This was the real reason of her willingness to allow the manuscript to be taken to Boston for publication. It is to be regretted that her family have not better preserved Mrs. Davison's recollections of her husband's writing, now forever lost to the world. Enough has been handed down, however, to establish beyond doubt the truth of the claim that here was a source of Joe Smith's "inspiration." Mrs. Davison's story has long been familiar to leading en of Monson, and so impressed was the late Rev. Dr. Ely with it that he prepared a considerable account of it years ago.


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Policy by which Brigham Young
Strengthened the Mormon Church.

One day I was riding with Brigham Young around the suburbs of Salt Lake. As we came in from tho Hot Sulphur Springs, which run like a little river from the rocky base of the Wasatch mountains, about a mile north of the city, we passed a dilapidated adobe wall, a wall made from unbaked clay. The wall had been eight or nine feet high, but it is now little more than a ruin.

"What was that wall built for?" I asked.

"That wall was built for two purposes," said the prophet. "It once extended all around Salt Lake. It was a little Chinese wall, with loop holes and gates and round houses."

"Then Salt Lake was once a walled city?"

"Yes, it was walled all around, and the wall cost a groat deal of labor, too. Hundreds of men worked all winter on it."

"But you have not told me tho two purposes for which it was built." I suggested.

"Well, the chief purpose of this wall was to keep three or four hundred emigrants from being idle. You see, we had a large emigration one year, three or four hundred able-bodied men. They arrived in August, too late to do anything on their farms. Now, an Idle man is always a bad man. Still, we had nothing for them to do. 'How can I employ them?' I asked myself. Then I thought of this wall. To make it seem necessary, we had to pretend that we were threatened by the Indians around us. This was easily done, for several parties of Indians had been hovering aroung the town. In a few days we worked up the enthusiasm for protection, and put these hundreds of idle men to work. The wages were small, but they all worked steadily during the whole fall and winter."

"And no Indians ever troubled the town?"

"No, and I never thought they would. But four hundred idle men would have troubled it. We were in more danger from idle men than from Indians. And this has always been my idea: whenever I have found an idle Mormon I have set him to work -- kept him busy with his hands and brain, and then he is always [seen?] to be a good citizen."

This I found has always been the Prophet's theory. If a poor emigrant came to Salt Lake without money. Brigham placed him on a farm and gave him implements and seeds. He made him self-sustaining. Everything in Salt Lake was built right there. A Mormon built the big organ in the tabernacle. Mormons build and [-----er] their railroads, and Mormons are building their great temple. Before he died the Prophet had Mormon furniture factories, a Mormon mint where they once coined their own money, and six cotton and woollen factories. In fact, Brigham Young taught his people to make everything they ate, drank, or wore, except coffee, tea, sugar, pepper, and spice.

The river running down from the Wasatch mountains behind Salt Like is a good water power with 150 feet tall. The same water runs through two million dollars worth of irrigating canals, and waters the whole Salt Lake plain before it finally empties into the lake.

Brigham Young was a good mechanic. He could make anything he ever saw, and when occasion required he could invent new appliances. He was a rough, crude man, but terribly in earnest. He was like Zack Chandler in politics, Sherman in war, and St. Paul in the ministry. He was always aggressive. His son, John W., on the contrary, is always on the defensive. He is always patting people on the back, always tranquillizing and making peace. He is the most gentlemanly and quiet-mannered man I ever met. He wins everybody with his smiles and kind ways. The morning we left for Ogden John W. came down to the cars with us. In going from the depot to the cars no less than six Mormons put their arms around him. Some oven kissed him. Brigham Young was feared, but his son John W. will and has made himself beloved. He will not fight. All strife will now end in Utah. Polygamy will gradually die out. John W. will let it die, but the Mormon Church. with its 200.000 followers, will stand.

"We double once in seven years," the Prophet said one day.

"How double once in seven years?" I asked.

" Why in 1849 we had 12,000 people; n 1856 we had 24,000; in 1863 we had 48,000; in 1870 we had 96,000, and to-day in 1877 we have 192,000."

"And in 1883 you will have?"

"Two hundred and eighty-four thousand, and nothing but a national calamity or a judgment from God can stop us," said the Prophet.

There is no doubt in my mind that under the conservative policy of John W. Young, with the death of polygamy, that the Mormons will number 284,000 in 1883, and that they will control the politics of Utah, and perhaps of Arizona and New Mexico.  ELI PERKINS.


Notes: (forthcoming)

JOHN TAYLOR
THE NEW PRESIDENT OF THE MORMON CHURCH.


THE  NEW  MORMON  PRESIDENT.

The luxury of "revelation" is not often indulged in by the Mormon Church in these latter days. Brigham Young never had more than two or three of these revelations during the entire period of his incumbency of the Presidency of the Church, though he always claimed to be on intimate personal relations with the Deity. And this revelation was uttered over thirty years ago, and had reference solely to the settlement in New York City. Joseph Smith, his predecessor, was an ecstatic seer, having visions every week, and describing them effusively to his church, chiefly concerning his passions, wants and personal ambition, and realizing the dream of his parents that a prophet and great man would arise in their family. Brigham Young was much more practical, and followed few phantoms. The Twelve Apostles of the Mormon Church, consisting of the most eminent elders, especially ardent for the apostleship, have always been very abstemious in this matter of revelations. Whether delusion or imposture, it seems that a dozen men working together, looking into each other's eyes, and hearing each other's voices, are far less liable to feel the divine afflatus than one dreaming in secret.

The Twelve Apostles had however, a revelation the other day, in which God spoke and commanded that the Twelve Apostles should hereafter and until further ordered superintend and direct all its affairs, temporal and spiritual, instead of a President. Elder John Taylor was, however, confirmed in his place as Senior Apostle, which gives him more power in the church than any other man. It is an odd fact that Brigham Young became Senior Apostle and thereafter President by the mere accident of his having been born earlier than the other elder[s]. As the Apostles took rank according to their age, Brigham Young happened to be the oldest and so was put in a place where he could grasp the keys of the kingdom.

John Taylor, whose portrait we give today, is equally fortunate. He is an Englishman, seventy years old, and very tall and imposing in appearance. His hair is white, and the Mormons declare that it was bleached with sudden terror when he heard the revelation of polygamy. But his complexion is swarthy, his eyes deep and striking, and he bears the marks of a strong intellectual man. He was formerly a local preacher in the Methodist Church, and it was in that capacity that he came to this country. He first settled in Canada, and while there married a Miss Leonora Cannon. In 1837 Taylor became a proselyte to Mormonism under the preaching of Parley P. Pratt, then on a mission to Canada. The headquarters of the Mormons was then in Missouri, and Taylor, soon after joining the Church, emigrated to that State and was ordained an apostle by Joseph Smith. In 1839 he was sent on a mission to England and Ireland, where he had about the usual success of the Mormon missionaries in making converts during a two years; stay. He edited a Mormon paper in Nauvoo called the Times and Seasons, and was always esteemed a tower of strength in political discussions with the Gentiles. In 1849 and 1850 he was in France as a Mormon missionary. He was very successful in collecting money and moderately so in gaining converts. In 1855 Taylor came to this city and established a weekly paper here for the defence and propagation of Mormonism, which had but a small circulation and a brief existence. In 1859 he returned to Utah, taking with him a new wife from Connecticut, and he has ever since resided at Salt Lake City.


Notes: (forthcoming)

INCIDENTS  OF  MORMONISM.
_______

MARRIED LIFE IN SALT LAKE CITY.

INTERVIEW WITH A LADY WHO LIVED TWELVE YEARS IN UTAH.
HOW SHE AND HER HUSBAND WERE TREATED BY
BRIGHAM YOUNG -- WOMEN FORCED TO MARRY MORMONS
THE STORY OF SARA ALEXANDER -- THE INQUISITORIAL REFORM

From our Own Correspondent.

Rochester, N. Y., Sunday, Sept. 2, 1877.      

I was introduced last evening, at the residence of a friend in this city, to a lady of intelligence who was for 12 years the wife of a Mormon, and who resided from 1857 to 1869 in the Mormon capital. Although her husband had unbounded faith in most of the tenets of the religion he professed, he never accepted the doctrine of plurality of wives. His wife was a Mormon only in name, and upon the death of her husband, in 1869, she left Utah and took up her residence with a sister in Indianapolis, where she now resides, being in Rochester merely on a visit to friends. I am not at liberty to give her name, but obtained from her a number of interesting reminiscences of her life in Salt Lake City. Her husband was a civil engineer, and was converted to Mormonism in England, by Brigham Young, in 1844. He came to this country in 1856, and married my informant in Piqua, Ohio, the next year, when they emigrated to Utah.

"I knew Brigham Young," said this lady, and I shall never have any but kindly recollections of him as a man. Our house was one of the few he visited, although our circumstances were limited. He liked my husband, who had contrived a very ingenious apparatus, connected in some way with the gas-works, which pleased Brigham very much. The second day after I went to Salt Lake I heard Brigham preach. I was not used to hearing religious teachers calling people 'd____ fools' in the pulpit, and using similar expressions more vigorous than pious, and so I was not very favorably impressed with his sermon. I got used to that style of preaching, however, and went quite frequently to the Tabernacle. Brigham once in my presence told my husband that he had a nice wife picked out for him, and that he had better take her at once and bring her home as company for me. I replied that if my husband attempted to copy after him, (Young,) and took a new wife every little while, he would find that part of Salt Lake City too warm for his comfort. Brigham laughed heartily at this, and said I wouldn't be the right kind of a wife for a Mormon prophet to start out with. I was bold enough to say that if the Mormon prophet had had just such a wife to start out with, the Mormon religion would have been the gainer. For a moment there was grave expression on his face that frightened me, but it cleared away, and he said quickly and rather sharply, 'We won't discuss that; we won't discuss that.' I had many social chats with Brigham Young in my house after that, but theological matters were never mentioned. He evidently knew I was not orthodox, and I often wondered that there was no pressure ever brought to bear on me to make me so. I know of many a person who had to take the choice of being more ardent in the cause or of seeking other quarters. But I gave in passive adherence to the religion, contributed all I could afford to its support, and mingled with the Mormon families extensively. My husband was orthodox enough for us both, I guess.

"In 1859 a younger sister of mine visited us. She lived in Chicago. She is married now, and has the distinction of having refused the hand and harem of Brigham Young. He met her at our house, and only three days afterward asked her to become his wife -- his twelfth, I think. She refused the honor with considerable indignation, and was in such terror lest Brigham should seize and force her to marry him that she asked permission of a party of tourists, who were on their way east after a trip overland to California, to accompany them back, which she did the very next day. The Mormons had everything their own way in those days, and I often tremble to think what might have befallen the girl in thus defying the head of the Church. I believe if it had been John D. Lee or Orson Pratt, or Bishop Hyde, instead of Brigham, my sister would have either become "sealed" or would never have left Utah. And I think now that it was more consideration for us than any scruples he had that made Brigham submit to defeat so calmly. I knew that Folsom woman long before she got to be Brigham Young's favorite wife. She married him after I left Utah. She was ignorant, coarse, and the most disagreeable person I ever met. From all I can learn, after she became Mrs. Young, Brigham neglected the personal wants of his other wives. It was all Folsum's work if he did. He made daily calls upon his wives all the time l lived in Salt Lake City, and they were the best provided for of any of the Mormon women. I knew them all, some of them quite intimately, and never heard one of them complain of neglect of any kind. I remember one of his wives had one of the worst behaved children I ever saw -- a boy, then about 7 years old. He would tear his clothes to tatters, break everything that was breakable, curse and swear as bad as any Mormon High Priest, and fight anybody and anything. Brigham Young was his father, of course, and I saw the Prophet one day deliver such a chastisement to the young hopeful, in the open street, and he must have vivid recollections of it to this day, if he is alive. The punishment was inflicted at the request of the boy's mother, who was unable to master him.

"Do I think Brigham Young knew of the Mountain Meadows massacre? What I have read of that murder is all I really know about it, and I believe the same may be said of all the Mormons, with the exception of those who were engaged in it. It don't seem to me that Brigham Young could have deliberately ordered that massacre, nor do I believe he knew of it until afterward. John D. Lee was a devil incarnate, and half his crimes will never be known."

"Do you know of any instances where Brigham Young used force to compel the marriage of women to Mormons?

"Yes, I do, I know of one particular instance where a woman defied the whole Mormon Church, but which defiance would have been fatal to her but for the protection of Brigham Young, who had a purpose in defending her. He wanted her to be the wife of his son, Joseph A. Young, and he would have compelled her to marry him, but she managed to escape from the Territory. This was the case of Sara Alexander, the handsomest woman that ever walked in Utah. Joseph A. Young was a rather dissipated young man, and was a great drain on his father's purse, with his wine and billiards and the like. Sara Alexander was a Mormon's child and grew up among the Mormons. She did not like the institution, and when she grew up she had no hesitation in saying so. She possessed a great dramatic talent, and being very beautiful, she resolved to adopt the stage for a profession. I remember well the night of her debut at Brigham Young's Theatre. It was late in the Fall of 1863. The play was "Marriage at any price," and Miss Alexander played the part of Matilda Peppercorn. She succeeded entirely, and half a dozen Mormon Elders went wild over her charms and she at once became the object of the most unheard of persecutions. She was forcibly taken by a prominent Mormon to his residence, and an appeal by her father to Brigham Young was all that saved her. It was then that the idea struck the Prophet that as Miss Alexander had a very profitable future before her, it would be a wise thing to make her the wife of the profligate son, Joseph A., who would then have her purse to depend upon, and the exchequer of the father would be the gainer. But Miss Alexander refused to enter into the bargain. Brigham then told her that she must marry his son, and to make preparations at once. She was placed in quarters near the Prophet's residence, but she managed not only to escape from her improvised prison, but to reach San Francisco. She was closely followed, however, by Joseph A. Young and three other Mormons. They reached San Francisco on the night previous to that on which she was advertised to appear at a theatre in that city, she having applied for and obtained an engagement. The papers announced the arrival of Young, and Miss Alexander was afraid to appear. Giving her reason, however, the Mormon emissaries were served with notice that it would be best for them to quit San Francisco, which they lost no time doing. Joseph A. Young has since died, but I do not know what ever became of the beautiful Sara Alexander.

"You often hear it stated, as one good result of Mormonism, that there are no disreputable women in Salt Lake City. I know there were very many of this unfortunate class there during the years of my residence, and they were mostly young girls. My disgust at the practices of the Mormons was great from my first entrance to the territory, and even now I cannot understand how a man so honorable and upright as my husband could accept the religion as the truth. It was only my love for him that kept me so long among the iniquitous people. One of the first things that filled me with horror was the condition of the Mormon poor. Every Winter scores of children actually starve or freeze to death. I have seen dozens of these offspring of the poor classes standing barefoot and ragged around Camp Douglas, snatching up the refuse food thrown out from the camp, and gathering bits of coal, wood, &c., that the soldiers threw to them from their store. The winter before I left the city a poor woman, although she was the second wife of a rich Mormon dignitary, who had five others -- left her child, a cripple, some 3 years old, alone in the home while she went a few steps away on an errand. The child's clothing was set on fire by a coal snapping out from the stove, and when the mother returned the poor little thing was wrapped in flames. The mother received terrible burns on the hands and face in attempting to subdue the flames, but the child was burned to death. The father heard of its death in time, and going to the miserable quarters where it lay, and where its mother was suffering from her wounds, he charged the latter with setting the cripple on fire to get rid of it, and after beating her soundly told her to bury it as best she could, as he would contribute nothing toward it. This man's name was Lyon, and it was said that he and John D. Lee were in the habit of exchanging wives at intervals. I dressed the child for the grave, and with the help of two others, furnished funds to bury it. I was never in a place so thoroughly destitute of everything as this poor woman's apartments were. There were three other children, who had been out begging for something to eat when the casualty occurred. The Bishop of the ward had refused to contribute anything to the women's support, because her husband was rich. I learned then, as I had often heard that such cases of poverty as this among the deserted wives of well-to-do Mormons were very common.

"I arrived in Utah about the time the 'Inquisitorial Reform' began. The outside world knows little about this. The authorities of the Church caused it to be proclaimed that the people, by their dilatoriness in taking plural wives, their scanty payment of tithes, and other shortcomings had displeased the Lord. The Territory was traversed by missionaries who preached to that effect, and a confessional was established -- or rather a catechism prepared -- with the view of obtaining information as to the life of every family and its members. The country was districted, and 'teachers' were appointed for each district. The duty of these men -- they were all men -- was to visit every house in their respective districts, and put the questions laid down by the head of the Church to each individual alone. These inquiries searched into the most sacred relations, and had to be answered on oath. The result of this inquisitorial reform was that the Mormons were found to be the most iniquitous of people, and Brigham Young decreed a general baptism of every male and female in the Church. My house was visited by one of these teachers in the absence of my husband. I refused to hear his questions, and he insisting that I should, I took my husband's rifle and ordered the teacher to leave the premises at once, which he did in great haste. Another branch of this reform was the instructing of girls in the importance of polygamy, and what their duty was as brides of 'God's chosen people.' All girls from the age of 12 years and upward were compelled to attend lectures by the Elders on these subjects. Many of them, acting on the doctrine that was inculcated, were led to become plural wives as young as 13 years of age. I never heard of any force being used in Salt Lake City to induce these children to 'seal' themselves to men, but at Corinne, or what has become Corinne, a number of girls were once confined in a house until they were starved into consenting to become wives. They were usually promised that they would be sent to school until they were of age before being expected to take their positions as these plural wives, but these promises were seldom kept. I knew three girls who ran away from their 'husbands' and took refuge at Camp Douglas, and there were a great many who did so, some of them marrying soldiers. Not a few became women of the town. The reign of the 'Inquisitorial Reform' lasted several years, and was the era of licentiousness, murder, and destitution.

"I believe that Mormonism is doomed to destruction now that Brigham Young is dead. Schism after schism will weaken it, until it will gradually become eradicated. Too many men have been waiting for Brigham's death, in hope of advancing themselves, and it is rule or ruin with most of them. From what I remember of Brigham's sons, none of them are fit to succeed him."


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE BOOK OF MORMON.

A couple of weeks ago Elders Orson Pratt and J. F. Smith, of the Mormon Church, arrived in the town of Richmond, Mo., and sought out the residence of one David Whitmer, who is said to be the only living witness of the translation of the Book of Mormon, and the custodian of the original manuscript as taken down by Oliver Cowdry. The object of the Elders; visit was to secure the manuscript for deposit in the archives of the Mormon Church, but Whitmer declined to surrender it. It has been in his custody nearly 50 years, and he declared his intention of holding it until the proper time arrives for its surrender to those entitled to receive it. The Richmond Conservator says that while refusing to surrender the manuscript he willingly produced and exhibited it to his visitors. They unhesitatingly pronounced it the original copy of the Book of Mormon, Elder Pratt being familiar with the handwriting of Oliver Cowdry, the writer. The offered Whitmer any price he might ask for the volume, but, finding him resolute, left him, with the request that he continue to take good care of it, so that the Church might receive it at the proper time. The Conservator states that "the book is in a splendid state of preservation, the ink as bright as if written yesterday, and it is inscribed on large paper, unruled, in a small hand, clearly written close to the edges, top, and bottom, making over 500 pages.


Notes: (forthcoming)

One B. F. CUMMINGS, a Mormon missionary, having written to the Boston Daily Advertiser a statement that Joseph Smith published in 1843 a book of discipline for the Mormon Church, a son of the deceased prophet writes a flat contradiction. He says that the book in question was first published by his father in Ohio, in 1835, was republished in 1845, and in 1852, in Liverpool, England, and that in neither of these editions does the so-called revelation concerning plural marriage appear. "Nor was it introduced into any edition of that book till 1876," says the son of the prophet, "when an edition was put out in Utah concerning it." Joseph Smith, who thus claps an extinguisher on the pretensions of the Mormon missionary, sharply adds that he (the said Cummings) must have known that he was not telling the truth. It has always been understood among the "Gentiles" that polygamy was an invention of the late Brigham Young.


Notes: (forthcoming)