AFFAIRS  IN  HANCOCK -- THE  MORMONS.

(under construction)

 

Notes: (forthcoming)

A  MORMON  CONVENTICLE.
_______

BY JOHN G. WHITTIER.
______

Passing up Merrimack street the other day, my attention was arrested by a loud earnest voice, apparently engaged in preaching, or rather "holding forth " in the building opposite. I was in the mood to welcome anything of a novel character, and following the sound I passed up a flight of steps leading to a long, narrow and somewhat shabby room, dignified by the appellation of Classic Hall.

Seating myself, I looked about me. There were from fifty to one hundred persons in the audience, in which nearly all classes of this heterogeneous community seemed pretty fairly represented, all listening with more or less attention to the speaker.

He was a young man, with a dark, enthusiastic complexion, black eyes and hair, with his collar thrown back, and his coat cuffs turned over, revealing a somewhat unique quantity of "fine linen," bending over his coarse board pulpit, and gesticulating with the vehemence of Hamlet's [player], "tearing his passion to rags." A band of mourning crape fluttered with the spasmodic action of his left arm, and an allusion to "our late beloved brother, Joseph Smith," sufficiently indicated the sect of the speaker. He was a Mormon -- a saint of the latter days.His theme was the power of faith. Although evidently unlearned and innocent enough of dealing in such "abominable matters, as a verb or a noun, which no christian ear can endure;" to have satisfied Jack Cade himself, there was a straight forward vehemence and intensive earnestness in this manner, which at once disarmed my criticism. He spoke of Adam in Paradise, as the lord of this lower world.

"For," said he, "water couldn't drown him, fire couldn't burn him, cold couldn't freeze him -- nothing could harm him, for he had all the elements under his feet. And what, my hearers, was the secret of this power? His faith in God; that was it. Well, the devil wanted this power. He behaved in a mean. ungentlemanly way, and deceived Eve, and lied to her, he did. And so Adam lost his faith. And all this power over the elements that Adam had, the devil got and has it now. He is the Prince and the power of the air, consequently he is master of the elements and lord of this world. He has filled it with unbelief, and robbed man of his birthright, and will do so until the hour of the power of darkness is ended, and the mighty angel comes down with the chain in his hand, to bind the old serpent and dragon.

Another speaker, a stout, black-browed "son of thunder," gave an interesting account of his experience. He had been one of the apostles of the Mormon Evangel, and had visited Europe. He had "but three cents in his pocket," when he reached England. He went to the high professors of all the sects, and they would not receive him; they pronounced him "damned already." He was reduced to great poverty and hunger; alone in a strange land with no one to bid him welcome. He was on the very verge of starvation. "Then," said he, "I knelt down and prayed in earnest faith, 'Lord give me this day my daily bread.' O, I tell ye, I pray'd with a good appetite; and I rose up and was moved to go to a house at hand. I knocked at the door, and when the owner came I said to him, 'I am a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, from America; I am starving, will you give me some food?' 'Why bless you, yes, said the man, 'sit down and eat as much as you please.' And I did sit down at this table, blessed be God; but, my dear hearers, he was not a professor; he was not a Christian, but one of Robert Owen's Infidels;. The Lord reward him for his kindness!."

In listening to these modern prophets, I discovered, as I think, the great secret of their success in making converts. They speak to a common feeling; they minister to a universal want. They contrast strongly the miraculous power of the gospel of the apostolic time with the present state of our nominal Christianity. They ask for the signs of divine power, the faith overcoming all things, which opened the prison doors of the apostles, gave them power over the elements which rebuked disease and death itself, and made visible to all the presence of the living God. They ask for any declaration in the Scriptures that this miraculous power of faith was to be confined to the first professors of Christianity. They speak a language of hope and promise to weak, weary hearts, tossed and troubled, who have wandered from sect to sect, seeking in vain for the primal manifestations of the divine power.


Note: This article, by one of America's most famous poets, first appeared in the Dec. 4, 1847 issue of The Living Age. Whittier also wrote an article on the Mormons emigrating westward from Nauvoo, which was subsequently published in the Washington, D. C. Globe.

ANOTHER MORMON WAR is threatened in Illinois. Two meetings have recently been held in Nauvoo, with a view of adopting measures to drive the remaining Mormons out. It is disgraceful to the character of the West that this persecuting spirit is still allowed to show itself.


Notes: (forthcoming)

CALIFORNIA  AND  HER  GOLD.

The following is a letter from Col. R. B. Mason, of the 1st U. S. Dragoons, and accom[anies the reports of the Secretary of War. It will be found replete with interest:

                                     Headquarters 10th Military Dept.,
                                                           Monterey, California, Aug. 17, 1848.

Sir -- I have the honor to inform you that, accompanied by Lieut. Wm. T. Sherman, 3d artillery, A. A. A. General, I started on the 12th of June last to make a tour through the northern part of California. My principal purpose, however, was to visit the newly discovered gold "placer" in the valley of the Sacramento.... We reached San Francisco on the 20th, and found that all, or nearly all, the male inhabitants had gone to the mines.... we resumed the journey by way of Bodega and Sonoma to Sutter's fort, where we arrived on the morning of the 2d of July....

At the urgent solicitation of many gentlemen, I delayed there to participate in the first public celebration of our national anniversary at that fort, but on the 5th resumed the journey, and proceeded twenty-five miles up the American fork to a point on it now known as the Lower Mines or Mormon Diggins...

Capt. Sutter, feeling the great want of lumber, contracted in September last with a Mr. Marshall to build a saw-mill... Mr. Marshall, to save labor, let the water directly into the race with a strong current, so as to wash it wider and deeper. He effected his purpose, and a large bed of mud and gravel was carried to the foot of the race. One day Mr. Marshall, as he was walking down the race to this deposite of mud, observed some glittering particles at the upper edge; he gathered a few, examined them, and became satisfied of their value... in a few weeks hundreds of men were drawn thither. At the time of my visit, but little more than three months after its first discovery, it was estimated that upwards of four thousand people were employed [in gold mining]...

The most moderate estimate I could obtain from men acquainted with the subject, was, that upwards of four thousand men were working in the gold district, of whom more than one-half were Indians; and that from $30,000 to $50,000 worth of gold, if not more, was daily obtained....

Gold is also believed to exist on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada; and when at the mines, I was informed by an intelligent Mormon that it had been found near the Great Salt Lake by some of his fraternity. Nearly all the Mormons are leaving California, to go to the Salt Lake; and this they surely would not do, unless they were sure of finding gold there in the same abundance as they now do on the Sacramento...

I enclose you herewith sketches of the country through which I passed, indicating the position of the mines and the topography of the country in the vicinity of those I visited.

Some of the specimens of gold accompanying this were presented for transmission to the Department.

I have the honor to be your most obedient servant,
                                                      R. B. MASON,
                                                      Col. 1st Dragoons, Comd'g.
Brigadier Geb. R. Jones,
Adj. Gen. U. S. A., Washington, D. C.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE MORMONS.

The Cincinnati Commercial announces the arrival in that city of Wm. Smith, the Grand Prophet of the Mormons, and adds the following:

He claims to be the President of the original Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. He is the brother of the once renowned Jos. Smith, (who, with his brother Hiram, were killed in the jail, at Carthage, Illinois,) and says that he is the guardian of Joseph's children, and by right is the successor of Joseph in the Church. We learn that about half of the Mormons are against Mr. Smith's ruling over this late and singular people, and about half acknowledge his right. Smith is now building up a church in Covington, where they hold meetings every Sunday.

We further learn that the Mormons in California are many of them in favor of Wm. Smith, and that he intends to make his head-quarters there next year. Brigham Young is the Mormon leader in that country. A man named Strong [sic, Strang?] is in the western part of the United States, and in the valley of the Cordilleras mountains is a man by the name of White [sic, Wight?], who has some fifteen hundred Mormons under his charge. They have a large settlement, extensive mills worth $10,000 to $20,000, with flocks and herds innumerable. These people are favorable to Smith; as his foothold is worth something in the gold diggins. Some of these Mormons are real clever fellows, always poor, and always praying; but still they live in hopes of converting the world. That they are the most singular people on earth, no one will deny; and that they are destined to occupy a still greater page in our national history, will be developed, we think, when it is known what they have done and are doing in California and the Rocky Mountains.


Note 1: Less than a year after the above article appeared in the Cincinnati Commercial, the same paper published news of the defection of one of William Smith's highest ranking followers from the flock at Covington -- see this extraordinary report in the May 22, 1850 issue of the Commercial. See also William Smith's March, 1850 letter publicizing alleged Mormon "murders and robberies," under the leadership of Brigham Young.

Note 2: See the North American of Aug. 8th for another version of this reprint.

SKETCHES  FROM  THE  LIFE  OF  DAN  RICE.

For sale by Taylor, Canning & Co., Philadelphia.

In common with other distinguished men, Dan Rice, the noted clown, has friends and admirers who feel an interest in his fortunes. The following extract throws spme light upon the means taken by that arch impostor, Joe Smith, to keep up the delusion of his followers. In the course of his adventures, Dan Rice visits Nauvoo:

DAN  RICE  AT  NAUVOO.

Nauvoo was then in its palmy days, and near 10,000 souls were held in spiritual subjection by the Prophet. Here Mr. Rice rightly calculated was an abundant field for his labors, arguing reasonably enough, that in a community where the transparent pretexts of Joe Smith were swallowed with avidity, his apparently superhuman accomplishment might make him "some pumpkins," particularly as the lucky thought occurred to him, that in juxtaposition with Joe himself, they would make a pretty strong team together.

Full of these views on arriving there, his first move was for a close confab with Joe Smith, who readily grasped at a chance for a new miracle, now that his old dodges had become somewhat stale, and his flock thirsting for some new manifestation of divine partiality. He easily yielded to Dan's terms for the co-partnership, which involved an equal distribution of the spoils which might arise from the connection, and which it was not hard to demonstrate to such an ingenious raiser of the wind as Joe, could be made something handsome. Our hero did not demure to the stipulation that the eclat should redound to the sole use and behoof of the Prophet. Joe was too old a bird to be caught with chaff, in entering into a compact without testing Dan's prowess in his back yard. Here his two horses were indeed unable to dislodge the Samson from a work bench; or to break with a sledge, the back door stone step, which, with the assistance of his wife, he managed to place on Dan as he extended himself on all fours backwards. The prophet was in ecstacies, by no means lessened by our hero's catching up the tongs, as he again entered the room, and after taking off his coat, bending it into a semi-circle across his naked arm. This last Dan thew in for effect, and Joe and his wife began to intercede for the safety of the rest of the furniture in the house, not doubting but that he could pull the building down about their heads. Here was a California mine for Joe, out of which he trusted to be able to replenish his exausted treasury, impose a tax in a less obnoxious form than direct contributions, and rivet his hold on the blind confidence of the public, in a manner that would thereafter make it blasphemy to question his direct communication with the Almighty.

In two hours, as might have been expected with two such able projectors, their plans were matured. It was noised about that the morrow would bring about a new and still more imposing evidence of the Prophet's divine endowments; that poor wayfarer had been guided by the spirit to go to him and say: "Behold your unworthy servant! the spirit admonished me at divers times and in sundry places to proceed to the Prophet of the faithful and submit myself to his guidance. -- Moreover, the spirit commands me to say: In me shall be fulfilled miracles, and whatsoever thou commandest thy servant to do, even to the performance of acts impossible to man, it shall be done!" The Prophet himself proclaimed from the foot of the Temple, which had already progressed above its foundations, that at 12 o'clock next day thsi emissary from the Almighty would appear as an humble instrument for the manifestation of divine power, to encourage the faithful in their labor on the Temple, and that all the city on such a memorable occasion, should contribute each 25 cents, (Dan here nudged Joe's elbow, saying, "Children half-price, tell 'em, Children half-price,") towards the construction of our Holy Palace. Children too, he added, after a little hesitation, might be imbued with a holy spirit, upon the contribution of 12 1/2 cents, by being present at these miracles.

Dense was the throng in front of the Temple as the hour approached. On his way up from the tavern, (Joe kept the only tavern in the place,) Dan observed that all the houses appeared disgorging their occupants, from which he argued a garvest that would mark a new era in his pecuniary affairs. The Prophet's Council, in this instance, prudently not let into the secret of the humbug, marked his mysterious preparations with anxiety. The ladies eyed him askance, and admired his manly and muscular appearance, wondering whether he had yet made his selection of the usual spiritual comforts just introduced by Joe. The thousands with mouths agape were prepared to see any improbable and unusual spectacle, even to the descent of Jehovah himself in a cloud or flame. A storm hovered portentiously over the horizon, as the mass proceeded in awe to deposit their quarters in the Baptismal Font, hewn out of solid stone, and guarded by the Prophet himself. This finished, as Dan and the Prophet stepped forth together, a deep silence prevailed, uninterrupted even by the cries of the children, who were there in hundreds, their deluded parents trusting that perchance they might brush the hem of Dan's garments.

An hundred willing workman, at the Prophet's command, brought forth a ladder, trestles, and a pair of dray horses which were in use in the construction of the Temple. Then followed the preparations the reader has often seen in similar cases in the Circus. The ladder being firmly fastened horizontally upon the trestles, and Dan extended at length, with his hands and feet adhering to the rounds, the horses were attached to a rope (which Joe had brought and coiled around his arm, to the no small wonder of the amazed crowd,) which in its turn was then adjusted to the shoulders and loins of this new proselyte to Mormonism. At the signal, the powerful horses extended their traces, and leaning in their collars made a noble effort to tear Dan from his fastenings, which it is hardly necessary to say they would have done, (not having the far of Joe Smith before their eyes,) had they not been compelled to pull at a disadvantage. Except that awe at this manifestation of the presence of the spirit constrained them, the whole mass would have fallen down and worshipped the Prophet who was supposed to have contributed this omnipotence to the young showman.

At another command, a score of hands were extended with alacrity to place a building stome upon Dan's breast, as he assumed the same backward position as in Joe's back yard, and a pair of stalwart mechanics soon broke the stone into fragments with their ponderous sledges, when shaking , as a horse when ridding himself of vexatious flies, our hero nimbly resumed his upright position, the rocks rolling from him on either side!

In another moment a bar of inch iron was brought from the smithy of the Temple and bent nearly double across the arm of the youthful giant, protected as it was by the knotted muscles, now contracted with the most rigid tension.

With the same expedition a string rope was detached from the hoisting tackle used on the Temple, one end secured around a vast pile of building stones, and the other to Mr. Rice, as he again extended himself on the nearest part of the ladder, still firmly resting on trestles. Rung by rung he slowly advanced in this hempen collar, until, reaching nearly the farthest end of the ladder, the rope could stretch no more, and parted like flax.

This was the cap chief to the day's wonders, and the infatuated crowd returned to their houses, to commune about these miracles, and glorify their Prophet, while Dan and Joe repaired to the sanctum of the latter in the hotel, where the receipts of the exhibition, (mysteriously diminished since deposited in the Font, he thought,) had been previously sent, where he received for his share six hundred dollars, not, however, without being obliged to threaten the Prophet with a little private exhibition of his miracles, for pretending to compute the half of $1,200 to be $500. The evidence of Dan's powers that day had been too palpable to permit Joe to persist long in such a dangerous mathematical error.

FRom this moment the Prophet perceived that Mr. Rice was a shining light that could not be dispensed with in his cabinet, especially as he found he could sing a capital song and crack jokes by the hour, (which no one enjoyed better than Joe,) and sermonize with a zeal and fervor that was calculated to bring hundreds into the fold of this great shepherd. At the same time they commenced a running account of the money and sentiments with each other, in which Dan indeed was imprudent enough to suffer himself to be the greatest creditor, with the ultimate hope, by some coup de main, to aspire to the same exalted position as was enjoyed by his able coadjutor, mindful as he had now become, of the unlimited control he could easily gain over this body of fanatics. Feigned revelations were daily made, in connection with occult practices that would have consigned him to the stake in the reign of New England witchcraft, in which Dan brought to bear an intimate knowledge of [chemistry] and of legerdamain, slight-of-hand and tact in controlling an audience, (the last by no means the least important,) acquired during his last year's show experience.

It was not long before Joe began to dread Dan's increasing influence, and thought it expedient to dispatch him on a pilgrimage in Iowa, to make proselytes to these convenient tenets, under the plausible pretext that no one else could undertake the task with eminent success, until in going through with his role of miracles at Montrose, after a sermon which made a powerful sensation, several St. Louis merchants, on their return from the East, where they had witnessed Mons. Paul, exposed the pretended Mormon's miracles. This so exasperated the humbugged crowd, that in the short space of time required for such things in that country. a quant. suff. of tar and feathers and a reasonably angular rail were prepared, and our hero's danger was most imminent. He was in hands he knew that felt no particular compunctions about administering such doses on account of his assumed clerical appearance. The multitude surrounded him too effectually to afford any prospect of success in an attempt at flight. He felt he could overpower a dozen of the strongest of them, but to be victorious here would be to sacrifice a hecatomb. His active mind, cool even during these intimidating proceedings, at once decided that tact and ingenuity only could save him -- he begged to be heard, not in extenuation, but to place himself rectus in curia. In the conflicting opinions, and the disturbances arising therefrom, while disputing whether or no to grant him this privilege, he was almost emboldened to undertake at one time to run the gauntlet of the whole troop -- confidence in himself, however, imbued him with courage to remain and trust to diplomacy. "Let me sing you a song," he shoured, "and afterwards do your pleasure with me." This tickled their fancy, "A song from the Mormon, -- a song from the Preacher," re-echoed on every side. Mounting to the top of of the tar barrel, so as to get a view of the whole crowd, (in the row he had been forced from his temporary pulpit,) and clearing his voice, he commenced improvising a comic song, narrating with such an irrestible hunor how he had humbugged the Mormons, and dwelling so pathetically upon his ridiculous situation, to each verse of which was a chorus set to a Mormon service music, that long before he hoped to succeed, the whole mass were joining him in the chorus, each having probably mentally decided to forgive him the music and the [rythem] were were probably not as meltifluous as the ex tempore songs with which he now regales his audience, but the more effective upon his rough auditory for being so unpolished and unfinished. An eye witness, now residing at Keokuk, describes the scene as most exciting, as each unconscious of the secret determination of his neighbor to save the late object of their vengeance, began to feel as much concern as Dan himself had lately done. Dan, however, could read their faces better, and had already discovered his safety in their plaudits, and ceased singing for a moment, to tell them if they would carry away that ugly rail, and barrel and basket of feathers, he would give them an ex tempore show. A jolly time they had of it, and parted mutually pleased with each other. This contre temps, happening so near Nauvoo, must of course reach Joe Smith's ears directly, so Dan hastened to him to ask a settlement, not only of money loaned to him, bur salary as a preacher at $50 per month, under the pretext of the splendid opening to make converts on the line of the States of Missouri and Iowa. He found Joe had been practicing divers expedients to regain his tottering sway as the only worker of miracles, one of which was to be put in effect the next morning at sun-rise, to wit: to walk upon the water for fifty yards, into the Mississippi. Little averse to a rupture now, he this time, with success, put his false computation into practice, and as Dan could not get him alone so as to take personal satisfaction, he was fain to express himself satisfied with the portion of his dues offered, determining eventually, however, to get even with him. Walking upon the water was in fact a plan of Dan's, suggested to be effected by the construction of a narrow raised gangway of planks, knee deep under the water, so as not to be detected, and he had no doubt that such was now the way in which Joe purposed to accomplish this new miracle. That night, (although early in the afternoon he was ferried over to Montrose, ostensibly on his mission to Missouri,) he returned stealthily, and groping with a skiff in the water, where the feat was to be performed, he found the gangway already laid, and took up two lengths of planks about half-way out, from which it may easily be supposed the Prophet was precipitated into the stream the next morning, to the great damage, not only of his life, but also of his reputation in miracles, about the same hour that Dan, who had taken the first boat down, landed at Quincy, a beautiful village about 60 miles below.


Note: The umpteenth telling of a "Joe Smith walking on the water" tale. However fanciful and improbable the above account may seem, it is likely that the young strong-man Daniel M. Rice (1823-1901) did visit Nauvoo, perform there, and meet Joseph Smith, not long before Rice initiated his circus clown act, upstream from the Mormon city, in Galena, Illinois, in 1844. There is no record, however, of his ever having been baptized a Mormon.

SKETCH  OF  THE  MORMONS..

The geography of the Mormon Territory, and the present condition of that people, are eloquently described in a lecture recently delivered before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, by Thomas L. Kane, whose acquaintance with the character and history of the Mormons was formed by long association with them in the wilderness, while acting in an official capacity under the United States government. The whole pamphlet is eminently interesting, from the novelty of its facts, and the richness and beauty of its style; but we can make room only for the concluding pages:

I may not undertake to describe to you in a single lecture the Geography of Deseret, and its Great Basin. Descend from the mountains, where you have the scenery and climate of Switzerland, to seek the sky of your choice among the many climates of Italy, and you may find, welling out of the same hills, the Freezing Springs of Mexico and the Hot Springs of Iceland, both together coursing their way to the Salt Sea of Palestine in the plain below. The pages of Malte Bran provide me with a less truthful parallel to it, than those which describe the happy Valley of Rasselas or the Continent of Balnibarbi.

*    *    *    *    *    *

A severer trial than the visit of the cricket- locusts threatened Deseret in the discovery of the gold of California. It was due to a party of the Mormon battalion recruited on the Missouri who on their way home, found employment at New Helvetia. They were digging a mill-race there, and threw up the gold dust with their shovels, You all know the crazy fever that broke out as soon as this was announced, It infected every one through California. Where the gold was discovered at Sutter's and around, the standing grain was left uncut; whites, Indians and mustees, all set them to gathering gold, every other labor forsaken, as if the first comers could rob the casket of all that it contained. The disbanded soldiers came to the valley; they showed their poor companions pieces of the yellow treasure they had gained; and the cry was raised -- "To California -- To the Gold of Ophir, our brethren have discovered! To California!"

Some of you have perhaps come across the half ironic instructions of the heads of the Church, to the faithful outside the Valley:

"THE TRUE USE OF GOLD is for paving streets, covering houses, and making culinary dishes; and when the Saints shall have preached the Gospel, raised grain, and built up cities enough, the Lord will open up the way fir a supply of gold to the perfect satisfaction of his people. Until then, let them not be over anxious, for the treasures of the earth are in the Lord's storehouse, and he will open the doors thereof when and where he pleases." -- 11 Gen. Epistle, 14.

The enlightened virtue of their rules saved the people and the fortunes of Deseret. A few only went away -- end they were asked in kindness never to return. The rest remained to be healthy and happy, to "raise grain and build up cities."

The history of the Mormons has ever since been the unbroken record of the most wonderful prosperity. It has looked, as though the elements of fortune, obedient to a law of natural reaction, were struggling to compensate to them their undue share of suffering. They may be pardoned for deeming it miraculous.

*    *    *    *    *    *

The territory of the Mormons is unequaled as stock-raising country. The finest pastures of Lombardy are not more estimable than those on the east side of the Utah Lake and Jordan River. We find here the cereal economy, the Bunch grass. In May, when the other grasses push, this fine pant dries upon its stalk, and becomes a light yellow straw, full of flavor and nourishment. It continues thus, through what are the dry months of the climate, till January, and then starts with a vigorous growth, like that of our own winter wheat in April, which keeps on till the return of another May. Whether as straw or grass, the cattle fatten on it, the year round.

*    *    *    *    *    *

The Mormons have also been singularly happy in their Indian relations.

*    *    *    *    *    *

From the first, therefore, the Mormons have had little or nothing to do in Deseret, but attend to their mechanical and strictly agricultural pursuits. They have made several successful settlements; the farthest North, at what they term Brownsville, is about forty miles, and the farthest South, in a valley called the Sanpeech, 200 miles from that first formed. A duplicate of the Lake Tiberias or Genesareth, empties its waters into the innocent Dead Sea of Deseret, by a fine river, to which the Mormons have given the name -- it was impossible to give it any other -- of the Western Jordan.

It was on the right bank of this stream, at a choice spot upon a rich table land traversed by a great company of exhaustless streams falling from the highlands, that the Pioneer band of Mormons, coming out of the mountains in the night, pitched their first camp in the Valley, and consecrated the ground. Curiously enough, this very spot proved the most favorable site for their first settlement, and after exploring the whole country, they have founded on it their city of Hierusalem. Its houses are spread to command an much as possible the farms, which are laid out in Wards or Cantons, with a common fence to each Ward. The farms in wheat already cover a space greater than the District of Columbia, over all of which they have completed the canals, and other arrangements for beautiful irrigation, after the manner of the cultivators of the East. The houses are distributed over an area nearly as great as the city of New York.

They have little thought as yet of luxury in their public buildings. But they will soon have nearly completed a large common public store-house and granary, and a great sized public bath house. One of the many wonderful thermal springs of the valley, a white sulphur water of the temperature of 102 degrees Fahrenheit, with a head "the thickness of a man's body," they have already brought into the town for this purpose; and all have learned the habit of indulging in it. They have besides a yellow brick meeting-house, 100 feet by 60, in which they gather on Sundays and in the week-day evenings. But this is only a temporary structure. They have reserved a summit level in the heart of the city, for the site of a Temple far superior to that of Nauvoo, which, in the days of their future; wealth and power, is to be the landmark of the Basin and goal of future pilgrims.

They mean to seek no other resting-place. After pitching camps enough to exhaust many times over the chapter of names in 33d Numbers, they have at last come to their Promised Land, and, "behold, it is a good land and large, and flowing with milk and honey": and here again for them, as at Nauvoo, the forge smokes and the anvil rings, and whirring wheels go round; again has returned the merry sport of childhood, and the evening quiet of old age, and again dear house-pet flowers bloom in garden plots round happy homes.

It is to these homes, in the heart of our American Alps, like the holy people of the Grand Saint Bernard, they hold out their welcome to the passing traveler. Some of you have probably seen in the St. Louis papers the repeated votes of thanks to them of companies of emigrants to California. These are often reduced to great straights, after passing Fort Laramie, and turn aside to seek the Salt Lake Colony in pitiable plights of fatigue and destitution. The road, after leaving the Oregon trace, is one of increasing difficulty, and when the last mountain has been crossed, passes along the bottom of a deep canon, whose scenery is of an almost terrific gloom. It is a defile that I trust no Mormon Martin Hofer of this Western Tyrol will be called to consecrate to liberty with blood. At every turn the overhanging cliffs threaten to break down upon the little torrent river that has worn its way at their base. Indeed, the narrow ravine is so serrated by this stream, that the road crosses it from one side to the other something like forty times in the last five miles. At the end of the ravine the emigrant comes abruptly, out of the dark pass into the lighted valley on an even bench or terrace of its upper table land. No wonder if he loses his self-control here. A ravishing panoramic landscape opens out below him, blue and green, and gold and pearl; a great sea, with hilly islands, rivers, a lake, and broad sheets of grassy plain, all set, as peaks of perpetual snow are burnished by a dazzling sun. It is less these, however, than the foreground of old-country farms, with their stacks and thatchings and stock, and the central city, smoking from its chimneys and swarming with working inhabitants, that tries the men of fatigue-broken nerves. The "Californeys" scream, they sing, they give three cheers, and do not count them; a few have prayed; more swear, some fall on their faces and cry outright. News arrived a few days since from a poor township of ours, a journeyman saddler, that used to work up Market street beyond Broad, by name Gillian, who sought the valley, his cattle given out, and himself broken down and half heart-broken. The recluse Mormons fed and housed him and his party, and he made his way through to the gold-diggings with restored health and strength.

Several hundred immigrants, in more or less distress received gratuitous assistance last year from the Mormons.

Their community must go on thriving. They are to be the chief workers and contractors upon "Whitney's Railroad," or whatever scheme is to unite the Atlantic and Pacific by way of the South Pass; and their valley must be its central station. They have already raised a "Perpetual Fund" for "the final fulfillment of the covenant made by the Saints in the Temple at Nauvoo," which "is not to cease till all the poor are brought to the valley." All the poor still lingering behind will be brought there; so at an early period will the fifty thousand communicants, the Church already numbers in Great Britain, with all the other "increase among the Gentiles."

*    *    *    *    *    *

Large numbers are expected to arrive at this point from England during the present spring, on their way to the Salt Lake. They will repay their welcome; for every working person gained to the hive of their "Honey State" counts as added wealth. So far, the Mormons write in congratulation, that they have not among them "a single loafer, rich or poor, idle gentleman or lazy vagabond." They are no Communists; but their experience has taught them the gain of joint stock to capital, and combination to labor -- perhaps something more, for I remark they have recently made arrangements to "classify their mechanics," which is probably a step in the right direction. They will be successful manufacturers, for their vigorous land-locked industry cannot be tampered with by protection. They have no gold -- they have not hunted for it; but they have found wealth of other valuable minerals; rock salt enough to do the curing of the world -- "We'll salt the Union for you," they write, "if you can't preserve it in any other way" -- perhaps coal, excellent ores of iron everywhere. They are near enough, however to the California Sierra to be the chief quartermasters of its miners; and they will dig their own gold in their unlimited fields of admirably fertile land. I should only invite your incredulity, and the disgust of the Horticultural Society, by giving you certain measurements of mammoth beets, turnips, pumpkins, and garden vegetables, in my possession. In that country, where stock thrives care free, where a poor man's 32 potatoes saved can return him 18 bushels, and 2 1/2 bushels of wheat sown yield 350 bushels in a season; or where an average crop of wheat on irrigated lands is 50 bushels to the acre, the farmer's part is hardly to be despised. Certainly it will not be, under a continuance of the present prices -- current of the region -- wheat at $1 the bushel, and flour $12 the hundred, with a ready market.

The recent letters from Deseret interest me in one thing more. They are eloquent in describing the anniversary of the Pioneers' arrival in the Valley. It was the 24th of July, and they have ordained that that day shall be commemorated in future like our 21st of December, as their Fore-father's Day. The Noble Walker (Chief of the Utah Indians) attended as an invited guest, with two hundred of his best dressed mounted cavaliers, who stacked their guns and took up their places at the ceremonies and banquet, with the quiet precision of soldiers marching to mass. The Great Band was there too, that had helped their humble hymns through all the wanderings of the wilderness. Through the many trying marches of 1846, through the fierce winter ordeal that followed, and the long journey after over plain and mountain, it had gone unbroken, without the loss of any of its members. As they set out from England, and as they set out from Illinois, so they all come into the valley together, and together sounded the first glad notes of triumph when the Salt Lake City was founded. It was their right to lead the psalm of praise. Anthem, song and dance, all the innocent and thankful frolic of the day owed them its chief zest. "They never were in finer key." The people felt their sorrows ended. Far West, their old settlement in Missouri, and Nauvoo, with their wealth and ease, like "Pithom and Ramses, treasure cities built for Pharaoh," went awhile forgotten. Less than four years had restored them every comfort that they needed. Their entertainment, the contribution of all, I have no doubt was really sumptuous. It was spread on broad buffet tables about 1,400 feet in length, at which they took their seats by turns, while they kept them heaped with ornamental delicacies. "Butter of kine, and milk, with fat of lambs, with the fat of kidneys of wheat;" "and the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions and the garlic, and the remembered fish which we did eat in Egypt freely," they seem unable to dilate with too much pride upon the show it made.

"To behold the tables," says one, that I quote from literally, "To behold them filling the Bowery and all adjoining grounds, loaded with all the luxuries of the fields and gardens, and nearly all the varieties that any vegetable market in the world could produce, and to see the seats around these tables filled and refilled by a people who had been deprived of those luxuries the cruel hand of oppression, and freely offering seats to every stranger within their borders; and this, too, within the Valley of the Mountains, over a thousand miles from civilization, where, two years before, naught was to be found save the wild root of the prairie and the mountain cricket; was a theme of unbounded thanksgiving and praise to the Giver of all Good, as the dawning of a day when the Children of the Kingdom can sit under their own vines and fig trees, and inhabit their own houses, having none to make them afraid. May the time be hastened when the scattered Israel may partake of such like banquets "from the gardens of Joseph."

I should do wrong to conclude my lecture without declaring in succinct and definite terms, the opinions I have formed and entertain of the Mormon people. The libels of which they have been made the subject, make this a simple act of justice. Perhaps, too, my opinion, even with those who know me as you do, will better answer its end following after the narrative I have given.

I have spoken to you of a people whose industry bad made them rich, and gathered around them all the comforts, and not a few of the luxuries of refilled life; expelled by lawless force into the wilderness, seeking an untried home far away from the scene, which their previous life had endeared to them; moving onward, destitute, hunger-sickened, and sinking with disease; bearing along with them their wives and children, the aged, and the poor, and the decrepit; renewing daily on their march, the offices of devotion, the ties of family and friendship, and charity; sharing necessities, and braving dangers together; cheerful in the midst of want and trial, and persevering until they triumphed. I have told, or tried to tell you, of men, who, when menaced by famine, and in the midst of pestilence, with every energy taxed by the urgency of the hour, were building roads and bridges, laying out villages, and planting corn-fields, for the stranger who might come after them, their kinsmen only by a common humanity, and peradventure a common suffering -- of men, who have renewed their prosperity in the homes they have founded in the desert -- and who, in their new built city, wailed round by mountains like a fortress, are extending pious hospitalities to the destitute emigrants from our frontier lines -- of men who, far removed from the restraints of law, obeyed it from choice, or found in the recesses of their religion, something not inconsistent with human laws, but far more controlling; and who are now soliciting from the government of the United States, not indemnity -- for the appeal would be hopeless, and they know it -- not protection, for they now have no need of it -- but that identity of political institutions, and that community of laws with the rest of us, which was confessedly their birthright when they were driven beyond our borders.

I said I would give you the opinion I formed of the Mormons: you may deduce it for yourselves from these facts. But I will add that I have not yet heard the single charge against them as a community; against their habitual purity of life, their integrity of dealing, their toleration of religious differences in opinion, their regard for the laws, or their devotion to the constitutional government under which we live, that I do not from my own observation, or the testimony of others, know to be unfounded.

__________
* "Letter of the Presidency," Great Salt Lake City, Oct. 19, 1849.


Note: Col. Kane's extensively lengthy speech on behalf of the Mormons was evidently not carried in full by very many American publications. The Dollar Newspaper probably obtained its truncated text from some other eastern journal, which, like the International Weekly Miscellany of July 8, 1850, found sufficient news matter in Kane's final paragraphs.

MORMONS  BUILDING  CITY  IN  SAN  BERNARDINO.

(under construction)

 

Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMONS  AGAIN.

A Cincinnati correspondent, who gives the Mormons a regular going-over in his letter, for their doctrines and practice of polygamy, and whom we judge to be something of a Mormon himself, says, very much to the purpose: --

They announce that polygamy is a doctrine "sent forth as a Standard of Universal Restoration for the Tribes of Israel, and for all nations." They "seek to excuse themselves" in their abominations, because of the things which were written concerning some of the ancients. A specimen of this kind of sophistry is presented by Mr. Pratt in his communication, and yet this great Apostle professes to be a Mormon, and I have no doubt that many of your readers imagine that Brigham Young and all these Salt Lake apostles believe in the Book of Mormon and the original Mormonism, whereas they hace "departed from the faith," and "have turned the grace of God into lasciviousness." The Book of Mormon informs us of just such apostates as they are, who lived on this land in ancient times. It says: "Thus saith the Lord, this people begin to wax in iniquity; they understand not the Scriptures; for they seek to excuse themselves in committing whoredoms, because of the things which were written concerning David, and Solomon his son. Begold, David and Solomon truly had many wives and concubines, which thing was abominable before me, saith the Lord. *  *  *  There shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none: For I, the Lord God, delighteth in the chastity of women. *  *  *  I will not suffer, saith the Lord of hosts, that the cries of the fair daughters of this people, which I have led out of the land of Jerusalem, shall come up unto me against the men of my people, saith the Lord of hosts; for they shall not lead away captive the daughters of my people, because of their tenderness, save I shall visit them with a sore curse, even unto destruction; for the shall not committ whoredoms, like unto them of old, saith the Lord of hosts."

Mr. Pratt accuses "Christendom" of having "petty prejudices, local superstitions, and narrow views" on the subject, but these quotations, and more that might be made, show that the Book of Mormon is more opposed to the Salt Lake "Standard of Universal Restoration" than Christendom is, for the Book of Mormon condemns ancient as well as modern polygamy. The Salt Lake apostles also excuse themselves by saying that Joseph Smith taught the spiritual wife doctrine, but this excuse is as weak as their excuse concerning the ancient kings and patriarchs. Joseph Smith repented of his connection with this doctrine, and said it was of the devil. He caused the revelations on that subject to be burned, and when he voluntarily came to Nauvoo and resigned himself into the arms of his enemies, he said that he was going to Carthage to die. At that time he also said, if it had not been for that accursed spiritual wife doctrine, he would not have come to that. By his conduct at that time he proved the sincerity of his repentance, and of his profession as a prophet. If Abraham and Jacob, by repentance, can attain salvation and exaltation, so can Joseph Smith.
                               Respectfully,
                                                   ISAAC SHEEN.

It therefore seems that the Salt Lake Mormons, if Mr. Sheen be correct, and he quotes the words of the "Book of Mormon," are acting not only in opposition to common decency and morality, but to the explicit commands of their "own holy Book," and to the dying testimony of Joseph Smith, their founder. We shall be pleased to hear from any of our Mormon readers, how the doctrine of their Bible upon this subject, and the present Salt Lake practices, can be reconciled. If there are a majority of honest, pure-minded men and women among the people...


Note: This is Elder Isaac Sheen's first known published comments on Mormon iniquity, since he took Latter Day Saint "President" William Smith to task in the pages of various Cincinnati and Washington D. C. newspapers in 1850. No doubt Elder Sheen had even more to say, after the official announcement of Utah Mormon polygamy was published in the Sept. 14, 1852 issue of the Salt Lake City Deseret News, however, Sheen subsequent remarks on the topic have not yet been located for transcription.