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 essentially the same reprint from the Oct. 3, 1850 issue of the Boston New England Puritan-Recorder.

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, (via Detroit,) Sunday, June 8.

The Captain of the sloop Planet, who arrived here this afternoon from Beaver Island, reports that the Mormons yesterday murdered Thomas Bennett in his own house, and dangerously wounded his brother Samuel. He says the excitement among the Gentiles (all who are not Saints) at this cold-blooded murder of peaceable and industrious citizens is fearfully alarming, and that nothing short of a general fight and massacre can allay their rage. At the time he left there, 10 o'clock, the fishermen and Indians were collecting at Mackinley's Point, prepratory to an attack on the Mormons, who were also mustering their forces in anticipation of this fight, and while I am writing this cornmunication the work of death may be going on. The plea set up by the Mormons in justification of this sanguinary murder of an unoffending man within the sanctity of his domestic rules is, that the Bennets offered resistance to fifty or sixty Mormons who came to arrest them, with warrants, on a charge of having said the previous day that they would not recognize Mormon law.

After they had riddled the body with rifle balls they broke in the door of his cabin and brutally dragged the corpse by the hair of the head to the lake shore, and put both brothers in their own fishing-boat, one dead, and the other nearly so, and carried them twelve miles, before the Mormon Justice who had issued the warrants.

These are the men whose houses they burned last Winter, and whose lives the King doomed to destruction it they did give their farms to the saints and leave the island.


Notes: (forthcoming)

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.

                 From the St. Louis Republican, 22d.

By the Steamer Duroc, from the Missouri River yesterday, we received an extra from the office of The Kanesville Guardian, containing later and interesting news from the Plains. Mr. Thomas Bateman and ten others arrived at Kanesville on the 13th, from the Great Salt Lake City. As they traveled with ox-teams, and were nearly two months on the route, the news from the city itself is no later than we received two weeks ago.

Mr. B. met Orson Hyde and Company 108 miles this side of Fort Laramie. He brought a letter from Mr. Hyde to Mr. Mackintosh of Kanesville, dated 22d July in which he gives an account of an adventure with the Indians. On the 11th, near one branch on the Loop Fork of the Platte, his party was assailed by a party of about 300 Pawnee Indians, and robbed of between seven and eight hundred dollars. There wan only seven of the Mormons in company. Mr. Hyde lost eighty dollars worth of clothing, gun, camp furniture and provisions, beside his horse Jim, which he afterward recovered by paying $40 for him. At the time of writing, they were all in good health and spirits. Capt. Smith's "three fifties" were not robbed by the Indians, as they had passed before they had taken their position on the route. Mr. Hyde says that he is satisfied that there is a concerted plan between the Omahas and Pawnees to plunder the trains, but the Omahas backed off from the arrangement. Orson Pratt lost his horses after crossing the Missouri River, at Winter Quarters: he supposed that the Omahas stole them. They experienced only one rain storm, but this was a severe one.

Another letter from Mr. Crombie states that Judge Brocchus, Mr. Wm. H. Gooch and Mr. Walker, shared Mr. Hyde's fate. The report is that they were robbed of all their clothing except pantalooons and shirts. Mr. Crombie killed a fine horse in making his escape from the Indians

Mr. Bateman met several California companies, two days' travel from Salt Lake City, all getting along well. He met Mr. Babbitt and a number of Government officers for Utah, two hundred miles the other side of Fort Laramie, progressing slowly, their animals much jaded. Capt. Stephens's contpany was met about three hundred and fifty miles out, proceeding without molestation. There was a company of about three hundred wagons in the Sand Hills, where Mr. Hyde was attacked, and fears were entertained for their safety, as the Pawnee Indians were known to be in force in that vicinity.

John Brown's company of emigarants was met at the junction of the new road, two hundred and forty miles from Winter Quarters, 28th July, getting along very well.


Notes: (forthcoming)

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, the following terrestrial facts:

"The Railway from this city to the mountains was surveyed early in the season, and partly graded; and a considerable share of the timber and rails are on the ground. When the harvest approached, the work was suspended for want of labourers, but will be resumed as early as possible. The walls of the basement story of the Seventies' Hall are in progress, and the walls of the Tithing Barn are completed; also the walls of the joiners' and paint shop, and planing and slitting machine, 140 by 45 feet on the Temple Block, preparatory to building a Temple. * * * The Council House is completed. The Tithing Store House is in progress of finishing. * * * The foundation of a Tabernacle, on Temple Block, 124 by 64 feet, is nearly completed... The Desert Pottery is nearly completed... * * * and two carding machines are in operation... There are four grain and five saw mills in opentin, or nearly completed, in Great Salt Lake County; two grain and two saw mills in Weber County... one grain and two saw mills in Utah Canty; one grain and two saw mills in San Pete County; one grain and two saw mills in Iron County; and one saw mill in Tooele County. * * * The birth-day of the nation, July 4th, was celebrated by the citizens of this Valley in a most patriotic manner, on the banks of the Great Salt Lake, about 24 miles from the city, attended with every expression of joy and gladness, that could flow from the hearts of a free and virtuous people."


Notes: (forthcoming)

The  Mormons  in  Utah.

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

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


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; and by the last advices from points still further south, we are aware they are only awaiting the reestablishment of a military post, some time since abandoned, to take possession of all the arable lands in the valley of the Gila. For laudable purposes, such exhibitions of enterprize and perseverance would be admirable, but such as suppose the interesrs or the power of he United States are intended to be strengthened by them, reckon "without their host." Absurd as it may seem, Mormon supremacy is the sole object of these arrangements and the dispositions themselves are so judicious and skillful, that it is a marvel the judgment which orders them, can contemplate so silly a use of them.

The comniunications of the Executive to Congress upon our relations with the Mormons, probably astounded the country; and it may be the tales of the fugitive functionaries are regarded as much the consequence of fear, as of fact, but the truth of them is not doubted here. One can go into the street, at any hour, and find a cloud of witnesses, who "crossed the plains" via Salt Lake, ready to testify that, in their own hearing, Brigham Young and his colleagues have spoken similarly of the people of the United States and of their power, and have, by the same processes applied to Babbitt, been themstrlves despoiled of their goods.

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD DO.

It will be scarcely worth the while of the Government to meddle with this matter, unless it be by a powerful hand. In point of strength, the Mormon community is respectable, but by no means terrible. As in all cases of popular delusion, the real culprits are comparatively few, and, after they are disposed of, forbearance may well be shown to the rank and file. If the Government would offer a respectable military escort to the immigrant train which will leave Missouri the coming Spring, upon condition that the effective men of the train should act as United States troops upon the march, it might not be amiss to return the fugitive United States officers to Salt Lake and install them in their offices. At the same time, it is indispensable that Brigham Young and such of his coadjutors against whom overt acts can be proved, should be tried and executed. If some of those who are hounding out treason about Christians would give their attention and services where treason really exists, great good might come of it.

If anything be done in this behalf, the sooner it is done the better. It is even now alleged by many, and believed by some, that the Mormons sustain relations to certain lndians, not in harmony with the duties of American citizens or civilized people. Salt Lake is said to be the market for plunder acquired by Indians so located that they can steal only from American citizens. It is not best to be misled by the circumstances they propose, to occupy the valley of the Gila under the auspices of the United States, since it may happen, after they shall have won a foothold, they will again form independent alliances; and it may become necessary to subdue the Mormons, that the Yumas, the Navajos and the Apaches should also be vanquished. The troops, necessary for the campaign against the Mormons, would, of necessity, be en route for the point where an increase of the national force is absolutely needed, and has been recommended by the President.


Notes: (forthcoming)

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 part of the trip was delightful. The Black Hills are spurs of the Rocky Mountains, over which Laramie Peake is the presiding sovereign with a white plume in his cap, and a cloud on his brow. The scenery is wild, beautiful and gorgeous. We rolled over these hills, breathed the pure air and feasted our eyes with delight. One beautiful morning, while riding on horseback with my wife, along one of the high ridges from which we could see a hundred sweet valleys, we met the first train homeward from Oregon. They were "packing it through" with mules. The principals were Kentuckians, gentlemanly fellows, who seemed not a little pleased to see a lady on horseback with skirt, hat and whip, under full canter, so far into the wilderness. On, on we came, rolling over the rivers and up the valleys, over the mountains and down the canyons, until we arrived at this, the great city of the Mormons. We came this way to get something good to eat and to rest our mules and ourselves.

This is a beautiful valley. The mountains which surround it are high, bold and rugged, whose summits are always covered with snow. No timber grows in the Valley, and not much on the mountains near by; but water, delightful streams of water, gush out and run down the sides of the mountains, which are conducted along the ridges to the city, and all the principal farms in the Valley. The Mormons are a very energetic, industrious people. They are farming, building, and in fact, are doing up a big business most every way. We were here in time to witness Mormon religious service on Sunday, and the ceremonies of the 4th on Monday, at the Tabernacle. They sang and prayed like other religious denominations, but the preachers took no text, and, of course, said nothing in particular, but a great many things in general. The first preacher, an Englishman, had a good deal to say about the "houtlines" of Mormonism, but he made a perfect fizzle of it, and did but little else than illustrate his own lack of brains. But 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 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. He arose to harangue his people, but did not remove his gloves. There was nothing eloquent in his matter or manner, nor was his voice at all agreeable. The burden of his discourse was to show that no person, except he is "embued with the power of God, is fit to administer the temporal affairs of a people;" which, when made applicable to his audience, signified that be was the only man to be Governor of Utah. From this subject he took leave, and made a tilt at the lawyers, as a class of people, and I must say I never heard such low-flung, foul-mouthed expressions come from the lips of any man having any claim to decency, as were uttered by him in this connection. In fact, I was disappointed in the man. I did expect to see a man of some talent -- of some religious enthusiasm, or some other property or qualification calculated to inspire admiration. But not so. He is not half the man Joe Smith was. Cool cunning and sensuality are the chief characteristics indicated by his countenance. He has a number of wives. His old wife is the only one entitled to the appellation of mistress, while all the others are called by their christian names.

They make no bones of this many wife business here, but talk about it familliarly, and practice it extensively -- holding that every, man is entitled to as many wives as he can maintain. But the real argument with the Mormons is this -- that according to the Scriptures the "Saints are to reign a thousand years"-- that this period is now to be consummated in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints -- that it is necessary that the Saints should increase as fast as possible -- that by emigration from all parts of the world, and by natural increase, they will soon be strong enough to conquer the Gentiles, to rebuild their demolished temples, and avenge the blood of their murdered prophets -- and when all these events shall come to pass, then the "Saints shall reign a thousand years." I saw a whole omnibus load of Brigham's wives leave the tabernacle together, Brigham sitting on one side next the door, and his old wife on the other.

What is to come of all this? A generation of brothers and sisters who will not be able to distinguish their own kin -- a miserbly corrupt state of society which will, sooner or later, fester and rot the whole community of Mormons, which will explode by spontaneous combustion in the end, and blow up the whole concern. Is there no remedy for this outrage on society in a christain country? None. The genius of our institutions allows all States and Territories to elect their own Legislatures and to make their own laws. The Mormons constitute nearly the entire population of Utah. Their Legislature has passed no law inhibiting bigamy -- hence it is no crime here, and the way is open for as many wives as they please. But I have no time to enlarge. More anon.   S. W. B.


Notes: (forthcoming)

UTAH.
______

The Mormons -- Population -- Religious, &c.

Correspondence of the St. Louis Intelligencer.

GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 12, 1852.          

With a slash of the whip across the shoulders, and a dash of the rowels into the flanks of their respective animals, a company of young Mormon belles and beaux on horseback -- the belles arrayed in long skirted riding dresses and green velvet caps, and the beaux in their shirt sleeves and bare necks, with slouched woolen hats upon their heads, and slips of coarse leather wrapped around the lower extremities of their legs, from the knees down, in the fashion of leggings, rush at full gallop past my window. I step to the door to observe more closely the unusual sight, and while watching with curious eye the receding figures, am reminded of my promise to sketch you a few of the peculiarities of Mormon life, manners, character and institutions, such as they have presented themselves to my mind during a residence of several weeks in the Valley. The task I have imposed upon myself is a somewhat difficult one. When there is much ignorance and fanaticism upon the one side, and so much prejudice and contempt upon the other, it is impossible that I should in what I have to say, entirely please either Mormon or Gentile -- for such the Saints term all who disagree with them in point of religious faith. Gentiles will, I dare say, attribute to me too lenient an indulgence to the abominable doctrines and hateful persons of sacrilegious idolaters, while Mormons will accuse me of a severity merging into persecution of God's faithful and chosen saints. It is even doubtful whether I shall myself feel altogether satisfied as to the truth and fidelity of my own impressions. But as truth and justice, and the presentation of correct and faithful impressions in regard to subjects which are beginning to excite a very general interest throughout the country are my only objects, I shall write simply as I think, careless alike who approves or who condemns.

The population of this city I should suppose to be between eight and ten thousand. That of the Valley at large I have no very reliable means of estimating. Upon a rude computation, based upon the best sources of in-formation which are accessible to me, I should estimate it as ranging somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand. This population is of an altogether hybrid or heterogeneous character, being composed of emigrants from every section of the Union, and almost every country in Europe. Here are congregated the keen, sharp-witted, restless Yankee, the prudent, canny, slim-visaged Scotchman, the pursy, self-complacent, consequential Englishman, the dull, phlegmatic German, with a rare occasional specimen of a more gay, light-hearted Irishman or Frenchman, all of whom associate together in this desert-girt retreat upon terms of the most social harmony and brotherhood. I have often been amused at one of their saintly peculiarities, their manner of addressing or speaking of one another. A saint invariably salutes or speaks of a fellow-saint with the endearing appellation of Brother or Sister. This peculiarity is not confined to the elder members of the community, but extends to all ages and both sexes. I have sometimes been moved to fits of almost uncontrollable laughter with a keen sense of the ludicrous, at hearing a saintly infant of eight or twelve address his playmate, or speak of some elderly personage by the fraternal title of Brother Zebulon or Brother Hyde, or some other kindred name. There is, however, one exception to this peculiar feature of Mormon custom. The term Brother is rarely if ever applied to the head of the Church and Governor of the Territory, Brigham Young. In speaking of this high and influential personage, the less exalted saints sometimes, when they wish to be particularly deferential, term him President Young, in virtue of his office as President of the Church. But most commonly they in familiar parlance style him simply Brigham. He is seldom alluded to as Governor, the saints seeming to hold in high contempt any reflected honor which political title or station could give to the great High Priest of their faith and immediate representative of God upon earth.

English people, both men and women, form a very large proportion, I think fully one-third, perhaps one-half, of the community. With strict fidelity to their English origin and character, they generally constitute the most officious, self-important busy bodies in the Valley. A rosy-cheeked, smooth-tongued Englishman, with his abdominal organs distended to a state of the most graceful rotundity from the reciprocal effect of high living upon roast beef and high steaming with strong beer and such like fluids, freshly arrived from the old country, where he had perhaps been accustomed to hold the stirrup of "my Lord John" or answer the bell of "Sir Thomas" with becoming servility, comes to the Salt Lake, and soon he begins to swagger with an air of lordliness and state at the bare thought of his recent emancipation. He looks down, as the humor of the moment may move him, with an air of unconcealed dislike or supercilious patronage, upon the native sons of America, who may chance to be passing through, or stopping a short time in the Valley. Generally he delights to cherish treasonable sentiments against the Government and authority of the United States, and sometimes dares so far as to give vent to his treasonable feelings in expressions of disrespect and contumely toward the Chief Magistrate and other high officers of the nation. Such characters are not unfrequently to be met with in this place. Do not understand me as disposed to indulge in any tirade against England or the English people. Next to the Government and people of our own country, I admire and venerate the institutions and people of Old England. But there is a vast difference between the accomplished cultivated English gentleman and the rude ignorant English boor. The one, is one of the most agreeable, fascinating companions in the world; the other, the most intolerably provoking and disagreeable character with which a gentleman can be brought in contact. Unfortunately many, very many, of the English in the Salt Lake Valley belong to this latter class. There are a number of Welsh in the Valley, who generally live in the country at some distance from the city. They generally constitute a very industrious and sober class of the community.

Of the American portion of the population, by far the greater number came from New-York, and the other Middle and Eastern States. Occasionally a representative from the various Southern and Western States is to be found among their numbers. How a Missourian, or Kentuckian, or Carolinian, could ever have strayed off to these comparatively unknown wilds to unite himself to the Mormon Church, is a mystery which, I confess, quite altogether surpasses my comprehension. Yet here they are to be found. The Mormons almost universally belong to what are usually denominated the lower or laboring classes of society in the States and countries where they originally resided. The state of learning and intelligence prevailing among them generally, I should judge, by the appearance and conversation of most of those who came under my observation, to be at a very low standard, while many, very many of them, are destitute of the first rudiments of a common English education, being rude and ignorant to a very high degree. I do not recollect to have ever met or seen among them a single person whose appearance, manners or speech, would indicate him as a gentleman of refined, cultivated or even educated mind. I do not except from this re-mark either the President, Governor Young, or any of the other leaders of the Church. And yet there are not a few men among them of naturally keen, shrewd, strong intellects. But if the natural intelligence of the Mormons is none the most penetrating, their acquired knowledge none the most perfect, or their manners the most polished, they possess, as in some measure a compensation for these deficiencies, those two cardinal virtues of the classes from which they have generally sprung, industry and sobriety, in a very remarkable degree. If external manifestations are to be taken as true types of inward feeling and character, energy, perseverance and sobriety are certainly prominent, not to say predominant, traits of the Mormon character.

Every Mormon has some employment, and what is more, usually prosecutes it with praiseworthy assiduity. An idle or drunken Mormon is a social phenomenon which has not yet fallen under my eye. There are but few liquor-shops in the city. I believe that these are rarely entered by any but emigrants and transient residents. The streets of the city are quiet and orderly at all hours, both of the day and night.

As an illustration of Mormon enterprise and perseverance, I will mention a well-authenticated fact in their history. Within an hour after the first adventurers had entered the Valley in 1847, some of them had hitched horses to the plow, and were engaged in turning the sod, while others were occupied in digging ditches and making other preparations for irrigation. Generally speaking I have found them civil, and not indisposed to give me all the information I sought in regard to the principal features of their religious and social organization. In regard to the honesty of their character and conduct, it is the fashion of most of the Gentiles to doubt and distrust it. Possibly I may have fallen somewhat into the prevailing fashion in this respect, but I must candidly admit that in my limited dealings with them I saw nothing to cause me to believe that the Mormons were in their business transactions either better or worse than other people.

Having said thus much of the men I must of course devote a few words to the women or ladies of Salt Lake. With all due regard to the obligations of gallantry and deference to the rights of the sex, I cannot say that the Mormon ladies can lay claim to any superiority over their lords and masters, the Saints, either in appearance, manners or education. With some very few exceptions they generally impressed me as having sprang from inferior grades of society. Whatever may be their ether virtues, which it is but fair to presume are not a few, beauty, refined and delicate features features, and graceful manners are most certainly not of the number.

I may be permitted, without overstepping the bounds of propriety or encroaching upon the prerogatives of the sex, to say that a swain must be most deplorably persecuted with the darts of Cupid, indeed, who could fall in love with a Mormon lady at first sight. Mormon ladies, like those of other communities, are fond of making such little display of finery and fashion in dress, as is at their command. The styles in vogue vary as widely as the different costumes and usages of the various countries from whence they came. A favorite peculiarity of dress with many of them is to wear chip or Leghorn hats, somewhat after the fashion of those worn by Swiss and Italian peasant women, instead of bonnets. These sometimes serve to give some degree of piquancy to faces otherwise quite insipid or repugnant in their expression of features. The efforts of some of the beauties, both young and old, to make a fashionable display of their charms, is somewhat grotesque in the extreme.

The position of the women here is altogether second-ary to that of man. Perhaps were I to say that the women were in a state of entire and absolute subjection to the men, the term would be more truly expressive of the actual state of the relations existing between them. According to the creed which they have mutually adopted, a woman stands no chance of early happiness or spiritual salvation, unless she is married, or, in their parlance, sealed to a man. The men thus holding in their hands the keys of the women's fate, are not restricted in the number of those to whom they will with princely liberality and Christian charity extend the blessings of happiness and salvation, while poor woman is forced, under heavy penalties, even that of death, to confine herself to the sovereign rights of but one husband.

This is a right and privilege which many of the Saints avail themselves of to its fullest extent. Bigamy or polygamy is a cardinal doctrine in the faith, and a main feature in the practice of the Mormons. It is acknowledged and practiced openly and without disguise. Many of the Saints consider their liberality and capabilities sufficiently large to justify them in taking under their saintly protection as many as ten or twelve, or even more wives, who are then denominated Spirituals. To entitle them to enter into this state of relative lordship and dependence, the consent of the President, Brigham Young, as to be first obtained, and then some qualified form or ceremony of marriage to be gone through with. The number of Spirituals attached to Governor Young's immediate household, and those over whom he exercises sovereign rights, it is impossible to determine. I have, however, seen his carriage or omnibus repeatedly drive up to the Church door of a Sunday filled with a dozen or more dames -- old, middle-aged and young -- all of whom, I am told, claim to be his well-beloved and honored wives. Besides these, I am informed that he has numerous other wives quartered in various parts of the city. Being the head of the community, I presume that he has the pick of the flock. If such is the case, I cannot say that I entertain any very extravagant admiration for his taste in female beauty.

The other leading Saints, I am told, have wives or spirituals, proportionate in number to their dignity and standing in the Church. These spirituals usually reside upon the same premises with their lords; some favorite wife usually occupying the principal mansion, while the others are quartered near by, in small cottages or out-buildings erected for their accommodation. Sometimes the family becomes so large as to imperatively require a division, and they are then settled in diverse directions, the husband visiting the one or the other as taste and inclination may lead him. Strange to say, these numerous joint tenants, if I may use a legal phrase, of one lord most generally live together upon terms of the best understanding and most complete harmony. The green-eyed monster seems to have entirely overlooked the ladies of Salt Lake, in his round of terrestial visitations. -- Such a thing as a spiritual Kilkenny fight is a thing wholly unheard of and unsuspected in the annals of Mormonism.

As might be expected, the Mormons permit only a very guarded and restricted intercourse between their families and the Gentiles. With oriental jealousy they seem to doubt and distrust any and all social attentions upon the part of strangers to their wives and daughters. In fact, they generally utterly forbid the Mormon young ladies to engage in any association whatever with the young Gentiles of the city. But, unlike their great prototypes, the cautious and suspicious Mussulmen, they have no eunuchs of ferocious aspect and gigantic proportions to officiate as custodians of the sanctity of their domicils, and the precious treasures they contain. I think that very many of them might save themselves a world of doubt, anxiety and trouble, by the simple reflection, that where the temptation is weak, acts of transgression and crime are proportionately small.

The chief glory and consolation of the ladies, in the dearth of their other privileges, would seem to consist in the honor which they enjoy, to the most liberal extent, of becoming the mothers of an endless multitude of infant Saints, or Gods, as they impiously call themselves and their offspring. The number of children in the Valley is quite incalculable. It surpasses all belief. Almost every lady who has attained the age of womanhood carries one of those juvenile responsibilities in her arms. From this, some idea of the rapidly-growing population of Salt Lake may be obtained. These godlike infants are usually honored, shortly after birth, with some odd biblical or other quaint name, such as Zebulon, Erastus, Jerediah, Nehemiah, Naptha, and Tamar, and so on.

I have been a regular attendant once or twice every Sabbath, since I have been here, at the only house of worship in the place. The character and ceremonial of the services bear a strong similitude to those of several of the Protestant denominations. The services are first opened with prayer; then follows a hymn sung in a kind of operatic chant, by a choir of not very musical or cultivated looking songsters, male and female, to the accompaniment of violins, clarionets, flutes, and several other varieties of musical instruments. After this comes the sermon, or sermons, by one or more of the Elders. When these are through, miscellaneous subjects are introduced, and then the congregation is dismissed with prayer. The pulpit is generally occupied by the President, two Vice-Presidents, and twelve Apostles, and occasionally other leading Elders, some of whom commonly address the assembled multitude, as may be agreed upon at the moment, without previous preparation.

A Sunday or two since I had the pleasure of hearing a sermon upon the plurality of wives, from Brother Orson Pratt, as well as the reading of the original revelation to Joseph Smith upon the same subject, by President Young. From these I gathered a clearer insight into the mysteries of Mormon theology than I had ever had before. The Mormons believe in the authenticity of the Old Testament, and in the divine character, mission, and revelations of Jesus Christ. But they further believe that similar revelations of the divine will were made to Joseph Smith, and are now being made, as circumstances require, to Brigham Young and the other patriarchs of the Church. The Mormons believe in polytheism as well as polygamy. The two go hand in hand. The one creates and proves the necessity of the other. According to the original ideas of their theology, they are themselves all Gods and the progenitors of Gods, varying in power, intelligence and dignity, who have humiliated themselves for a while by appearing upon the earth and assuming a human form.

One of their great duties in their humiliated character is to propagate their species, and people not only this but also worlds unnumbered and uncreated with their descendants, Gods like themselves. Hence the great necessity and reason for the adoption of the system of the plurality of wives, for the more speedy accomplishment of this, the great object of their being. After death they will ascend to heaven, resume their original godship, and there live a state of perpetual beatific enjoyment, surrounded by their numerous wives and posterity. In their belief there is no such place as a separate distinct hell. Hell consists simply in the deprivation of those who are unworthy from the joys and pleasures of heaven. I wish that I had time to give you a brief sketch of many of the novel views and ideas developed in this original and characteristic sermon. I think that you would find it both curious and interesting, and gain from it a more perfect and satisfactory idea of the peculiarities of this strange religion than you could from most any other source.

One singular idea advanced by Mr. Pratt in this discourse I cannot refrain from mentioning. That was, that the principal reason why the people of the United States and Europe did not adopt the system of a plurality of wives was that they were too avaricious and penurious to support such large families; that they were fast becoming too fond of gold to support even a single wife and her offspring. This explanation of a custom which has heretofore been attributed to virtuous principle upon the part of our people and Europeans, will undoubtedly surprise and shock not a few of them. The Saints are using every endeavor to make proselytes to their religion. They are sending out missionaries, with that object, to every quarter of the globe. In a few days some eighty or ninety of these apostles of Mormonism will depart upon their missions, some destined to the various States of the Union, others to the different countries in Europe, and others yet to China, Hindostan, Australia, the Sandwich Islands, and other remote regions. They are generally selected promiscuously from the community of Saints at large, and are sometimes called upon to depart upon these distant missions with not more than a week or ten days notice, and without pay or reward. This duty they usually perform with cheerfulness and alacrity. Mr. Pratt, who delivered the sermon to which I have alluded, accompanies the party on a mission to Washington City, where he goes to edit a Mormon paper. Through the columns of his journal, I presume that the public will be fully enlightened as to all the more important points of Mormon theology, including the doctrine of spiritual wives as well as others.

In point of political feeling, I believe that there is little or no genuine American spirit or sentiment among the Mormons. If they ever entertained any feelings of attachment to the Government and institutions of the country, I am satisfied that a succession of what they regard as gross persecutions and hostilities upon the part of the people of several States, has almost if not totally eradicated it from their minds. They are undoubtedly suspicious and unfriendly to the great body of the citizens of the United States. Such being their feelings towards the people, it is but natural to conclude that the same doubts and dislike extends to the Government which that people maintain and control. That treasonable feelings and sentiments toward the National Government prevail in this community to a much greater extent than is generally supposed in the States, is a fact of which I feel perfectly convinced. If these feelings have not yet manifested themselves in open acts of rebellion, or disrespect of the authority of the Government, it is mainly because they are not yet sufficiently confident of their strength, or have not deemed the provocation sufficiently great to justify them in taking so decided a course. I believe that a few years' increase in strength, and a propitious occasion, will develop to the conviction of everybody. I base my opinion not so much upon any positive acts or expressing that I have either heard or seen, as upon the general turn and character of their conversation, and information derived from the most credible sources. The conduct of the returning United States officers, in deserting their poet at the time they did, is universally condemned here by all persons with whom I have conversed upon the subject. They left at the most critical period, when they stood in no immediate danger of personal violence, and by their presence might have caused such a positive development of the true feelings and intentions of the Mormons toward the Government as would have enabled it to take hold of and crush their treason in the very bud.


Notes: (forthcoming)

Nauvoo, From the Mississippi, Looking Down the River.

NAUVOO CITY. This is the site of the celebrated Mormon city founded by Joe Smith and his followers in 1840. It is located on elevated ground, gradually rising from the river to an unusual height, and presenting a smooth and regular surface, which, with the plain at its summit, might amply suffice for the erection of a large city. Upon this ground Nauvoo was laid out on a very magnificent scale, and many of the houses were handsome structures. The streets are of ample width, crossing each other at right angles. Three years after the settlement was begun, the city contained 1000 houses, a large part of which were log cabins, whitewashed. The great Mormon Temple, which stood in fair view from the river, was 128 feet long, 88 feet wide, and 65 feet high to the top of the cornice. The top of the cupola was 163 feet from the ground. It was built of compact, polished limestone, quarried near the spot. It was calculated to contain 3000 people, and was built at a supposed cost of about half a million of dollars. On the 9th of October, 1848, this temple was destroyed by fire, and now presents only a blackened pile of ruins. Four years previous the Mormon leader had been arrested and put in prison, where, soon afterwards, he came to his end by the violence of a mob. The Mormons have since left the place, and are now established in Utah.

Note: 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.

The  Mormons.

A problem of singular difficulty, and every day growing more and more portentous -- than which, if we except African Slavery, none is more difficult of solution -- is rising in the distant West, before the American Government and people. Ere long they will have to grapple with it. Whether it can be peacefully solved, the future alone will tell.

A new Territory, carved out of the recent conquests from Mexico, stretches from the summit of the Rocky Mountains on the East, through thirteen degrees of longitude, to the land of gold. A branch of the Indian family -- the Pah-Utahs -- roamed its prairies and claimed it as their own. But a new tribe and sect -- driven from State to State, fleeing, before an indignant people, from Ohio, from Missouri and Illinois, struggling with cold and hunger, and encountering the most fearful hardships and privations, daring the ferocious savages that dwelt along their route, and dragging slowly along their children, goods and domestic implements, at length make their tedious way to the home of the Utahs; and having, as they no doubt supposed, reached an isolated spot, so far from all organized society that they would be free from disturbance for many, many years, they set themselves down in the valley of the Jordan -- in the "land of the Honey Bee" -- plant their absurd faith and begin a new nation. Some six years have since elapsed, and the census of the Great Salt Lake City probably enumerates, at this day, some forty or fifty thousand people, -- while in other parts of the world, two hundred and fifty thousand more embrace the Mormon faith. In that far-off wilderness, so recently known only to the moccasin, the arts are flourishing in a high degree. Woolen factories, to be supplied by fleeces from the Jordan valley -- sugar manufactories, to be fed with beets -- potteries and cutlery establishments, send their hum through the astonished land. No such noise did it expect to hear for half a century to come. On a mountain terrace, overhanging the city, the site of a contemplated university is already laid out and enclosed. School-houses are springing up, and are supplied with competent teachers from a central Normal School. Gigantic preparations are in progress to build a Temple, which is intended to surpass every existing or historic structure in splendor and magnitude. The city is laid out on a scale of magnificent proportions, to which, hitherto, the world has been a stranger -- a scale corresponding with the breadth of territory on whose bosom they dwell -- corresponding with their expectations of growth, and compared with which the narrow avenues of modern and ancient cities, are but mere mathematical lines, -- already, three miles in breadth and four in length, its streets are regularly diagramed, each eight rods wide, with sidewalks of twenty feet -- every block forty rods square, containing eight lots of an acre and a quarter each, and every tenement obliged by law to retreat twenty feet from the front line, to make room for a delightful margin of shrubbery and trees. A perennial stream flows through the city, and pours its pure waters down oth sides of every street, and carries irrigation to their bounteous gardens. A warm spring bubbles from the mountains, and following the pipes, reaches a public bathing-house. A soil of exuberant productiveness stretches around them. Comparatively little solicitation is necessary from the hand of man to bring its grains and fruits to perfection and maturity. Twenty miles to the northwest slumber the heavy waters of the great Salt Lake. This vast body of the purest brine -- so densely impregnated that men cannot sink in it, if they try -- fills a basin of thirty by seventy miles, and will, doubtless, be the scene of the exhaustless salt manufacture for those future generations that will inhabit the immense domain between the Rocky Mountains and the sea. Already a United States mail route reaches from this city to San Diego on the Pacific coast, near which the Salt Lake Mormons have, thus early, established a colony. Other and outpost settlements are planting around them, on the Weber and the Timpanagos.

Mormon missionaries are proselyting the world, and converging their converts to the new City of Utah. The unconquerable mountains of Wales are sending their hardy sons to preach and practice the Mormon creed in the Western World. And here, between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, over eleven hundred miles from San Francisco, and about two thousand four hundred miles from the city of New York, rapidly grows this incipient community -- bound together by a burning enthusiasm and a common faith, compacted by persecutions, welded by the necessity of self-support and self-defence -- its founder a sot, and its Bible a theft -- one of the strangest phenomena to which the present, or any age, has given birth. How far was it from the thoughts of the minister, Solomon Spalding, when, at Cherry Valley, in this State, he composed his imaginary history called the "Manuscript Found" that it would be seized by an ignorant and truthless drunkard, proclaimed to have been engraven on golden plates, become the Scripture of a new and numerous sect -- in thirty years trial 300,000 zealots in its wake -- count its worshippers in England, Germany, Sweden, in the mountain fastnesses of Wales, in Normandy, the East Indies and the Sandwich Isles -- and found a great City and State in that territory, which, at the time he wrote, the foot of white man had never trod.

But grave questions are arising, and will hereafter arise, between the Mormons and us. How shall we tolerate their too defiant bearing and the introduction of those items of the social creed which are in hostility to our laws, and repugnant to our sentiments of morality and social order? Who shall yield, they or we? Will persuasion conquer their stubborn doctrine, and gentle words exterminate polygamy, or must that principle become engrafted upon American Institutions? Can Federal laws reach them, and if not, is it not quite clear that the laws of the State of Utah, will be moulded by the Mormon will? The outside population can never overtake them. There they are, in the path to our Pacific possession, perchance in the very line of the Atlantic and Pacific Railway -- soon to be brought into intimate communion with our Eastern population -- a fixture, a permanence, a perpetuity -- spreading with unexampled rapidity, drawing enthusiasts from distant countries, and ready to uphold every tenet of their strange faith with argument and blood. To reconcile and harmonize this incongruous creed with freedom of conscience and American institutions, to prevent such a stain as polygamy from darkening our national escutcheon, and at the same time to avoid the sanguinary results of civil war, are desirable achievements, the way and mode of which are yet concealed from the wisest speculators in future events.


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Pseudo Mormons near Mackinaw.

The Beaver Island Mormon Settlement has for sometime past stood in rather bad repute, and it would seem, if the following be true, with good reason. The article is a communication from The Detroit Free Press, and is accompanied in that paper, by a report of the proceedings of public meeting at Mackinaw, relating to the matter. We give the communication, for this matter of the fisheries on the upper Lakes is becoming very important.

Much excitement has prevailed, of late in the village of Mackinaw, arising from the frequent and daily recurring instances of robberies, burglaries, and other depredations committed by the Mormons of Beaver Island upon the fishermen along the shores and upon the waters of Lake Michigan. It appears that the Mormons are becoming more daring even than formerly. Heretofore, they were satisfied with robbing the poor fishermen of their boats, nets and fish, stealthily, doing everything possible to avoid detection; but now, seeing the almost utter impossibility of being brought to justice, they carry on their piratical trade with scarcely any regard to concealment This, of course arises from the fact that now all offenses committed upon the shores and waters of Lake Michigan, between the line running from Point St. Ignace across the Straits to old Mackinaw, and a line running from the south side of Grand Traverse Bay to the mouth of the Menomonie River, are exclusively in Emmet County: and the offenders -- those who cannot escape to the township of Drummond, a Mormon dependency just to the east of the County of Michilimackinac -- must be tried on Beaver Island, by Mormon tribunals, with good Mormons for witnesses and Jurymen.

Early in the spring, six or eight small houses on Birch Point in which were stored some two hundred barrels of fish, were burnt to the ground, the fish stolen -- a large number of barrels of salt lying out on the beach were broken open and their contents thrown into the water. The value of the property destroyed was upwards of two thousand dollars. There is almost indubitable proof that this was done by a gang of men from Beaver Island. On the 8th instant, about five hundred dollars worth of property, consisting of boats, nets, clothes, money and provisions, was stolen from various persons on Gull Island. The same tricks have been frequently played upon those of Pine River and Grand Traverse.

Many of the people of Mackinaw are deeply interested in these fisheries, and nearly all who have gone out this Spring have suffered more or less from the ruthless depredations of these "Latter-day Saints." There are quite a number of fishermen here now ready to commence business, each with a stock worth from four to six hundred dollars, who dare not go to the fishing grounds for fear of the Mormons. The nature of their business is such that it is nearly impossible to keep anything like a guard over their property. Their nets, when set for fish, are often eight or ten miles from their dwellings, with buoys attached which can be seen only a mile or two off. The Mormons soon learn the locality of these nets, and when the wind is fair sail out to them in their small boats, which sail very rapidly, take them up, then shifting their sails are soon far away on the water, leaving no trace by which to be detected. In the night they make their descent upon the land, and steal, rob and burn what they can find; then with oars and sail they glide away upon the watery element; and the fisherman wakes up in the morning but to find his boat, nets, and perhaps all the property he has in the world, stolen or destroyed. The only reason that can be assigned for these acts is, (as they have openly declared,) that they intend to monopolize these fishing grounds, and appropriate the same to the service of the Lord and His "saints."


Note: This article originated in the Free Press of May 24h. Its report of "the proceedings of public meeting at Mackinaw" held on May 17th, gave this reason: "to devise ways and means of protecting themselves against the felonious depredations of the Mormons."

THE  BEAVER  ISLAND  MORMONS.
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Correspondence of The N. Y. Tribune.

BURLINGTON, Wis., Thursday, June 16, 1853.          

A friend has just shown me The Weekly Tribune of June 4, the second article of which is made up principally of a communication from Mackinaw to The Detroit Free Press, concerning the Mormon Settlement at Beaver Island. I have not seen The Free Press, and do not know any further than appears by your paper, what were the proceedings of the meeting at Mackinaw, to which you allude. But feeling sure that you would not willingly "go with the multitude to do evil," nor lend your strength to the strong for wickedness, rather than the weak for righteousness, I ask your attention, and that of your readers to the following facts.

The Mormon Settlement at the Beaver Islands has been in the jurisdiction of Mackinaw County six years; having been commenced the 11th of May, 1847, and judicially organized as the County of Emmet the 9th day of May, 1853. The last three years of that period have witnessed a spirit of continued and bitter hostility on the part of a large portion of the People of Mackinaw, toward the Mormons, during which there have been arrested at different times, and taken to Mackinaw, and tried on various criminal charges, upward of sixty Mormons, every one of whom has been acquitted and discharged.

I have not overlooked the allusion to Mormon witnesses and Mormon jurymen, of which I have a word to say hereafter. In this place it is enough to say that not a Mormon ever sat on a jury a Mackinaw, and but one of those sixty persons introduced a witness in his defense. That one was John E. Hill, charged with arson, who, though he made an ample defense, was nevertheless required by a Mackinac Justice, to give bail to answer. But gentlemen in Mackinaw, though he was a total stranger, became his bail, and a Mackinaw Grand Jury refused to indict him.

From these facts, can there be but one conclusion?

If respectable citizens residing at a distance could for a moment divest themselves of prejudice, and learn the question really at issue, these attempts to produce acts of lawlessness and mobocracy could never become formidable. It is foreign support that gives them all the consequence they ever possess.

The sole cause of the present demonstration against the Mormons is this: The State of Michigan has a Liquor Law -- not the Maine Law -- which was passed at the late session, of the Legislature, and to be voted on by the people next week; but the Michigan Law, the effect of which is substantially this, that no person shall sell spirituous or intoxicating liquors in quantities less than 28 gallons, unless he gives responsible sureties in large amounts to answer for any damages, contingents, collateral or otherwise, happening from their use, &c.

The people of the Beaver Islands generally oppose the use of intoxicating drinks; and for the purpose of making this law quite as effectual as the Maine Law could be, we last year assembled every man who could justify as surety for a liquor dealer, and, on full consultation, mutually pledged ourselves to each other and to the public, to not become surely for any person to sell liquor.

This pledge being kept, it was impossible that any one should get legal authority to sell. Many shifts were made to evade the law, by fishermen, and especially by men trading with the Indians. But the officers did their duty, in spite of threats of violence, civil, war, the destruction of their settlement and death; and the trade was suppressed on all the Beaver Island group, except Gull Island only.

At the spring election, the three townships of Prairie, Galilee, and Charlevoix, composing the county of Emmet, elected officers of the same stripe; and, that the traders might be fully warned before they laid in their supplies, and therefore have no reason to find fault because they were compelled to keep the law, the following notice was inserted in The Northern Islander of May 12th:

"There is a prevalent practice of sending out trading vessels to trade on the fishing grounds, with a supply of liquors. We wish it understood that authority to sell intoxicating liquors in Mackinaw, does not carry with it the right to sell on Lake Michigan. From Old Mackinaw to the west line of the State, and south to Grand Traverse Light, the Lake and all the Bays are exclusively in Emmet County.

"If the trade is persisted in, the Sheriff will go out and make arrests in all such cases. The law will be inforced at whatever cost. He is a fool who at this day, thinks he can defeat it by crying "pirates," "robbers." That cry has been raised once too often."

Had this notice never appeared, the public meeting at Mackinaw, would not have been held, and the communication in The Free Press would never have been written. Mackinaw has a deeper interest in this liquor trade, probably, than any other town of the same population in the State. From 12 to 20 groggeries are constantly (during the fishing season), open to easterners; the boarding houses are generally supplied with bars, and well patronized; but the liquor sent off on the fishing grounds, and sold, is far more than that drank in Mackinaw. And when I add that most of this, is the article known as "Indian Whisky," a barrel of which consists of two gallons of alcohol, thirty gallons of water, tobacco enough to make it intoxicating, and cayenne pepper enough to give sufficient strength, and justly entitle it to the Indian name of "fire water," costing but six cents per gallon, and sold at 25 cents per quart and by the cask at 50 cents per gallon; you can form some rough idea of what Mackinaw would lose by the enforcing of this liquor law throughout the fisheries.

There are in Emmet County, from five to six hundred adult male Indians, whose principal business is fishing. Each Indian will, with the assistance he gets from his wife and children, catch and cure, on an average, 100 barrels of fish in the season -- if he keeps sober. Probably they have [one half] that for a few years past; the balance of time, and nearly all the avails, being sacrificed to liquor.

Five hundred Indians taking each fifty barrels of fish makes 25,000 barrels, usually sold on the ground at about $4 per barrel. (The purchaser furnishing barrels and salt,) making the snug sum of $100,000. Now if $75,000 of this purchase money is paid in Indian whisky, costing say five or six cents per gallon and sold at from fifty cents to one dollar, and the other $25,000 in goods of the worst quality at such prices as intoxicated Indians can be induced to take them at, you can see readily that the trade must be very lucrative to those engaged in it, however ruinous it maybe to the Indian fisherman; and it is these outrages on the red man, and the vast mass of concomitant wrongs, that the Mormons have set themselves to work, effectually to prevent, by the regular enforcement of the public statutes; for doing which we are threatened with civil war. We will take the issue. God give prosperity to the right.

Heretofore, when there was no legal organization at Grand Traverse, the Missionaries among the Indians there prevented the liquor traffic with these bands, by inducing the Indians to go in a body, headed by their Chiefs, and spill upon the ground any liquor that was brought there for sale. Unfortunately, two years ago, when there was a lawless crusade against the Mormons; they threw their weight on the side of Mobocracy. They have reaped the reward of their error, by having numerous bands of lawless renegades settle in their neighborhood, establish trade in liquor, and introduce all manner of dissipation and licentiousness among Indians, that were rapidly advancing in civilization and the industrial arts. And recently a vessel came from Green Bay and anchoring in the harbor of one of the most flourishing Indian towns on Grand Traverse, commenced exchanging whisky for maple sugar, manufactured by the Indians. The Missionaries applied to a Magistrate for a warrant for this outrage upon the law; but when the Constable went aboard the vessel to arrest the aggressors, they took him prisoner, and finishing up their trade, carried him with them to Wisconsin before they let him go. And this, I submit, is the natural fruit of giving aid to lawlessness against us.

The Indian villages of the Cross, Middle, and Le Arbour, Croche, in the County of Emmet have heretofore furnished more than others in that region, and have gradually increased in population, as many bands around have become extinct. This fact is to be attributed to the great efforts of the Catholic Priests residing in these village, to prevent the introduction of liquors among these Indians – efforts in which they have been materially and honorably aided by the Brothers Wendell, merchants in Mackinaw, who are the principal traders in these villages; and in all their dealings have shown an honorable regard to humanity, and the interests of their customers.

But the great extension of the fishing business for the last few years has invited the class of small peddling traders on to the fishing grounds, and with them the fatal "firewater," and "wasting" and "annihilation" have set their mark on these bands of Indians as well as the others. If the Mormons, citizens of Emmet county, can enforce the Liquor Law of the State, these bands are saved. If not, they are lost. But the traders who wish to go there to sell whiskey, will go howling through the land, about the thousands of expected profits, of which the Mormons have robbed them, by enforcing the law or punishing them for their crimes. Will papers of the character of The New York Tribune lend their aid to such a cause, by ever publishing without reprobation these threats of lawless violence?

The Beaver Island band of Indians have had no priests or missionary among them; but are visited once a year by the priest from "the Cross." Their fisheries were the best in the lakes, and they were the most successful fishermen. Since 1842, there have been traders constantly among them, and the "fire water" has been there.

In 1818 there were four hundred families of them, and their corn-field, (a portion of which I have now in cultivation,) was one thousand acres in extent. Then the liquor was brought among them but twice a year. I do not know when their decay commenced, but when I first visited them in 1847, they were reduced to between forty and fifty families, yet I was assured that none had emigrated.

When they separated from their former associates, (the fall and winter of 1851,) the traders and fishermen had affiliated with the Mormons, and there were but twenty-seven families. Winter was just setting in, and they were in a state of destitution. Not one family among them had the means of getting through the winter. As the winter was uncommonly severe, I think that but for us they would have generally perished and the band been annihilated.

In the very short time that they have been under our influence, their condition has become so much improved that they are the pride and envy of all the other bands.

Our policy has been to keep the fishing business in the hands of the Indians, because they can earn as much, at that as white men can; and to carry on a mutually beneficial trade among them, by furnishing them with what they really need, and purchasing of them what they have for market, at prices which would be honorable between white men.

And I submit that this is the policy, not only of humanity, but of an enlightened self-interest. For we are settlers there, having a permanent interest in the growth, the prosperity, and the institutions of the country. The Indians are our best customers, not merely in trade, but in the mechanical and agricultural productions which we have constantly to sell. But more than all, is the pleasure of seeing a few of the vast race of red men, redeemed from a utter annihilation, and to be able to say, "This is my work."

Indians know how destructive to them spirituous liquors are. They are generally indisposed to drink. Traders going among a band who have had none for some time, usually find it difficult to get them to taste. But when once the lip touched, their appetite is gnawing and insatiable. There is nothing they will not sacrifice; no indignity they will not submit to for more. But they hate the man that sells it to them -- though under the influence of liquor they will serve the dealer for any purpose, no matter how wicked, yet aside from it their attachment is to those who do them good.

The Beaver Island band (now residing on Garden Island) were only a little more than two years ago armed and hunting me for my life -- set on by those who were crusading against me at that time -- excited by liquor, and allured by the offer of a reward for my head, yet for eighteen months past they have surrounded me as so many children, eating at my table, and sleeping in my house whenever business or pleasure calls them to Saint James, as though they were members of my family. But there is no vagrancy -- no vagabondism among them. They are careful, unsolicited, to bring as much as they use.

Such has been their prosperity since they affiliated with us, that the more sedate and orderly of other bands have come and joined them, so that in a year and a half the band is more than doubled. Among those who have thus joined them, is the brave and noble Kim me-one, whom the reader of Miss Strickland's "Winter Studies and Summer Rambles" will remember as her particular favorite at Mackinac.

Last fall, the Indians left the other fisheries, where whisky was sold, and came to Beaver, where it was not, until there were two hundred boats and about six hundred souls of them there. No whisky being there, and no persons but Mormons and Indians, not a word was heard about stealing. The fact is significant.

All the Indians, for fifty miles around Beaver, when injured by a white man. come to me for redress, and having committed a cause to my hands, never one was heard to complain of the disposition of it. Wa-ta-ne-sa, a chief of noble presence and great influence, now 76 years of age last year, took his boat, when I was gone to Mackinaw, and met me thirty miles out to tell me that there was a white man on Garden Island, offering liquor to the Indians.

Shabbona, well known throughout Northern Illinois, and distinguished for his diplomacy in opposition to Black Hawk at the opening of the Sack and Fox war, came, last year, from his present house, beyond Missouri, to visit his native place and his relatives at Little Traverse Bay, and after stopping three weeks with them, came 40 miles out of his way to Beaver Island, to express to me, personally, his gratitude for my kindness and beneficial protection to the Indians.

The Catholic Priest from Cross Village, when making his annual visit to the Beaver Island Indians last year, charged them, last of all, that if they got into any difficulty they should go to Strang; if anybody cheated them they should go to Strang; if anybody came among them selling whisky they should go to Strang; but they must not go to hear Strang preach. This priest is a simple hearted and devout Slavonian, who has given his life to the melioration of the condition of the Indian race, according to the Catholic faith. With the prejudice of his faith, and the narrowness of his experience, he could not mistake what was going on at his door.

Subsequently, when in Detroit, I was invited by the Right Rev. Bishop to his house, and there received from him personally the expression of his gratitude and thanks for the efficient aid which I had rendered in saving those simple hearted and almost helpless and hopeless members of his flock from utter destruction.

These are my trophies. Such as these come pouring in upon me continually. With them I am content, and with and for them I am willing to live and die hated, of any and every man, who offers Lynch law and mob violence as a remedy for any of the evils of society, be they what they may.

But though this question of the liquor trade is the sole cause of the present emeute at Mackinac, there are many collateral questions, which, as a matter of course, involve themselves in it.

Mackinac is an old town, built under the guns of the fortress, when the country was filled with powerful and frequently [hostile] Tribes of Indians. Traders settled there and invested the best natural advantages, but because there was military immovable improvements, not because Mackinac presented large amounts of money in buildings, wharves, and other protection there.

These investments have become fixed capital, the value of which depends entirely on the prosperity of Mackinac.

But at the same time the trade of the place is rapidly dying out. The fur trade, which, I am told, at one time employed three thousand boats, and in which, the outfits at Mackinac involved a capital of two million dollars, now does not employ one boat and probably amounts to less than two thousand dollars per annum.

The Indian trade, growing out of the payment of Government annuities to the Inoims. is not one-fourth what it was, and will end in 1856, by the expiration of the annuities payable there.

Twenty-two unorganized counties in the Lower Peninsula, as well as a large portion ef the Upper, were attached to Mackinac for judicial purposes, and her jurisdiction extended from Saginaw Bay to the head of the Menomee river, more than a quarter of the State.

Whatever of patronage the administration of the law, ever so large a territory would give, Mackinac had. But by the late Session of the Legislature, three new counties were organized in this territory, and all the territory south of the Straits and all the productive Islands included in their jurisdiction; divesting Mackinac of three quarters of b territory, and building up three new county scats, with Circuit Courts in her immediate vicinity.

Considering that the bills erecting these new counties were introduced and carried through by a Mormon, a member of the Legislature hailing from Beaver Island, whom the people of Mackinac, attempted to drag from his seat by a gross outrage on the House, for which they received a deserved rebuke, possibly they may be excused for feeling a little annoyed. But I cannot see that that feeling would justify a departure from the due administration of the Law.

There are several small politicians in and about Mackinac, managing a small clique there, who have heretofore occasionally held office by the votes of Mormons at Beaver Island, and looked for a continuance of these favors. These men pretend to be our friends, solely from a regard to the right, and at the expense of their interest at home. Detaching Beaver Islands, and erecting the County of Emmet, leaves them in a hopeless minority in Mackinac. If they were time-serving men, and hypocritical friends, they would now seek the favor of their old opponents by being first and loudest to cry out against the Mormons. I shall look for their names among the officers and speakers at the public Meeting at Mackinac.

Add to this that there are a few mail offices to be distributed by the present Democratic Administration, among the hungry in that part of the State -- four of which are located in Emmet County -- and as that was the Banner County, having given a unanimous vote for the entire Democratic ticket at the last fall election, Emmet politicians naturally expect a share in the appointments. A little seasonable outcry against the Mormons just at this time, especially if taken up and echoed by papers of the standing of The Tribune, would be a capital investment for the small politicians of Mackinac, and probably might result in giving to them four more of the five loaves and two fishes which make up the seven cardinal principles of the politicians.

While everything else in which Mackinac [has to] share has been departing and vanishing. The [----ing] and the trade growing up with that Business has been rapidly increasing.

Unfortunately, though Mackinac has the buildings, wharves, vessels, merchandise; both the fixed and convertible capital necessary for conducting this business, it is remote from the fisheries, has no harbor but an open and unsafe road, and is an expensive place of residence. -- Whereas Saint James, the principal Mormon village and seat of Justice of the county of Emmet, is in the very center of the fisheries, has the best harbor in the Lakes, and is well supplied with those articles of food which do not bear transportation without a great enhancement of price, from the very productive Island of Big Beaver, forty thousand acres in extent.

These advantages, have in the last four years, under the most propitious circumstances, transferred a full third of the trade in fish and fishermen's supplies, from Mackinac to Saint James. Dealers at Saint James, without storehouses, wharves or vessels, with no experience in business, and only a few hundred dollars capital to begin with, are building up fortunes, while dealers of experience with all the conveniences of trade, and large capital, at Mackinac have been giving way, or barely able to sustain themselves; and their real estate is steadily and hopelessly diminishing in value.

If buildings and wharves could be transported, as readily as vessels and merchandise, it is easy to see that at the end of six months there would not be a fish trader left in Mackinac. The two or three hundred thousand dollars there invested in stores, dwellings, and wharves, is so much fixed capital, to be utterly lost, unless some portion of the growing trade can be kept there.

Fish can only be sold at reduced prices, without inspection. The Inspector was a county officer and resided at Mackinac. Last year Saint James sent to market seventeen thousand barrels of fish. Yet the Inspector would not give us a Deputy. To send them to Mackinac for inspection, would cost in transportation, wharfage, and Inspectors' fees, from sixty to seventy-five cents per barrel, and consequently they were generally sold without inspection at the loss of fifty cents on the barrel.

Now we have our own Inspector, and with our improved and improving facilities for business, the result cannot fail of being foreseen, and the hope of prolonging decay, until some favorable turn of the wheel of fortune, shall enable present holders of real estate in Mackinac to sell out, is a sufficiently powerful incentive to action, to account for more than one act of injustice.

I observe that the communication you copy from The Free Press charges the Mormons with new and extraordinary boldness and daring in their robberies; gives, as an instance, the stealing some two hundred barrels of fish, and the destruction of some $2,000 worth of property at Birch Point, and accounts for this now boldness by saying that "offenses committed upon the shores and waters of Lake Michigan between a line running from Point St. Ignan across the Straits to Old Mackinac and a line running from the south side of Grand Traverse Bay to Menomonee River, are exclusively in Emmet County, and the offenders must be tried by Mormon tribunals, with good Mormons for witnesses and Jurymen."

Unfortunately for the force of this argument, "Birch Point" is not within those boundaries, nor in the County of Emmet, but in the body of the County of Mackinac, and offenses committed there are tryable exclusively by "Mackinac tribunals with good Mackinac men for witnesses and Jurymen." lf they have the indubitable evidence they tell of, that the robbery was committed by men from Beaver Island, they will of course avail themselves of the present occasion to put them in "durance vile." The Mormons are of opinion that something far short of "indubitable evidence'' would suffice if they fell Into the hands of the Philistines at Mackinac.

Moreover it is not true, as a matter of law, that offences committed on any part of the waters of Lake Michigan, are exclusively in the jurisdiction of Emmet County. The Counties of Van Buren, St. Joseph, Allegan, Ottawa, Oceana, and Emmet have concurrent jurisdiction, on the waters of the Lake to the State line.

Withal, this story of stealing two hundred barrels of fish, sounds rather fishy. It is a full match to that of a man who stole a saw mill, and got well off, but was detected as he went back after the dam. Two hundred barrels are a big pile to steal. Birch Point is more than twenty miles from the nearest Mormon settler, but there were several little settlements of fishermen, not noted for an extra allowance of honesty, wintering along the shore in that vicinity. They might have stolen a few fish to eat in the course of the winter; but two hundred barrels is too big a pile to steal.

The fishermen at Birch Point and on the north shore generally, receive their outfits from Mackinac, and are almost to a man in debt for them. Last year they did but indifferently, and many were unable to settle up in the fall. At the close of the season the traders send their vessels around, and not only get all the fish they can from their customers, but gather up all their barrels and salt. Such articles are only left on the fishing grounds in small quantities, and at inaccessible places, as any prudent business man will readily believe. Most certainly, if the traders in Mackinac believe a tithe of what they have said of Mormon dishonesty and rapacity within the last three years, they would not leave two thousand dollars worth of moveables on the shore of the Lake, only twenty-five miles from the Mormon settlement, from the close of fishing in the fall till the opening in the spring, and no one to guard it. Either the truth of what has been said against us for several years past is false, or this story must be.

The Mormons are known by everybody in that region to have three vessels, and no more. Of these, two, the Dolphin and Emmluo, were hauled out last fall for repairs, and as late as the 12th May had not yet been launched, and this fact can be proved by the officers of the numerous steamboats which call almost daily at Beaver Harbor. The other, the Seaman, passed Mackinac on a trip to Drummond Island some days before the burning of the shanties at Birch Point, arrived at Drummond sometime previous to that outrage, and remained there, at least 80 miles from the scene of that crime, till several days after it was done and known in Mackinac. And this fact can be proved by the entire settlement at De Tour, not one of whom are Mormons. Among them is Hon. Ebenezer Warner, Register of the Land Office at Sault Ste. Marie.

There was wintered last winter, in a little nook or bay of Garden Island, the yacht Mary Clark, I believe -- for the name is painted out, and the name Defiance daubed over it -- formerly of Chicago, and probably the best sailer on the Lakes, now in the hands of one Capt Shepard, neither a Mormon nor a friend of the Mormons, though he wintered in their neighborhood. This vessel went out some day before the burning of the shanties at Birch Point, and did not return till some time after, and its business at that time has never been accounted for. If any considerable quantity of property was in fact stolen this fact would be of importance. But, candidly, I most truly believe the story of the stealing was hatched up by some dishonest fishermen, as an excuse for not paying up their arrears with the traders who supplied them, and the burning to give force to the statement; or perhaps it was done, to give force to the statement; or perhaps to cover up some trifling speculation which the fishermen were practicing on each other. The most valuable buildings were not burned, as they would have been had the object been to waste and destroy, and it is beyond measure incredible that that amount of property should be left in such a place.

Allow me to add, that this is not the first or second time that charges of the most astounding crimes have emanated from Mackinac against the Mormons at Beaver Island. That at different times they have been made the subject of legal investigation, and in every instance the result has vindicated the uprightness and intelligence of the Mormons. Yet so greedy is the public ear for some tale of Mormon corruption, that it seems scarcely possible to invent so barefaced and incredible a lie that it shall not find a place in some respectable paper, and believers among its readers.

As an instance, I may mention that The Buffalo Rough Notes last summer published editorially, with pointed comments, the statement of some sailors, that the Mormons on Beaver Island went boldly in the day time on board the lake steamers, in armed bodies, and pirated from them, and were unwhipped of justice; and Mr. Cadwalader, the able conductor of that journal, never opened his eyes to the utter incredibility of such an assertion until I pointed it out to him. I presume many of his readers believed it undoubtingly.

I deprecate such publications, because their tendency is to produce disorder and violence. They are an encouragement to those who resort to mobs on the pretense that the law is not strong enough. What was said about the boundaries of Emmet County, and Mormon tribunals, Jurymen and witnesses, could only be designed as an excuse for resorting to other than legal remedies.

The resort to civil war against the Mormons has been made in two or three instances, on similar pretenses; but I believe that all respectable men look upon those acts as a national disgrace; nearly every writer who has alluded to them, and all the tribunals which have investigated them, have exonerated the Mormons from the charges on which they were mobbed.

But this Mormon tribunal, which is to let the criminals go free, what is it? It is a Circuit Court of the State of Michigan, to be held by Hon. Samuel T. Douglass, of the City of Detroit. This is the only tribunal, except Courts held by Justices of the Peace. Of course it is enough to say that the appeal would be to the Circuit Court, as it has heretofore to the District Court, and under the old Constitution, to the County Court in Mackinac, where numerous judgments rendered by Mormon Justices have been appealed, AND NOT ONE REVERSED.

But the whole allusion to Mormon tribunals, witnesses and jurymen, is gratuitous. The tribunal has not been organized, the jurymen have not been empanelled, nor the witnessed brought into Court.

Men judge of the moral standard of other men's conduct by their own, and for any man to say of the tribunals, jurymen, &c. of Emmet County, before they have ever done an act that they will use their power for corrupt purposes, is just precisely the same as to say, if he had their opportunity he would use it for corrupt purposes. It is his judgment upon himself, whom he does know, not us, who are yet to be tried. Truly and sincerely, JAS. J. STRANG.


Note: See also the Tribune of May 27, 1853.

THE  MORMONS.
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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. Many of these new-born Saints very soon lose the soda-water enthusiasm which is first experienced, and fall away; and many who have zeal enough to start on the great journey towards the modern Zion, cool off, and lodge, like drift wood, by the way. Each emigrating body tapers off something like the army of Peter the Hermit in the first great crusade. The Mormons have in reality more backsliders and apostates, and, for the length of time since their commencement, are divided into more sects than any religious denomination known. Any one who has ever seen a miniature whirlwind in the highway, and attentively watched its gyrations, catching up the dust, straws, leaves, and other light materials, and gradually increasing in bulk and altitude, until it presents a whirling and dangerous column of heterogeneous matter, throwing off and gathering up, until it somewhat suddenly subsides, can gain some idea of the association and operation of those peculiar elements which originated and sustained Mormonism; and it needs no great degree of prophetic sagacity to foresee its subsidence in like manner.

Internal dissentions and schisms have existed amongst them all the way through: the immortal Joseph himself was often driven to his very wit's end to keep fragments from flying off in a tangent, and setting up shop for themselves. After the death of Smith, there was much strife for the succession; and the election of Brigham Young occasioned a great deal of heart-burning among the disappointed candidates. At the breaking up at Nauvoo, a considerable number split off under the leadership of one Strang, and are now Strangites, on Beaver Island, in one of our northern lakes; another body went into Texas under Lyman Wight. Brewster led off another squad somewhere else. I do not know how many divisions there may be. but they are said to number six or seven. Brigham managed to slide more easily into the superstition and idiosyncracies of the Saints, and led the great mass to Salt Lake; but he, too, has his troubles from this source, and is now more especially plagued with Gladdenism, so called from Gladden Bishop, who profanely claims to be as much superior to Joseph Smith as our Lord was to John the Baptist. This Gladden gave Joseph much trouble; was cut off from the Church, and taken back, and rebaptized nine times; but, proving obstinate in heresy, was finally given over to the buffetings of Satan for a thousand years.

This sect is small, but spreading in the very seat of Mormon power, and is the more dangerous and troublesome because composed of the more fanatical of the Saints. Fanaticism is generally honest, but always dangerous, because you cannot foresee in what direction its burning focus may be turned. I have met with, and became acquainted with some of these fanatics, and have no reason to doubt their honesty in the belief that Gladden Bishop is the Lord in his second coming. One of them told me, with every appearance of sincerity, that an angel was present at his birth, and that the name -- Gladden -- was never before given to a human being, and signified that he would make glad the hearts of his people. I suspect that Joseph intended to take this important step himself, and emerge from the chrysalis of a prophet into the butterfly of a god. In his last sermon he said:

"I can enter into the mysteries, I can enter largely into the eternal worlds; for Jesus said, 'In my Father's house there are many mansions.'"

He could have proved his way clear from the Bible and Book of Mormon, just as easily as the Mormons prove anything, and all the dupes and most of the rascals would have followed him. But Gladden anticipated him, and death served him as defeat did Napoleon at St. Jean d'Acre -- it made him "miss his destiny."

A man by the name of Smith, which, like that of the king, is "a tower of strength," -- was busy making converts for the last six months, with such success that Brigham, the great Mormon bashaw of forty tails, and the lesser bashaws, with a less number of tails, have become seriously alarmed. Instead, however, of treating the subject with ridicule, they resorted to the very doubtful expedient of persecution.

Smith, the Gladdenite, repudiates polygamy, and charges the present hierarchy with a departure from the book of "Mormon," in this as well as in other particulars. This man has great deal of tenacity of purpose, and is, withal, stimulated by hostility toward the ruling powers, on account of having been stript by them of his property. On Sunday, the 20th of March, he attempted to preach in the street in front of the Council-House, in pursuance of a previous notice, but the meeting was dispersed by the City Marshal. Nothing daunted, he made another appointment, for the same place on the following Sabbath, but the Marshal again appeared and took Smith into custody, and detained him until he promised to make no further attempt to preach on that day. On the same day, Brigham preached in the Tabernacle, and opened his batteries upon these heretics with grape and canister. The following are some of the choice specimens of pulpit eloquence, on this occasion, from the prophet, seer and revelator of the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints."

Now think a moment, reflect, and ask yourselves what do we see here? I am coming nearer home, I am coming to this place; what do we here? Do we see disaffected spirits here? We do. Do we see apostates? We do. Do we see men that are following after false and delusive spirits? Yes. When a man comes right out, as an independent devil, and says, damn Mormonism, and all the Mormons, and is off with himself, not to Texas, but to California, (you know it used to be Texas,) I say he is a gentleman by the side of a nasty sneaking apostate who is. opposed to nothing but Christianity, I say to him, go in peace, sir, go and prosper if you can. But we have got a set of spirits here worse than such a character. When I went from meeting last Sabbath, my ears were saluted with an apostate crying in the streets here.

I want to know if any one of you who have got the spirit of Mormonism in you, the spirit that Joseph and Hyrum had, or that we have here, would say, let us hear both sides of the question, let us listen and prove all things. What do you want to prove? Do you want to prove that an old apostate, who has been cut off from the church thirteen times for lying, is anything worthy of notice?

"I heard that a certain gentleman, a picture maker in this city, when the boys would have moved away the wagon in which this apostate was standing, became violent with them, saying, let this man alone, these are saints that are persecuting (sneeringly.) We want such men to go to California, or any where they choose. I say to those persons, you must not court persecution here, least you get so much of it you will not know what to do with it. Do not court persecution. We have known Gladden Bishop for more than twenty years, and know him to be a poor, dirty curse. Here is Sister Vilate Kimball, Brother Heber's wife, has borne more from that man than any other woman on earth could bear; but she won't bear it again. I say again, you Gladdenites, do not court persecution, or you will get more than you want, and it will come quicker than you want it. I say to you bishops, Do not allow them to preach in your wards. Who broke the roads to these valleys? did this little nasty Smith and his wife? No; they stayed in St. Louis while we did it, peddling ribbons and kissing the gentiles. I know what they have done here; they have asked exorbitant prices for their nasty, stinking ribbons (voices, 'That's true.') We broke the roads to this country. Now, you Gladdenites, keep your tongues still, lest sudden destruction comes upon you.

"I will tell you a dream that I had last night. I dreamed that I was in the midst of a people who were dressed in rags and tatters; they had turbans upon their heads, and these were also hanging in tatters. The rags were of many colors, and, when the people moved, they were all in motion. Their object in this appeared to be to attract attention; said they to me, 'We are Mormons, bro. Brigham;' 'no, you are not,' I replied. 'but we have been,' said they, and began to jump, and caper about, and dance, and their rags of many colors were all in motion to attract the attention of the people. I said, 'You are no Saints; you are a disgrace to them;' said they, 'we have been Mormons.'' By and by along came some mobocrats, and they greeted them with 'How do you do, sir, I am happy to see you;' they kept on that way for an hour. I felt ashamed of them, for they were, in my eyes, a disgrace to Mormonism. Then I saw two ruffians, whom I knew to be mobbers and murderers, and they crept into a bed where one of my wives and children were; I said, 'you that call yourselves brethren, tell me, is this the fashion among you?' They said, 'O, they are good men, they are gentlemen;' with that, I took my large bowie knife, that I used to wear as a bosom pin in Nauvoo, and cut one of their throats from ear to ear, saying, 'go to hell across lots.' The other one said, 'you dare not serve me so.' I instantly sprang at him, seized him by the hair of the head, and, bringing him down, cut his throat and sent him after his comrade, then told them both, if they would behave themselves they should yet live, but if they did not, I would unjoint their necks. At this I awoke.

"I say, rather than that apostates shall flourish here, I will unheath my Bowie knife and conquer or die. (Great commotion in the congregation, and a simultaneous burst of feeling assenting to the declaration.) Now, you nasty apostates, clear out or judgment will be put to the line, and righteousness to the plummet. (Voices generally, go it, in it.) If you say it is right, raise your hands. (All hands up.) Let us call upon the Lord to assist us in this, and every good work."

It is too bad, really, that his Excellency's valor should be aroused to the boiling point of "victory or death," by these persecuting Gladdenites; and much worse, certainly, that the sanctity of his harem should be invaded by them even in his dreams! This vulgar and filthy sermon was, as you perceive, received with approbation, and I can assure you, was as well adapted to the taste and scope of the Mormon mind as any the Saints ever hear.

The prophet was succeeded by Parlry P. Pratt, who has more decency of language, as well as a subtle genius, combined with much complacency of manner -- but Parley was, on this occasion, aroused nearly up to fever-heat. After stating various facts, proving that all the persecutions ever suffered by the Latter Day Innocents, proceeded directly, or indirectly, from apostates, he said:

"Sooner than be subjected to a repetition of these wrongs, I, for one, would rather march out to-day and be shot down. These are my feelings, and have been for some time. Talk about liberty of conscience! Have not men liberty of conscience here? Yes. The Presbyterians, Methodists, Quakers, etc., have here the liberty to worship God in their own way, and so has every man in the world. People have the privilege of apostatizing from the church, and of worshiping devils, snakes, toads, or geese, if they please, only let their neighbors alone. But they have not the privilege to disturb the peace, or to endanger life or liberty; that is the idea. If they will take that privilege, I need not repeat their doom; it has been told here today. They have been faithfully warned."

He proved, clear as mud, that the Mormon mind is now so full of truth, that, like Salt Lake, it can hold no more in solution; and that liberty of speech to the Gladdenites is only another name for persecution of the Saints:

"We have truths already developed, unfulfilled by us -- unacted upon. There are more truths poured out from the eternal fountain already than our minds can contain, or than we have places and preparations to carry out. And yet we are called upon to prove -- what? Whether an egg that was known to be rotten fifteen years ago has really improved by reason of age!

"It is policy not to wait till you are killed; but act on the defensive while you still live. I have said enough on this subject."

The Constitution of the United States guarantees to all liberty of speech, and the Saints claim to be much attached to that instrument, alleging, even, that it was given by inspiration; but somehow the Mormon spectacles are of a quality which prevents them from seeing this particular provision. Every man at Salt Lake is in the full enjoyment of that liberty, only so far as he preaches Mormonism. It is high time these impostors were made to understand that they are on Unitrd States soil, and that other men have a right to occupy it with equal privileges. In my next, I will give you the second crisis of Gladdenism.   Yours, _______.


Note: See Benjamin G. Ferris' 1854 Utah and the Mormons, pages 326-332 for his full development of the above report.

The  Tribune  on  Polygamy.
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The Times surely apprehends the wide moral difference between the cases of bigamy under our laws, (where the bigamist can only accomplish his purpose through a gross fraud,) and the Mormon polity on that subject. We would uphold and enforce our marriage laws as they are; but we are not in favor of imposing them by violence on the Mormons in the territory which they sought out and settled before any other civilized men had made it their home. This was the spitit and drift of our former article -- the twist that the Times seeks to give it is entirely at variance with our intent. Does that paper counsel or desire the subversion, by extreme force, of Mormon Polygamy in Utah? Yea or Nay?

The Times is opposed to polygamy and to bigamy in Utah, as well as in New-York, -- in a new country as well as in an old one, -- and upon the same ground in both cases; -- and it is in favor of "subverting" both by law, in all parts of this civilized and Christian nation. We do not appreciate the nice moral distinctions by which the Tribune would excuse polygamy in a new territory, and condemn it in an old one; -- nor can we understand why the Mormons should be any more entitled to the benefit of such a plea, than the inhabitants of Nebraska or Oregon.

But the Tribune placed this matter upon a much broader grounds than any peculiarity of habitation or civilization. It connected it directly with the question of Woman's Rights -- saying that "the polygamy of Salt Lake Valley is not simply an outgrowth of Mormonism, nut its existence is due to the imperfect condition of woman's rights in Christendom." Woman's rights, or what the Tribune is in the habit of urging as such, are quite as fully recognized in a new country, as they are in this section of the Union; -- and if polygamy is to be excused on this ground in the one case, why npt in the other, also! The only objection to imposing laws against polygamy in Utah grows out of the practical difficulty of enforcing them; but a journal which considers the execution of the Maine law feasible in this City, and which incessantly and justly denounces our authorities for not suppressing the houses of ill fame which abound in our midst, certainly should not hesitate to oppose Mormon polygamy on such a ground as this.


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.

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 goods, and particularly of groceries; but this demand would be supplied without much delay, by the stocks of goods which were met on the way destined for Salt Lake City. The health of all Utah was good. The advance train of the California emigrants was met on the 12th of May, at the crossing of the North Platte, 120 miles from Fort Laramie. The emigrants were in remarkably good health, and getting along very well -- only two new made graves were observed on the road.

It was estimated that the emigration would amount to two-thirds of that of last year, and the Mormon emigration about one-half of that of the same period. The Indians had given no trouble to the emigrants. Very few, indeed, had been seen. An attempt was made by a party of the Pawness, near the Big Blue, to steal a cow from a small party of emigrants, and an Indian warrior was killed; but no further difficulty followed from it. It was said that bands of the Cheyennes and Arrapahoes were assembling near the upper crossing of the north Platte, with the avowed intention of remunerating themselves, by toll, for the game which had been driven away by the inroads of the white man; but this is doubtful.

The party brings news of the death of Major E. A. Bedell, Indian Agent for Utah. He left Salt Lake city on the 20th of April, with Mr. O. H. Gogswell, of Independence, and exerted himself too much in the snow with his wagons. He was forced to remain at Green River, and there died, on the night of the 3d of May.

The Indian troubles in Utah Territory had been suppressed by Governor Young, and peace proclaimed.

Lieut. Morris, who succeeded to the command of Capt. Gunnison's party of exploration, was about leaving for California, whence he would return to the States with the result of his surveys. After the death of Gunnison, and during the Winter, the party were engaged in surveying the Timpanoogas and Weber Canyon, on the route followed by Capt. Stansbury as far as the Republican Fork of the Platte, and the report, it is said, will be strongly in favor of the practicability of that route.

The Mormons were, as they had a right to be, greatly incensed at the gratuitous and false charges first published in the Democrat of this city, accusing them of having murdered Gunnison's party. They had made every preparation to welcome him for the Winter, such was their regard for him; and when they first heard of his death, they made instant and effective efforts for the relief of the survivors. They went out to the place of massacre for the purpose of burying the dead, but found only a few of the bones left, the wolves having devoured all the flesh. -- Missouri Republican, June 2.


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."

Note 3: This Independent item was reprinted in the Hartford Courant of Sept. 23, 1854 and in other Eastern papers, but there are no known follow-up articles.

THINGS  IN  UTAH.
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POLYGAMY  AND  SLAVERY.
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GLORY  OF  POPULAR  SOVEREIGNTY.
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The Advantages of Having Many Wives.
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NO CHANCE FOR ONE-HORSE POLITICIANS.
_____

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)

U T A H.

We have dates from Great Salt Lake City to Feb. 7.

The Eastern Mail arrived at Salt Lake City on the evening of Feb. 6. This arrival brought intelligence of the appointment of Col. Steptoe as Governor of the Territory; vice, Brigham Young; Harris, Secretary; vice A. W. Babbitt; and some other changes. The news took the Mormons by surprise, but it was thought no open oppoisition would be exhibited.

On New Year's Day quite a serious collision took place between the United States soldiers and the citizens at a drinking-shop. Fire-arms were freely used, and seven or eight pereons were shot, but fortunately none of them were killed. Two of the soldiers were severely wounded, and for a time it was thought they could not recover. The Mormons ordered out the "Legion," threatning to destroy the whole battalion of United States troops in the city under Col. Steptoe. The three companies of U. S. troops were quickly paraded under arms -- they strengthened their position, and waited for the assault of the "Legion," which was every moment expected. This state of quasi warfare lasted for three days, when calmer counsels prevailed and hostilities ceased. As the affair grew out of a drunken fit, an order was issued by the city authonties forbidding the further sale of ardent spirits in the city.

The Territorial Legiislature of Utah, at their late session, passed an act organizing Carson Valley into a County of that name. They had appointed one Styles as District Judge and Orson Hyde as Probate Judge of the County. From the temper of the inhabitants of Carson Valley, very few of of whom are Mormons, and most of whom have applied to be incorporated into the State of California, it is probable these appointments would be received with little favor. Styles is notoriously incompetent, besides being very disipated. Orson Hyde is President of the "Twelve Apostles," and is one of the leaders of Mormonism. Among other legislation was the passage of an act called the "Gift Law," by which the faithful are to vest all their real and personal estate of every kind in Brigham Young! It remains to be seen whether Congress will tolerate such outrageous legislation in one of the National Territories.


Notes: (forthcoming)

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.

Mother  Lucy  Smith.

At the time that Col. Geo. A. Smith wrote the brief biography of this honored lady he was not in possession of the date of her demise. He has handed us a letter from Elder Sameul H. B. Smith, dated Nauvoo, Sept. 6th, by which we learn that she died on the 5th of May, and was buried beside the grave of her much loved and venerated husband patriarch Joseph Smith.

---

Anti-Mormon  Book  Speculation.
_____

If a thousand and more years before paper, type and press were thought of, men manifested such restless anxiety to see their names appended to the parchment sheet as to cause the wise man Solomon to exclaim that to book-making there was no end, we wonder what he would say of some of the present fast generation, who "hurn to see their name in print!" Besides that numerous class of men who fly to the printer's office for deliverance from some confused cogitations or the shadow of an idea that has by great effort and some inexplicable circumstance found a passage through the interminable mists of their excited brain, there is another class who, stimulated solely by the hopes of an increase of pelf, send to the world under their own name the labors of other and better men which they have pilfered without the slightest recognition of the source of their obligation. To them may be added the bigot who scruples not to serve himself of the name and writings of a respectable and favorite author to gain the ear of the public, which he could never have gained by his own merit or worth, in order to pour out his spleen and venom upon the object of his displeasure or the victim of his wrath. We have lived long enough in the world to have witnessed all we here hint at, and more too, of the mean, frenzied, unscrupulous, soulless proceedings of some pious christians, who have figured in print. For illustration of all that can legitimately be drawn from what we have now written, we may direct the attention of the curious to a volume, lately published in this city, professing to be "The Religious, Social, and Political History of the Mormons or Latter Day Saints," &c., "edited with important additions by Samuel M. Smucker, A. M."

We are not acquainted with Samuel M. Smucker, A. M., but we had a pretty intimate acquaintance with nine-tenths of the book in question five years before his name was daubed to it; we think, therefore, it not mal apropos to give our American readers a few items that are patent to the British public. In 1851 Mr. Mayhew, of the Illustrated London News office, happened to be in the Liverpool docks on business, when he had his attention directed to our emigration, a portion of which was at the time on the eve of embarking for this country. Being engaged in publishing a series of popular illustrated works, he immediately announced to the public his decision to add the "Illustrated Mormons" to the number. Shortly afterwards this writer made the acquaintance of the presiding Elder of the London Conference, who placed in his hands all our publications, and an eminent artist, a member of the Church, was engaged to furnish the sketches of scenes and persons for the new work. We never expect from any writer on Mormonism justice and impartiality, nor did we anticipate finding in Mr. Mayhew an exception, but we have ever regarded his work as tolerably fair, and as good as a man with prejudices against us, writing for the public pence, was likely to produce. We could have objected to many things, but we are not aware that any Mormon pen ever took the gentleman to task: as we can get along pretty well with anything approaching fair play, and are not so thin skinned as to feel dreadfully pinched when anybody squeezes us a little tight. This, we believe, the only notice that has ever been taken of the work by our press.

Fancy our surprise, then, on purchasing the "History of the Mormons," "Religious,Social, and Political," to find it was our old English friend with a new name, new dress, and two additional chapters and two appendixes. In the New York preface, over the initials S. M. S., Philadelphia, July, 1856, there is the following piece of cool, unblushing impudence:

"The author has endeavored to discriminate impartially between the conflicting accounts as given, on the one hand by the Mormons, and on the other hand by their opponents; to guard against all exaggeration on either side, and to present fairly and clearly what seemed to be the truth in reference to the matter."

Now, S. M. S. evidently stand for Samuel M. Smucker, and as evident as language can make it, in the above quotation, he takes credit for the volume and its impartiality, while, as we have shown, he is neither the author of the volume nor is he even the author of that quotation, but uses the labors of another and better man to slide in his two chapters that contain the most confuted, contradictory blackguardism that could be thrown together at hap-hazard. We have seen many attempts at history, but it is the most real-ral, fiddle-faddle, tweedle-dee, tweedle-dum conglomeration that ever our eyes have scanned.

The highly creditable sources of his information are the highly respectable company of excommunicated apostates, Van Dusen, John C. Bennett, Philastus Hurlburt, with the late Capt. Gunnison and ex-Secretary Ferris.The bare mention of the names of the first three is sufficient, without any further notice from us. To say his satanic majesty has such a high regard for truth that he fears to use it, lest it diminsh, would be no more supererogation than to say the three gentlemen are equally careful; as for Gunnison and Ferris, if ever scribblers were hoaxed, they were while collecting their items for book-making.

When we read the works of these two gentlemen we were reminded of the following passage in Combe's introduction to his notes on the United States of North America, p. 11 "I was told that a certain person boasts of having given Miss Martineau erroneous information for the purpose of leading her into mistakes; and another in Philadelphia assures his friends that he 'crammed' Captain Marryatt with old 'Joe Millers,' which the Captain embodied into his books as facts illustrative of American manners."

No one who was in Utah at the time these gentlemen were gathering materials for their books but what was aware of their moves among the disaffected to get at something rich for eastern readers, and the sport some of the boys and girls had in retailing the well-spiced stories they had crammed them with, as they concluded that partial historians, who would dabble in filth and scandal without giving themselves the slightest trouble to examine if the story told was true or a hoax, might just as well pass for fools among strangers, who would read their books, as they certainly did among those whose history they pretended to give to the public; and thus what is given to hoax some impertinent coxcomb, who pushes his nose into another's business, passes off for grave truths.

We care not the ashes of a straw for the incongruous stuff that S. M. Smucker, A. M., has raked together, and we presume Mr. Mayhew can afford to be pilfered; but we deem it a duty we owe to the public and the Church to expose the cloven foot.

We remember being on the continent of Europe a few years since when one Amadee Pichot published in Paris a similar volume, as a history of the Mormons. He began by publishing between thirty and forty pages from Col. Kane's "Historical Discourse on the Mormons." As the gallant Colonel had none of the Smucker quality about him, and would not stoop to the prejudices of outsiders, nor tarnish the high reputation of his name by smucking (we coin a word) up the slanders of apostates, he simply related what he witnessed with impartiality; but that was not enough for Amedee Pichot -- it would not serve his purpose; the moment, therefore, that he had established a claim to impartiality, he put into the Colonel's mouth all the abominable slanders he could gather gather from Bennett, Van Dusen and Hurlburt, just as S. M. S. has added his two chapters to the work of Mr. Mayhew; and it is thus that some men give an impartial history of the Mormons.

To stoop to refute the statements of S. M. Smucker, A. M., would be beneath us or any man who has a spark of self respect. His egregious ignorance is in perfect keeping with his dull, insipid spleen, and beggars description. He is said to be the author of the "Life and Reign of Catherine II.," "Nicholas I. of Russia," etc. We should think his performance in Russian history must be something sublime: he has made such a fine splutter in touching some items of American history. The following quotation in reference to the Gladdenites will amuse some of our readers:

"But though they are under the ban, though Brigham stigmatizes their doctrines the doctrine of demons, though they are fiercely condemned, yet all this does not prevent the faction of the Gladdenites from having a few adherents of considerable influence, among whom are Rigdon, William Smith, and J. J. Strang, all names of some prominence in the history of the Latter Day Saints."

His researches in the Bible are very profound. On the subject of polygamy, he says:

"This doctrine had its sole origin in the lust and sensuality of the founder of Mormonism, and it has its strongest defense and perpetuity in the qualities of his successors. Smith pretended to receive the Bible as authoritative when he first set up as a prophet, and yet that volume expressly teaches him the opposite principle and duty, from the first to the last page."

How glad some divines would be to have Samuel M. Smucker's specs. They have been long troubled for want of this evidence; for the more they sought from "the first to the last page," the more they found it policy to be "mum." Travel, Samuel, travel, and lend your specs to parsons and religious politicians at a small charge per person, and you need never again trouble the shades of Catherine and Nicholas with historical caricatures.

We might have expected he knew something about Jesus Christ, and what the Prophets and Apostles said about him, seeing he had gone over the Bible from "the first to the last page;" but just read this precious piece of information:

"They (the Mormons) nevertheless attribute the creation of the worlds to the second person in the Trinity, forgetful that he was only born, both as to his DIVINE and human natures, four thousand years after the creation of the world, of the Virgin Mary."

After that we give in. Philadelphia has produced some smart men; but if there be a smarter than Samuel we should like to see him. Where's Barnum!


Note 1: Apostle Taylor's critique of Smucker's edition of History of the Mormons is a rather strange piece of faith-promoting polemics. For the most part, he appears to be avoiding any close examination of that New York printing, and is content to merely editorialize his own feelings of contempt for "anti-Mormon book speculation." Had the editor cared to go over Smucker's work in detail, he might have furnished his readers with a point-by-point refutation of numerous charges made against the LDS leaders and their hopeful improvements upon Christianity -- the same issue of The Mormon featured a lengthier, much more informative review of Mrs. Ferris' contemporary writings. But Taylor was reluctant to examine the "nine-tenths" (his calculation) of the volume that had previously seen publication in England, in several editions. In fact, Mr. Smucker did not claim to be the writer of most of the 1856 text, and Taylor himself makes a passing mention of Mr. Smucker being the one who "edited" the previously published British work, with his own contribution consisting of "important additions." Thus, Taylor's attempt to discredit Smucker, as one of the literary rogues who would "send to the world under their own name the labors of other and better men which they have pilfered without the slightest recognition of the source of their obligation. The British original editions did not name an author nor carry a copyright notice, and larger sections of the contents were legitimately reprinted, minus an authorship attribution, in several different publications. -- And, had Smucker embossed Heny Mayhew's name upon the front cover of the New York volume (as Taylor evidently would have desired), the wrong author's name would have been attached to the book condemned by The Mormon.

Note 2: The origin of the "nine-tenths" seemingly acceptible to the Mormon newspaper editor, was a three-part set of "letters" published in the London Morning Chronicle, beginning on July 29, 1850. The correspondent was Dr. Charles Mackay and he was the same person who supplied an updated version of the articles' contents for publication as a book. Apostle Taylor's confusing the authorship of this "history" with the name of Henry Mayhew is understandable, given the fact that the original three letters were Dr. Mackay's contribution to Mayhew's omnibus compilation of different writings on "Labour and the Poor" in the British Isles -- but Taylor's mistake also demonstrates that he was only vaguely informed of how the English Mormons had cooperated with Mackay in writing that "history" in the first place. Taylor was aware that "an eminent artist [Frederick Piercy], a member of the Church, was engaged to furnish the sketches of scenes and persons for the new work" -- and he recalled (probably correctly) that the "presiding Elder of the [LDS] London Conference" supplied the writer of the "history" with Mormon source materials. Apostle Taylor also concluded that his own editorial was "the only notice that has ever been taken of the work." The latter admission is a remarkable one and probably indicates that at that time there existed an unwritten rule among LDS journalists, not to comment too closely on the Mackay-Mayhew project. One possible explanation for this lack of criticism was that some of the pro-Mormon sources used in the "history" came from Apostle Orson Pratt, at the time Pratt was living in Liverpool and Dr. Mackay was also there gathering information on the Mormons for his planned letters to the Morning Chronicle. Pratt left England, suddenly, in mid-February, and his editorial successor at the Liverpool Millennial Star (F. D. Richards) was perhaps unaware of just how deeply Mackay had delved into printed and oral information supplied by prominent Mormon leaders. Had much pressure been exerted against Dr. Mackay's compositions, he could have responded in the public press, saying that high level Mormons themselves supplied most of that historical information.

Polygamy in Utah. -- The Progress of
Mormonism. -- A New Movement.

The following is published in some of the Utah papers and copied by the Tribune, as an extract from a sermon preached by Brigham Young, Sept. 21, 1858:

* * * It is frequently happening that women say that they are unhappy. Men will say, "My wife, though a most excellent woman, has not seen a happy day since I took my second wife." "No, not a happy day for a year," says one; and another has not seen a happy day for five years. It is said that women are tied down and abused, that they are misused and have not the liberty they ought to have; that many of them are wading through a perfect flood of tears, because of the conduct of some men, together with their own folly.

I wish my own women to understand that what I am going to say is for them as well as others, and I want those who are here to tell their sisters, yes, all the women of this community, and then write it back to the States, and do as you please with it. I am going to give you from this time to the 6th day of October next for reflection, that you may determine whether you wish to stay with your husbands or not, and then I am going to set every woman at liberty, and say to them, "Now go your way, my women with the rest;" go your way. And my wives have got to do one of two things; either round up their shoulders to endure the afflictions of this world and live for their religion, or they may leave, for I will not have them about me. I will go into heaven alone, rather than have scratching and fighting around me. I will set all at liberty. "What, first wife, too?" Yes, I will liberate you all.

I know what my women will say; they will say: "You can have as many women as you please, Brigham." But I want to go somewhere and do something to get rid of the whiners; I do not want them to receive a part of the truth, and spurn the rest out of doors.

I wish my women, and brother Kimball's, and brother Grant's, to leave, and every woman in this Territory to leave, or else say in their hearts that they will embrace the Gospel -- the whole of it. Tell the Gentiles, that I will free every woman in this Territory at our next conference. "What, the first wife, too?" Yes, there shall not one be held in bondage; all shall be set free. And then let the father be the head of the family, the master of his own household; and let him treat them as an angel would treat them; and let the wives and children say amen to what he says, and be subject to his dictates, instead of their dictating the man -- instead of their trying to govern him.

No doubt some are thinking, "I wish brother Brigham would say what would become of the children." I will tell you what my feelings are; I will let my wives take the children, and I have property enough to support them, and can educate them and then give them a good fortune, and I can take a fresh start.

I do not desire to keep a particle of my property, except enough to protect me from a state of nudity. And I would say, wives you are welcome to my children, only do not teach them iniquity; for if you do I will send an elder, or come myself, to teach them the gospel. You teach them life and salvation, or I will send elders to instruct them.

Let every man thus treat his wives, keeping raiment enough to clothe his body; and say to your wives, "take all that I have and be set at liberty; but if you stay with me you shall comply with the law of God, and that, too, without any murmuring and whining. You must fulfil the law of God in every respect and round up your shoulders to walk up to the mark without any grunting."

Now recollect, that two weeks from to-morrow I am going to set you at liberty. But the first wife will say, "It is hard, for I have lived with my husband twenty years, or thirty, and have raised a family of children for him, and it is a great trial to me for him to have more women;" then I say it is time that you gave him up to other women who will bear children. If my wife had borne me all the children that she ever would bear, the celestial law would teach me to take young women that would have children.

Do you understand this? I have told you many times that there are multitudes of pure and holy spirits waiting to take tabernacles. Now what is our duty? To prepare tabernacles for them; to take a course that will not tend to drive those spirits into the families of the wicked, where they will be trained in wickedness, debauchery and every species of crime. It is the duty of every righteous man and every woman to prepare tabernacles for all the spirits they can. Hence, if my women leave, I will go and search up others who will abide the celestial law, and let all I now have go where they please; though I will send the Gospel to them.

This is the reason why the doctrine of plurality of wives was revealed, that the noble spirits which are waiting for tabernacles might be brought forth.

If the men of the world were right, or if they were anywhere near right, there might not be the necessity which there now is. But they are wholly given up to idolatry, and, to all manner of wickedness.

Do I think that my children will be damned? No, I do not, for I am going to fight the devil until I save them all. I have got my sword ready, and it is a two-edged one. I have not a fear about that, for I would almost be ashamed of my body, if it would beget a child that would not abide the law of God, though I may have some unruly children.

I am going to ask you a good many things; and, to begin with, I will ask what is your prayer? Do you not ask for the righteous to increase, while the unrighteous shall decrease, and dwindle away? Yes, that is the prayer of every person that prays at all. The Methodists pray for it, the Baptists pray for it, and the Church of England, and all the reformers, the Shaking Quakers not excepted. And if the women belonging to this church will turn Shaking Quakers, I think their sorrows will soon be at an end.

Sisters, I am not joking; I do not throw out my proposition to banter your feelings, to see whether you will leave your husbands, all or any of you. But I do know that there is no cessation to the everlasting whinings of many of the women in this Territory. I am satisfied that this is the case. And if the women will turn from the com-mandments of God, and continue to despise the order of heaven, I will pray that the curse of the Almighty will be close to their heels, and that it may be following them all the day long. And those that enter into it and are faithful, I will promise them that they shall be queens in heaven, and rulers to all eternity.

"But," says one, "I want to have my paradise now." And, says another, "I did think I should be in paradise, if I was sealed to brother Brigham, and I thought I should be happy when I became his wife, or brother Heber's. I loved you so much that I thought I was going to have a heaven right off, right here on the spot."

What a curious doctrine it is, that we are preparing to enjoy! The only heaven for you is that which you make yourselves. My heaven is here, (laying his hand upon his heart.) I carry it with me. When do I expect it in its perfection? When I come up in the resurrection; then I shall have it, and not till then.

But the women come and say, "Really, brother John, and brother William, I thought you were going to make a heaven for me," and they get into trouble because a heaven is not made for them by the men, even though agency is upon women as well as upon men. True, there is a curse upon the woman that is not upon the man, namely, that "her whole affections shall be towards her husband," and what is the next? "He shall rule over you."

But how is it now? Your desire is to your husband, but you strive to rule over him, whereas the man should rule over you.

Some may ask whether that is the case with me: go to my house and live, and then you will learn that I am very kind, but know how to rule.

If I had only wise men to talk to, there would be no necessity for my saying what I am going to say. Many and many an elder knows no better than to go home and abuse as good a woman as dwells upon this earth, because of what I have said this afternoon. Are you, who act in that way, fit to have a family? No, you are not, and never will be, until you get good common sense.

Then you can go to work and magnify your callings; and you can do the best you know how; and on that ground I will promise you salvation, but upon no other principle.

If I were talking to a people that understood themselves and the doctrines of the holy Gospel, there would be no necessity for saying this, because you would understand. But many have been (what shall I say? pardon me, brethren,) hen-pecked so much that they do not know the place of either man or woman; they abuse and rule a good woman with an iron hand. With them it is as Solomon said: "Bray a fool in a mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him." You may talk to them about their duties, about what is required of them, and still they are fools, and will continue to be.

Prepare yourselves for two weeks from to-morrow; and I will tell you now that if you tarry with your husbands after I have set you free, you must bow down to it and submit yourselves to the celestial law. You may go where you please, after two weeks from to-morrow; but remember that I will not hear any more of this whining.


Note: Some reprints of this discourse, as published in the New York Tribune, added the following paragraph: "Brigham also delivered himself on the subject of politics in another sermon, on this wise: -- 'Mormonism is true, and all hell cannot overthrow it. All the devil's servants on the earth may do all they can, and as Br. Clinton has just said, after twenty-six years faithful operation and exertion by our enemies, including the times when Joseph had scarcely a man to stand by him, and when the persecution was as severe on him as it ever was in the world, what have they accomplished? They have succeeded in making us an organized territory, and they are determined to make us an independent state or government, and as the Lord lives it will be so. (The congregation shouted amen.) I say, as the Lord lives, we are bound to become a sovereign state in the Union, or an independent nation by ourselves, and let them drive us from this place if they can; they cannot do it. I do not throw this out as a banter; you gentiles, and hickory and basswood "Mormons" can write it down if you please, but write it as I speak it. I wish you to understand that God rules and reigns; that he led us to this land and gave us a territorial government. Was this the design of the wicked? No. Their design was to banish us from the earth, but they have driven us into notoriety and power; we are now raised to a position where we can converse with kings and emperors. "I am still governor of this territory, to the constant chagrin of my enemies; but I do not in the least neglect the duties of my priesthood nor my office as governor; and while I honor my priesthood I will do honor to my office as governor. This is hard to be understood by the wicked, but it is true. The feelings of many are much irritated because I am here, and Congress has requested the president to inquire why I still hold the office of governor in the territory of Utah. I can answer that question; I hold the office by appointment, and am to hold it until my successor is appointed and qualified, which has not yet been done. I shall bow to Jesus, my governor, and under him to Br. Joseph. Though he has gone behind the vail and I cannot see him, he is my head, under Jesus Christ and the ancient Apostles, and I shall go ahead and build up the kingdom. But if I was now sitting in the chair of state at the white house in Washington, every thing in my office would be subject to my religion."

THE  ESOTERIC  DOCTRINES
OF  MORMONISM.
______

Correspondence of The N. Y. Tribune.

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct., 1856.          

In order to understand Mormonism aright, it is necessary to bear constantly in mind that the foundation of this remarkable system of fanaticism and imposture lies in the doctrine of direct revelation from Heaven in respect to all things pertaining to spiritual or political government, and that the whole fabric of the Church, both doctrinal, ethical and liturgical, may be at any time changed by a new revelation uttered by its Prophet. And again, that one of the most important points in their theological system is the regular progression to be observed in the conversion and subsequent advancement of a person in Mormonism.

This principle is thus explained on page 507, vol. XV., of The Millennial Star, the Church organ in England: "If a man receives all truths, he must receive them on a graduated scale. The Latter-Day Saints act upon this simple natural proposition. Paul had milk for babes, and things unlawful to utter." In carrying out this doctrine, they have invented a series of secret rites and ceremonies founded upon the Masonic ritual, and embracing oaths of obedience to the counsels of the priesthood more binding, if possible, than those of the ancient order of Jesuits. This system consists of several degrees which are called endowments. The highest orders of Mormonism, consequently, are only attainable to such as have proved themselves, after many years of service in the Church, to be useful and trustworthy; and those alone who have penetrated into the Holy of Holies (the most sacred and mysterious of these endowments) are intrusted with the secret plans and machinations of the Mormon Government.

The influence which has been acquired over many of their ignorant followers by these means is unbounded. I will give you an instance. While traveling a short time since, I had occasion to ride in a wagon with a Mormon who was very firm in the faith but naturally communicative. In the course of a conversation which we had about Mormonism, I found occasion to ask him what he would consider it his duty to do if Brigham should counsel him to murder me. His reply was that if Brigham told him to murder me, it would be because God had revealed it to be necessary that I should leave the world, and, therefore, he, as the instrument in the hands of God through his prophet Brigham, would not be responsible in taking my life. Alone with this man, far from any settlement, this confession, made in a solemn, earnest manner, impressed itself deeply on my mind.

Thus you see the importance which is attached by them to the completion of the Temple, for it is not, as many suppose, to be a place of public religious meetings, but in it are to be celebrated their infernal rites of endowment; within its walls animal sacrifices are to be offered up for the remission of sins; in one of its apartments, baptism will be made for the dead; and if we may judge from Brigham Young's own words, human sacrifice will be the fitting accompaniment of their blasphemous, demoniacal ceremonies.

You will find in a sermon delivered by Brigham Young, Sept. 31, and published in The Deseret News of Oct, 1, 1856, the following paragraphs:

"There are sins that men commit, for which they cannot receive forgiveness in this world or in that which is to come; and if they had their eyes open to see their true condition, they would be perfectly willing to have their blood spilt upon the ground, that the smoke thereof might ascend to Heaven as an offering for their sins; and the smoking incense would atone for their sins. Whereas, if such is not the case, they will stick to them and remain upon them in the spirit world I know, when on bear my brethren telling about cutting people off from the earth, that you consider it a strong doctrine; but it is to save them, not to destroy them."

Again, he says:

"It is true that the blood of the Son of God was shed for sins through the fall and those committed by men; yet men can commit sins which it can never remit. There are sins that can be atoned for by an offering upon an altar, as in ancient days; and there are sins that the blood of a lamb, of a calf, or of turtle doves, cannot remit, but they must be atoned for by the blood of the man."

The foundation of this Temple is laid, ready to receive the superstructure, and Brigham has declared his determination not to bring over any emigrants next Summer, but will devote the funds and energies of the Church toward finishing the Temple; the work on it will accordingly be resumed as soon as the season opens. The square on which the Temple is to be situated contains the Tabernacle and the Endowment house (a building which at present answers for the purposes of a temple), and is surrounded by a high adobe wall with a stone caping.

Mormon missionaries still unblushingly point to Utah as the place where female virtue is protected, and refer to the law which makes it death for a man to seduce the wife or daughter of a Mormon (without Brigham's consent). They fail, however, to tell us the punishment for a Mormon who seduces a Gentile girl, for they have before them the example of Brigham Young, who by pictures of the fearful misery and agony to which a Gentile is doomed in the future, and by promises of happiness and visions of a heaven of sensual bliss which could scarcely fail to entrance the senses of a weak-minded person, together with that easy, personal address characteristic of the accomplished roué, succeeded in seducing Mrs. Cobb, the wife of a Boston gentleman, and induced her to flee with him to ruin and shame, taking with her a beautiful daughter. They remember Parley P. Pratt, the Apostle, who, by similar means, graced his harem with Mrs. McLean, the wife of a gentleman in New-Orleans. In fact, they can scarcely find a single one of their leaders who has not only ruined and thrown into utter degradation, wives and mothers but has supplied his harem with young girls whom he has seduced, and induced, under the disguise of religion, and by the grossest misrepresentations and falsehoods, to leave father, mother, home, and rush into absolute slavery and despair.

The anxiety of the Latter-Day Saints to save females from perdition has, since their settlement in Utah, led to results which will make the genealogical trees of succeeding generations exceedingly picturesque and interesting; they will not have the stiffness of outline which our old ancestral trees had.

Mr. David Wilkin of Salt Lake, already happy in the possession of two better halves, who weresisters. fell in love with a pretty Scotch girl. This beauty, however, had an aged mother whom she refused to leave. David thereupon, with the consent of Brigham, overcame the difficulty by marrying both mother and daughter. But last spring, finding that with the enormous rates for provisions and breadstuffs, he could not support four wives without making large inroads into his pile of the needful; he gave the two sisters notice that he had supported them long enough, and that they must find accommodations elsewhere. Accordingly, they had to leave him, and now support themselves by washing for some of the Gentiles. Again, you will find at Springville, on Utah Lake. Mr. Aaron Johnson (its bishop) serving the Lord by supporting as his spirituals five sisters, his own nieces, and the report is that he has engaged to marry the sixth so soon as she reaches her teens.

From these examples (taken from the numberless ones to be found in this Territory) you will appreciate the interest with which the children trace out their relationship to each other. They commence by calling each of their father's wives, except their own mother, aunt.

And yet the Mormons quote the Bible in support of these monstrous iniquities, and say that Christ himself had two wives who were sisters, namely, Mary and Martha, sisters of Lazarus. And you will find on page 346 of the Journal of Discourses, published by the Mormon Church, the following paragraph in a sermon delivered by Jedediah M. Grant (Brigham's Second Counsellor):

"The grand reason of this burst of public sentiment in anathemas upon Christ and his disciples, causing his crucifixion, was evidently based upon polygamy, according to the testimony of the philosophers who rose in that age. A belief in the doctrine of a plurality of wives caused the persecution of Jesus and his followers. We might almost think they were Mormons."

The second wives, or spirituals, are not all supported by their husbands; on the contrary, there are numerous cases on record in which the women support the men, going out even in the field to work. The light in which the women are generally looked upon in this country is illustrated by the following incident: When the first hand-cart train entered the city, foremost in the line were noticed three buxom Welsh girls, who had drawn their hand-cart some 1500 miles. Wishing the next day after their arrival to see a Mormon with whom I had some business to transact, I inquired of one of his spirituals where I could find him. She answered me with an ironic smile on her lips:

"He has gone to engage as spirituals those three Welch girls who were in the lead of the hand cart train. He thinks they would be very useful in hauling his winter's wood from the canyons, they rnake such an excellent team."


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?

We cannot do a worse thing with a difficulty than to dodge it, and never was this practical truth more pointedly illustrated than in the actual position of affairs in Utah. When that Territory was organized the acting President of the United States, Mr. Fillmore, was called upon to decide whether the authority of the Republic should be extended over its inhabitants as of right or by sufferance. He found the Mormons boldly claiming to be considered an independent Israel in the midst of the Philistines, denying his right to nominate a Governor for them, and professing to hold their lands not of the American Government, but of the Almighty. Instead of meeting these insolent assumptions and frustrating them forever, Mr. Fillmore evaded the issue by conferring the Executive appointment upon the High Priest of the sect, who condescended to accept it as a compromise solicited by the United States, and of slight importance to his people and himself.

Six years of chartered treason have ripened the Mormon power, and now, while we are debating what we shall do with a set of intolerable idolators who have erected the odious Dagon of their worship on a portion of the American soil, they, on their side, are preparing themselves to vindicated their absolute independence of us and of our laws. How much longer they will deign to keep a delegate at Washington we may infer from their treatment of the United States Judiciary, and from the avowed intention of Brigham Young to rule his people as he and they shall choose, without comment, commission or control from us. This is the state of the case, and it must be met now fully and fairly.

For some time past the leading columns of the Deseret News have been filled with a most amazingly and audaciously conducted argument upon the Constitution of the United States, whereof the gist is simply this -- that the American Government has no right whatever to exercise any authority over the inhabitants of a Territory, its dominion extending only over the land, while that land is lying waste and void of life! With the advent of immigration the Constitutional dominion takes wing and flies, like the moody trapper of the Farther West, to some vaster region unprofaned by the squatter and the spade! According to this new interpretation of the Constitution, the President may appoint Governors where there are no people to be governed, and Judges where there is no judgment to be passed.

Ridiculous as this theory is, we must remember that theories not less ridiculous have been engrafted upon the platforms of party organizations in more enlightened sections of our common country, and we must find in our recent recollections of Atchisonian "Constitutionalism," and of Kansas-Nebraska law, a sufficient reason for believing that the ineptitutdes of the Deseret News may really give us no little trouble when they come to meet us in the form of priestly proclamations and of Mormon bayonets. For in this form they will assuredly come.

The unscrupulous chiefs of this now imposing iniquity are not men to shrink from a practical assertion of their most outrageous propensities. They already claim the right of life and death over the members of their "Church," and the contumely with which they have treated the judicial authorities of the Union they are prepared to lavish upon any Executive functionary whom the President may see fit to send to them. The Territory over which their despotism extends is difficult of access and defensible: the population subjected to their sway is numerous and hardy as well as ignorant and fanatical. Scandinavia, Scotland, Wales, and the West of Britain, those anvient nurseries of fierce, unreasoning faith, have sent out thousands of strong arms and stupid heads to the service of the astute followers of Joe Smith, and we may depend upon it that when they are summoned to the "battle of the Lord against the mighty" the wretched victims of the Mormon imposture will put their lives into the hands of their rascally leaders just as blindly as now they put their fortunes, their affections, their homes, under the same unprincipled control. It is useless to attempt to reason with them, for the public opinion of the States cannot reach the masses of Utah, and to persuade the Saints at Deseret that the astronomical argument drawn from the "pluralistic loves of the planets" to polygamy as practised by those of their number who can afford themselves the questionable luxury of a subdivided homestead, is neither convincing in itself, nor conclusively establishes the duty of every Mormon to shoot United States troops at the order of Heber C. Kimball, would be as hopeless a task as to satisfy a Mississippian Methodist that the improper behavior of Ham towards his father Noah does not necessarily justify the repeal of the "Missouri Compromise."

What then shall we do with these people? Let them alone, for our own honor, as well as for the sake of their own lasting happiness, we cannot. The limits of religious toleration, though difficult of destination, are fortunately not absolutely indefinable. A man’s right to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience must be guarded like all other rights, and therefore like all other rights it must be restricted in its exercise by a just consideration of moral and social consequences, as well as of the rights of others. No man can be permitted to worship God in such a way as to outrage the decencies of life or to oppress his neighbors. When Taylor, the Platonist, thought fit to profess Paganism, and set up a silver statue of Jupiter on his mantel-piece, his landlady made no objection to that innocent act of insanity; but when he proposed to sacrifice a black bull in her back parlor she strenuously resisted, and saver her crockery and her Kidderminster at the risk of her charity. Her sturdy common sense smote the exact line between the permissible and the reprehensible, and all rational Governments find themselves forced to imitate her conduct. John Jones may believe if he likes that clothes and corruption are concomitant facts, and seek salvation by stripping off all the conventions of kerseymere and Irish linen; but it Jones does not confine his spiritual exercises to his own chamber, the practical interference of the police will constrain his actions without disturbing his convictions.

The orthodoxy of no small portion of British India cling with adoring earnestness to the profitable humilities of the worship of Juggernaut and the edifying sublimities of the Suttee; but the common sense and righteous feeling of the British Government in that country did not therefore shrink from the duty of doing away utterly and forever with practices so infamous and so inhuman. Why then should the authorities of the United States hesitate to deal in the same sharp and decisive way with a "religious" system which condenses into itself all the absurdities, usurpations, indecencies and villainies of the worse form of Paganism? We are not called upon to punish any man for believing in the inspiration of Joe Smith or the reality of the Golden-Book, in the sanctity of Brigham Young, or even in the salutary and divine appointment of polygamy. But we can and we ought to restrain the believers in these things from violating the laws and decencies of the land. Theoretical polygamy is one thing, but practical polygamy is quite another. The course of Judge Drummond, who called upon the Grand Jury of Utah to find indictments against all persons living in the practice of polygamy, should be sustained and followed up. Let the judicial authority be supported by a proper military force, and the favorite "Institution" of the leaders of Mormonism can be soon and effectually broken up. Upon this we have a right to insist, and upon the summary punishment of any parties against whom it is proved that they have ventured to exert extra judicial authority over citizens of the United States, or to assumed the coercive functions of the properly appointed Executive. In a word, let the Mormons be treated as a "sect," subjected to the same regulations with all other sects, and protected in the exercise of the same rights with theirs. As things now stand they claim to be considered as a Nation, and defy the authority of the Federal Union, in order to vindicate to themselves not a freedom of belief but an unhallowed license of conduct which, as a Christian and civilized people, it is impossible that we should tolerate. If it be true that there are persons in New-York who life in the practice of the Mormon theories, let them be at once prosecuted and punished, but let the force of the Government be put out fearlessly and promptly to deal with the mischief in its centre, before it grows to proportions, which shall still more seriously compromise the character and endanger the tranquility of the country.


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.

KANSAS -- THE MORMONS -- SLAVERY.
______


SPEECH  OF  SENATOR  DOUGLAS.
______

Delivered at Springfield, Ill., June 12, 1857.

MR. PRESIDENT, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: -- I appear before you to-night, at the request of the grand jury in attendance upon the United States Court, for the purpose of submitting my views upon certain topics upon which they have expressed a desire to hear my opinion. It was not my purpose when I arrived among you, to have engaged in any public or political discussion; but when called upon by a body of gentlemen so intelligent and respectable, coming from all parts of the State, and connected with the administration of public justice, I do not feel at liberty to withhold a full and frank expression of my opinion upon the subjects to which they have referred, and which now engrosses so large a share of the public attention.

The points which I am required to discuss are:

1st. The present condition and prospects of Kansas,

2d. The principles affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dred Scott case.

3d. The condition of things in Utah, and the appropriate remedies for existing evils....

...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. (Applause.) No temporizing policy -- no half way measures will then answer....


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.

The line of Mormon settlements which are represented in our last accounts from Utah as being abandoned by the inhabitants, commences near the northern boundary of the Territory, about seventy miles distant from Salt Lake City, in the valleys of Cache and Malade, which are used, however, chiefly for the pasturage of the stock belonging to the church. There are also two small settlements on the Bear River, but the first place approaching Salt Lake City from the north, which can be called, a town, is Box Elder or Brigham's City, about eight miles south of Bear River and fifty-seven from Salt Lake City. This town, which is inhabited principally by Danes and Swiss, is very handsomely situated on a plain about two hundred feet above the level of Bear River. The houses are well built and handsomely arranged. Five miles south is Willow Creek, in the vicinity of which is much good land, producing the heaviest crops of wheat raised in the Territory. Twelve miles south of Willow Creek Fort is Ogden's Hole, a fine valley surrounded on all sides by mountains, except the narrow pass at its entrance. It contains five hundred inhabitants. Three miles southwest of the "Hole" is Bingham's Fort, containing seven hundred inhabitants. Two miles from Bingham's Fort, and thirty-five from Salt Lake City, is Ogden City, on Weber River, one of the largest towns in the Territory, and containing many handsome buildings. The population is four or five thousand. East and West Weber Forts, on the opposite banks of the river, about eight miles above Ogden City, contain about five hundred inhabitants. Eight miles farther south is Keysville, containing about a thousand inhabitants. It has some good arable land, and a fine stock range. Farmington City, the county seat of Davis County, contains about the game number of inhabitants. Three or four miles further south is Sessions, a straggling settlement, scattered some five miles along the road, but with many fine houses, and including the best lands in the Territory. Eight miles from Sessions is Salt Lake City, which is supposed to contain about a third part of the entire population of the Territory, or from fifteen to eighteen thousand people. It was originally laid out eleven years ago -- in July, 1847 -- in two hundred and sixty blocks of ten acres each, separated by streets a hundred and twenty-eight feet , wide, and irrigated by canals from the River Jordan. There are eight houses in each Mock, so arranged that no two houses front each other. It has many fine and some elegant buildings, the principal of which are the Tabernacle, in which all religious and other public meetings are held, the Council-House, the Endowment-House, the unfinished Temple, the Court-House, nineteen school-houses, and many costly houses erected by the leaders, among which are two belonging to Brigham Young.

All these settlements, built up in the course of ten or eleven years by the untiring industry of the Mormons, are now in the progress of abandonment, and decreed on the advance of the troops into the valley to total destruction. It is probable, also, though that does not yet distinctly appear, that this abandonment extends to the line of settlements along the shores of Utah Lake, some sixty miles south of Salt Lake City, and of which Provo, containing about four thousand inhabitants, is the principal.

Where these unhappy people are to go, or what is to become of them, does not appear. They are moving south, but, so far as we know, there are in that direction no inhabitable tracts of any considerable extent within seven hundred miles of their late settlements. So extraordinary a migration is hardly paralleled in history. The depopulation of Acadia a hundred years ago, strong political reasons as there were for it, has not left a very fragrant odor behind it. The driving of the Mormons from their homes by military terror will hardly contribute much to the honor of the country, or to the posthumous reputation of Mr. Buchanan's Presidency.


Notes: (forthcoming)

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].

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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.
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A Week's Later -News from the Army and Salt Lake
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The Army to be Received Peaceably by the Mormons.
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Brigham Young and his Followers Still at Provo.
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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.

INTERESTING  FROM  UTAH.
_______

Probability of Another Mormon Exodus.
_______

The Proposed Location on Col. Kinney's Nicaraguan Grant.
_______

Brigham Young and the Gentile Reporters --
Cessation of Preaching -- Inaccessibility
of the Prophet -- The Hand-Cart
Trains of 1856, &c.
_______

From Our Own Correspondent.

GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Monday, July 19, 1858.

There is a rumor abroad that it is probable another exodus of the Latter-Day Saints may yet take place. An agent has been here from Col. Kinney, proffering the sale of land in Nicaragua, to Brigham Young, for the future location of the Mormon people. It is carefully circulated, likewise, that Brigham has declined the purchase. But careful observers will generally conclude, here, when a project is very earnestly denied, that there is some truth in it.

Whether the advantages of such a position as Nicaragua would overbalance its disadvantages is a question to be decided by time. To a man as ambitious as Brigham Young, the prospect of forming an independent kingdom would doubtless be alluring. He could there reign despotically, and achieve the object of his most cherished hopes -- the exclusion of the hated Gentiles from his dominions. There he might conclude he would have time for the increase of his subjects by missionaries and by polygamy, until he could foster a people formidable enough to aid his posterity in the subversion of the detested Government of the United States. There, carefully secluded from all contact with the outer world, with no channel of communication but such as orthodox Mormons chose to permit, every movement watched, every avenue of escape guarded, the fearful doom threatened in the endowment house hanging over the head of each apostate, so situated as that every known apostate should meet that doom without leaving a trace of his fate behind. Brigham might flatter himself that he would succeed, under such circumstances, in realizing the dream of his life -- the establishment of an independent kingdom, and becoming the ruler of a nation of slaves. Crafty, designing and artful as Brigham Young is, the art of establishing a solid and lasting system of Government is one he never possessed. The kingdom he would establish would contain within itself the elements of speedy and total destruction. Fraud might win, and for a while, sophistry and force might keep together a body of people under his rule, particularly if so situated that none but his tried tools should communicate with the outer world; but the flame would be smouldering in darkness. The seeds of rebellion would germinate even there. Never, assuredly, has any system been so artfully contrived to lure and enslave its votaries, body and soul. Yet, never in the history of the world, even during the darkest ages, has the God-given spirit of freedom failed to assert its supremacy. Steeped in mystery and sunken in mental power as his followers are, no sooner would Brigham imagine that, shut in from the view of civilization, he could proceed to any length with his victims, than "some village Hampden" would be found to withstand, some spirit on whom the mantle of the immortal Washington would descend, would be ready to light the torch of freedom at the funeral pyre of the despot. It would be impossible, however, to surmise, ere this could occur, how much more of human life might be sacrificed to the caprices of a tyrant. How many a wandering Gentile, trespassing within the limits of the Young sovereignty, might go his way and be no more seen; or how many dark deeds might be connived at, of which the world should never know. On this account alone, I am induced to hope that not for one hour may Brigham realize his ambitious views.

Of course every reflective mind would conclude, that to those views there is some even [more?] danger in an independent kingdom than in a State, had Young possessed sufficient tact to procure the admission of Utah to the Union. As a separate power she will be amenable not to one, but to every government in the civilized world. The nations of Central America are already too weak. Placed within easy reach of the great highway traffic of Panama, and the fleets of every nation, surrounded by the opposing religious powers of Papal Rome and its celibate clergy, should rumors fly abroad of an oppressed and enslaved community requiring redress and assistance there, Brigham Young would find escape even more difficult than in the recesses of the Wahsatch mountains. If he is the shrewd observer I take him to be, he will hardly consider the advantages of a location in Nicaragua equal or superior to its accompanying disadvantages. Should he be still weak enough to rely, as he has done before, on his ability to so thoroughly enslave and guard his followers, as to prevent even the swift-voiced tongue of rumor from conveying tidings beyond his frontiers, he will find in the end, that he has reckoned without his host; and the reckoning, when it commences under such auspices, will be fatal to both him and his policy.

The tropical climate would likewise be a great barrier to European emigration, and would counterbalance the advantage of easy access by water from any part of the world. To Brigham Young himself the climate would be especially dangerous. A man of his plethoric habits would hardly find health and comfort in a residence so near the line.

Brigham Young is in an exceedingly uncomfortable position. On the first rumor of the advent of the United States Army, he was going to hide up the people in the mountains, recesses of which he was acquainted with, where no human foot could track them; and one old lady very gravely informed me that she knew of one cave alone capable of containing ten thousand souls! Upon the nearer approach of the U. S. troops it was stated that a valley somewhere between the confines of Utah and California was their destination. The road to this valley lay across a sandy desert, where, of course, no troops could reach them. There was but one known entrance to the valley, and the Indians around had never seen a white man! This information must have been gained by revelation, said another serious. but rather strong minded female to me; since it cannot have been explored or the Indians would have seen white men. Finally, it turned out that a certain Bishop Evans had been somewhere about the spot, and from him Brigham obtained his revelation on the matter. A company was started off to prepare the place for the Zion of the Lord; but, unluckily, their cattle had no supernatural endurance about them, and found the desert as difficult to travel as Uncle Sam's mules found the snows of last Winter; -- consequently, they were turned back. I heard that they have since succeeded in forming a small settlement, but nothing of the former plans about the valley have been heard of late.

Poor Brigham! All his boasted projects blasted by the unbelievers. The Gentile lording it over his fat possessions, as lord it he most unmistakably does, so far as free speech and the protection of life extends. His fortifications in Echo Canyon the jest of the meanest soldier in Uncle Sam's camp at Cedar Valley. The weekly Express to the States, over which so much gas was exhausted a year ago, in puffing the Mormons as the only people who could accomplish, and Brigham the only man who could drive it, is without a word, quietly running to and fro, as indifferently as if it had never been mooted till the Gentiles accomplished it. Gentile merchants insinuating their unsaintly faces right under his prophetic nose in sinful defiance of his declaration. His legislative enactments overruled by that _rara avis,_ a judge above bribery. Lawyers and juries living in his own peculiar city and sitting in his own peculiar courts, who cannot be persuaded to plead every ease and give every verdict in an orthodox mode. Hemmed in on all sides, himself a subject where he reigned a despot, with no vacuum through which even a Mormon could creep out, his preaching silenced and his glory given to another, have we not well said "Poor Brigham?"

                      Sic transit gloria mundi.

But, phoenix-like, should the Prophet arise from his ashes -- should any, who, like Col. Kinney appear to be more anxious for the dollars, they may realize, than for the interests of humanity, be found to offer a favorable location for his ambitious projects to one who, under the garb of every attribute the world calls holy, disguises the most dangerous and appalling tyranny, care must be taken by the philanthropic portion of society, that he shall be paralyzed by their united action, in his deadly aims. The poor, the confiding, the innocent, the helpless, must not suffer as they have done -- and while the world holds one soul large enough to despise despotic power and pant for the freedom of its fellow man -- they will not. When it is remembered that the writer of this letter was once one of their most zealous advocates, and continued so to the hour when the hollowness of their pretensions and the deadliness of their motives was fully unmasked -- one who would gladly sacrifice ten years of the span of human existence to prove them right -- the public, at least, cannot accuse me of prejudice. I am called bitter -- Who is there that has been wronged, injured, insulted, slandered, their dearest hopes mocked, their prospects blighted and their homes made desolate, that will not feel bitterly? Were it not for the hope of warning some one amongst my fellow-beings, disposed to be as unscrupulous as myself, I would not intrude my experiences and opinions upon the world.

A CITIZEN OF UTAH.          

---

GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Saturday. July 23, 1858.          

The Lion of Judah is laid ingloriously to rest in his lair. The Prophet voice has ceased to be heard by the faithful within the walls of Zion. The glory of Israel is enshrouded in darkness. In other words better suited to the comprehension of the unbeliever, Brigham has suspended preaching. The walls of that tabernacle which but a few short months ago resounded with the acclaim of a thousand voices responsive to his declaration that Utah was free "now, henceforth and forever," the walls of that building are now silent as the grave. Alas for the holy city! she is now worse than Pagan, for there is no public worship of any God to be seen within her boundaries. She, who was declared by the voice of the Seer and Revelator to be FREE and independent of the Gentiles, within whose sacred precincts no foot of Gentile merchant was ever more to find an abiding place, she has to submit to the vile sway of the unbelieving "dogs of the Gentile law" -- and the mighty voice of the Thunderer Brigham can no more be sounded as of old. For why? What can be the influence which is sufficiently potent to hold back the revealings of Omnipotence? Is some Prophet arrived mightier than he? Or is the Gentile spirit more powerful than the inspiration of the unseen? Alas! I fear the mystery needs no magic to aid in its unravelment. It has required no supernatural agency to stop the Word of the Lord. The reporters of a free press have been here. They have made good use of their time, too, in assisting their more orthodox brethren to report Brigham's discourses a little more correctly to the world than is usually considered essential by those gentlemen of latitudinarian consciences. The fact that they were doing so reached Brigham's ears, and with his usual courtesy, desirous of saving trouble to these emissaries of freedom, he sent for one of the gentlemen and proffered the notes of his own orthodox reporter. They were at once accepted with the assurance to His Holiness that it would be the duty of the receiver to report for himself in future every word he heard preached. Arriving home and examining the notes of Brigham's reporter, he discovered a remarkable discrepancy in competing them with his own; and consequently forwarded both copies for print, in order that the public might judge how much orthodox food they were able to digest, in the eyes of the Prophet, when compared with what he considered his own flock capable of devouring. Here, then, is the key to the cessation of public preaching in Salt Lake City.

Matters here afford small topics of interest just now. There is, of course, considerable stagnation of Mormon intellect -- which may, in some degree, account for the apathy with which it is currently reported that Adjutant-General James Ferguson, of the Mormon troops, accepted the information that he was a liar, from the Provost Marshal of the U. S. Army, in Brigham's office the other day. Brigham is literally a prisoner in his own house. He is never seen walking abroad now -- his house continues guarded by night as it has ever been -- but it is almost impossible to obtain a private audience of him by day light now. A gentleman was intrusted by a friend who was leaving town with an open note for Mr. Young. He called at his residence; a domestic appeared and offered to conduct him to the back entrance. The bearer of the note -- an officer of the United States Army -- declined, saying that he was not in the habit of entering gentlemen's houses by the back door. The man disappeared, and after keeping the officer waiting a quarter of an hour, appeared at the front entrance and stated that the note must be conveyed to Brigham by him. The officer replied that, being an open note, he could deliver it to none but Brigham himself. He was told that President Young could not be seen. I believe he is occasionally visible in his office, but even this is rare. As I said before, no preaching goes on. All ward meetings, quorum meetings and religious meetings whatsoever are suspended. Rumors are afloat that the Bishops have received orders to transact all Church business; for that the Mormon Trinity, Brigham, Heber and Daniel are to be no more seen in public. Whether this is a preliminary step to their final leave of the Territory, time will prove. The faithful of course regard it as a manifest withdrawal of the smiles of heaven consequent on the Gentile spirit abroad here. They do not seem to reflect that if such be the cause, it looks marvelously like the triumph of that same spirit in the very places in which their Prophets declared the Gentile should never come. We of the unbelieving class consider it indicative of a degree of fear, which is certainly unbecoming their high claims to Divine protection. We who do not acknowledge those claims at all, but are firm believers in the terrors of evil consciences, can account for it in a very simple, natural manner. We recollect the ghost scene in "Richard III," and we have an indistinct sort of idea that certain couches here may be visited in a manner of which that is but a faint shadowing. Now that they have less public duties to excite the mind, it is barely possible that reflection may suggest some thought of the houses which have been desolated, the hearts which have been wrung, the affections which have been seared, the hopes which have been blighted, the ties which have been broken, and last, not least, the fearful amount of human life which has been wantonly and remorselessly sacrificed through their instrumentality. Who that can recall anything of the spectral train which entered this city in the Fall of 1856, dragging in their emaciated hands the handcarts which had cost the blood and sinew of so many brave hearts. Who that remembers the ghastly countenances, the haggard and dejected, but still something of triumphant, air of that wan troop of beings, but recollects the thrill of horror which their sufferings elicited on recital, from all who had souls "to feel another's woe," or minds to comprehend what humanity may be brought to endure through religious enthusiasm. "I don't pity them a bit, not a particle," was the feeling ejaculation which the sight elicited from the real author of all this suffering -- and by this craftily timed remark, the expression of much sympathy from others which might have resulted in questioning the necessity of all this misery, was withheld and checked. It is true that Brigham Young expressed himself as unable to rest night or day, when the chances of their being snowed-up in the mountains reached him, but one of the unfortunate train was sharp enough to observe that had he not sent out his people to help them in; it might have been an ugly affair to settle with Government for the loss of so many lives. As it was, the mortality upon that awful journey will never be known until the day when the Eternal shall call to a fearful reckoning the men who so recklessly destroyed his creatures.

"Many among them," said an eye-witness to me, unintelligent and fragile looking young girl, who fortunately and almost miraculously survived, "Many among them died from mortification of the feet, through traveling twenty and thirty miles a day, dragging a hand-cart with 400 or 500 pounds over loose sandy soil, sprinkled with prickly pear and burrs of different kinds. Their shoes were all worn out, their feet swollen, these burrs would pierce them in every direction, and under that burning sun, starved as they were, no wonder these sores ended in mortification and death. Others, worn to a shadow from incessant fatigue, unable to sustain life upon the miserable pittance of eight or ten ounces of flour daily, would sink down by the roadside to die or be devoured by wolves, when the captains or their companies would tardily and grudgingly afford the relief which earlier given might have saved their lives, and order a wagon to take them up, but we generally saw them next time, dead, and lying for burial -- while seated upon the corpse, perhaps, was another wretched being devouring the miserable morsel he called breakfast. They seemed to lose all human feeling; they would snatch an old bone from each other as greedily as a pack of starved dogs might be expected to do -- and close by, at the time, others would be digging a grave in which fathers. mothers or husbands were to take their last long sleep. I have seen as many as sixteen bodies laid in one grave!" Then came the snow; and then the poor remnant of the party had to experience all the horrors of starvation and frost. Delicate girls, nursing mothers, aged men and young children had to perform the work of oxen -- wade half-frozen rivers and creeks -- climb rugged hills and toil through vallies knee deep in snow, and still drag the everlasting hand-cart and its ceaseless load behind. I was told by one who was the first to meet the party, of a young man who had been remarkable as a fine, generous, athletic young fellow, but when was worn and wasted to a skeleton; when spoken to, he burst into tears; and when told to cheer up, replied, in a tone of piteous distress: "I don't mind for myself; but if l die, what is to become of my mother and those poor girls? Even now, when we reach camp, I have not strength to sweep the snow away; they can't pitch the tent without, and it kills me -- oh. It kills me -- to see them suffer as they do." Tears choked further utterance, and the party who addressed him turned away also to hide their own. It is due to the Mormons who met them with teams to say that they did everything in their power to alleviate the distress. But no one doubts the sincerity or good heartedness of the Mormon people, especially when bidden by Brigham on an errand agreeable to him. It is the heads which conceived and the hearts which carried out such a murderous plan, who deserve the eternal execration of humanity.

This too, be it remembered, was no exodus entailed upon this innocent people by Gentile persecution and religious intolerance. It was at the point of no Missourian bayonet that the hand-cart train of '56 was driven over the prairies of the West. No, it was by another weapon they were forced on to the doom which met so many. The tongue of their merciless leaders alone was the weapon employed, first to lure, and next to drive them to destruction. Why were they not permitted to remain a Winter in the States, where they could have obtained employ till Spring should offer the prospect of a journey free at least from the snows of the terrible South Pass? Why but because their impoverished condition on their arrival here would be such as to justify Brigham, in his later declaration that the time was not far distant when he would buy up the poor as slaves for a bushel of wheat. Well may he boast, as he did in one of his last discourses, of the gold his coffers inclose -- gold which he averred it required a wagon and two yoke of cattle to haul to Provo. Where was it obtained, and by what means? Ten years ago he was not worth ten cents, where probably he now owns ten thousand. Time and space would fail me to give accounts of how he obtains the wealth he boasts of. Volumes might be filled in relating it. I have spoken of the handcart system and its frightful consequences. I did not speak of the flour which was collected from house to house in this Territory by the minions of the church at that time, nor how readily the people gave it, for the teams which went out to convey it to the starving emigrants; nor how every pound which those emigrants received was carefully noted down, and afterwards charged to many at high prices! Who received the pay? Not the donors -- but the Church. Again, when they sent around last year and levied a tax on every inhabitant for the support of their standing army, and when, shortly after that, the army was abolished, and notice given that all the property subscribed would be refunded, how much of stock, clothing or saddlery, to say nothing of wheat and other food which each had given, was returned to the owners? Not three cents worth out of every ten. Yet again, while that army, or part of it, was out for long dreary weeks last Autumn doing its best, ignorant as it was, to defend its church and her authorities, word came into the city that its soldiers were half naked, and clothing was wanted to protect them from the frost, a call was again made on the inhabitants for donations of clothing, to be left at a store designated by the authorities. Obedient to the call -- poor and destitute as hundreds were -- mothers and sisters having already cut up their last remaining flannel petticoat for the husbands and brothers long since sent out in the canyons -- still obedient to the call -- clothing absolutely wanted for the naked at home, was intrusted to the hands of the Church for the Mormon troops -- and for even these hard wrung articles, the poor and infatuated creatures who received them, were charged -- for what had literally been taken from the backs of their wives and children. A poor woman told me the other day only of her husband having to pay four dollars for a half worn out article given him in Echo Canyon, and Brigham at the same time boasting of his coffers full of gold! Has the man no blushes for such barefaced robbery of the poor?

I have the honor to be

A CITIZEN OF UTAH.              

Notes: (forthcoming)

UTAH.

CONDITION  OF  MORMON  AFFAIRS.
_______

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

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. The health of the troops was good, and the difficulty of the route less than had been apprehended.

We have next a letter from Messrs. Powell and McCulloch, the Peace Commissioners, to Gen. Johnston, dated at Great Salt Lake City, June 12. They request him to come on immediately with the Army, which they assure him will be well received, and suggest a proclamation, informing the Mormons that no harm shall be done to their persons or property.

Gen. Johnston's reply follows, in which he engages to comply with the suggestions of the commissioners. Then comes a communication from Messrs. Powell and McCulloch to the Secretary of War, in which they make the important announcement that they have succeeded in effecting a settlement of the Mormon difficulties. All idea of resistencee, they state, has been abandoned, the Saints promising obedience to the authority and laws of the United States, and relinquishing their objections to the presence of the army. It is believed by the Commissioners that the Mormons will shortly be induced to return from Provo arid the other southern points to which they have retreated, and once more take possession of the homes they abandoned. Gen. Johnston issued a sensible and conciliatory proclamation, assuring the Mormons that the army would neither injure nor molest them.

So far as we may judge from these official documents, the Mormon War is ended. But we shall not feel entirely certain until after the Army and the Saints Iie down together Iike the lion and the lamb in the Great Salt Lake City.

(under construction)


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.
______

300 MORMON WOMEN RENOUNCING THE FAITH.

From the Jefferson City (Mo.) Examiner, Sept. 4.

By the arrival of a young man named Herbert Brandon, we have been furnished with the following information from Salt Lake:

"I" says our informant, "left Camp Scott on the 13th of June. The Mormon excitement had been entirely abated. Several Mormon trains had passed Camp Scott on their way to the States.

They stated, while camped at the above place, that they would not have been permitted to leave, or they would have abandoned Salt Lake long ago.

On being questioned as to their determination to resist the entrance of the United States troops, they replied that the major part of the Mormons only waited the entrance of the troops in order to escape from Brigham Young and Mormonism.

On their arrival at Camp Scott, they were minus the common necessaries of life. On being asked the cause of their destitute condition, they stated that before Brigham Young had relented from his determination to resist the troops, he had ordered them to deposit what provisions they had in the store house; but as soon as he made known his intention of going south, those of the Mormons who refused to go were deprived of all, and could get nothing for their outfit. They also stared that but for the interference of Governor Cumming, the destroying angel would have forced them away, and that they did succeed, in some instances, in driving away several women. I came down with two Mormon trains from Camp Scott, numbering about three hundred persons, principally women, who were chiefly English, and some Scotch: and the principal topic of their conversation through-out was the absurdity of Mormonism and its principles. They were all unanimous in their denunciations of Brigham Young and his apostles, and talked of his assassination by the Mormons who remained at Camp Scott, as a sure event.

They have all, without exception, become disgusted with Mormonism and renounced it, and expressed their determination from henceforth to use all their efforts for the total annihilation of Mormonism. They express their desire to return to their native countries, and would, if they had the means to do so, in order that they might be instrumental in saving others from the baneful influence of Mormonism. On their arrival at Plattsmouth, on the Missouri River, they had calculated to cross over to Council Bluffs; but the bad condition of the roads in Iowa changed their resolve and they are now dispersing themselves in Kansas and Nebraska Territories."

Mr. Brandon gave us many other interesting particulars, from which we conclude that a speedy dissolution awaits the community of Latter Day Saints. Many of the women, all though they went to Utah innocent and pure, we judge, are very unlikely to lead a very exemplary life in the future. They have been debased until they are likely to abandon themselves to the loathsome life of prostitution.

(Letter from Brigham Young, etc. follow -- 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.
_______

THE  BRIDE  PUBLICLY  WHIPPED.

Correspondence of The N. Y. Tribune.            

SALT LAKE CITY, Feb. 10, 1859.             

A Gentile resident of [Fillmore], a short time ago went over to Provo after a young woman, who, it seems, had taken a fancy to him, and who wished to leave Provo and come and live in Frogtown with her Gentile admirer. But a mob collected around the house where she and her lover were, and he was advised that he would find it conducive to his health to leave immediayly, which he did. The young woman was then taken out and publicly whipped!


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.

MAIL  ITEMS.
_____

The first trial of any note, says a Utah correspondent of the 3d ult., that has taken place since the extraordinary and ill-advised pardon of the President, where this Church has prose cuted one of their own faith, or that the Mormon U. S. District Attorney, Gen. Wilson, has exhibited any degree of energv, came off last week. The party (a Mormon) was accused of robbing a brother saint of $1,400. Brigham advised him to plead guilty, as there was a large number of Gentiles on the traverse jury, and therefore a certainty of his being found guilty. He did, and in his defence, stated that he took the money only as a joke, intending to return it; but the Judge could not appreciate that class of Mormon jokes, and therefore sentenced the disciple of Latter Day Saints to ten years at hard labor in the State Prison.

---

There are at present in the world about one hundred and twenty-one thousand Mormons. Eighty-three thousand live in Utah, of whom four thousand six hundred and seventeen have sixteen thousand five hundred wives.


Notes: (forthcoming)

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, Edmund 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 at $20 each, and mainly bought in by shrewd Brother Brigham, who has recently sold lots of them back to easy Uncle Sam for $150 each, to be used in moving the Army to Texas and Arizona. That's how the money goes.

The Grape flourishes rarely in Utah. The Saints believe that their long, dry, bright Summer causes it to yield a wine of peculiar aroma and flavor. Its cultivation is being rapidly extended. The Apple and Pear also do well; though the prospect for Fruit this season has been obscured by untimely frost.

Some new valleys have been recently opened to settlement -- mainly north and east of the Salt Lake -- that are greatly liked. They of course lie higher than the Lake Valley, and have a sharper climate, but they have also more wood, more water, better grass, and other allurements. They are rapidly filling with settlers.

The great project of damming the Jordan a few miles below its head in Lake Utah, and thus irrigating the greater portion of Salt Lake Valley, is yet in embryo. At present, not a tenth part of that Valley is cultivated for want of water. The proposed dam, with consequent irrigating canals, would render that Valley one of the most productive of its size on earth, beside affording water-power for a great manufacturing village. With a few such dams, Utah might easily support a population of twenty millions. Her grand valleys need but water to render them of unequaled fertility.

The rumor of a purposed sale (or tender of sale) of their present possessions to the Federal Government, had probably just this foundation: There are many converts to the faith of the Saints now living in India, China, Australia, and the other countries washed by the Pacific and Indian Oceans. These it is not convenient to gather to the Land of Promise, yet they expect and desire that a place of refuge shall be found or made for them. This will probably be located on New-Guinea or some other isle of the South Seas. We presume Capt, Gibson- -- whose long residence and adventures in the Indian Ocean are well known -- has been conferring with the Apostles with reterence to such location; but this may or may not be. We believe he expects to return to the Mormon Zion next Fall.


Notes: (forthcoming)

THE  MORMONS.
_____

Origin of the Sect -- Sketches of Leaders --
Polygamy -- Missionary Enterprises, &c.

(Special Correspondence ol the Cincinnati Gazette.)

San Francisco, Cal., May Id.            

The founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, the "prophet Joseph," or the "martyred Joseph," as his followers love to call him, or "Joe Smith," as he is irreverently styled by Gentiles, claimed that an angel appeared to him in his childhood, at the age of fourteen, I believe, and directed him to a hill near Palmyra, New-York, where was a book composed of gold plates and containing an inspired record of a race upon this continent which had disappeared. After some years he was permitted to take the book from the stone box in which it was contained, and by the aid of the Urim and Thummim, an apparatus something like a pair of spectacles, translated the characters and gave to the world the present book of Mormon, which they regard as entitled to credence as being equally with the Bible the Word of God. He professed to have revelations, visions, etc., and claimed that he was sent to the world to restore the Church of Jesus Christ, which, with the divinely appointed "gifts of the Gospel," viz. Healing, speaking in tongues, prophesying, &c., had disappeared from the earth. His followers professed to speak in tongues, prophesy, heal by laying on of hands, and exhibit the other signs which it is said "shall follow them that believe," and which they say were not intended, as Christians generally believe, merely to establish the Church of Christ on earth, but to accompany it always. Settling at Kirtland, Ohio, they afterward removed to Missouri; did not get on well with the people there, were driven from place to place, and finally over the Mississippi into Illinois. Here they were kindly welcomed, and formed a large settlement; built up the City of Commerce, afterward Nauvoo, and occupied a great deal of the adjacent country. Finally they and the Illiniosans couldn't agree; matters grew worse, Smith was accused of treason, and finally gave himself up for trial; was put in jail at Carthage; the jail was attacked by a mob said to be from Missouri. Joseph Smith and his brother Hyrum were shot dead, and John Taylor, now one of the twelve Apostles, wounded. Shortly after this the Mormons left Nauvoo, and after a temporary sojourn in winter quarters in the neighborhood of Council Bluffs, Iowa, on the Missouri River, struck across the plains to Utah. The 24th of July, the anniversary of the arrival of their band of pioneers sent in advance of the main force, is celebrated as a holiday among them still. Mormons, of course, attribute their troubles to the persecution which the Church of God has so often been obliged to undergo. Gentile records say their thefts and other bad conduct brought it upon them, and describe Smith as a vulgar impostor.

The church, in accordance with their claim that they are the original and only true church of Christ, is modelled after the earlier church, and has apostles, elders, bishops, etc. They say that the Bible is true so far as it has been correctly translated, the Book of Mormon is also true, and that they have received still further revelations of the Divine will. Polygamy they claim as the subject of a special revelation from heaven, which Is preserved among the other records of their faith. Smith even professed to give the words of the Lord used to Moses during their interview on the Mount. In their Endowment house, of which I shall speak hereafter, they trace the same thing as that alluded to ln the Bible, where the apostles were endowed with power from heaven. And in other particulars they aim to show that their church is the only one which conforms to the Bible standard. There is a good deal of curiosity to know what class of people in respect to morality, sincerity, and education the bulk of the people constitute, and I do not know that I could illustrate better than by giving a description of a few of my neighbors in the little village in which I, with a friend from the States, spent the past winter. Salt Lake City, and the settlements generally, were at first surrounded by a fort wall, either of adobes or mud for protection against Indians. As the settlements increased in size and the danger disappeared, the inclosure would be broken, and the walls remain only in fragments, or [are] used as house or garden walls; but the spot, frequently the centre one in the village, would still be known as "the fort." Beginning at one corner of the fort, we find an old couple -- the husband an Englishman, the wife a Canadian -- who had been Mormons for many years, commencing before the exodus to Utah. Both eminently sincere and excellent people. The man is firmly convinced that he has been healed by the elders of the Church, and the wife, an intense Mormon, often speaking in tongues, prophesying and interpreting tongues, and had been trying to get her husband another wife, not denying that it "would break her heart," but striving anxiously for anything which might conduce to his or her spiritual advancement. Next came a young couple, the wife the daughter of the pair already mentioned. Both brought to Utah in early childhood, refreshingly ignorant of matters in the outside world, religion included. Further along we find an old Englishman with an old Danish wife. He has had other wives one of the villagers said, and they had all either died or left him. His present spouse used on the sly to take flour and other articles of produce to barter for tobacco, for while the old man used the weed himself, she would have got into trouble, perhaps incurred chastisement, had he found that his goods were being disposed of to provide it for her. Both apparently sincere though hot remarkably intelligent.

Passing this affectionate couple, we come to an American mechanic, a shrewd and intelligent man, brought up in the Mormon faith, and whose father, once a Mormon missionary, is now residing in Dixie or Southern Utah. He (the son) was not in very good standing with the church; had had some difficulty about his tithing, and talked of going back to the States at some future time. In regard to the truth of Mormonism, he said he had sometimes been inclined to think that when it began there was "something in it." Had seen people get well after being ministered to by the church, but seemed to think it not positive that they wouldn't have got well anyhow; was rather inclined to think well of Joe Smith: said it was "rather mixed," when I asked him whether, on the whole, he thought the system was a fine one. Next came one of the aristocrats of the village, an old man who, in a row of three adobe houses, kept an old wife in the middle house, flanked on either side by a young one. His first wife was dead, He spent his time alternately with the partners of his subdivided bosom. Polygamy didn't work well in his case, and various little disagreements had leaked out. The wife in the eastern end of his establishment was the youngest and the best cook. One morning when he should have begun his week at the west end he stayed to breakfast in the east, and as soon as he appeared before the slighted bride there was an interesting "scene," the particulars of which were duly detailed by his grandson, a lad whose mother had gone off with the soldiers and expected to return to the States. I also heard of his clothes being affectionately kicked from door to door, each fair one declining to wash them. The old man is a rough old codger, but a zealous Mormon, and says he has seen the stones of the altar erected by Adam in Missouri; for, according to Mormon doctrine, in that State was the location of the Garden of Eden. Next in our course around the fort we encounter the humble cot of an honest young English miner and his wife. He retains the Mormon faith but is not afraid to grumble in meeting, and before Gentiles, at some of the Mormon missionaries in England, who, he says, collected conslderable sums of money from him and others, of which he was confident a proper use had not been made. Further on we find an old woman, quite a character in the village, whose husband had had seven wives and thirty-nine children. He was living somewhere South, but she did not go to him, preferring to remain there with her daughter, and support herself. Near by lived a Gentile, brother of the disaffected mechanic across the fort. Like his brother, he had been brought up in Mormonism, and while not so confident that its inception was wrong, was decidediy of the opinion that with polygamy it was running in the ground in Utah. A man of shrewd sense, though not much of a scholar, he delighted when a passage of Scripture -- such as the one relating to seven women laying hold of one man -- was quoted, in getting the Bible and seeking to show by the connection and sense that the attempted application was absurd.

Taking the road out from this corner of the fort, we find, among others, a man formerly from Cincinnati, whose family of two wives and several children furnished, as far as I could judge, an example of harmonious and conscientious polygamy; and further on an old mountaineer, whose wife had been deserted by her former husband, who was baptized into the Mormon church for the sske of marrying her, and afterward left her for the States, promising to return, but failing to keep his word. The mountaineer had had two squaw wives, one of whom died and the other two went back to their tribe. Two half-breed children -- the boy with a father in the States and the offspring of the last union -- were growing up in the same family. At this house whiskey and tobacco were kept for sale to the villagers.

Returning to the fort we find at the corner next to the one we started from, a family consisting of a husband, two wives, and several children living in rather piggish style in one room. The husband, I was told -- how truly I do not know -- had been concerned in the Mountain Meadows massacre. Near by was an old Englishman, a shiftless fellow, though undoubtedly a sincere Mormon, who, living in a little house of one room, and being quite scantily encumbered with this world's goods, had got rather s notoriety in the village by his persistent and unsuccessful efforts to get another wife. One more Mormon character, and I have done. The class to be represented is that of those who are Mormons for expediency or convenience, without any sincerity or religious feeling. A young fellow who had a few years before come from the States, was telling me his experience. He had a good many friends among the Mormons where he lived, and for some time he persisted in obstinent Gentilism and took frequent opportunities of talking against Mormonism. Finally, an old man, a sincere Mormon, urged him to be baptized, "l don't think it is possible for me ever to be religious," said he, telling me the circumstances attending his union with the church, "although I don't steal or murder." He (the old man) said to me, "Jack, l wish you'd be baptised; U think you'd get on better." "Do you think," l replied, "that I would get on better, and make more money?" "Yes, I think jou would," said he. "And would it make you feel better?" I asked. "Yes, it would," he replied. Said I "it's a whack!" And that man, if he is disposed to keep up a decent regard for the ordinances of the church, and pay his tithing, can keep a pretty good standing in the church.

The endowment house to which I referred, is an institution the proceedings of which are not allowed to be divulged, and Mormons will say but little about them, except that the exercises are something of a masonic nature, it is believed among Gentiles, from what has leaked out from various sources, such as books written by ex-Mormons, that the temptation in the Garden or Eden is represented, and scenes of a similar nature performed, and the candidates bound up with stringent oaths; and that the endowment garments which the candidates receive, and which are worn as under-clothing, are supposed to be proof against bullets.

Here I shall close my remarks on this people by saying tbat my visit among them was an interesting one, and characterized by gratifying kindness and hospitality on their part, both in Salt Lake City and among the humble country people, in whose midst I spent most of my time. I hope that in a few years the completion of the Pacific Rail road will enable many to visit Utah and see for themselves, for I do not place any faith in the story that Brigham Young expects to remove his flock to the Sandwich Islands. Polygamy, which they regard as a heavenly institution, preventing lewdness, and "building up the Kingdom," by multiplying the human species faster than it could otherwise be done, but which the government and people of the United States regard as a crime, seems the only rock of difficulty ahead. While we may condemn their religious system and its effects, we must concede great praise to their self-denial and sacrifice in enduring hardships, privations, and danger for the sake of what they considered right: and the questton may well be asked of the "gentile religious world," "Why is it that, while Mormonism constantly sends its missionaries abroad, and from its scanty funds provides for the gathering in of its converts, there is in all Utah only one gentile church, and that established hardly more than a year ago?"


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)

The Cincinnati Gazette has unearthed a bill by James M. Ashley, of Ohio, Chairman of the House Committee on Territories, which proposes to extend the boundaries of the States and Territories which surround Utah, so as to absorb Utah and wipe out the 100,000 Mormons as a distinctive community. Against this proceeding the Gazette protests. It is shown that for twenty-three years the Mormons have made their own laws; have created their own civilization; have made a wilderness generally unattractive to American emigrants to blossom as the rose; have built up and bound together a people numbering to-day more than the population of any of the surrounding Territories, and larger than most of the adjacent States; while by all accounts the moral state of the Mormon community is in all respects, excepting one, far above that of any of the States or Territories which, if Mr. Ashley has his way, are each to take a bite out of Utah, swallowing both Territory and people.

This one exception is the prevalence of polygamy, the morality or immorality of which is clearly constructive, since its existence in Utah is shown to be no violation of human law, and its existence anywhere is not in opposition to divine law. Indeed, with the Mormons polygamy is religion; they found their social relations upon the divine law which at least permitted it, as no reader of the Scriptures pretends to deny; and they claim that their withdrawal to the far West to found a community of their own was precisely from the same motive which induced the Pilgrims to land upon Plymouth Rock -- to wit.: that they might enjoy their own religious convictions in their own way, and without persecution or molestation. History will certainly draw a parallel between the Polygamists and the Puritans, and credit the Polygamists with minding their own business. The persecuted have not become the persecutors. What the Plymouth Colony Pilgrims did to Roger Williams, the Utah Polygamists have not done to any of their own community or to their neighbors. That they have made themselves a strong, respectable, and prosperous people, is evidence in their favor that their peculiar views respecting domestic relations are not necessarily opposed to social success and to the highest degree of individual and general morality. When a new class of Communists, with peculiar notions with regard to sexual intercourse, settled at Oneida in this State, there was the same desire to persecute on the part of their neighbors that Radicalism proposes now against the Mormons; but when these neighbors saw that the Communists were people of integrity, of thrift, and, above all, that they were prosperous, they did not hesitate to permit their own sons and daughters to work for and associate with these people. If the new raid against Mormonism is purely upon moral grounds, and if the Mormons are to be obliterated because they are "wicked," they may well retort by offsetting their polygamy against the fosticism so alarmingly prevalent in New England, and show that their efforts to increase population are possibly quite as moral as the general endeavor in some States to limit it. A comparison between the plurality of wives in one section, and the prevalence of prostitutes in other sections, the readiness with which people may marry there and the forced celibacy here, might present contrasts calling for no more legislation in the one case than in the other.

Which brings us to the main point of the whole matter, which is clearly this: that government, especially what constitutes or calls itself government now-a-days, is not called upon to run the moral machine of the country. Mere morals are matters beyond legislation. We have seen to what pass the party which claimed pre-eminently to be founded upon "moral ideas'' has brought the country. We see the kind of men whom this party persists in forcing into prominence. Corruption is no longer a crime, but is the very means by which the leaders in the moral party are advanced in position. Robbery is the rule and integrity the exception. Nearly all the rascalities of Radicalism in the last eight years have been effected under the cover of these "moral ideas." The country is sick of this cant. As for the morality or immorality of Mormonism, it is pretty certain that any Radical raid against polygamy is only a cover for some fresh Radical rascality in another direction. Radicalism, would do well to let the morals of the country -- and even of the Mormons -- alone


Note: The exact date and full content of the above article remain undetermined. It may have appeared in the World's issue for Feb. 7th.

TROUBLESOME  TWINS.
_____

We have quite forgotten which one of the pugilistic platforms of the "Peace" party it is that declares open war against the "the twin relics of barbarism, slavery and polygamy." Nor have we discovered why these two were twinned in one barbarous birth. No record public or private informs us who was the father of the dreadful duo, though the putative paternity is charged upon Senator Sumner, rumor thus crediting to his "loilty" what is lacking in his loins. With these difficulties of paternity and birth, equally inexplicable is it how polygamy and slavery should be Siamesed together, and how one of the ligature-joined should have been summarily slaughtered full five years ago, while the other lives to-day. Is still strong polygamy carrying a corpse fastened to its own frame? What Mr. Sumner called "the barbarism of slavery" is pretty well buried out of sight, if Radicalism will only let it rest, but radicalism won't. There has been an anti-slavery pow-wow in Boston this very week, and now Radicalism is beginning a fresh raid against the other terrible twin, polygamy.

It would be desirable if the dead could be permitted to rest, but Radicalism is powerful in resurrections. Slavery slaughtered, it was supposed that polygamy would be permitted to depart in peace. But no. War, perpetual war against something, or against somebody, is the imperative necessity of the "Peace" party. The death of almost anything is the life of Radicalism -- or, at least there must be the appearance of death. Radicalism requires that one day in the week, and in certain hours through the week, the closed shop shops and saloons shall give such a city as this, for instance, the look it would wear if pestilence stalked the streets. Radicalism has sworn the death of every everything thing excepting plunder, proscription, corruption, rascality and Radicalism itself.

And now after slavery and rum, poor polygamy is coming into the field, and is to be forced to fight. There are fragrant radical remembrances of a fruitless and yet not wholly profitless war against the Mormons years ago. "Loil" people sold flour to the small Federal army in Utah at something like a dollar a pound. Other stores sold at proportionate prices, and while the war lasted much money was made somehow and by somebody. It is now proposed to drive the Mormons into another war by pricking them on to a rebellion a against Ashley's monstrous proposition to divide the Territory of Utah among the surrounding Territories and States, and so absorb the Mormons with their flocks and herds and goods and wives, thus not only dividing, but actually destroying them as a distinctive people. It is not not our purpose to defend the peculiar social relation which permits a plurality of wives. The mere propriety, or morality, or legality of such living is wholly outside of the question we are now considering. A people who have, within a very few years built themselves up into a prosperous population one hundred thousand strong; who have made the most unpromising and sterile of our Territories the great garden of the Plains; and whose general probity as a people is not questioned, are quite as able to take care of their own morals as they are to look after their own money. Their morals, good or bad, are not matters for legislative action any more than are the morals of Massachusetts -- a State in which official statistics show foeticism to be more prevalent than the same crime is in Paris. The lesson which Radicalism has yet to learn is this: that governments must not meddle with mere matters of morality; even Radical governments, which are most prone to this business, and to any other business but their own business, must be made to understand that the people are tired of fighting and paying for "moral ideas" which are only covers to the rascalities of a party which deals in cant to conceal its own corruption.

Only the other day a literary society in Boston discussed the question, "Is New England losing its influence in the control of national affairs?" There would be an amazing impudence in the assumption that a single section, and such a be section, controlled the country, if it were not a melancholy fact that for years past New England and New England fanaticism have ruled and nearly ruined the rest of the Union. There is however, an enormous and national satisfaction in knowing that this ruinous rule is nearly ended. It costs the country too much. The old Puritan idea of power was persecution; the descendants of that race have ruled the land for the past eight years with a rod of iron; and when the party in power has not been persecuting it has been plundering. All these things have been done under the war cry of "moral ideas" shouted in the ears of the public till we are sick of the sound. Nearly all the political issues of the bygone decade have been hunted to cover, or driven from the field, and in the absence of other material, Radicalism now proposes to begin a war against polygamy. There are those who might wish that this threatened war could be of the Kilkenny kind, leaving not so much as hide or hair of either of the contestants; but as this is not probable we can only protest against a fresh "moral" raid, which will only be a pretence for fresh Radical rascalities.


Note: The exact date and full content of the above article remain undetermined. It may have appeared in the World's issue for Feb. 9th.

Mormonism Going to Pieces --
The Sons of Joseph Smith Propose
to Disestablish Polygamy --
The Wrath of Brigham.

(From the Salt Lake Reporter.)

A few days ago we mentioned the fact that William Alexander and David Hyrum, the younger sons of Joseph Smith, the Mormon Prophet, were on their way to Salt Lake City to set up the standard of the reorganized or anti-polygamy church. A singular interest attaches to the name of David Hyrum. A few months before Joseph's death, he stated that "the man was not born who was to lead this people, but of Emma Smith should be born a son who would succeed in the presidency, after a season of disturbance." Joseph Smith was killed June 27, 1844, and the son, named from his father's direction David Hyrum, was born at the Mansion House, in Nauvoo, on the seventeenth of the succeeding November. This prophecy is secretly dear to thousands of Mormons who are weary of the tyranny of Brigham Young, and yet hold to their faith in Joseph Smith. A few days ago the young men reached Salt Lake City, and soon called upon Brigham Young and announced their attention to organize their church at once, asking permission to defend their faith in the Tabernacle, proposing to argue with the Brighamites from the original Mormon books. We nave but scant reports of the interview, but it is said to have been very warm. Brigham was very angry at their presumption and denied them the use of the Tabernacle, sending word at the same time to the Bishops to shut them out of the ward meeting-houses. The brothers, at one point of their, denied that their father ever practised polygamy, citing their mother's testimony which Brigham retorted that their mother "was a liar, and had been proven a thief" with much more of the sort. Be it remembered that the lady thus spoken of is the Electa Cyria or "Elect Lady of God" in Mormon theology, who was the glory of their early history. Like Pope Pagan, of the "Pilgrim's Progress" Brigham doubtless gnaws his nails in vain rage that he can not, as informer times, let loose the vengeance of his Nauvoo legion upon these sectarians, and crush the rebellion in blood. If his power were now equal to his feelings we should have repeated the story of the Morrisites, when a high civil functionary of Utah led the legion in broad day to slaughter the men and women who had surrendered themselves prisoners. But nothing more than petty persecution will be attempted at this late day, and we earnestly hope the young men will succeed in their enterprise. Of their religious principles as opposed to Brighamism we know but little, but recognize in them tolerant men, good citizens and loyal subjects of the United States.


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 (evidently from the anonymous correspondent "H. W. J.") 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.

ANNA  AMONG  THE  MORMONS.

(read original article in Boston Journal)

Note: See also similar "Whited Sepulchres" articles in the San Francisco Chronicle of Sept. 7, 1869, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle of Nov 20, 1869, and the St. Louis Daily Missouri Democrat of March 5, 1870.

Marriage a Mockery in Utah.
_______

The marriages as now existing in the Church of the Latter-day Saints, are a vile mockery. For instance, an elder in the church, or one of the apostles desires to many, and one of his neighbors has a daughter. He informs the neighbor that God had directed him to take her for a wife and, although she may at the same time be engaged to a man of her own choice, she is compelled to submit. This is not often the case, but there are six instances now in my mind where elders in the Mormon Church have married young girls under these circumstances, the marriage ceremony being performed by the elders themselves. In other cases the marriage ceremony is performed by an elder or bishop in whatever parish the party may live. Often marriages are performed by means of a spiritual letter from Brigham Young, said by him to be specially endowed with power from God. This, very naturally, seems impossible; but when one has occular evidence of the truth of it, he is compelled to believe. A young man, a personal friend of mine -- a Mormon -- was to be married last spring, but when the day came Brigham was away in the lower part of the Territory, attending to matters pertaining to his mills. Not wishing to wait until his return, my friend wrote to one of Brigham's counselors, requesting permission to marry and also to be married. Brigham replied, through the medium of his secretary, that it was not necessary for him (Brigham) to be present, but that as the prophet of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, he pronounced them man and wife. My friend -- poor, ignorant fellow that he was -- so firmly believed in his religion, that he imagined what Brigham said was the word of God, and went to housekeeping.

So implicitly do the people of Utah Territory believe in their religion and the doctrine of marriage and polygamy, as preached by Brigham Young and his self-appointed apostles, elders and bishops, that in many cases men take wives merely as matter of form, and a young girl over seventeen years of age, who is unmarried is not considered a member of the Church, and is looked upon with horror by her companions. When a man marries one member of a family where there are younger sisters, he enters into an agreement to marry each as she becomes of age, and, with the full consent of the parents and all relatives concerned, oftentimes takes her into his own house to instruct her in the duties of married life. This is of daily occurrence. In nearly all the poorer families of Mormons, if they have only a roof over their heads, and the wife has many sisters, the husband almost immediately endeavors to make accommodations for them. By dint of perseverance and frugality, he manages to accumulate a sufficiency to marry and support the next sister arriving at maturity. Thus continues, from one to the other, until all are married, when they separate to different houses, and with jealousy and envy watch each other's advancement.


Note: The full content and exact date of the above article remain undetermined. It may have been published the the daily World of Oct. 18th.

THE  SALT  LAKE  SAINTS.
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Discordant Elements in Brigham Young’s Household --
The Two Smiths Still at Work -- How Brigham Tried to Escape
the Internal Revenue Tax -- Brigham, Jr., Interviewed Again,
&c.,   &c.,   &c.

(CORRESPONDENCE  OF  THE  WORLD.)

SALT LAKE CITY, October, 1869.      

SIR: The recent emeute in the Mormon Church is creating a great deal of excitement here among both "Saints" and "Gentiles." The detection of E. L. T. Harrison and E. W. Tullidge, editors and proprietors of the Utah Magazine, has been expected for some time past. Recent articles in that periodical have pointed to exactly such a course as they have pursued, and the liberal sentiments proclaimed by them have been hailed as inaugurating a new era to Mormon journalism. It is yet uncertain whether they will publish the Magazine in the interests of the Smiths, or pursue a strictly neutral course, inter-meddling with the doctrines of neither party. They cannot hope to receive any support from the adherents of Brigham, but will undoubtedly gain many subscribers among the "Gentiles" and Josephites. T. B. H. Stenhouse, editor of the Telegraph, has for a long time been out of the "church ring" and Brigham has made many attempts to "freeze him out." The Deseret Daily News was started for that express purpose, and bishops throughout the Territory were required to canvass for it, and use their influence in its favor. The faithful were even commanded to stop their subscriptions to the Telegraph and subscribe for the News. Under the pressure of circumstances, Stenhouse removed his paper to Ogden, hoping that place would be made the junction of the Union and Central Pacific Railroads. Disappointed in this hope, and having lost money while waiting for some action upon the part of the two companies, the Telegraph was moved back to Salt Lake City. Its proprietor found himself getting deeper and deeper into hot water with the Mormon leaders, and finally an event occurred which capped the climax, and placed Mr. Stenhouse outside the pale of Brigham's church. The police of Salt Lake City and the Police Justice had been engaged in a black-mailing operation, in which a "Gentile" was the victim. A Mormon girl, a notorious woman of the town, had been induced to make an appointment with a "Gentile" hotel-keeper, who was known to have plenty of money, and, a month afterwards, to prefer a charge of rape against him. By threats of taking his life, they extorted from the "Gentile" over $1,100, and then ordered him to leave the country. Mr. Stenhouse reported the affair in the columns of his paper, animadverting in strong terms upon the conduct of the police and the "justice." They immediately complained to Brigham of the severe criticism to which their acts had been subjected in the Telegraph. Stenhouse was summoned before the "School of the Prophets" commanded to apologize to Justice Clinton, and ask forgiveness of the "priesthood." This he refused to do, and hence the action upon the part of the "Prophets." Brigham has given him one week in which to repent and ask forgiveness, failing which the action of the "School of the Prophets" will be confirmed by a vote of the people in the Tabernacle. W. S. Godbe, a leading Mormon merchant, and the husband of four wives, has also been suspended in conjunction with the others. He is a half-owner of the Utah Magazine, and was commanded by Brigham to suspend the publication of that journal on account of its too liberal sentiments. This he refused to do, and Brigham, who never hesitates to sacrifice a friend who opposes him, placed him at once under the ban of the church. The readers of The World may perhaps be curious to know what the "School of the Prophets" is. It is simply a secret assemblage of church dignitaries and leading Mormons in the interests of Brigham. Cards of membership are issued to such persons as he wishes to attend, and he presides over the meetings as chief ruler of the synagogue. The meetings are held every Saturday afternoon, and during its secret sessions contumacious individuals are tried for their offences, and acquitted or condemned at the pleasure of Brigham, who completely controls the action of the tribunal.

The work inaugurated by Alexander and David Smith may yet become a splendid success; and the visions which the editor of the Salt Lake Reporter once had, in which he saw Brigham fleeing from the fury of his own people, and seeking protection with the United States troops at Camp Douglas, may become a reality. At all events, a schism has been started in the Mormon Church which may shake Brigham's power to its foundation, and possibly bring about a speedier solution of the Mormon question than has yet been anticipated. The schismatics should, however, be made secure by the government in the protection of life, liberty, and property, or Brigham will find a way, with the aid of his Danites, to effectually silence them. Dr. Taggart, the new Assessor of Internal Revenue, still remains firm in his determination to make the Mormons pay their share of the national debt by handing over the revenues of which the government has been so long defrauded. Although the revenues of the Mormon Church amount to an immense sum annually, the former Assessor made no attempt to tax the church income, and even the private incomes of the Mormon leaders were returned at figures so low as to appear fraudulent upon the face of the papers. The attempt upon the part of the present Assessor to compel a proper return of church and other incomes is characterized by the Mormons as persecution, and threats are freely uttered against the Assessor if he persists in his determination to make the Mormons pay up. As an instance of the heavy loss of revenue which the government would sustain through the action of the former Assessor, if the matter was not corrected, your correspondent gives the following: The Corporation of Salt Lake City has issued notes of the denomination of twenty-five cents, fifty cents, one and two dollars, amounting in the aggregate to the sum of $190,000. The returns of the Treasurer were made each month to the former Assessor, General Chetlain, of the issue for that particular month, with the tax figured out at 1-12 of 1 per cent., the amount of tax assessed on bankers, and this return was accepted by the former Assessor as correct. Section 6, of the act of March 3, 1865, requires a tax of ten per cent to be assessed upon the amount of notes issued by corporations, or private individuals, and designed to circulate as money. Ten per cent on $190,000 is…$19,000.00 One-twelfth of one per cent, on $190,000 is… 158.33 1/3 Leaving the sum of… $18,841.66 2/3 which the government would lose did not the present Assessor enforce the provisions of the revenue act against the corporation. The profits derived from the circulation of these notes form a portion of the church revenues, although not appearing in that shape as the corporation of Salt Lake City, is a mere creature of the Mormon Church leaders, and a part of the church machinery.

Brigham Young was also required to make a full, complete, and proper return of the rents, profits, and incomes of the "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints" in his character as trustee in trust of that organization. At first Brigham flatly refused, and stated that he would neither make the return nor afford the Assessor any information whereby he could make the assessment himself. The Assessor, however, stated his determination to make the assessment from the best information he could obtain, in case Brigham did not make a return within the time limited by law; that he should not estimate the amount of income at too low a figure, and should impose all the penalties which the law allowed him to. Under these circumstances, Brigham forwarded a return to the Deputy Assessor, a Mormon, in which he stated the total income of the Mormon Church for 1868 to be $440. The return was signed by Brigham Young, as a private individual, and not in his character of trustee in trust, and the affidavit attached to the return was filled up and also signed by him. It may have been sworn to or it may not, as Brigham has never yet personally sworn to a return made by him, the swearing having been done by one of his clerks, who was, of course, absolved from the sin of false swearing by Brigham's "divine" power. The tithing alone paid by the Mormon people each year, in produce, money, &c., cannot possibly be less than $500,000, and the probabilities are that the amount is double those figures. The revenue of the Mormon Church from the manufacture and sale of whiskey amounts to $100,000 more, besides numerous other sources of revenue, the amounts of which cannot be definitely specified. As in the case of the issue of corporation scrip, the Mormons raise the cry of persecution, and talk about an appeal to the courts, by which, however, they cannot gain anything, and will find themselves heavy losers. The papers and opinion of the United States District-Attorney for Utah thereon have been forwarded to Washington for the inspection and opinion of the Commissioner, where they now remain. Brigham and the Mormons profess loyalty to the government, and a willingness to support the Constitution and obey the laws of the United States, while at the same time they are doing all in their power to defraud the government of its lawful revenues. The incomes of all the leading Mormons have been returned at amounts far below what they actually were, of which fact the present Assessor is fully satisfied, and will see that it is not done in the future.

David and Alexander Smith still continue their preaching in opposition to Brigham Young, and will do much to increase and spread the schism in the Mormon Church. Every scheme which Brigham could devise has been employed by him to counteract the effects produced by them on the minds of the people. One plan adopted by him is to send a certain number of polygamists from each ward to attend the Smith meetings, with instructions to fill up all the front seats, and, if possible, to crowd the house, to the exclusion of those not polygamists, who would be likely to become converts to the Josephite doctrines. Joseph F. Smith, one of Brigham's apostles, and cousin to David and Alexander Smith, still attends their meetings, taking notes of the discourses for the purpose of replying at the Fourteenth Ward meeting-house, in the evening. Joseph F. Smith is a polygamist, and a firm supporter of Brigham's authority. He claims that his father, Hiram Smith, and "Joseph, the Martyr" both practised polygamy in Nauvoo, and he gets over the published denials of their belief in, or practice of, any such doctrine, by the assertion that they were obliged to deny it under the circumstances in which they were placed, and the dangers which they ran in avowing it. He claims that, under these circumstances, their denials were only pious lies, fully justified by the situation of affairs. I shall endeavor to keep you posted upon the progress of the schism and the success of the Smiths, as well as other matters of general interest here.   H. W. J.


Note: This same "H. W. J." also contributed articles from Salt Lake City, for publication in the San Francisco Bulletin. See notes appended that that paper's article of Sept. 1, 1869 for details.

MISS  DICKINSON  AND  MORMONISM.
_______

The Saints' Response to Gentle Annie --
Her Truthfulness Doubted --
She is Declared to be a Female
Charlatan and a Falsifier.

(read original article in the Salt Lake Telegraph)

Notes: (forthcoming)

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 Day 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. [sic]


Note: The subscription "H. W. I." may be a mis-print. Elsewhere this anonymous correspondent identifies himself as "H." or as "H. W. J." This same "H. W. J." also contributed articles from Salt Lake City, for publication in the San Francisco Bulletin. See notes appended that that paper's article of Sept. 1, 1869 for details. -- If the letters "H. W. I." were inadvertently published as the correspondent's true initials, then he might possibly have been Logan, Utah Postmaster Henry W. Isaacson, who was excommunicated from the L.D.S. Church in 1867 and who was employed as an attorney in Salt Lake City, c. 1869-70.

U T A H   U N V E I L E D.
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Interviews with a Number of Brigham Young's Wives,
_______

WHAT  THEY  THINK  OF  POLYGAMY....

(CORRESPONDENCE  OF  THE  WORLD.)

SALT LAKE CITY, November 4.      

Knowing the great curiosity felt by every one concerning the interior arrangements of Brigham Young's harem, the every-day life of his numerous wives, &c., I accepted an invitation extended to me by a Gentile lady somewhat intimate with a member of Brigham's family, and, in company with her, paid a visit to Brigham's seraglio. I was introduced, but before I had gone half through the list I became completely bewildered. I never was introduced to so many Mrs. Youngs at once in my life before, and I never wish to be again. Brigham is accused of obscure origin, but whatever may be said of him in this respect, it certainly cannot be denied that he is a man of family now. As the bell of the City Hall clock tolled the hour of two, we entered the gate in the fortress-like enclosure of cobble-stones which surrounds the collection of buildings known as Brigham's residence, and ascended the steps leading to the front door of the "Lion House." This house takes its name from the effigy of a crouching lion which rests upon the roof over the main entrance. It was originally placed there as emblematical of Brigham Young as the lion of the Lord. Our summons was quickly answered by a servant girl, who conducted us into a large, handsomely furnished parlor on the left of the hall, and asked whom we wished to see. "Amelia" answered my companion, and the domestic withdrew to announce our arrival.... My friend introduced Amelia to me as Mrs. Amelia Young. Brighams's wives are all Introduced to strangers by the name of Young, although commonly they are known by their maiden names, as Amelia Folsom, Harriet Barney, Clara Decker, &c. The children of the different wives call their step-mothers aunt; as Aunt Harriet, Aunt Zina, or Aunt Clara....

AUNT ZINA.

We were then invited to pay "Aunt Zina" a visit. We were accordingly conducted by Amelia to the apartments of the lady, and, upon entering were introduced to a tall, thin lady, apparently about fifty years of age. "Aunt Zina" has been in Mormonism from its infancy,and has passed through many vicissitudes. Her maiden name was Zina Huntingdon, and at Nauvoo she was the wife of a man named Jacobs, whom "she dearly loved and was loved in return. In an evil hour Joe Smith saw her and was smitten with her charms, for she was good-looking. Smith approached her with a revelation, informing her that it was the will of the Lord that she should be sealed to him as a spiritual wife. Believing implicitly in the divine inspiration or Smith, and that he was truly a "prophet," she obeyed his requirements, but, counselled by Smith, she kept her new relations a secret from her husband. Jacobs finally discovered that something was wrong, and left his wife, refusing ever after to live with her. He is still a Mormon, and resides in the southern part of the Territory. After Smith's death Mrs. Zina Jacobs wes sealed to Brigham, and had by him one child, a daughter, who recently narrowly escaped becoming the third wife of T. B. H. Sten-house, editor of the Telegraph. Aunt Zina spends most of her time in attending to the sick, and is truly a Mormon Sister of Mercy. She greeted me with a pleasant smile and a cordial shake of the hand, and asked the usual questions as to how I liked Salt Lake City and what I thought of the Saints, both of which I answered in the same manner that I had before when asked by Amelia. After becoming seated, I said to her:

"I suppose, Mrs. Young, that you have seen a great deal of Mormonism."

"Nearly thirty years," she replied, "I have been in this church, and I think I shall die, as I have lived, in it. My trials and sorrows have been truly great, but they are the preface to a better life beyond the grave." She gave utterance to these words with a fervor which convinced me at once that she was possessed of an enthusiasm approaching almost to monomania, upon the subject of the Mormon religion.... I saw an opportunity of recurring to the subject of polygamy, so I remarked: "Under your peculiar institution, Mrs. Young, which permits your men to take several wives, I presume that you do not have as many old maids in Utah, in proportion to those elsewhere?" "I do not know how that is" she replied, “but they are certainly increasing all the time in numbers. The girls born and brought up here seem to have a great aversion to the system, and although some do go into polygamy, through parental influence or a conviction that the principle is right and they should aid in carrying it out, yet the great majority will not willingly submit to it, and as the boys do not feel able to take the responsibility of a wife, the girls finally become old maids." "Would they not" I asked, "be unhappy in polygamy, and is it not better that they should become old maids than polygamous wives?" "I think" she replied, "that much of the unhappiness found in polygamous families is due to the women themselves. They expect too much attention from the husband, and because they do not obtain it, or see a little attention bestowed upon one of the other wives, they become sullen and morose, and permit their ill-temper to finally find vent. Then perhaps they think they must have fine dresses and fashionable hats from the dress-maker and milliner, instead of making those articles themselves; and because the means of the husband will not permit it, they are ready to quarrel with him about it. When one wife has anything new and pretty, all the other women think they must have something new and pretty too, and petty jealousies are in this way constantly arising, which serve to make their lives miserable. Then it is, in a measure, also, the fault of the husband, for he should learn to control his own household, and rule it in order." "These evils of which you speak" I remarked, "appear to be inseparably connected with polygamy, since they can only occur in a polygamous family; a single and only wife could not, of course, be jealous of attentions paid or articles of dress purchased for other wives if her husband had none but her." "Still" replied she, "I think there is as much bickering and quarreling between a husband with one wife as there is between one and his several wives." "Do you refer to the country at large or only Utah" I asked. "To Utah, of course" she replied, "since I have known no other country for the last twenty years." "Then" said I, "may it not be accounted for from the fact that those husbands having only one wife are paying attention to other women with a view to making them polygamous wives some day?" "That may partially, at least, account for it" she replied. "Well" said I, wishing to obtain her views fully upon the subject of polygamy, "do you think that polygamy is calculated to refine and elevate woman in the scale of existence and make her happy, or is it calculated to debase and degrade her?" "We do not" she replied, "regard it exactly in that light. It is not the temporal, but the spiritual results, that we more particularly look at. We believe that all the kingdom which a man will have in the eternal worlds will be one, the subjects of which are the man's own descendants. Thus we believe that Adam will rule over the whole human race, as he was the father of all living. We believe, also, that Joseph Smith and Brigham Young will have kingdoms of their own, over which they will rule, and thus become gods to their descendants and subjects. The revelation upon celestial marriage was given to the Prophet Joseph for this very purpose, and those who do not obey it win become the servants of those who do. We also believe that there are three heavens -- the Celestial, the Terrestial, and the Telestial. The Celestial is the highest, in which dwell the Father and the Son; and none, except those who have at least three wives, can expect to be saved therein." "Then" said I, "in order to secure salvation hereafter, you believe it necessary for woman to pass through unhappiness, misery, wretchedness, and even to lower herself to the level of the brute creation." "Oh" she replied, "the system has not yet become perfect, but when it does all things will work together beautifully and harmoniously for good." "Is not the practice of polygamy opposed to the peace, happiness, and good order of families, without any corresponding temporal benefits to show for it?" "Peace and happiness" she replied, "are certainly lacking in many polygamous families, but it is all owing to a misconception and misunderstanding, upon the part of wives, as to their duties. It is the duty of a first wife to learn to regard her husband not with a selfish devotion that would claim the whole of his society, time, and attention, but rather as owing attentions to other wives also, which they have a right to expect. She finds before she has been many years the head of a polygamous household, that she must regard her husband with indifference, and with no other feeling than that of reverence, for love we regard as a false sentiment; a feeling which should have no existence in polygamy. The marriages which we read of in the Old Testament were not love matches, as, for instance, the marriage of Isaac to Rebekah, of Jacob to Leah; and we believe in the good old custom, by which marriage should be arranged by the parents of the young people first. I must of course admit that the deep, devoted love of a first wife to her husband is a great obstacle in our way in putting the principles of celestial marriage into practice, and for this reason we are, in most cases, obliged to dispense with the consent of the first wife to her husband's being sealed to other wives. Then again, it is often the case that a woman who has been a second wife for a good many years -- the first wife still living, but old and infirm, so that the second is, to all intents and purposes, the first wife -- has offered the most strenuous opposition to her husband's taking a third wife...."

BRIGHAM'S FIRST WIFE.

After supper we concluded to pay a visit to Brigham's first wife, residing in the Beehive house... Mrs. Young having been notified of our arrival soon made her appearance, and she is certainly as fine a looking old lady as I ever saw. She is apparently about 65 years of age, but looks quite fresh and vigor-ous. She has had quite a family of children, among whom are Brigham Young, Jr., John W. Young and Alice Clawson, formerly an actress in her father's theatre. She was then visiting her mother, and shortly afterwards came into the room. There is quite a romance attached to the past life of this lady, which I will here relate. About ten years ago she was engaged to be married to a young lieutenant in General Johnson's army, named Tobin. Alice had met Lieutenant Tobin upon several occasions, and fell desperately in love with him. Brigham was greatly alarmed at this state of affairs, fearful that if he did not give his consent to the match Alice would follow the example of John Taylor's oldest daughter and elope. A close watch was kept upon Tobin, especially when he was in company with Alice. Finally he was charged with some misconduct by the Mormon secret police, as a means of driving him out of the country. He left Utah, satisfied that the prize was not worth the cost of obtaining it...

...After some desultory conversation we arose and took our leave of Emeline, the once "queen of the harem." Several of Brigham's wives, including Mary Van Cott and Ann Eliza Webb, his last acquisitions, I did not see; but was informed that they were young and quite good-looking. One was a widow, and the other had been divorced from her husband. Most of the wives were of English birth, a few are Americans, and one or two Scotch. From what I heard and saw, a book upon harem life among the Mormons would be a great curiosity.   H.


Note: The above article was reprinted the Semi-Weekly World of Nov. 19th.

"WHITED  SEPULCHRES."
_______

Anna Dickinson's Lecture Last Night --
Mormonism the Practical Result of
Woman's Suppression.

It was an attentive and deeply appreciative, though not numerically strong audience which gathered last night at our Academy of Music to listen to that powerful and popular oratoress, Miss Anna E. Dickinson. Her lecture with the concealed horror suggesting title, opened with a vivid and beautifully worded description of Mormondom, its fair outward appearance and its inward loathsomeness, sin and misery. These were depicted in strong, uncompromising language, and wrought deep impressions upon the audience.

"See Naples and die," was the old saying, but she would say, "See Salt Lake City and live," live to work, till thought, action, progress, took possession of the world. God was a good worker, but liked to be helped through well directed effort; not from virgin soil came bud and fruitage. The world was not like what the monarch Charles thought fair Florence, to be, too pleasant to look upon except on holy days. As she walked in the City of the Plains and saw the inner horror and sin of the lives of the inhabitants she cried to God to let her die, but she reconsidered and a better spirit arose, and she said from her heart, "Oh God of the living inspire in each of us the will to do what we may for the ennobling of Christianity," and she remembered that it was her duty to do all in her power to reform these people. She then proceeded to describe the site of this "whited sepulchre," Salt Lake City, in the midst of a vast level plain, beneath a sapphire sky, and in the distance, range after range of mountains. Fair to the eye when we know not that the dead are there, with all its natural advantages, heightened by art, its cool shaded streets, its adobe houses, its fruit trees, its cleanliness, order and quiet, were beautifully and clearly described. There were no drinking or gambling saloons there, and it was safe for a woman in the streets at noon of night as at noon of day, which is more than could be said of some more reputable cities nearer home. Its quietness was marked, it was too quiet. Utah is the absolute tyranny; the most absolute despotism under the sun. Brigham Young was the one man in power, he has the rare gift of brains, and the rarer faculty of knowing how to use them.

The political government was described, how Brigham had intelligent tools the Bishops, to watch the people, know how each thought and quell any murmur of discontent or disloyalty, even following the malcontents to the death. Each man was trained to arms and taught hatred of the Government (Federal) by their historian, George Smith. The laws of God, of decency, and the laws of the land were outraged and trampled, the territory was used by one man for his personal gain. All his officers, save two, are Americans, the mass of the people are not American in aught. They are from the lowest and most debased peasantry of Europe. These are the sheep to be shorn, the field to be reaped, and the shearers and reapers were Americans. The women did not, as was thought, outnumber the men, the balance was in favor with the latter, for while the Bishops and dignitaries had from two to two hundred wives, the young men often had none. There were no free schools, no libraries, no reading rooms, nor mental life. Brigham understood human nature, and knew that such a system as his could not live where education existed. The laughter was without mirth, there were no true homes, there could not be, where a child scarcely knew his own father. The jealousies and quarrels of the women were spoken of, though each assumed content, they all hated each other, and in their feeble way tried to supplant each other. A man in Utah was indeed Lord of his own. The women were not presented to strangers as his wives -- that would be too honorable. A careless tip of the head, an insolent wave of the hand as they entered, and "My women," was the only introduction given. They came in and sat like a tolerated slave or a dog. The mortality among the children, as related by these women was frightful, and the surviving children were weak and puny, and might better be dead. They grew up in ignorance and obscenity; and indecency under the garb of religion was familiar to the young women who were growing up loosely. Then seeing this degradation of woman, it was that she covered her face and asked to die. In the temples [sic - tabernacle?] she saw seated such men as Bishop Johnson, who had his four sisters and his own nieces as wives; Curtis Bolton, another had a mother and her daughter for wives. Yet there was no condemnation of this; and the men were not ostracised. Why was there such silence regarding this, especially among woman elsewhere? fervently exclaimed the fair lecturer. -- The women professed to fully adhere to the doctrine of polygamy, and said they wished all the women in the world would embrace it; but, on close questioning and sympathetic intercourse the they acknowledged their hatred and horror of it, but were taught to believe that it was the sure way to salvation. The same vice which existed in Salt Lake City openly prevailed in European and other cities. She did not say that adultery and polygamy were found there as in Utah, but the base and spirit of all these were there. It was taught that women were put here for some one else, and that was man, and she must submit until Heaven released her. She was to supplement some one else, she was made to put goodness. into man, her duty was to be a wife and a mother, so taught Rev. Horace Bushnell and Roy John Todd. Utah responded to this, and said it was well, and taught that if she did not submit to man here she would have a bad time in the next world. If one woman would make a man good, then twenty would make him a saint, was their application. The contentment with their lot. asserted of these women, was the result of their ignorance. Women in the harem were -- to believe the man's word -- contented. So were the women of South America, who labored while their lords idled, and so were the German peasant women, who, harnessed to a cart with a dog, drew their lazy husbands. Miss Dickinson related conversations held by her with the Mormon women. They had the saddest faces she ever saw. None cared for life, and were willing to die and be through with it all. None knew about polygamy before reaching Utah; the missionaries did not teach that; only one she spoke with knew of it, but thought her husband never would care for another woman. They were truly discontented, and this grow not from woman's rights meetings, but from the spirit of the age and the progress of refinement. This woman's movement was not to be laughed, nor sneered, nor legislated down. It was not a reform against nature, but grew from it; it was not against men, but was a heart-felt effort to get nearer them, as men rose to the sublime heights women wished to rise with them. 'Tis love, not hate. 'Twas false, that the mass of women sought fame and public praise in Senate and Council. The majority would prefer to seek home, wifehood and motherhood. She referred to the present preaching about the decrease of marriage and motherhood in America. The reason was that woman's position as wife and mother was, as accorded to her by society to-day, not what she was entitled to. She described the overworked, neglected wife of to-day, how soon she faded, and then how her husband, still hale at forty, or more, sought more brilliant women, who did not look up to him as many of the young men declared they wished their wives to, but looked into his eyes leval front, The young girl was taught that men cared not for accomplishment and graces, but for housewifely skill, etc., but this was what she actually saw, then no wonder she acted accordingly. She told how women were looked down upon and pitied, even by their own boys, because they were only women. The children of widows, it was noticed, had truer ideas of, and respect for, womanhood than those who had fathers living. Woman should be a creator to be adored by her child. Motherhood was lauded by men's lips, but degraded by their acts. Woman's work was degraded below man's.

In conclusion she eloquently spoke for the greater freedom and development of mankind, and the elevation of both sexes, and woman should look to it that none robbed her of her crown.

The lecture was listened to profoundly. Several distinguished reformers were present. Theodore Tilton and wife, Miss Anthony, Edwin A. Studwell, et al, sat in a private box at the south end of the stage. Miss Nellie Hutchinson, a clever young woman, engaged reportorially on the Tribune was with them.


Notes: (forthcoming)

P O L Y G A M Y   A G A I N.
_______

Inside View of Mormonism as Seen by
a Woman -- Revenge of an Outraged
Husband. &c., &c.

(FROM  OUR  OWN  CORRESPONDENT.)

Salt Lake City, November 9.          

Having extended my visit to Salt Lake City several days beyond the time I had originally designed remaining here, I felt desirous of acquiring all the information I could concerning the inner life or the Mormons, and accordingly requested my ''Gentile" friend to introduce me to her female acqaintances among the ''Latter Days." She replied that she was anxious to oblige me, and would that very afternoon accompany me in a visit to a lady whose history would no doubt interest me. We accordingly set out after dinner, and in a few minutes reached the residence of Mrs. Eleanor McClane Pratt.

The house was a low, one-story concern, built of adobes, and contained one large room used as a schoolroom, a bedroom, and a kitchen at the back. Mrs. Pratt received my friend cordially. I may as well here mention that the husband of the lady who accompanied me was a favorite with Brigham and the Mormons, as he belonged to a very limited class of ''Gentile" residents of Salt Lake City who could see nothing bad in the peculiar institutions of the Mormons. Hence my friend had the entry of Mormon homes, and was, in fact, a welcome visitor to the houses of the Saints. I could not help remarking that the greeting of Mrs. Pratt to myself was cold and distant, while at the same time she appeared to regard me with a suspicious look. It was apparent to me that she did not intend I should gain her confidence if she could help it. After we became seated, and while she was making a few inquiries of my friend, I studied her appearance and manner closely. She is of medium height, thin faced, plainly and even slovenly dressed, with a certain wildness of manner and of the eye at times which denoted a mind diseased. I had been previously informed by my friend that she was the Mrs. McClane through whom Parley P. Pratt, a leading Mormon apostle, lost his life. It seems that Pratt, during one of his missionary tours in 1856 or 1857, brought up in Arkansas [sic], where he made the acquaintance of Mrs. McClane. Her husband was absent at the time and she remained at home with the children, a boy and two girls, who were quite young. The wily Pratt soon ingratiated himself into the good graces or Mrs. McClane, preached Mormonism to her, and finally persuaded her that it was her duty to embrace him and Mormonism, forsake her husband, and with her children accompany him to Zion, there to become one of his polygamous wives.

The unexpected return of McClane frustrated their plan for taking the children with them, but Mrs. McClane succeeded in escaping to Salt Lake City, where she was sealed to Pratt. She was, at that time, pretty good looking, although anxiety of mind, and perhaps remorse of conscience has since interfered greatly with her good looks. Although she was, apparently at least, happy in the society of her seducer, yet secretly she pined for the company of the children she had left behind. She accordingly persuaded Pratt to return the next year and attempt their abduction. Pratt went to Brigham for counsel, and Brigham advised him not to go, for if he did McClane would kill him. He therefore refused to go, but the constant entreaties of Eleanor at last overcame his resolution, and, procuring a light wagon and span of mules, he started, in company with a Mormon train, taking Mrs. McClane with him. They finally arrived in the neighborhood of McCtane's house, and, learning that he was absent, the mother sought an interview with her children and tried to persuade them to leave their father and go with her to Salt Lake, but they refused. McClane had anticipated some such move on the part or his faithless wife, and had informed his children of the iniquities practised by the Mormons, which made them unwilling to go. McClane had also left a friend to watch for any attempt upon the part or Pratt and his paramour, to steal the children away, swearing that be would have the heart's blood of any Mormon who attempted it. McClane's friends forwarded a hasty despatch to him informing him of the situation, and he returned very unexpectedly to the would-be abductors. Pratt was informed of McClane's return a few moments before he entered the town, and that he was armed with a bowie-knife and two revolvers, which he purposed using upon Pratt's body. The latter immediately mounted his horse and endeavored to escape. He rode out of town at one end as McClane entered at the other. McClane soon found the bird had flown, and the presence of his wife, with the fact of the attempted abduction, added fuel to the flames already raging in his heart. He again mounted his horse, a fleet and powerful one, with the determination to pursue Pratt to Salt Lake City, if he could not sooner overtake him.

After a chase of several miles McClane came in sight of Pratt, riding up a long hill. When Pratt gained the top he looked back and saw McClane close behind him, pistol in hand. He immediately put spurs to his horse in the vain hope of escaping, looking back every now and then, with fear depicted upon his countenance, at the near prospect of a speedy ending to his villanous career. But his days were numbered, and a shot from the pistol of McClane passed through his body. He immediately fell from his horse, and it is said that McClane, dismounting, cut his throat from ear to ear. Such was the miserable end of a Mormon apostle, who had broken up the happiness of a man's family by seducing his wife and afterwards attempting the abduction of his children. Mrs. McClane, after she had witnessed the burial of Pratt, returned to Salt Lake City without the children. She was received by the numerous widows of the deceased Pratt with reproaches and contempt, as being the cause and indirect means of his death. Brigham, however, interfered, and assigned her a small portion of Pratt's land, upon which the built a house, and now teaches school for a living.

She is crazy upon two subjects, Mormonism and the killing of Pratt by her husband McClane. I determined to draw her out on the latter subject as soon as an opportunity presented. My friend informed her that I was only temporarily stopping in the city, and that I wished to see some few of the Mormon ladies at home before continuing my journey. She immediately turned to me and asked if I was a lecturess. I replied that I was not, neither did I expect to lecture upon any subject, Mormon or otherwise, but simply wished to see a little of Mormon home life, for my own instruction.

She replied that she was glad I was not a lecturess, for since Anna Dickinson had obtained what information she could and then used it in a lecture against the Mormons, she did not care to be communicative to strangers. She thought my desire to learn the truth was commendable, and if I sought the truth prayerfully, with a wish to do right, the Lord would bless me, and eventually bring me into the true faith.

"Then," said I, "you believe Mormonism to be the only true faith."

"I do," she replied. "I firmly believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet, as much as any of those mentioned in the Old Testament. I know it for myself and not for another. Brigham Young is the man upon whom the mantle of the martyred Joseph fell, and is inspired to lead the Lord's chosen people, I have never had a doubt concerning the truth of Mormonlsm, since I first heard the gospel of life and salvation from the lips of the martyred Parley P. Pratt."

"You was present, I understand, during the last moments of Parley P. Pratt?"

"Yea, I assisted in preparing his body for the grave. The bloodthirsty McClane did his work effectually, and he never spoke after he was shot. I remember the affair as well as though it were but yesterday. Every one in the town where McClane lived knew that he was after Parley to kill him, and all was excitement in the streets. The people ran out to the edge of the town to see him killed; but, when Parley's body was brought in, a solemn stillness succeeded the hubbub of the hour previous. The people spoke with hushed voices and affrighted looks, as though they began to realize that a servant of God had been slain, and to feel that the judgments of the Almighty would fall upon them for the deed."

"Was McClane punished for killing Mr. Pratt?" I asked.

"No," she replied; "but his death has been fearfully avenged upon the nation which has permitted the blood of the Prophets to be spilt without punishing the murderers."

"Was you divorced from McClane," I asked, "previous to marrying Mr. Pratt."

"No," she replied; "the sectarian priests have no power from God to marry; and. as a so-called marriage ceremony performed by them is no marriage at all, no divorce was needed. The priesthood, with its powers and privileges, can be found nowhere upon the face or the earth but in Utah."

She said this in a positive tone of voice, and with an air of determination which said as plainly as so many words, ''gainsay it if you can." As I did not come for argument but for information, I made no reply to her assertions.

Continuing her conversation, which seemed to have taken the form of a sermon, she said: "I regard the law of celestial marriage, or, as the Gentiles term it, polygamy, as the keystone of our religion. That is wherein we differ with the sects of the world. They hope for a salvation in a heaven where husbands and wives shall be utter strangers to each other; we expect to reach a heaven where we shall rear families, the same as we do here. We could not do this unless we had a revelation authorizing celestial marriage; and we could not be saved in tbe celestial kingdom without obeying this revelation. It is the great distinctive feature of our religion, and by it must our religion stand or fall."

I began to think by this time that I had heard enough about "celestial marriage," as understood by Mrs. McClane Pratt, and my friend seemed to have arrived at the same conclusion, for she arose and said that we would have to take our leave. Mrs. Pratt was evidently a woman of education, but deeply imbued with the fanaticism of her religion, which warps her judgment and prejudices her against everything not Mormon.

My friend now proposed to call a few minutes upon Mrs. Orson Pratt, the first wife or the "Apostle," who is a brother of Parley P. Pratt. On my way thither I learned that Mrs. Pratt, although silently acquiescing in the system or tbe community in which she lived with her husband, was at heart no Mormon. She did not believe in the divine mission of either Joe Smith or Brigham Young, nor did she believe in the Mormon doctrines. Her continued residence among the Mormons was due to the fact that she could not, in her old age, leave her husband and go forth alone and destitute into a world of which she had known nothing for the past twenty years. Hence she remained in Mormonism, but not of it. The church authorities accuse her of having taught her children heresy, on account of which they have left the Mormon Church. Her oldest son, Orson, a talented young man and a fine musician, was cut off several years ago for refusing to go on a mission. When asked by Brigham the reason for his refusal, he replied that he was not going to preach things which he believed to be false. His excommunication came soon after. The experience of Mrs. Pratt in Mormonism has been bitter in the extreme. In Nauvoo she was the young, cherished, and beautiful only wife of Orson Pratt, then a young, talented man, and one of Smith's apostles. The licentious Smith cast his baleful glances upon her and marked her for a victim. He kept Orson preaching so that he could not accumulate any property, and, after he had used up his means, sent him on a mission to Europe, promising that the church would look after his wife. He then laid his plans to attempt the seduction of Mrs. Pratt. He communicated his intentions to John C. Bennet, his counselor and right hand man, who, being a particular friend of Orson and of his young wife, communicated Smith's design to her. She refused to credit Bennet's story, for she was then a sincere disciple of Smith, and a firm believer in Mormonism.

One day Smith called at the wretched abode of Mrs. Pratt, and, under cover of a revelation, endeavored to persuade her to accede to his wishes. She steadily refused, and threatened to call assistance if he did not leave the house. The baffled Smith left in a rage, declaring he would bring her to terms. Her allowance of provisions from the tithing-office was stopped, and Smith tried to starve her into compliance. She held out steadily, subsisting as best she could, with the aid of a friend, until the time of Orson's return drew nigh. About this time Smith and Bennet fell out, and the former, fearful of consequences, determined to save his own rotten reputation by charging Mrs. Pratt and Bennet with adultery. When Orson Pratt returned to Nauvoo, Smith poured his vile falsehoods into his ears, but his confidence in the integrity of his young wife remained unshaken. When he heard her story, and the statements of Bennet, he saw Smith in his true character and immediately left Nauvoo, refusing to remain a disciple any longer, Smith stormed, swore, and denounced them from his pulpit, calling Mrs. Pratt the vilest names he could think of. He was brought to his senses by ascertaining that many of his prominent men were on the verge of apostasy, and that, if he did not regain Pratt's influence and services, his church would be broken to pieces. He finally managed to conciliate Pratt and bring him again to Nauvoo, as devoted an adherent as ever; but the veil had been torn from the eyes of Mrs. Pratt, rudely it is true, but effectually, nevertheless, and she saw Smith, not as a righteous prophet, but as a devil, in all his hideousness and deformity. Her faith in him and his religion had departed forever. After a long, walk we reached the abode of Mrs. Pratt, and, entering found ourselves in the presence of a fine-looking elderly lady, who received us courteously and invited us to be seated. She had evidently been handsome when younger, but care and sorrow had left their traces upon her face in heavier lines than time alone could have done.

Probably the heaviest affliction she had been called upon to endure was her husband's rewarding her youthful devotedness to him by taking several wives after he arrived in Utah.

I felt emboldened by her free, unaffected manner, to ask her if her experience in polygamy had been a happy one.

She replied. "No! neither do I believe that the experience of any first wife can be a happy one, whatever may be that of the plural wives. The first wife cannot easily tear from her heart affections which have been rooted by time and strengthened by the single, undivided love of her husband for years. It would he unnatural to suppose that such a thing could be. It is true that first wives, through lapse of time, become somewhat reconciled to their lot, but only at the cost of heart-rending anguish, and a snapping asunder of all the ties which bind them to their husbands. My testimony, like that of many other first wives in polygamy, is, that I have suffered greatly, and have only become reconciled when I could bring myself to regard my husband without affection, and as a woman would look upon a husband from whom she had been divorced forever.

At this moment the door opened, and a young lady entered, who was introduced to us as Miss Zina Pratt. She is the daughter of Orson Pratt, by another of his wives, but she is a bitter opponent of Mormonism, and especially polygamy. She appeared to be a lively, intelligent girl, possessed of much good sense, and evidently believing in the "Gentile" fashions denounced by Brigham. Two years ago she was engaged to be married to a young "Gentile," but the match was rather forcibly broken up by her father. It appears that she was introduced to a young man named Frank McGovern, by a mutual friend, upon one of the skating ponds near the city, McGovern, an elegant skater, undertook to learn Miss Pratt to skate, and, while thus engaged in gliding over the ice together, it was but natural that they should glide into each other's affection. On account of the prejudice against ''Gentiles" entertained by her father, their meetings were clandestine. They finally arranged a marriage, the ceremony to be performed by one of the Federal judges. But the Argus eyes of the secret police had kept a close watch, and discovered their plans. On the evening agreed upon for the marriage, they met at the house of a mutual friend. No sooner had they entered the house than the police spies, who were on the watch, informed Orson Pratt of the intended wedding. Pratt repaired immediately to the house, accompanied by several policemen, and entered as the couple were about starting for the house of the judge. A scene at once ensued, which ended in two policemen holding McGovern firmly by the arms, while the meek and venerable "Apostle" beat and kicked him until he was tired. After this valiant performance the policemen informed McGovern that if he did not leave the city in twenty-four hours he would be effectually disposed of. McGovern took the stage for South Pass City the next morning. Miss Pratt returned home with her father, more bitter than ever against the Mormon institution. Our conversation with Mrs. Pratt was an interesting one; but, situated as she is among the Mormons, for reasons which must be apparent, I do not think it advisable to report it. As evening approached, after a pleasant interview, we took leave of Mrs. Pratt with sincere regret.   H.


Note 1: Note: This article was reprinted in the Semi-Weekly World of Nov. 23rd. The World's Salt Lake City correspondent told a muddled account of the 1857 Pratt murder. See the New Orleans Commercial Bulletin of Dec. 19, 1856 and the Van Buren Arkansas Intelligencer of May 15, 1857 for a more useful introduction to this obscure history.

Note 2: It is regrettable that Eleanor McLean Pratt was not questioned regarding the transit of the Fancher emigrant train through Great Salt Lake City in the summer of 1857, for she was reportedly present on that occasion. Her vague reference to the death of Apostle Pratt having "been fearfully avenged upon the nation which has permitted the blood of the Prophets to be spilt," might have been applied to practically any tragic event, from the time of the 1857-58 "Mormon War" down through the termination of the American Civil War, a few years prior to the 1869 interview -- and among those "fearful" events would have been the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Note 3: For additional testimony from Sarah Pratt, see her interview by Kate Field, published in 1892, along with the notes and links appended to that article.

AMONG  THE  MORMONS.
_______

Interesting Interviews with Mormon Wives and Maidens --
Joe Smith a Polygamist -- How He and His Chief
Elder Kept Extra Wives on the Sly -- One who
Would be an Only Wife -- Cozy Chat with
Some Young Daughters of Brigham
Young -- What They Do when "Pa"
is Away, &c., &c.

(CORRESPONDENCE  OF  THE  WORLD.)

SALT LAKE CITY, November 10.      

While seated at the front window of my friend's residence, observing, in company with her, the passers-by, two ladies attracted my attention. One was apparently about forty years of age, attired in a calico dress of dark pattern, and having upon her head a bonnet of by-gone fashion. The other was a young woman, about twenty-five years of age, much better dressed than her companion, and carrying an infant in her arms, apparently about three months old. From the strong likeness existing between the elder woman and the young one, I at once judged that they must be mother and daughter. My friend observed them at the same time, and remarked:

A STRANGE STORY.

"Those two women are mother and daughter, and the wives of one husband." Observing my look of interest and attention, she continued: "The oldest was formerly one of Panley P. Pratt's wives, by whom she had several daughters. The lady accompanying her is the oldest of those daughters. After the death of Panley P. Pratt, he leaving but very little property to be divided among so many women and children, the wives were placed in very precarious circumstances, and were forced to undertake the most laborious occupations to obtain a livelihood. The one whom we were observing was a third or fourth wife, and, with the others, had to obtain a living as best she could. Finally, she received an offer of marriage from a man named Ridges, but in its acceptance she thought she saw danger to herself and her children. Her daughters were growing up young and good-looking, and she feared that, under the odious church law which permits a man to marry his wife's daughters, Ridges might some time in the future wish to make them his plural wives, even if he had not already made up his mind to do so. The thought of such an event was agony to the mind of the mother, and she hesitated to return an answer to the proposal of Ridges. One day Ridges called at the house where she resided, determined to have a final answer. He was shown into the room, in which were present Mrs. Pratt and two of her oldest daughters. In answer to his request for an acceptance or rejection of his proposal, Mrs. Pratt informed him that, as far as she alone was concerned, she had no objection; 'but,' said she, pointing to her daughters, then about twelve and fourteen years of age, 'in these two girls, and my fears for their future, lie the greatest obstacles to my decision. They are now young, but I fear that when they arrive at a marriageable age you will endeavor to make one or both of them your plural wives. I tell you frankly that such an event would break my heart, and make me miserable forever.' Ridges replied by solemnly promising that he would never seek to marry any of her daughters, and, trusting in that promise, she became his wife. Five years afterwards the oldest daughter, Amanda, had developed into a handsome young lady, and Ridges, tired of his somewhat faded first wife, and forgetful of the promise he had made, longed for the youthful freshness and many charms of her oldest daughter. The mother firmly refused to consent; but the daughter appeared to be a little more than half-way willing. She was, however, restrained by her mother's entreaties and remonstrances from giving her consent to the proposal of Ridges. The latter now resorted to the meanest and most despicable petty persecutions to force the mother into giving her consent to her daughter's ruin. At length, her health shattered by the persecutions she had undergone, and her mind weakened by trouble and the blow about to fall so heavily upon her, she gave a reluctant assent to the marriage of Amanda to Ridges. From that time her happiness and peace of mind were destroyed forever, and she became the most miserable of women. But Ridges seemed to have made up his mind to marry the whole family, and when the second daughter had arrived at a marriageable age, he proposed to make her his third wife. She, however, more sensible than her sister, and knowing, too, that such an event would bring her mother in sorrow to the grave, refused his offer. Again Ridges renewed his persecutions, and spit out his venom on mother and daughter alike. Seeing that such a course of conduct would soon result in her mother's death, she left the house, determined to maintain herself by school-teaching, or any other honest way of obtaining a living, rather than wrong her mother and do violence to her own feelings by marrying her step-father." -- Who, after reading the story of woman's wrongs and woman's shame, will not fervently wish that the iniquitous system which now flourishes in Utah, like a deadly upas tree, may soon be blotted out of existence?

TWO SISTERS WITH THE SAME HUSBAND.

Here come two young women, one of whom I recognize as Mrs. Mary Croxall, the wife of the Superintendent in the Western Union Telegraph office, who was introduced to us in Aunt Zina's room. "Those two young women" said my friend, "are sisters, and both are the wives of Mr. Croxall. Miss Mary Young was married to him first, and a year or two afterwards he married her sister Caroline. The one mentioned as Caroline is a large, heavy built, stout young woman, and, as both were well and fashionably dressed, Mr. Croxall's salary is probably soon exhausted in meeting the expenses of his dual household." In the afternoon, two ladies called who were introduced to me as Mrs. Ezra T. Benson and her daughter Mrs. Roberts. Mrs. Benson was the first wife of Ezra T. Benson, one of the "twelve apostles" who recently was stricken with apoplexy and died suddenly. She resides in the town of Logan, Cache Valley, about ninety miles from Salt Lake City, in a northeasterly direction. She is rather below the medium height, small in figure, and bears traces of considerable beauty in her younger days. Even now I noticed a fascination in her eyes, which would certainly have a tendency to charm one of the opposite sex, although she must be about forty years of age. Her daughter is a fine young lady, tall and decidedly good-looking.

A ROMANCE.

Her husband is a "Gentile" and in courting his wife labored under many difficulties. Mr. Roberts had been engaged in business in the State of Nevada. In his younger days he had become acquainted with Miss Emma Benson, who, full of life, bright, and sparkling as the rays of the noon-day sun upon the rippling waters of a transparent lake, overflowing with mirth and gladness, captivated the susceptible heart of the young man, and he fell a victim to cupid's unerring shafts. He paid her a visit at the house of her parents in Logan, and was not long in making up his mind to marry her if he could. In this determination he was aided by Miss Emma's mother and brother, who, as was quite natural, would sooner see her the first and only wife of a Gentile than the fifth or sixth concubine of some lecherous old Mormon. Her apostolic father demurred to the whole proceeding, sought to quash the engagement and drive his would-be son-in-law from the place. In these efforts he was seconded by an old reprobate named Peter Maughn, the principal bishop of Cache Valley, who, although having other wives, thought that he had an affinity for Miss Benson himself. Upon one occasion a ball was given by the church authorities of the town; I believe it was upon Christmas Eve. Strict orders were given by the powers ecclesiastical that no ticket should be sold to Mr. Roberts. But as love is said to laugh at locksmiths, so, in this instance, he scorned the bars which the church dignitaries would place in the way, and Roberts obtained the required cards through his brother-in-law in expectancy, Charley Benson. Benson pere found, when too late, viz., when Roberts presented himself at the door with his affianced upon one arm and the other extended tickets in hand, that with all his precaution he had been outwitted. A squad of secret policemen was immediately ordered out to watch the daring intruder, and, if necessary, effectually dispose of him. Charley Benson who, knowing the ropes, had kept a close watch upon his father's movements, collected a few of his friends armed with two revolvers apiece, and watched the movements of the policemen, the latter being well known to him. Those present were commanded not to dance when Mr. Roberts and Miss Benson occupied the floor. Charley Benson with his friends, immediately completed the set, and the dance proceeded with but one set upon the floor. What can a man do when his whole family is arrayed against him. Apostle Benson retreated in disgust, orders were issued to stop the ball, musicians were dismissed, and the hall was involved in darkness. An elopement was planned which was frustrated by the vigilance of the father, and the course of true love did not run at all smooth. Then Miss Emma sickened and pined away until her shadowy form foreshadowed her speedy death. Then the father gave a supposed to be reluctant assent to the marriage. It is thought, however, by some that he rejoiced secretly at the favorable termination of the affair, and that he would rather see his oldest daughter married to a Gentile who would cherish and protect her, and her only, than to a Mormon, but that he, a faithful son of the Church, could only yield his consent when apparently forced by circumstances to do so. A few years afterwards other leading Mormons found themselves in exactly the same predicament, Mr. Roberts and his wife removed to Salt Lake City, where they now reside. Mrs. Benson is pleasing in conversation, and professes to believe in Mormonism, and that polygamy is a divine institution, although there is some dubiety upon her mind as to the good of its practical results.

JOSEPH SMITH A POLYGAMIST.

In response to a question by me, Mrs. Benson said that her husband and herself became members of the Mormon church at Nauvoo, and that she was well acquainted with the "Prophet Joseph" whom she regarded as a good and pious man. "Mrs. Benson" I said, "there is some dispute, I believe, between the followers of young Joseph Smith and those of Brigham Young, as to whether polygamy was practised in Nauvoo or not. As you were a resident of that city, perhaps you can inform me how that is." "Polygamy was certainly practised in Nauvoo, as I well know, for my own sister Adelaide was sealed to Mr. Benson by the prophet Joseph. Other women were sealed to Brother Kimball, and to Hiram Smith, Joseph Smith's brother. Sister Vilate Kimball, myself, and two or three others were the only ones to whom the secret of its practice was at first communicated, and it was indeed a terrible secret for us. We were, what I term, the first wives in polygamy, for we were the very first whose husbands obeyed the Celestial law, and it was doubly hard for us to bear until we became accustomed to it. The matter had to be kept a profound secret, except from a few who could be trusted. Even Hiram, the prophet's brother, could not at first be safely informed of its existence. I recollect of an instance occurring in which Brother Kimball was concerned, which serves to illustrate how careful we had to be. Brother Kimball's second wife, in order to avoid suspicion, boarded at our house, and he came late in the evening, or early in the morning, to see her. While he was in the house, I kept watch upon the road, to see that no one should approach unexpectedly, and surprise him. One morning I saw a man approaching, and hastily warned Brother Kimball, who made his escape by a rear window into a corn-field, where he would have remained until the man had gone, had he not turned out to be the Prophet Joseph. We called Brother Kimball in, and had a good laugh at him about it. We were often obliged to take our husband's second and third wives into our houses, passing them off as sisters or acquaintances who were visiting us. You may be sure that it cost us many a heartache and many a pang of sorrow, but we believed that God had spoken through his prophet, and we, as his dutiful servants, were bound to obey."

IS POLYGAMY FROM GOD?

"Do you then really believe that God would command his people to do that which would make them miserable and unhappy here, to say nothing of hereafter?" "The saints of God must pass through trials and tribulations to prepare them for a happy future, and I presume that polygamy is one of those trials by which the Lord has designed to try us, and which will eventually result in good to the whole human race." "As far as your own personal experience is concerned, did you become easily reconciled to your husband's taking other wives?" "No, I did not; I suffered terribly. My auguish was at times almost too great to be borne, and I could only regard his taking other wives calmly and without suffering when I had learned to look upon him without love and affection, and as I would regard a total stranger." "How does such an experience operate generally?" I inquired.

HOW THE WOMEN LIKE POLYGAMY.

"A first wife must learn to cast out all love and affection from her heart, and she will have to come to it, if her husband takes other wives. Previous to my husband's death, so hardened had I become that it was a matter of total indifference to me when he took another wife. His presence or absence in the house was equally a matter of indifference to me, for I had learned to regard him as a total stranger." "Are plural wives to the country required to work, or are they generally supported by their husband to ease and idleness?"

HOW THE WOMEN WORK.

"We do not believe to having any drones in the hive, and plural wives to the country are expected to do something towards contributing to the support or dress of the family. Some spin, others weave cloth often sufficient to last the entire family through the winter. Some make up the clothing for family use; others again make the butter and cheese, and attend to the cows, pigs, and poultry. All are engaged to some useful occupation by which the whole family will be benefited. Danish wives, who have been used to the occupation to their own country, are placed to the fields during the proper season to plough and harrow the ground, plant the seed, and hoe up the weeds when the time comes. They may also be seen irrigating the crops with water." "What are the accommodations generally possessed by men in the country for keeping a plurality of wives?" "Generally rather poor. But very few, and those generally the leading men, have large houses. Most of the houses have only two or three rooms to them, and to these rooms sometimes live three or four wives with their children. I have often thought that men should not be permitted to take wives until they had places to which to keep them and their children comfortably. Brother Brigham, however, counsels poor men to take wives, have plenty of faith, and they will acquire means for their comtortable maintenance. In most cases it seems a very long time coming." "I suppose" said I, turning to Mrs. Roberts, "that you are reconciled to your husband's becoming a Mormon and taking other wives some day?" “Never" she replied, with a flashing eye. "No woman shall ever enter my house as a wife while I live and continue to it. I am no advocate of, or believer to, polygamy, I can assure you. I have seen enough of it to satisfy me fully." There was no mistaking the look, voice, and manner, with which these words were spoken, and I bought that if this was the spirit and feeling with which the Mormon girls viewed polygamy, the country was safe as far as they were concerned.

LEADING QUESTIONS FOR MORMON YOUNG LADIES.

I ventured to put my thoughts into the form of a question, and accordingly asked her if many of the Mormon young ladies were willing to become plural wives. "As a general rule" she replied, "they are not, although of course there are exceptions. The daughters of some of the leading Mormons have married 'Gentiles,' or young men whom they were satisfied did not believe in polygamy. The oldest daughter of Apostle John Taylor married an army officer and went to California. The oldest daughter of William Kimball, Heber C. Kimball's oldest son, also married a Californian, and now resides in the East. Apostle Orson Hyde's oldest daughter married a Jew named Ellis, and has gone to California. Other instances might be given, which show the general feeling upon the subject."

FIVE OF BRIGHAM’S DAUGHTERS.

Our conversation was here interrupted by a ring of the door-bell, and shortly afterwards several young ladies entered, who were introduced as the Misses Louisa, Dora, and Nabby Young, Mrs. Emily Clawson, and Mrs. Fanny Thatcher. Mrs. Benson and her daughters now wished us good day and with-drew. These ladies are all daughters of Brigham Young. Mrs. Emily Clawson has been married to Hiram Clawson, Brigham's confidential clerk and superintendent of the co-operative society, about two years, and is a fourth wife. Alice, another of Brigham's daughters, and Emily's half-sister, is Clawson's third wife. He maintains his wives in comfort, ease, and even elegance, from which it is fair to presume that he would not have much difficulty in procuring Young wives. Emily is a tall, slim young lady, with fine, regular features, and apparently about twenty-two or three years of age. Mrs. Fanny Thatcher also married her half-sister's husband. George Thatcher had, several years ago, married Luna, the oldest daughter of Brigham's first wife. About two years ago he married Fanny, as his second wife, against the consent and entreaties of his first wife. It is said that Brigham was at first opposed to the match, and placed Thatcher's name on the list for a four years' mission to Europe, and that this alarmed his first wife -- who loved him dearly -- even more than the prospects of a second marriage. She was taken very ill, and, at her request, Brigham removed her husband's name from the list of missionaries. After her recovery Brigham, finding opposition useless, gave his consent to the marriage. Miss Louisa is quite young, apparently about seventeen, short and stout. Miss Nabby is much the same in figure, but taller than her sister. Miss Dora is the prettiest looking, and has the best figure of either of the others. Mr. James Hardy, an actor to Brigham's theatre, is trying to persuade her that matrimony is a very pleasant institution, but so far without success. Miss Dora is about seventeen years of age. Louisa and Nabby are said to be partial to flirtations with "Gentiles" and may be seen most any fine day, fashionably attired, promenading Main street, casting sly glances at the clerks, Jew, Gentile, or Saint, who make their appearance to the store doors to look at them. During last winter, young Gentiles and young saintesses mingled together promiscuously upon the ice, which, as it often levels all distinctions, placed them upon a common footing. After the affair of McGovern and Miss Zina Pratt, Brigham became alarmed, and prohibited any of his family from appearing upon the skating-pond. Notwithstanding this prohibition, however, when Brigham left town skates were donned, and Brigham's daughters flew swiftly over the ice in company with their masculine friends. I asked Louisa if she intended to skate this winter. "I am going to if I can" she replied, "though pa thinks it's perfectly awful for us girls to go on the ice and skate. I don't see what makes him think so; for my part, I like it first-rate, although I got bumped pretty hard while learning." Nabby is considered the best skater to the city. It had now become quite dark, and the girls, wishing us good evening, retired.   H.


Note: This article was reprinted in the Semi-Weekly World of Nov. 26th and in the Cincinnati Enquirer of Nov. 27th.

A  MORMON  MUTINY.
_______

Mormonism has managed to subsist for nearly fifty years. This fact may well surprise those who remember that its founder was a sheep-thief, that its present prophet is a bloated tyrant, that its Bible is a proved imposture, that its pulpit eloquence is a mess of blackguard blasphemy, and that its practice begins by encouraging those appetites which every system deserving to be called a religion has begun by denying, and every successful social polity has found itself forced to restrain. For the latter half of this period, moreover, it has been steadily growing in numbers and in wealth, so that it has been able to defy the military force of the United States, and that it now survives an unanimously hostile opinion.

For the latter at least of these achievements, it has doubtless been indebted to the shrewdness with which Brigham Young has managed its temporal affairs. Its inaccessibility has been its defence. If the Mormons had remained at Nauvoo, there can be no question but that they would have perished miserably. But although the isolation of Salt Lake protected them against external assaults, it would not have kept them from economical wreck, if there had not been some man of mark at the head of them. This praise of worldly wisdom must certainly be given to Young. But though his shrewdness has thus far availed to increase and multiply the Mormons, and to save them from distress, his tenure of his leadership is very insecure. We have the best and most immediate authority for saying that the effort now making to unseat him is a most formidable one. Among the leaders of it are men nearly as able as he, who are, moreover, free from the reputation of rapacity which has made him odious. These men see, what he does not seem to see, that, with the completion of the Pacific Railroad, the solitude which made their security has gone. The desert on an oasis of which the Latter-Day Saints have pitched their tent, and the wilderness which they have made to blossom, if not as the rose, at least as the fragrant leek, will soon be populous with settlers to whom the Book of Mormon is a stumbling-block and polygamy an abomination. The opponents of Young perceive that this population will not tolerate the practice which, to most people, is the chief characteristic of Mormonism, and that it will be necessary for themselves to modify their conduct, if not their creed, to gain tolerance. As nothing can be done with the herd of Mormons without a pretence of supernatural interposition, these enterprising mutineers have set up an opposition in the business of prophecy which Young has hitherto engrossed. This rivalry of revelations naturally gives rise to a contradiction in the oracles. Not only does the standard afflatus of Brigham, whose monopoly is now impudently infringed, enjoin the practices which the competing afflatus deprecates, but both the inspirers and the inspired abuse each other like pick-pockets. A house thus divided against itself, it is quite evident, cannot stand. And whichever party gets the better of the desperate conflict which has now been begun, it is clear that a considerable opposition will give to the prestige of the Mormon leader a blow from which it will never fully recover. It is above all things necessary to a man in his position to crush every revolt in the egg. When once it has fairly chipped the shell and openly cackled, though he may put it down for the time, it is sure to have successors. The credulous creatures who form the main body of the Mormon faithful will have discovered that a tongue which dares to wag against the prophet does not necessarily cleave to the roof of the mutinous mouth. And that discovery is fatal to the supremacy of a man like Brigham Young.

Whatever may be the immediate result of this squabble, we have reason to congratulate ourselves that the doom of the Mormons is sealed. They will be overrun with men of this age if they stay where they are, and another migration, after the long lapse of quiet they have had, would be fatal to them. Mormonism is an anachronism, and as soon as the life of to-day is at liberty, as Mr. Matthew Arnold might put it, to "play freely" upon it, it is doomed. The Mormons can live in the midst of an American community only by so far conforming to that community as to give up the distinctive doctrines and the distinctive practices which have made them odious, and which alone have made them Mormons.


Note: This article was reprinted in the Semi-Weekly World of Dec. 21st.

THE  DANGER  OF  WAR  IN  UTAH.

The excitement in Utah over Mr. Cullom's bill for the suppression of polygamy will be greatly intensified when the Mormons discover the actual provisions of the bill, as it has been amended by the Committee on Territories. After describing and declaring polygamy to be a crime, the amended bill provides that, for the enforcement of this law, the President shall send a sufficient body of troops to Utah; and, to this end, he is authorized to employ the regular army, and also to raise 25,000 militia in the Territory. It further provides that the property of any Mormons who may leave Utah on account of this law, or who may be imprisoned for resistance thereto, shall be taken and used for the benefit of the families of such Mormons.

This bill means war. Its terms and its provisions are in the nature of preparations for war. Its execution will assuredly be followed by war. Not only is the regular army to be ordered to Utah, but volunteers are to be called for; and these forces are to be placed under command of the experienced military officer (General Shaffer) whom Grant has just appointed Governor of the Territory.

As a preliminary to operations, Utah must, of course, be placed under martial law. No jury that could be found there would ever pronounce any Mormon guilty of the crime of polygamy. No jury, in fact, could be obtained fitted to serve as a body for the enforcement of this law. Either the President or Congress has the power of putting the Territory of Utah under martial law; and if Grant signs this bill, there need be no doubt that be will be prepared to exercise that power,

Those who may be declared guilty of polygamy are to be imprisoned, and their property is to be confiscated. We estimate that the enforcement of these provisions would involve the imprisonment of over five thousand persons, and the confiscation of over fifty millions of dollars' worth of property. This confiscation is to be carried out under the pretext of affording support to the wives and families of the polygamous offenders; and it is to be carried out, whether they are incarcerated in prison or fly beyond the authority of the United States. We pronounce it a mere pretext to say that the confiscated property will be used for the benefit of Mormon wives and children, If the polygamic husbands fly from Utah, their families will undoubtedly accompany them; if the polygamic husbands are imprisoned (which is an absurdity), society will be utterly broken up and destroyed. In either case, the confiscated property wonld fall into the hands of the Gentiles; and this is doubtless the purpose of the bill.

Will the Mormons fight? Will they fly? Will they give up polygamy?

Fifteen years ago, when the Mormons had less than a quarter of their present strength, they showed their entire readiness to fight for their system. They met General Johnston's army in the mountains, harassed his advance on their strongholds, and, though matters soon came to a point at which warlike operations were stopped, they gave proof of their power to offer formidable resistance, as well as of their willingness to confront any enemy. Previous to that time, when in Nauvoo, they frequently displayed a similar spirit and purpose -- having their troops always organized, and standing always in the attitude of "saints militant and belligerent." In fact, the Mormon Church and army have been "one and indivisible" from the time that they were both organized by the Prophet Joseph Smith.

We do not believe that any one who comprehends the system and spirit of Brigham Young, as he has kept them up for the last quarter of a century, can doubt that the Mormons are prepared to assume a belligerent attitude if the principles of Collum's bill are enforced against them by military power. They will not give up polygamy, for they hold it to be as much a matter of divine revelation as any other doctrine of Mormonism. They will not resort to flight in the direction of Mexico or elsewhere -- not, at least, until they have made an effort to hold their ground in Utah.

Congress should understand this, and the country should be warned of these things, before the passage of Cullom's bill. There is danger that, after the circumstances of the case are developed, the government will be compelled either to back down from Cullom's ground or to undertake a "bigger job" than most people have any idea of. If we force them into a hostile attitude, the Mormons can give us a very disagreeable, a very wearisome, and a tremendously expensive war. Cullom's bill provides for the employment of about forty thousand troops, partly regulars and partly volunteers. The Mormons could give such a force two or three years' fighting, at an annual expense to us of not less than two hundred millions of dollars.

The government should not forcibly interfere with polygamy or Mormouism at all. The pacific forces are now in action that will make it impossible for polygamy to exist any great length of time.


Notes: (forthcoming)

FORTY-FIRST  CONGRESS.
_____

SECOND  SESSION.

Washington, February 22.          

.....

House  of  Representatives.

POLYGAMY  IN  UTAH.

The House proceeded to the consideration in the morning hour of the bill to prevent and punish polygamy in Utah.

Mr. Fitch (Rad., Nev.) addressed the House in opposition to it. He admitted the probability of the destruction of polygamy by the enforcement of the bill, and that that would be a laudable and wise purpose. If such destruction were all that were involved in the matter, it would be his duty to advocate the measure instead of opposing it; but knowing something of the Mormon country, and something more of the peculiar character and motives of the people inhabiting that country, he was impelled to submit that this bill, if enforced as a law, would provoke consequences most prolific of misfortune, and entail results altogether unprecedented. Among the results might be included, first, the temporary obstruction, if not the complete destruction of the great overland railroad. Next, Utah would be returned to the desolateness which had once reigned supreme upon her soil. Again, the growing industries of a vast country would be checked and the development of the Pacific coast seriously retarded, and, beyond all this, thousands of brave men would be slain and millions of treasure expended. He feared that the people of Utah would regard the passage of this bill as a declaration of war, and would prepare, with all the fury and earnestness and zeal of fanatics, to enter upon a contest most bitter, protracted, and bloody. The result of such a contest no man could doubt. The Mormons would be exterminated or driven out of Utah. But with polygamy thus destroyed, adultery thus delocalized, concubinage thus stamped out, with virtue and desolation reigning supreme in a waste where only the shout of the savage disturbed the stillness, the rebuking verdict of a tax-burdened people would be that the result accomplished was not worth the sacrifice involved. What would there be in such a contest, appealing to either the judgment, the conscience, or the patriotism of the people? Did it not lack all the elements which inspired men to go forth to battle? He understood, of course, the deep disgrace it was to the nation; that the barbarous social practices of the Asiatic should be unblushingly pursued among a Saxon people in the noon of the nineteenth century. He condemned the iniquity of the Mormon creed. He was filled with amazement and pity at the voluntary degradation of the Mormon women, while he abhorred that spirit, whether it were a spirit of sensuality or of sacrifice, that ignored and repudiated that honest impulse of human nature, that sacred passion which no man could feel at once for two women, and which no woman could entertain for him whom she did not believe to be exclusively her own. But the question was a practical, not a sentimental one. History nowhere made mention of a colony of equal age, more industrious, more united, more powerful, or more self-sustaining. They were industrious, thrifty, and temperate. They were comparatively free from every vice except polygamy, and according to their creed that was no vice at all, but a religious duty. They believed in their faith as deeply as the Mahomedan believes in his Koran, or the Christian in the crucifixion of his Redeemer. To assail that faith with armies would be to consolidate, and strengthen, and infuse its votaries with more ardent zeal. The gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Cullom) believed they would make no resistance. Had they faced the storm and the savage of the desert, and disease to be turned from their tenets or driven from their convictions by an act of Congress? Would any sentiment less earnest than the passionate, zealous, and fanatical belief have induced people to go to such a distance from the centre of civilisation to accept such contumely and to undergo such sacrifices and such toil? Gentlemen were in error in supposing that no other purpose than unbridled indulgence in gross animal sensualism carried the Mormons, through privation and labor, to Utah. If such alone had been their purpose, they might perhaps have achieved it at less cost, less effort, and less unpleasant notoriety, without crossing the Mississippi River. The tree of degraded sensuality did not bear fruits of thrift, industry, and temperance. He did not intend to apologize for the unlawful acts of the Mormons; but he desired the House to understand what it would undertake in passing this bill. If its provisions were attempted to be enforced there would be war. He appealed to the judgment of the gentleman, and to that history which is [philosophy] teaching by example, whether it was not probable that a people who believed in their religion as deeply as the Mormons did would not fight and die, if need be, in the effort to preserve it from annihilation. Being so determined, was it to be expected that they would postpone hostilities until the first company of the 40,000 troops provided for in the bill could reach the very borders of Utah? They would regard the passage of the bill as a declaration of war, and would hasten to fortify and provision and arm themselves. They could maintain a contest for months, perhaps for years, with their facilities for organization; they could destroy hundreds of miles of the great overland railroad in a week. Of course they would be conquered at the end, because they could be exterminated, but it would cost millions upon millions of treasure, and thousands upon thousands of lives; and it would cost the interruption of that travel which was permanently growing in importance, and which promised, if undisturbed, to fulfil the dream of Columbus, and to make America a new highway to the Indies. The suppression of polygamy would therefore, in his judgment, be purchased at too great a cost. The case of the Mormons was that of a handful of men and women governing themselves in their own way, and making of their method, with one odious exception, an undoubted success. They might look in vain elsewhere than in Utah for cities without a brothel or gaming-house. Mr. Fitch proceeded to depict the misfortunes which would be inflicted, even on the women of Utah, by depriving them of even the semblance of marriage, which now protects them, and concluded with a strong protest against the passage of the bill. He was listened to throughout with marked attention, and his peroration was applauded.

Mr. Sargent (Rad., Cal.) followed in opposition to the bill, which, if enforced, would be most deleterious to the people of California, as the first movement, of the Mormons would be to tear up hundreds of miles of the Pacific Railroad. He indorsed generally the views expressed by Mr. Fitch....

---

The Nevada Territorial Enterprise, J. T. Goodman, proprietor, denounces THE WORLD for thinking Cullom's polygamy bill means war and increase of the national debt. It says: "Mormon gold is doubtless being freely used to prevent its passage. The article in The World shows where some of it has been employed." True, good man, true; but how could you disclose our terrible depravity? Was it not enough that H. G[reeley] let people know about Commissioner Wells and his "British gold?"


Notes: (forthcoming)

MR. FITCH, OF NEVADA, in the course of an able speech in the House on the subject of the bill abolishing polygamy in Utah, Friday, asked the very pertinent question, What should we gain by exterminating the Mormons? What, indeed? Of course, we all disapprove of polygamy in Utah where it exists without the sanction of Messrs. Beecher and Frothingham; but is it worthwhile to incur the enormous expense of a war for the sake of its violent abolition? Shall we really gain anything by driving out an industrious though polygamous community, and giving up Salt Lake City to the savage and polygamous Indians? Is a community of civilized polygamists so very much worse than a nation of barbarous pagans? The proposal to carry out this great moral idea is especially ill-timed just at present, when female suffrage has been established in the Territory. Suppose we wait until the Mormon women have had an opportunity to vote on the question of the abolition of polygamy. If the institution is as hateful to the women as the Tribune correspondent asserts, they will soon suppress it without the aid of the army.

---

It is said that the polygamic branch of the Mormon establishment is to be removed to Arizona; the elder members of the arm who have but one sleeping partner apiece to conduct the business at the old stand in Utah.


Notes: (forthcoming)

FORTY-FIRST  CONGRESS.
_____

SECOND  SESSION.

Washington, March 22.          

.....

House  of  Representatives.

The  SUTRO  TUNNEL.

The House proceeded in tbe morning hour to the consideration of the report made last Thursday from the Committee on Mining, adversely to the bill introduced by Mr. Fitch, explanatory of the act of July 25,1866, relating to the Sutro Tunnel. The bill proposed that the third section of the act in question shall not be construed so as to impose an obligation on any person, company, or corporation, owning claims or mines on the Comstock lode, to contribute or pay to the owners of the Sutro Tunnel any charges except as per agreement made, or to be made, nor to relieve the owners of the tunnel from the performance of any of the conditions in such agreements, or from any of the consequences usually attaching to a failure to perform such conditions.

Mr. Fitch (Rad,. Nev.) addressed the House in explanation and advocacy of the bill. He characterized Sutro's demand on the mining companies as being, under the circumstances, monstrous and iniquitous.

He wanted to know why these companies should be compelled to pay millions of dollars to a plausible and pertenacious adventurer on account of his scientific attainments as a Congressional manipulator. When fraud crept into an act of Congress, he was an audacious man who claimed a vested right in the fruits of his own deceit and robbery, and who demanded tbat Congress should not repeal a law obtained by fraud.

Mr. Voorhees (Dem., Ind.) asked Mr. Fitch if the facts were not about these: Were not the miners on the Comstock lode under a contract with Sutro by which he was to commence a tunnel by the 1st of August, 1867, and that without their knowledge he obtained a law of Congress which extended indefinitely the time for commencing and completing the work, and which imposed on them the necessity of taking their grants from the government to these mining lands, subject to a royalty of $2 on every ton of ore, running indefinitely to the future?

Mr. Fitch replied that those were the facts.

Mr. Van Trump (Dem., O.) inquired whether the question was not one of damages to be decided by the courts?

Mr. Voorhees replied that it was a question for Congress, whose duty it was to repeal the law which abrogated contracts between those miners and Sutro.

Mr. Beck (Dem., Ky ) inquired whether those miners could not take title to their claims without being subject to that royalty.

Mr. Voorhees replied that they could not.

Mr. Beck further inquired whether these miners had acquired title to their lands before the act was passed.

Mr. Voorhees -- Undoubtedly they did.

Mr. Dickey (Rad., Pa.) asked what right those miners had? Were they not squatters?

Mr. Sargent (Rad., Cal.) replied that they had the same rights which settlers had under the homestead laws.

Mr. Ferris (Rad., N. Y.), Chairman of the Committee on Mining, and who had made the adverse report on the bill, said that up to the passage of the Sutro Tunnel act, there was no law on the statute book which gave a right to a single foot of mining lands, except under Mexican titles in California. All the title that miners had was a mere license, or privilege granted by the government.

The morning hour expired while Mr. Ferris was speaking, and the matter went over until the next morning hour...

POLYGAMY  IN  UTAH.

The House then proceeded to the consideration of the the Utah Polygamy bill, which had been a special oeder for this day over all other raises and orders.

Mr. Ward (Rad., N. Y.) a member of the Committee on Territories, which reported the bill, addressed the House in support of it. Alluding to the speech made against the bill by Mr. Fitch about a month since, he said that he could not imagine how any msn could stand on the floor of the House and in the face of the country in the last half of the nineteenth century, and have the effrontery to defend the Mormons. He had expected indirect assaults on the bill: He had expected the representatives of the Pacific Railroad to work against it as likely to endanger their property, and he had expected the Bohemians of the press, urged on by considerations which, perhaps, they best understood, to attack members of the committee, as had been done in a prominent Chicago paper. There were in Utah a hundred thousand people with millions of property, backed up by religious fanaticism, in the hands of an unscrupulous demagogue on whose skirts hung all the crimes in tbe catalogue, from insignificant stealing up to monstrous murder. He had expected that that brigand chief would struggle desparstely to maintainhis empire. The Committee now proposed to submit the question to the American Congress whether the institution of polygamy should longer continue and should ride rough-shod over the laws, or whether, in obedience to the dictates of the age and civilization, the monster should be taken by the throat and crushed out. The Committee expected to have a vote on the question, and expected to put gentlemen on their record. Proceeding to give a sketch of the growth of the Mormon community, he described Joe Smith as a vagabond, drunkard, and thief, who, forty years ago in Western New York, got around him a little crew of thirty persons in Seneca County, and instituted the religion of the "Latter-Day Saints."' He spoke of Brigham Young as having become disgunted with the honorable occupation of digging potatoes and joined the Mormons, and become their chief after the death of Joe Smith, falling readily into the doctrine that polygamy was a part of the religion of the Mormons. He spoke of the Mormon religion and of their various migrations and their system of missions all over the world, by which they had increased from 4,000 [sic - 40,000?] people in 1867 to over a hundred thousand now, and he expressed the apprehension that persons connected with the Pacific Railroad, and persons living in adjacent States and Territories, were becoming debauched by their contiguity to Utah.

Mr. Schenk (Rad., O.) was inclined to believe that the advance of the lines of railways and of the telegraph, and the progress of the tide of emigration, carrying with it all the influences of Christian civilization, would be more effective than all the enactments of Congress to accomplish the object in view. It seemed to him, at any rate, that it would be necessary to prune the bill of some of its provisions for test oaths, confiscation, and war, so as to make it what it should be. He proposed to move its postponement.

Mr. Butler (Rad., Mass.) expressed the hope that the subject would be finally disposed of without further postponement. If it were now laid aside that fact would be taken in Utah as an evidence that the Governor recently sent there by the President would not be sustained in an endeavor to enforce the laws of the United States. If Congress was ever going to deal with the question of polygamy in Utah it should do so at once. He thought that the sentiment of the people was enlisted in favor of this measure more than any other before the House. He therefore suggested that the discussion should go on with short speeches, and the bill be voted on to-day or to-morrow and sent to the Senate.

Mr. Schenk moved the postponement of the bill for three weeks....


Note: For the texts of the speeches of Hamilton Ward and Charles Pomeroy (given in the House on March 22nd, in answer to Tom Fitch) see their respective 1870 "Polygamy in Utah" pamphlets.

CONGRESS  AND  THE  MORMONS.
_______

Great Excitement in Salt Lake City Over
the News of the Passage of the Cullom
Bill -- Meeting in Opposition --
Gentiles to the Rescue --
The Difficulties of
the Situation.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Salt Lake City, March 27.        

The news of the passage of the Cullom bill through the House on Wednesday was at first received with doubt, and made but a slight impression upon the people. The news since confirmed and the bill published in the local papers have awoke everybody, and the expression everywhere is that of alarm for the future. A few of the Mormons who associate more or less in Gentile circles were not surprised at the passage of the bill, for it had been so often the subject of conversation that the news was by them already anticipated; but the mass of the Mormons, the leaders included, seem to have had no idea that the bill would ever pass. There is still hope that the Senate will greatly modify it; but, should it not be modified and pass on to the statutes as it is, I cannot see the possibility of avoiding a conflict.

THE  GENTILES  MOVING  IN  BEHALF  OF  THE  MORMONS.

A large number of influential Gentiles -- merchants, lawyers, and Federal officers -- met in the Masonic Hall last evening to agree upon some united action in which they could represent to the Senate the terrible effects of the enforcement of certain sections of the Cullom bill -- sections that are deemed unjust and of a persecutory spirit, which would force the mass or the people into rebellion. Some of the influential Mormons were invited to be present, and gave their views on the subject. A dozen gentlemen spoke calmly and deliberately, viewing the question as fraught with dangerous elements, threatening the entire uprooting of the Mormon colonies in the Rocky Mountains. The Mormons who spoke were themselves nearly all free from the effects of the bill, as some of them were monogamists, others were polygamists before the first anti-polygamic act of '62, and had not added to their families other wives since that period; another occupied the position of being ''a monogamist again." Only one had anything to apprehend, but he manfully avowed his position -- he had done it as thousands of others had done it, from the sense of sacred duty, as a feature of his religious faith. Nearly all the Mormon speakers avowed their satisfaction with the bill prohibiting the practice of polygamy hereafter, and were willing that they and all others violating the law hereafter should meet the fines and penalties imposed in the Cullom bill; but not a soul of them would yield to the demand of section 13:

And be it further enacted, That any man in said Territory who shall, alter this act goes into effect, live or cohabit with one woman or mere other than his lawful wife, as his wife or wives, sbsll be adjudged guilty of the crime of concubinage, and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, and by imprisonment in the penitentiary at hard labor not exceeding five years, and in all prosecutions for the violation of this section the alleged concubines of the accused shall be competent witnesses to establish or disprove the charge.

THE  DIFFICULTIES  OF  THE  SITUATION.

The Christian missionary who instructed the Feejee convert that he should have only one wife was rather astonished to learn from the lips of his neophyte that to overcome the difficulty of the situation he had modestly cut up his extra wives and consumed them for breakfast, dinner, and supper, and now he was happy. The Feejeeian got through his difficulty easily, for his digestive organs were excellent, and the use of human flesh was not debarred by either habit or conscience. But what is the Mormon to do with his extra wives and children? He has not the advantages and conveniences of the islander's situation.

FORTY  THOUSAND  TROOPS  WILL  BE  WANTED.

The original Cullom bill called for 40,000 troops to enforce it. On Wednesday this section was stricken out as unnecessary; or was it to satisfy the members opposed to the Cullom bill, who regarded it as a war measure? Whatever the purpose of withdrawing the section providing for troops, nothing is more certain than that they shall be wanted if the bill, as it now is, passes the Senate.

The difficulty of dealing with this practice of plural wives has been acknowledged by every member of Congress and politician that I ever listened to, during his visit to this city, to be the enforcement of any law touching the past, without being injurious to the innocent women and children. The Cullom bill Is supported on the assumption that polygamy degrades and oppresses woman, and that it is the Christian nation's duty to come to her aid, and to forbid its practice. Grant all that pretension to be genuine, and grant, also, that Congress has the constitutional right to settle this feature of the Mormon faith and say that it shall not exist any longer; has Congress weighed the responsibility of separating these women from their husbands, and with them their hosts of children? Have they pictured to themselves the condition of these women? Branded concubines, and their children bastards!

The speakers last evening -- and the most eloquent of them were Gentiles -- while they acknowledged the propriety, yea, the desirability, of arresting the further progress of polygamy, were unanimous in their protests against this wholesale widowing of the women of Utah and the bastardizing of their children. To make the Cullom bill in this feature a success, a grand standing army for Utah is required hereafter.

THE  WOMEN  WON'T  LEAVE  THEIR  HUSBANDS.

No one here believes that any respectable man will put away his family. The people will sooner consent to be sacrificed together than to break up and scatter their families. Did the women want to be separated from tyrant lords, the matter would be easily reached; but the trouble is they don't want to leave them. Within the past two months no less than 2,000 feminine names of maids and matrons have been subscribed to petitions against the Cullom bill, declaring, in many cases, that they would sooner go to the penitentiary with their husbands than to be separated from them. There is nothing surprising in all this, unnatural as it may seem to others. To them Mormonism is true, and the revelation of polygamy is divine. The people have been preached to and taught in this manner till their heads are full of it. How is it that the Gentiles believe otherwise? Simply because their education has been of another stripe. The people of Utah need a flood of literature, and not an army with bayonets.

THE  RESULT.

Let the courts begin their work; let the polygamist be disfranchised and disinherited of his lands; when will that work come to an end? There is no end to it. These Mormons will not defiantly tell your army to come on, but they will go on at their usual business, and throw the onus of proof and prosecution on the prosecuting attorney; and a sweet time that gentleman will have. Will they be scared by someone's imprisonment? No; not a bit of it. Zeal, or fanaticism, if you will, is a luxuriant plant. The first intimation of a brother being a prisoner will commence the

EPIDEMIC  FOR  MARTYRDOM.

No forbidden bed-chamber will be tenantless after that. They will "glory in persecution" and "take joyfully the despoiling of their goods." Utah has been for a long time dull, but there is now prospectively a lively time.

---

The Gentile Meeting to Protest against the Bill --
Speeches by Representative Mormons -- They
are Willing to Abandon Polygamy, but not
their Wives or their Children.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Salt Lake City, March 27.        

A meeting of Gentiles opposed to those sections of the Cullom bill which divorces all Mormon wives (except the first wife) from their husbands, and makes the continuance of the family relation or support of the wife a felony, was held in Masonic Hall last evening. The attendance was very large. Mr. Kelsey, a prominent Mormon and a New Movement Apostle, was called upon to explain the position of the Mormon people. He said that as an individual he did not feel like asking Congress to annul the bill altogether; he did not desire to do so, and his respect for Congress and the feelings of the nation at large would not permit him so to do. He had been a Mormon for many years, and also a polygamist for twenty-four years. He would ask no more from the government for himself and for the people of Utah than for any other people of another sect or creed. Congress had certainly encouraged the idea possessed by the people of Utah, that they (the people here) really did run the machine (govern the Territory), and that they had a right in these mountains to make such laws as seemed good to them. Congress had left the people for fifteen years without any legislation on the peculiar institution practised by the Mormons as a religious duty, and for the first eight years after their arrival in this Territory, Congress appointed and sustained President Young as the Governor of the Territory, under the organic act, reserving the right to Congress to annul any or all of the acts of the Territory of Utah; yet they did not annul one single measure, but suffered every act to become law and permitted it to stand upon the statutes. In the passage of the bill of 1862 Congress, by not enforcing the bill, aided the authorities here in impressing upon the people here the belief that it was not constitutional and that Congress had no right to interfere with polygamy, seeing it was a religious institution; and thus the people had, for twenty-five years, been educated in the idea that it was their right to practise such social customs as they saw fit, providing they did not infringe on the liberties of any other people. These were the ideas that he (Kelsey) had; and he entered into polygamy as honestly, and with as pure motives, as any man ever entered into monogamic relations. His wives had done the same thing; and he had become the father of many children in polygamy; and his polygamic ties were just as dear to him as those of any monogamist. He felt that he would be willing to accord to any other people, under similar circumstances, what they now desired of Congress -- to let bygones be bygones, holding no man subject to the pains and penalties of the sin for having entered into polygamy previous to its passage. As an individual, he did not feel it his privilege, right, nor duty towards God to enter into new polygamic relations in the face and protest of forty millions of his fellow citizens; and his respect for his country and her laws would forbid his seeking to enforce upon the people of the United States his peculiar notions on any subject. He felt to forego his own ideas upon that or other subjects, and to honor the laws of his country in time to come, that is, any law that might be passed in regard to polygamy. But he did not feel willing to repudiate his wives and bastardize his children; and he would not do it. He had always been loyal to his country, believed it was bred in his bones, and he never entered into polygamy with a desire or intention to defy the laws of the land. He had the idea that, constitutionally, they had the right to ordain such rules and regulations for their social government or family relations as seemed to them good, their views being based on religious convictions, and not interfering with the rights or privileges of any other people. Under these circumstances, he felt it no more than the duty of Congress to help to repeal their own errors, as well as those of the people of Utah, by being lenient and considerate in the present bill. He said he was convinced in his own mind that it was not so much polygamy that the nation was against as the presumed disloyalty of the people or Utah. But he could say in behalf of the people here, that they are by instinct and nature loyal. He believed in the revelations of God given to Joseph Smith, which state that the founders of this great republic were inspired of Heaven, and in that light he was loyal from religious faith, as well as by nature. His forefathers had inhabited this country ever since 1627; he was therefore an American by birth, and he never would sanction nor second any effort calculated to sap the foundation of this great republic, or that would cast reflections upon it, and he never would in time to come refuse to recognize its authority. Still he felt that his country ought not to disfranchise him and rob him of all the privileges of citizenship, and break up his family relations that were not made in violation of any law of the Territory. He held that the bill was an ex post facto measure, so far as it interferes with family relations formed years before the Cullom bill was ever thought of. He asked Congress not to go beyond the date of the bill, but as far as future violations were concerned, they might increase the penalties thereof just as much as they pleased, and he would say "Amen" to it.

The chairman thought the statement made by Mr. Kelsey was full and complete, and he felt to allow a full expression of sentiment from all those who wished to speak. Mr. Harrison, Mr. Gordon, Mr. Stenhouse, and Mr. Shearman, all Mormons, and representing both branches of the faith, followed, indorsing Mr. Kelsey's views.

AN  EDITOR'S  VIEWS.

Mr. Tullidge, author, and associate editor of the Mormon Tribune, said that their duty was plain -- was comprised in a nutshell -- to obey every law. Talking of resistance to the government, to him it seemed not only extravagance but wrong in principle. They saw that polygamy was wrong; the sense of civilization was shocked at it, because it lowered the status of woman and was against the ideas of the age. They should ask the nation, for humanity's sake, not to martyr the women of the present as the women of the past had been martyred. It would not be the men, in spite of their having many wives, but it would be the poor women, who would be called upon to suffer. He thought that every man, Jew and Gentile, should say to the nation, ''Respect, for humanity's sake, the martyred women who have gone into polygamy; women who would never have gone into it, only upon that severe law of conscience which sometimes compels fanatics to go even to the stake. They must obey the laws of the land in future, but let Congress be considerate, just, and merciful."

A  GENTILE  LAWYER.

Mr. Marshall, a Gentile lawyer, said that the resolution be found on the table was one which every official -- government or territorial -- should subscribe to and willingly sustain: it was one which he thought the cause of humanity demanded, and which every citizen of the United States ought to sustain. He had known and transacted business with many men who were Mormons and polygamists, who had gone into the practice of polygamy honestly and above-board, and they did not blush at what they had done, but stood avowedly polygamists before the world. They now came and asked them, Jews and Gentiles and officers of the United States, to plead with Congress that the polygamic law might not force them from their children, and cast on to the world their wives branded as prostitutes -- wives who were near and dear to them, and as much lawful wives to them as their first. Though he was as strongly opposed to polygamy as a man could be, and was to favor of the main features of the bill, he could not deny that it contained many harsh measures. He was in favor of leniency towards those who had entered into polygamy in the past from a sense of duty, and would give his name to any petition asking Congress to forgive past offences and to punish only future transgressors. If he stood alone and was the only Gentile who was willing to sign it, he was prepared to do so.

GENERAL  MAXWELL  DISSENTS.

General Maxwell expressed his unqualified disapproval of asking Congress for any snch leniency. He referred to the rebellion in the South, and seemed to think that some such measure was the only sure means of effectually putting a stop to polygamy. He denied the assertion that the country had winked at the practice of polygamy, and said that, at the time referred to, all the efforts of the nation were employed in the suppression of the rebellion, and it was not in its power to enforce the law of 1862. He should positively refuse to sign any measure of the kind suggested.

A  GENTILE  COMMTTEE.

Several other gentlemen expressed their views on the propriety of petitioning the Senate for modifications of the bill, after which a motion was made that a committee of seven gentlemen be appointed, which, after some discussion, resulted in the selection of Messrs. G. R. Walker, merchant; J. M. Carter, lawyer; Colonel Kahn, merchant; Warren Hussey, banker; Thomas Marshall, attorney; O. J. Hollister, Collector of Internal Revenue; R. H. Robertson, attorney.

The committee will draft a memorial and forward it by telegraph to the President of the Senate.

This action on the part of this Gentile committee is very favorably regarded, though the orthodox Mormons fall back on their dignity and keep aloof.


Notes: (forthcoming)

The Corinne Reporter posts the name of J. H. Beadle for Gentile delegate to Congress from Utah.


Notes: (forthcoming)

AMONG  THE  MORMONS.
_______

Orson Pratt and Dr. Newman --
Polygamy vs. Christianity.

Salt Lake City, August 11. --Yesterday Dr. Newman challenged Brigham Young to discuss the question: "Does the Bible sanction Polygamy?" Brigham declined for himself, but designated Orson Pratt to represent him in the debate.

FIFTY  THOUSAND  DOLLARS  A  DAY.

Five thousand pounds of silver bullion was the products of the flrst day's running of the New Reduction Works of Woodhull Brothers in this city.


Notes: (forthcoming)

SAINT  OR  SINNER?
_______

How a Reverend Doctor Obtained Cheap Notoriety.
_______

Advent of the Best Advertised Man in the
World at Salt Lake City -- Reception
by Brigham Young of the Chaplain
of the Senate -- Spicy
Correspondence.
_______

NEWMAN CONSENTS TO DEBATE WITH AN APOSTLE,
&c.,     &c.,     &c.
_____

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Salt Lake City, August 9.       

The agent of the Western Associated Press in Washington has kept the inhabitants of the Western States and Territories fully advised of the purpose of the Rev. Dr. Newman in coming to this city. The reverend gentleman was first represented as receiving a challenge to come here among the brethren and sisters to discuss the interesting subject of polygamy; next he accepts; then he goes into preparation; he advances admirably; his progress is encouraging. We are next told he had got half through with his work, he advances further, nears to a completion, and finally reaches the conclusion. His labor has reached the end of the first act. He is reported soon to start, the day gets fixed, and then he leaves the city of magnificent distances to reach our quiet and orderly city. As many despatches as these sentences indicate have all had currency in the daily press, and the Rev. Dr. J. P. Newman, of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Washington, D. C., has been the best advertised man that ever set his face towards the setting sun. With such facts before us, I conclude that The World should be furnished with his proceedings since his arrival in the City of the Saints and

HOW HE HAS BEEN RECEIVED BY BRIGHAM.

Dr. Newman when at home is chaplain of the Senate, a position of considerable honor, and not likely to be forgotten by the incumbent when travelling abroad. Arriving here on Friday evening last, early on Saturday morning he commences correspondence with "the Prophet of the Lord," just the same as an ordinary mortal.

Newman came to hold a debate, and without circumlocution he strikes out boldly, but not altogether correctly, and so "the Lion of the Lord" brings him to a sudden standstill. The doctor makes a second effort, gets somewhat saucy, and bequeaths to the chief of the prophets a little of his mind along with several quotations from a local newspaper. Brigham -- never to be outdone in courtesy when the article costs nothing to him and may cost much to the other fellow -- tenders him the use of the tabernacle on Sunday, and assures him of the "pleasure" they would all experience In listening to him. Newman had concluded that the chances of addressing the Mormons had suddenly disappeared, and that forever, so he had made arrangements with the Methodist parson here to lecture in their own hall against polygamy, and could not accept the offer of Brother Brigham. On the reception of this refusal the Prophet waxed wroth, and "sailed into" the chaplain with a gusto that suggested a revival of the palmy days when the roar of the lion made all the little quadrupeds of the forest prick up their ears. Brigham has lungs, and when he inflates them, even in dictating to his amauueses, he makes things tremble. I fancy I see him rounding up his shoulders to go for Newman.

The doctor is a religious man -- so is Brother Brigham. The letter delivered to the chaplain on Sunday morning received no attention till Monday morning, and thus we vibrated on Sunday between peace and war. By last evening the doctor had given the prophet a Roland for his Oliver, and the two had quit forever! All our hoies and expectations vanished: Washington and Salt Lake were still in friendship.

Last evening and this morning the Mormon papers made a fearful howl against the poor chaplain. His honors, as pastor to U. S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax, were insufficient, and he had come here to garland his brow with cheap ''notoriety." The meanest motives were ascribed to him, and the language in which it was couched was anything but heavenly. Zion's defenders were on the rampage. Several citizens came to the rescue and asked the reverend doctor to go out of his way and challenge Brigham, even after all that had transpired.

With this explanation, I submit the entire correspondence; It deserves a place In the pages of history... [copies of the exchanged correspondence follow]

By the time this reaches The World by mail, the telgraph will have announced that the discussion has taken place or it has not. The present expectation is that there will be four sessions for discussion. Pratt to occupy one session in the affirmative; Newman next day to take the negative, and occupy the entire session; the third day to Pratt, and the fourth day to Newman. In another letter I shall give a summary of the debate.

---

A  Specimen  of  Mormon  Incest.

(From the Virginia City Enterprise, August 2.)

A young man named McCall, a Scotchman by birth, and about 23 years of age who arrived in this city a few days since from Salt Lake, tells a curious story of his experience among the Mormons, which we give for what it is worth. He says that himself and sister became converts to the Mormon faith in Ireland, and that, with other converts picked up in England and Ireland, they were brought to Salt Lake. After living In Salt Lake a short time, his sister, being told that she must marry some one, took it into her head that she would like to marry him -- her own brother. He objected, and she went to Brigham about the matter, and was told that it was allowable for her to marry her brother. She now declared that she would marry no one else, and insisted upon her brother taking her as his wife. He now went to Brigham, believing his sister had not told him the truth, and was told that any man might marry any woman, the main thing being to increase and multiply. Finally the brother and sister were married after some Mormon form, and, after the ceremony, the brother, becoming horrified at what he had done, watched his chance and ran away without going home. Although this story appears too outrageous for belief, the young man (who is here looking for work in the mines) tells it for the truth. Some of the well authenticated marriages are bad enough, but this is a step beyond them all.


Note: See also the Corinne Utah Reporter of Dec. 25, 1869, which said: "It seems that the mothers and daughters marry the same man in Salt Lake City, also sisters rejoice in the same husband, and it is darkly whispered that sons have married their own mothers, the horrid crime being duly sanctioned by the Church...."

BRIGHAM  AND  NEWMAN.
_______

The Projected Debate on Polygamy a Failure --
Further Adventures of the Chaplain of the
Senate in Mormondom, &c., &c.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Salt Lake City, August 11.       

I sent you two days ago the correspondence between Dr. Newman and Brigham Young, in which the former signified his willingness to debate with the latter: "Does the Bible Sanction Polygamy?" That correspondence exhibited considerable cross purposes and a determination on both sides to submit to no disadvantage that could be set aside. It was the diplomacy of two men who felt that they had each a subtle if not a tricky foe to deal with. Had there been more friendliness it would have hurt neither of the gentlemen -- it would have been better; but as Newman regarded Brigham as a desperate man, and Brigham doubtless regarded Newman as an uncircumcised Philistine that had come up to do battle against the Lord's anointed, their ascerbity is easily comprehended and somewhat excusable.

At the closing of my former letter the two great men had come to an understanding. Brigham declined the controversy for himself, but named as a substitute either Orson Pratt or John Taylor, the apostles. Newman accepted the first as by far the most talented and versed on the subject, and very likely the man with the greatest number of wives, and therefore the more likely to make a splendid fight for the institution.

THE COMMITTEES OF THE PRINCIPALS MEET.

Dr. Newman chose for his representatives the Rev. Dr. B. Sunderland, Presbyterian clergyman, of Washington, D. C., and Dr. J. P. Taggart, the assessor of internal revenue. Brigham sent to meet them Prof. Albert Carrington, the last of the ordained apostles, and Elder Joseph W. Young, a nephew of the prophet, all of them exceedingly well matched. They met on the evening of their appointment, and from the first sentence that was uttered there was a clear fight commenced. The Mormon representatives were determined to have the proposition for debate entirely changed. Newman's challenge was to debate, "Does the Bible sanction Polygamy?" and the Mormon necessarily to take the affirmative; the representatives of Mr. Pratt demanded that the proposition should be: "Does the Bible Condemn Polygamy?" -- Newman to take the affirmative. They separated to sluep over it, and yesterday they commenced at 10 A. M., and continued in session till 11 P. M., fixing up the terms of agreement in the early part of the day, and bursting them up before they reached the hour before midnight.

As this proposed debate has caused such a stir, both East and West, I shall give to The World the documents in full. It was the hope of those interested in the progress of Utah that the debate should continue till all that either disputant could say should be heard. The influence of the proposed debate would not have been confined to those who heard it; all Mormondom, at home and in foreign nations, would have been affected by it. Besides, the next session of Congress could better understand the subject, comprehend the true sentiments of the people, and could have known better how to legislate for them, as I believe is the purpose next winter. At the present writing the whole thing seems a fizzle, and the disappointment great... [texts of exchanged letters follow]


Notes: (forthcoming)

Corinne, Utah, was recently startled into a state of alarm and scientific speculation by a rain -- the first it had seen in three months -- which, descending upon it, flooded it with water and lizards. Throughout the western part of the town they were found in countless numbers, and varying in length from two to eight inches. They seemed to be little else than the ghosts of lizards, however, for those which remained on the ground died and dried up in a short time, leaving little more than skin and skeleton. A local paper describes them as boneless -- in which case they could not have been lizards -- as having soft and "mushy" bodies, and being quite lively when placed in water, but dull and listless when on the ground. In color they were dull brown, with bright spots. The same paper says that the usual theory of such showers -- vis., that the rain brings the lizards from the ground -- will not apply in this instance, for they died in a few minutes when left on dry ground; the ground has been baked too hard by the recent heat and drought to let them live in it: and some of them were found in "Judge Spicer's" rain-barrel, into which they could not have crawled. Singularly enough, the savans of the town have no theory of their production and appearance.

---

An inspired Mormon proclaims that eating onions until one is sick is a certain preventive of small-pox. We should think so. After such a diet no one would come near enough to be experimenter to communicate the infection.


Note: The "shower of salamanders" occurred in Corinne on July 30th, but the location was later confused with Sacramento -- evidently due to an innacurate reprint of the original news item being published in the Sacramento Reporter. The "lizard" news was published in the Corinne Reporter of Aug. 6, 1870.

P O L Y G A M Y.
_______

The Patriarchal Institution as Viewed
from a Mormon Standpoint.
_______

ANCIENT  COVENANTS  AND  MODERN  REVELATIONS.
_______

Mysteries of Celestial Marriage.
_______

THE  GATES  WIDE  OPEN.
_______

A View of the Heaven of the Latter-Day Saints,
&c., &c., &c.
_______

FIRST  PAPER.
BY  A  MORMON  ELDER.

Notwithstanding all that has been written upon the subject of Mormon polygamy, only a very few of its cardinal points have been touched, and scarcely a practical view of the solution given. The reason of this is evidently because "Gentile" correspondents and magazine writers have aimed chiefly at sensational exposes, and, moreover, knew but little of the inner views of the "celestial order" as the Saints understand it in the integrity of their faith. Even Dr. Newman's essays and discussions will amount to nothing, and explain nothing in the case of practical value, either to the Mormons or the Gentiles. Nor do our apostolic theologians, such as Orson Pratt and John Taylor, much better render their subject to the popular understanding; for they deal almost exclusively with patriarchal disputations, which none but the disciples of the ''peculiar institution" can appreciate. I therefore design a compendium of the chief views and points of Mormon polygamy, in strict harmony with Mormon conceptions, but rendered by the author rather than by the enthusiastic disciple.

POLYGAMY BUT AN OFFSPRING.

One of the crude notions in the popular mind is that polygamy and Mormondom are substantially one and there are many who have no clearer conceptions of the case than that Mormonism has flourished in the world out of polygamic inducements. Now, almost the reverse of this is the case. Mormondom existed long before polygamy was instituted; the ''Book of Mormon" was twenty years old when the new revelation of the celestial order of marriage was given to Joseph Smith, only just prior to his martyrdom; and the peculiar institution was not published in Great Britain until fifteen years after the opening of its mission, and eight after Brigham Young succeeded to the leadership of the church. Moreover, the Saints have not increased in numbers since that period; for, when polygamy was publicly declared in Great Britain, the Saints boasted that they were 300,000 strong, and they are certainly not more than that to-day. Mormondom, then, has not flourished out of polygamy, but may be said to have grown up to the monogamic period of the new dispensation, though it has been certainly matured and celestialized in the polygamic period. Mormondom is thus shown to be an entirety, without respect to either the one wife system or the many wife system.

PATRIARCHAL COVENANTS.

Mormonism has essentially a patriarchal genius. It was born Abrahamic, and since the day that Brigham Young played the Moses and led his Israel out of their Egypt it has been also Mosaic. To Joseph and Brigham and their people all the covenants made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were renewed, and in them confirmed for the "consummation of all things." To them pertained the promise, confirmed by a new oath and “the new and everlasting covenant" that "in thee and thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;" and ''I will make thee as numerous as the stars in the firmament of heaven, and as the sand upon the sea shore." This was the new revelation to Joseph smith and the Saints from the beginning. What wonder, then, seeing that they inherited the covenants made to Abraham, that they should seek to "do the works of Abraham" the father of the Faithful, whose children they arrogated to themselves to be? Moreover, all the Mormons became infatuated with the design to ''restore all things" of Divine order belonging to the various dispensations, but which had been "lost to the world through apostacy" and it was with them atone time quite a matter for future determination how much or how little of the Mosaic economy ought to be restored in "this the dispensation of the fulness of times." Moses, however, could be taken ad-vantage of and treated with some liberty, because the scriptures told them that he instituted the "law of carnal commandments" which neither themselves nor their "fathers could bear." The Saints considered themselves to be the children of those fathers, though exactly how to work out the sacred parentage I do not know. The institutions of Moses, then, could be set aside if found in the way, for Mormon Apostles are too sagacious and practical in their turn of mind to take upon their shoulders that which they cannot bear. But the patriaichs, Abraham and Jacob, had to be treated with exactness; for, according to Mormon theology, unto Abraham the fulness of the Gospel was revealed, and polygamy was a part thereof. Indeed, the "plurality system" is properly denominated the "patriarchal order of marriage" and it means a great deal more to the Mormon mind than mere polygamy. It is an essential portion of the covenant made to Abraham, lsaac, and Jacob, and absolutely necessary for celestial glory hereafter. The patriarchal order of mar-riage had, therefore, to be restored in this, the crowning dispensation of all the ages. Abraham had two wives and Jacob four, so the Saints of the modern covenant must have at least as many wives; and when the view extended to David and Solomon, they multiplied wives vastly in the polygamic sum. This opening view of the institution exposes the germinations of the polygamic order, among the apostles of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. And here it may be observed, that though the Mormons might permit the institution to be superceded because of their own necessities, in meeting the demands of the age, yet polygamy was a natural offspring, Mormonism having essentially the patriarchal genius. Polygamy was born neither of Mormon vice nor Mormon virtue, but sprang up from the very germinations of their religion, and almost independent of the will of the people who have become so deeply involved in its system and complications. Indeed, to this very hour, Mormon polygamy is thus independent of the will of those who are in its toils, or those who believe in its theories and revelations. Even Brigham Young is mastered by these systems, and cannot change them; for the institutions of Mormondom are like the laws of the Medes and Persians. Nothing but a revelation extraordinary to suit the times could enable Brigham to abolish polygamy; and we shall presently discover abundant answers to the often repeated question, ''Will he receive that revelation at the last hour, if driven with his people to the wall by the legislation of Congress and the executive force of Grant?" To you ask President Young, as Mr. Colfax and others of the great officers of the State have done at various times, "Sir, what do you intend to do with your polygamy? You ought to know that the nation will not allow your people to practice the system any longer, for it is against both the sense and I will of the age; what, President Young, do you intend to do with polygamy?" You would be answered; "Nothing, sir. I intend to do nothing with polygamy; I can do nothing with it but observe its obligations in their integrity. The institution came not through me, but was given by revelation through Joseph Smith. I opposed it myself at first, and told Joseph that if anything could break up the church polygamy would. I submitted to it because it came from a power greater than my will or wisdom, and was given for my salvation. I am only one in this case, and cannot touch the order of celestial marriage to abolish it, any more than I can abolish baptism for the remission of sins. Vice-President Colfax, I shall simply do nothing with polygamy, and you may tell Congress and the nation so, if you please." This is substantially what President Young would say to every legislator in America, no matter how often such questions were put to him. He has answered thus in effect repeatedly. With all his potency of character and dominant will, Brigham is but as a child when he comes to his religion. His religion masters him, and it is the only thing that ever has or ever will master Brigham Young. He is at the feet of the institutions of his church, yet there is in the man such a supreme assumption of a divine mission in his life that he never takes any counsellor extraordinary but the Lord, whom he invites into his closet at his need. Perhaps, after all, Brigham Young is his own lord, but, if so, he knows it not, and in the case of the peculiar institution of patriarchcal marriage, he believes that the Lord sustains it, and will help him to carry it successfully through until it is established as the marriage institution for the Saints and the future. Nevertheless the question will still remain in the ''Gentile" mind -- which cannot appreciate the integrity of the institutions of our modern Israel. "Suppose Brigham and the Lord should be driven to the wall, and forced at last to own up that they cannot establish the patriarchal order on the American Continent, will they, between them, make up a timely revelation to abolish polygamy to save the church?" A "yes" or "no" will not give a satisfactory answer. The answer can only be found in harmonized expositions of the Mormons in their patriarchal relations.

THE AMERICAN FIRST WIVES.

Here we reach a view of Mormon polygamy that has scarcely been glanced at by any writer upon the subject. The women who first entered into the patriarchal order of marriage, by permitting their husbands to take more wives than themselves, were not daughters of the East nor of any land where the serfdom of the white woman could prevail. These first wives of the Mormon apostles and elders were nearly, to every woman, American born. They were, in the first place, of pure Saxon descent -- possessing, in the very constitution of their physique and metaphysics, all that stamina of character and love of equality and self-assertiveness belonging to the Anglo-Saxon race. Their parents were nearly all from England generations ago, and some of them could trace their line up to the Pilgrim Fathers. Many of them came from New England, and they had a most chaste monogamic training and every educational tendency, as well as instinctive desire to fight against polygamy. They were strongly Puritanic in their character and religious consistency of mind, and from intense religious natures were more disposed to that forceful religious life of the ancient Puritans and to the adoption of their strong and literal conceptions of religion than to the more modern laxity of faith and transcendentalism. Some of these first wives were also from the very best families of New England. The sister of a present Senator of Congress was one of the first women to enter into polygamy, and her son, if I mistake not, was the first child of the "celestial order." These are the women, then, who helped their husbands and lovers to establish polygamy. American women and wives dared the tremendous innovation of founding a new order of marriage relations for the American State Church (for such their "kingdom of God" is), and dared to found the patriarchal institution for the American nation. Had not these strong, earnest, Puritanic women taken polygamy into their religious faith and lives the "peculiar institution" would never have existed. It was these American women who established it, and not their husbands. Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and the apostles were powerless here, excepting in their priestly and prophetic character. As men and husbands, they are as smoked reeds, which could have been blown away by the breath of a woman's mouth. Without the sanction of these earnest religious women -- these female reformers of America -- and without their benediction, "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, bless our husbands, and the sisters whom we give unto them in the name and the fear of the Lord" polygamy to-day would not be troubling our statesmen and harassing our divines. And the last act of these female reformers is almost as extraordinary as that of founding the peculiar institution. They have now boldly asserted women's rights, and caused to be passed the Female Suffrage bill in the Legislature of Utah, and henceforth they will carry all the elections against the Gentiles and the seceders to which I belong; and if Congress and the nation meddle with their affairs, or dare to reject their delegate, then they will fight Congress and the nation with withering reproaches and fiery scorn. Now let Congress dare to touch the political rights of these American women, granted to them by their polygamic lords in the Utah Legislature, and America will hear such petitions, protests, and declarations as she heard in the days of Washington when her sons struck for liberty and rights against Great Britain and King George. It was then her sons, but now it would be her daughters in a grand revolution for the inalienable rights of both man and woman. It was these female reformers who also a few months back held their grand mass-meeting of the sisters exclusively, at which there were present in the great Tabernacle nearly ten thousand women, to protest to the nation against the Cullom bill, and to boldly assert the woman's exclusive right to choose her marriage institution, be it monogamic or polygamic. These very women, who gathered at that mass-meeting to protect polygamy, in the first place established it, and now they will defeat all the enemies of Brigham and celestial marriage by their political vote. They and their daughters after them will, by their female suffrage bill, control the destiny of Utah for the next quarter of a century, and they will maintain polygamy as long as they please in spite of Congress and the Cullom bill; and in spite of all the troops that might be sent to Utah to arrest their polygamic lords, or of the United States judges sent there to condemn and imprison them. Joseph Smith called these American women to his help to found the patriarchal order by the magic power of their matchless religious faith, and Brigham Young is now calling them to his help to preserve polygamy and protect himself and the apostles. They will be a bulwark which no hostile force will be able to break down. What Congress and what General Grant can vanquish such women as Mrs. Phoebe Woodruff, wife of Apostle Wilford Woodruff, who closed her bold speech at the great mass-meeting thus: "If you send our husbands and sons to a State prison for keeping the commandments of God, make your prisons large enough for us, their wives and mothers, for where they go we will go also!" It is such women as these who, like Phoebe Woodruff, were almost brought to the grave in "wrestling with the Lord" (to use her own words to me) against polygamy, who afterwards established the celestial order with their devotion and blessing crowning it, and now, with the same devotion and matchless fidelity, they thus boldly defend their husbands and the great cause of their lives. To continue his wonderful career, to multiply his social victories in the nation, arid to make Mormon institutions supreme in Utah, Brigham has given these American first wives of the polygamic order their political rights. It is Brigham's master stroke of policy. Who could have thought that a Cullom bill, which was designed to disfranchise all the polygamic men, should enfranchise all the polygamic women? He only could have thought it who can trace Brigham Young's extraordinary methods and policies. Brigham Young can match all America with his policies, and no earthly power can stand against him. And he has with him now, endowed with political rights, these American first wives who did a more wonderful thing than Brigham Young himself, when they laid the chief corner stones of the patriarchal order.

THE CELESTIAL LAW.

What, then, has subdued these strong women of the Anglo-Saxon race, of the old American stock, of good families; and what led them to crucify their natures and establish polygamic relations, against which women instinctively revolt? A celestial law, and a new revelation; nothing less could have effected such a revolution among these American wives. And even granting that this celestial law is not good, or applicable to human society, still to these earnest, religious women who have accepted its revelation as divine the case is all the same. They are by their patriarchal relations connected with the ''eternities" and in the grand marriage order of the celestials. It is very doubtful whether Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and the apostles would have succeeded had they sought to apply polygamy to the church as a terrestrial order of social and marriage relations. Indeed, my polygamic brethren will allow me to affirm for them that had they attempted to apply polygamy to the church as a mere civil contract or simply as a sacred relation between the sexes, lasting only until death dissolved the earthly union, they would have failed altogether; and perhaps raised a revolt among these American first wives which would have shaken the Mormon Church to the ground. A law extraordinary, therefore, had to be sent down; the very institutions of the celestials alone had to be brought down to the aid of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, for, though prophets, they were but men; and yet in this case they had the work of archangels to perform. This celestial law is like the fore-shadowing of our immortality, and it has thrown around these apostolic American women potent spells, which have mastered them and chained them to an institution against which they were all at first strongly disposed to rebel. It would be in vain for me to say, even were I disposed to lie, that my Mormon sisters have not been martyred by polygamy. All the polygamic wives have borne the cross and worn the crown of thorns. They have been martyred daily by polygamy; and when I think of any American Congress passing a bill to thrice martyr them every day, I boil with passion and indignation at the barbaric outrage. It is said by some, "Let them take other husbands and their difficulties will all be settled." Fools, what do you know about their case! They went into polygamy not only because it was a celestial law, given by a new revelation, and a living prophet, but also because it came to them with imperative commands. They were conquered not only by the fascinations worked up in their mind by the entire revelation of Mormonism, and with their extraordinary views of the relations of the patriarchal order with the other life and the celestial sphere; but they were subdued to it by the prospect of salvation or damnation, according as they received or rejected the ''divine" order of marriage for the church. At one-and-twenty I rebelled against polygamy in England, just as now I have rebelled against the absolute rule of a theocracy, and yet these strict laws and patriarchal obligations conquered my will and judgment so much that I gave my only and beloved sisters into the toils of polygamy, and have now the sense of knowing that no power of mine could redeem them from the institution, however much I might desire such a consummation. It is much the example of the entire Mormon people. They are in the chains of heaven, if polygamy be divine, and no human power can deliver them.

A VIEW OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.

The Mormons all take that view, and on earth enter into the order of the celestials above. It is, therefore, a practical and not a speculative matter; and did legislators know of the long line of celestial relations into which the ''saints" have entered, they would not be so impolitic as to legislate to put down the kingdom of heaven. Now, the celestial world is altogether a patriarchal world, under a patriarchal government, at the head of which is Father Adam and Mother Eve. It is made up of the families of the faithful, all linked together in their endless lines and countless branches. Every person of thought and observation whose mind has been directed to the subject, knows that the Mormons are matchless for their priestly and social organizations on earth. The same genius observed in this, and which is so eminently characteristic of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, may be observed in their conceptions of heaven and celestial exaltation. They have mapped out their glory and put the kingdom of heaven under the most complete organization, of which the ''Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" with its patriarchal and polygamic institutions is but the shadow on earth. Heaven is a literal subject with the Mormons, and not a glorified ideality; hence they enter into its order here, with but very little reference to the Gen-tiles, or care whether or not they offend the will of the nation, or come in contact with the sense of the age. In looking upon patriarchal and polygamic Mormondom, with Brigham Young at its head (according to the view of the saints), you catch a glimpse of the celestial world above, with Adam and Eve at its head. It is a polygamic world How stands the matter with our first parents? Brigham answers: "Our father Adam, before the fall, was an immortal who came from a celestial world, and he brought with him Eve, 'one of his wives!'" It is Mormon theology. To doubt this polygamic beginning of the race would practically amount to nothing in our view of the saints and their peculiar institutions. Adam, then, is at the head of the celestials, with Eve as first wife and queen; and she has given many wives to her husband. Adam may be supposed as a grand patriarch, very much the prototype of Brigham Young, only in a sphere above, with ages of development upon his head. Brigham Young patterns after this grand patriarch, according to his own conceptions, and he has in solemn thunders from his Mount Sinai revealed to the age that Adam is our father and god. And certainly he must be, if the Mormon conception of the celestial kingdom be correct, and whether correct or not, they embody their conceptions in social and religious facts of the age, and establish them on this continent in the heart of our republic. Adam's celestial kingdom Brigham is setting up in Utah, but he has been more successful in instituting the order of celestial marriage than he has in forming the links of the celestial patriarchal government. But evidently this is not specially Brigham's part of the work, to link the fathers to the sons, and mothers to the daughters in one vast patriarchal kingdom, reaching back to Adam's days. But when the faithful saint passes away from this life, and rises to the celestial sphere, he will find Adam the great father of mortals, standing at the head of the world of immortals of celestial order. The grand patriarch of our race had linked to him all the most illustrious sons of his celestial line, from their seven dispensations (for this is the seventh), and from ''all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people." Foremost among these are Abel, Seth, Enoch, Noah, Shem, Melchesedeck, and others of the first ages. Then we come to the defined and chosen line, and meet polygamic Abraham, the Father of the Faithful, in whose seed all the nations of the earth were to be blessed. To him is linked Isaac, Jacob, and the Twelve Patriarchs, who are typed by the Mormon Twelve Apostles. After these come Moses, Samuel, Elijah, and the rest of the prophets, with David the Beloved, and Solomon the Wise. Crowning these dispensations of the ancients is the dispensation of Christ and his Apostles. Jesus is the divinest son of Adam, begotten by the power of the Father, and he is the Redeemer of the world, having been predestinated to save and exalt the world, which his grand patriarch began to create in bringing forth the race of man after the fall. Jesus takes the whole of humanity into the celestial order, the Gentiles as well as the house Israel, and through him all the patriarchs can bring down and send up their family lines. Let the imaginative reader call up all the great and good among the ancients and among all nations, kindred tongues and ages -- spirits of the illustrious dead, whose names have been preserved, and millions more whose names are not known on earth to-day, but who are known in heaven -- and we will call those great spirits pillars of the celestial kingdom and chief links of an endless patriarchal line. Now, Seth and Shem and Melchesedeck and Abraham, and Jacob and the rest of the grand patriarchs, all link their families in their hundreds of generations and their innumerable branches, the same as they have been linked to Adam. Of course the fathers can only seal in the celestial order the noblest of their sons, but they also make provisions for their less noble sons in the ''lesser glories" in which the Mormons believe. These celestial fathers (of the order of Brigham and his apostles) will not permit any of their children to be lost, and out of this extraordinary Mormon conception has grown the equally extraordinary doctrine of the "shedding of blood for the remission of sins." The fathers and the apostles would sooner follow their children or their disciples to the grave than see them apostatize from their celestial covenant. Here, then, is a view of heaven on the male side -- millions upon millions in an endless line of the fathers and sons linked together, literally fulfilling the covenant to Abraham -- "Thy seed shall be as the sand upon the sea-shore" which is only realized by a view of Abraham and his endless family in the celestial world. But there are the mothers and the daughters, and they are also in the everlasting family chain, and they are linked to their husbands by an eternal patriarchal marriage, and just at this point of the view polygamy in heaven comes in; and it is also just here that it comes practically into the Mormon's life in the celestial marriage on earth. It is doubtful if Dr. Newman and Congress will be able to cure the Mormons until they take their in-sane patriarchal theology out of their heads. Mother Eve leads her daughters in the patriarchal line, and Adam has succeeded in getting himself and Eve linked to enough polygamy. They have done it between them, either by Adam bringing the rest of his wives, which Brigham tells us he had when he came into the Garden of Eden to begin his race of man, or else he has accomplished it by commanding some of his great sons, such as Enoch and Abraham, to stand proxy for him, the same as Brigham Young has stood proxy for Joseph Smith. Or perhaps he has come several times in some mysterious way, as he did to the Virgin Mary, who conceived by his power and brought forth a son unto him whose name was Jesus. The Virgin Mary is Adam's wife, and not the wife of Joseph, and she stands to him from the birth of the Christ in the same relation of Eve his first wife. Eve and Mary are the mothers of gods and the mothers of worlds. Here is something of a Catholic conception of the Virgin Mary as the mother of God, and Mormon theology puts her at the head of a world -- as the female half of the dispensation of her son Jesus, in virtue of being the actual wife of Adam his father. The orders and mysteries of Mormonism are as incomprehensible as those of the Catholic Church, to all but the most learned of their priesthoods. But the Mormon is the boldest man of the two; and, being so eminently practical, he sweeps away much of the intangibility of the immaculate conception of Jesus, and makes the Virgin Mary the wife of God, and so Jesus becomes the ''Son of God" and the ''Son of Man." Adam, in his celestial power, came to Mary in the form of a man and did to her the duty of husband. Brigham, in making these revelations and commenting upon the old views of the conception by the Holy Ghost, tells the Christian world in very plain satire his objections to the Holy Ghost falling upon the sisters and giving them off-spring. Perhaps Brigham is most consistent, even as he is the most daring, in making the ''Virgin Mary" a wife, and crowning it all by getting her into polygamy with Eve, the first wife. He has thus matched all objections to the celestial order, derived from arguments that God created for Adam only one wife; Where then is Dr. Newman in the case? I will show presently how easily Mormon mysteries of the celestial order set aside (without condescending to argument) the learned divine's anti-polygamic essays, and also show some of his radical misconceptions of Orson Pratt's words, because he understood not the inner views of his opponent on celestial relations.

EVE AND MARY LINKING THEIR DAUGHTERS.

The curious reader will perceive that by thus committing Eve and Mary to polygamy Mormon theology makes the celestial world essentially polygamic. There is in fact no monogomy in the world where God and Christ dwell; and, therefore, ''Gentile" sister, if ever you reach the heaven where Eve and Mary link the daughters of Adam and the daughters of Christ into their celestial order of life and glory, you will be brought into polygamic relations. "What a blasphemous belief!" you may exclaim. Perhaps it may be; but it is the belief of the Mormon sisterhood, and that is where the weight of the subject comes in. The Mormon women have entered into polygamy that they may enter into the kingdom of heaven, and that they may be where God and Christ are. And thus it may be seen polygamy is a very essential part of the Mormon religion, and it is no politic humbug when Brigham and the apostles reproach Congress for touching the sanctity of a religious economy and doing violence to the essential genius of the American Constitution. The Mormon elders are just as much under the obligations of ''patriarchal marriage" as their sisters are, for not one of them can enter into the kingdom of the Celestial Father Adam, and celestial mothers, Eve and Mary, and into the glory of the Christ, unless he takes upon himself the everlasting covenant of patriarchal marriage. To give a view of this grand linking of the celestial sons of Adam and Eve, and not to betray any mysteries of the temple and the kingdom, I will give a glimpse of the Mormon endowments -- such as Brigham himself might publicly give -- to illustrate his case. The earth-life is represented by Adam and Eye in the Garden of Eden, and each brother and sister, as he or she passes through the endowments, represent severally an Adam and an Eve. Then Peter, James, and John, who represent the Gospel and the celestial covenant, take the candidates for glory through their different degrees of endowments, until they reach the ''veil'' of the celestial world, where is the one representing the Lord. He receives the man through the veil which takes him from the mortal to the immortal side, but while he is yet on the mortal side, he has given to him the covenant and blessing of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with the promise of endless posterity. The High Priestess, whom we will suppose to be Mary, the mother of Jesus, has been, with other sisters of the High Priesthood, bring along the daughters of Eve to the veil with Peter, James, and John, and the sons of Adam. They receive the same blessings through the veil as the men, which represent God giving covenants to his children and bringing them into the family of Abraham, with the patriarchal blessing upon their heads. The men pass the veil first, and unto them come the women -- the wives -- whom they bring into the celestial order with them; and then at the altar and in the patriarchal and celestial state they are sealed together ''for time and for all eternity" and crowned, they and their posterity, with the everlasting blessings of celestial marriage. They are now in a polygamic covenant! And thus it will be seen that Mormon polygamy is something more than religion and marriage relations applied to earth, for it reaches into the celestial world and into the life hereafter. To the Saints, therefore, it is sacrilege, of the rudest kind, for Congress to legislate against their patriarchal institutions and hopes of endless relations with those they love -- aye, legislating away their heaven hereafter, for I have already said that the celestial heaven is a polygamic world where no monogamy reigns. It is true, "Saints" may be monogamic in this life, but no such Saint ever enters into the state of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has but a degree of celestial glory, for marriage is a degree; but if he has no wife he has no degree, and if the woman has no husband she has no degree. Marriage then, to the Mormon mind, is a part of salvation, a part of Heaven, a part of God, a part of Christ, and every sound hearted brother and sister, no matter whether of the orthodox or the heterodox sides, unite in asking Congress how it dares to legislate against their celestial marriage relations and against their salvation. That which I have shown of the celestial order on earth is but a type of that which is going on above. Heaven to the Mormon is very much a place where all the families of the faithful are linked into their endless lines and innumerable branches; and while Adam, the father, is gathering unto him, through Abraham, all the great of his posterity, and, through the Christ, bringing them into celestial glory, Eve and Mary are doing a similar work among their daughters of the race and the church; and they in heaven link the women into the grand patriarchal world by the covenant of marriage for all eternity. Here, then, we have an endless line of fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, all united for ever as husbands and wives in celestial glory. This constitutes the Mormon heaven.


Notes: (forthcoming)

AN  ORIGINAL  SAINT.

One of the Men Who Saw the Angel Giving
Joe Smith the Book of Mormon.

(From the Salt Lake News, August 31.)

Considerable interest has been felt by our people in the arrival in this city of Martin Harris, one of three witnesses of the Book of Mormon. He arrived here at 7:30 P. M. yesterday, in the company of Elder Edward Stevenson, who left this city on the 19th of last July, for the purpose of bringing him out of Kirtland, Ohio, where he has been living since the Saints first moved there -- 1831 -- thirty-nine years ago. Brother Stevenson has had a strong desire to have Martin Harris brought here. But he himself has thought for years that his mission was in Kirkland, he feeling that the Lord required him to stay there and bear testimony to the Book of Mormon and the first principles, which he has been earnest in doing, and he has felt reluctant to leave. But when Brother Stevenson corresponded with him about coming out to the Valley, he replied that the spirit testified to him that he should come there, and in every letter that he afterward received from him he expressed a still stronger desire to come. Brother Stevenson made a collection, and after raising sufficient means, went to Kirtland and brought him on. Martin Harris is in his 88th year. He is remarkably vigorous for one of his years, and still retains the use of his faculties, his memory being good, and his sight, though his eyes appear to have failed, being so acute that he can see to pick a pin off the ground. He has experienced many changes and vicissitudes; but on one point, so far as we have heard, he has never changed; he has never failed to bear testimony to the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon. He says it is not a matter of belief on his part, but of knowledge. He, with the other two witnesses, declared -- and their testimony has accompanied every copy of the book -- "that an angel of God came down from heaven, and he brought and laid before our eyes, that we beheld and saw the plates and the engravings thereon." This declaration he has not varied from in forty-one years; and it is a remarkable fact that, though away from the church, and not maintaining their connection with the prophet Joseph Smith, not one of the three witnesses has ever failed, so far as known, to bear testimony to the truth of their united declaration contained in the Book of Mormon! Deny whatever they might of other points of doctrine of Joseph's authority, or of his management, they have never denied the testimony which they have given to the world concerning the Book of Mormon! We are glad to see Martin Harris once more in the midst of the Saints. He feels that this people are led by God, that they are a happy and a blessed people, and have the appearance of enjoying God's favor. They are doing the very work which the Book of Mormon said should be done, and are the only people who, as a people, believe in that book. The history of the veteran member of the Mormon Church would no doubt be interesting, if written, as his course since the severance of his connection with the Prophet Joseph, at the early rise of the church, has been singular. One of the original witnesses of the Book of Mormon, he saw the angel, and handled the plates from which that book was translated. In relation to this his testimony has never wavered, yet he, for some cause or other, has kept himself aloof from the church for many years, and has taken no part in carrying on the great work of which he, in connection with Joseph and others, laid the foundation. No greater proof could be given than the history and course of this man that the work of God is not dependent upon any man, however great, talented, illustrious, or favored he may be. Martin Harris having seen that which few in the flesh are favored to behold, and having received a testimony of the divinity of this work and of the divine authenticity of the Book of Mormon that it was utterly impossible to destroy, one might have supposed, viewing things from a merely human standpoint, that the progress and prosperity of the work would have depended to some considerable extent on his co-operation, and that lacking that it would have been retarded. But such is not the case, and in this fact human pride, vanity, and talent may learn a salutary lesson, if it will. Mr. Harris saw fit to withdraw from the cause, but its course, owing to the workings of Divinity through faithful agents, has been onward to a re-markable degree. The Saints, by thousands, have been gathered from the nations, a territory has been peopled, and the foundation of a kingdom laid which will never again be uprooted from the earth; and Martin Harris, no longer able to resist the conviction that God still guides and controls the destinies of his kingdom and people, gladly returns to share in the blessings and privileges of that kingdom. There is still one other of the "original witnesses" living, namely, Mr. David Whitmer. He now resides in Missouri. We would not be surprised if the yearning of his heart should yet lead him to follow the course of Mr. Harris, and again throw in his lot with the Saints and close his earthly career in their midst.


Note: This article first appeared in the Deseret Daily News of August 31, 1870 and was reprinted in the Deseret Weekly News of September 7, 1870.

AFTER  BRIGHAM,  WHAT?
_____

The Unsolved Problem of the Latter-Day Saints.
_____

FORECASTING THE FUTURE.
_____

Who Will Succeed the Chief
Mormon Apostle?
_____

THE RIVALS AND THEIR CLAIMS.
_____

Brigham Young's Intrigues
for His Son.
_____

THE RULING NAME OF THE FUTURE,
& c., & c., &c.
_____

BY A MORMON ELDER.

Here we have a subject which will interest all Mormondom, and it is the very subject which the editors, commercial men, and legislators of America are constantly suggesting for answer. It involves the future of Mormondom, and is the unsolved problem in the minds of all the ''Latter-Day Saints," both in America and Europe. It grows in importance every year, for every year Brigham Young travels fast towards the grave. But the ''faithful" only whisper upon the subject in the family circle, or conceal it in their closets to commune with it in secrecy. The orthodox dare not ask themselves aloud, When will Brigham die, and after him "what," or "who?" And the nearer the subject touches the men most concerned in the successorship, the more secret and reticent they are. They know that it troubles the heart of hearts of the Mormon people, up to Brigham himself, but they pretend to be utterly oblivious of the fact. The Utah Protestants and the ''Josephites" are the only ones who speak freely upon the matter. They, in fact, exult in the question: "After Brigham, what?" But George Q. Cannon, the most ambitious man in the church, and the man most like Brigham Young, is sublime in his pretended unconsciousness of Brigham's mortality, of his seventieth year, and the great issues which await his death. This number of The World Brigham will read, and George Q. and the rest of the apostles will read, for it will unfold themselves and the theme of their thoughts; but so characteristic will Brother George be that, unless I forestall him, he will write thus in the Deseret News: ''The apostates and the Gentiles, in the evil intents of their hearts, are with a devilish wickedness speculating upon the death of God's prophet; but they, to their shame and confusion, will find that the Lord will preserve his servant until he has accomplished his purposes through him and frustrated all the malicious designs of the apostates and the Gentiles to overthrow his kingdom." But this simply means that Brother George Q. Cannon, the man most like Brigham Young in his ambitions and capacity, but not his equal in potency of will, desires Brigham to live long enough to secure Mormondom, but wishes to hide from all eyes how much he dwells upon the future and himself as one of the successors of Brigham Young. Nor is the subject under consideration less prevailing in the mind of the Mormon President. Indeed, I believe it is constant there, and painful in its burden, but he also hides it deep down in his own thoughts, though he tries to throw off the burden by a vigorous conceit of youthfulness, which his appearance justifies. The question, "How shall I match the United States?" troubles him infinitely less than the question, ''After Brigham, what?" So much does the man believe in himself and his mission that, could he keep himself as he is to-day for another quarter of a century, the "After to-day, what?" he could readily answer. His answer would be simply, "Brigham." And he has been for the last seven years aiming to give this something like a literal construction, by bringing on his son Brigham to succeed him. Yet the Mormon President is only certain in himself, and hence he gives to his life another fifty years. I was remarkably struck with this two years ago, on my return from a mission East. Visiting him, after a cordial reception, I congratulated him with evident pleasure on his appearance, saying, "You look, brother Brigham, as though you would live another twenty-five years." "More than that, Edward; more than that," he replied. "I shall live, Edward, as long as I can." That is exactly the case. Brigham Young will live as long as he can, and if it is as long as he hopes, the question, “Who will succeed him?" which writers so often put, will amount to nothing as a present subject, but to all human seeming it is the question of to-day. Heber, his life-long companion, is gone, and his brother, John Young, passed away a few months ago; and the end of Brigham is also near. It would be wise for him to think so, for then he could better prepare, for the prevailing opinion is that he will die suddenly of apoplexy. Any hour may startle us with a telegraphic announcement of the death of Brigham Young; and then the question, ''After Brigham, what?" would terrify Mormondom, for there would be exultation among thousands who in his lifetime dared not vent their thought; while in every house of the orthodox brethren and sisters the question would buzz around, ''Who will succeed Brigham?" I will aim in this paper to reveal all that can be revealed upon the matter before the issue, and perhaps give Brigham himself some new views of what is and what will be.

DAVID SMITH.

It is certain that for nearly twenty years it was the intention of Brigham Young that David Smith should succeed him, for both Brigham's policy and the traditions of the church centred around young David. Indeed, Brigham has repeatedly declared in public that David Hyrum Smith, the son of Joseph the Prophet, would succeed him. He was with his mother, Emma, in Nauvoo, but it was expected by all that the boy -- who was born after his father's martyrdom -- should grow up and come to realize that a kingdom awaited him, he would break through his mother's influence, which is deadly to the ''Brighamites," and ''gather" up to Zion, to "enter by the door of the kingdom" which he was expected to rule. Brigham even went so far as to say that David would in due time come up to him as meek as a lamb, and as a child seeking his parent, and crowned his prophecy with the proclamation that in that event he was ready to resign the sceptre to David and retire into the quorum of the twelve apostles as their chief. Hence, for twenty years, none of the Mormon apostles thought of applying to themselves the question, ''Who will succeed Brigham Young?" for it was supposed to be answered by prophecies and proclamations extraordinary -- ''David Smith." That Brigham was genuine in this is most reasonable, and I am positive that it was his intention to marry David to one of his daughters, and create a hereditary dynasty in the grandchildren of Joseph and himself; and a Brigham Smith Young was designed as the heir of the two first prophets. While he lived he would, in this case, have been David's Richelieu, and the hereditary succession would have been established long before his death. It was Brigham's grand scheme concealed in his own heart all from the vulgar eye, for he knew well that the Mormons, including their cardinals or apostles, would unite with acclamations in securing the succession in the line of young David, and if that part was realized, he also knew that the uniting of Joseph and Brigham in their race was certain. But David would not be tempted with the magnificent offer of the ''kingdom," with absolute power, after Brigham's death, and the millions which the church treasury gathers. His rejection of the offer is almost without a parallel. Brigham, who always judges others so much by himself, was certain for twenty years that it would be impossible for David to refuse a ''kingdom." But David is a poet, who can also paint pretty landscapes, and he has no conception of selfishness or ambition. So when his elder brother, Joseph, started the rival Monogamic Church in Illinois, which numbers now about 75,000 disciples, our "Prince of Zion" joined his brother and sent out year after year repeated manifestoes that he rejected Brigham and all his offers, complaining of the tempters sent unto him to lead him astray to usurp his elder brother's place. Brigham and the apostles bore with this for several years, believing that as the youth grew into manhood he would repent his folly and go up to Utah to take his place. At length Brigham became doubtful, and he revised his programme, resolving to establish the succession in his own son Brigham. And now, for the first time, fate threw the subject of the succession between the chief apostles to be hereafter their ''apple of discord," for until then there was no pertinence in the now general question, ''Who will succeed Brigham Young?" And, as observed, these chief apostles still hide the fact that the question has any pointing to themselves. Were there one among them bold enough, and unwise enough, to make the public feel that he was the "coming man," Brigham would break him down and disgrace him before his death. Hence, George Q. Cannon is so worshipful of Brigham, and so oblivious of the fact that he may be his successor. We may all look out for an interesting time near at hand between half a dozen of these rival apostles and claimants, and, perhaps, a fatal family feud between Brigham's own sons over the succession after his death. From the many complications, with the results of the railroad, the opening of the Utah mines, and the schisms, it may be safely predicted that a tremendous shock will answer the question, ''After Brigham, what?'' -- when death shall have taken the reins from the strong hand which now rules. Next let us deal personally with the rivals, and expose their several claims and chances.

YOUNG BRIGHAM.

As soon as Brigham the First had resolved to bring on immediately after him a Brigham the Second, he sent him to England on a mission, to be the right-hand man of Daniel H. Wells, who there presided. He was next elevated to the presidency of all the churches of Europe, and placed over the head of Orson Pratt, who had been sent to Austria on mission, more I believe, to unrank than to exalt him. Orson had presided over Europe in the palmiest days of our missionary work abroad, but now being placed as a "travelling Elder" under ''young Brigham," the very rank of the veteran apostle Pratt only gave greater prestige to the designed successor to the presidency of the whole church. It was one of Brigham's strokes of policy, by which he brings in startling innovations upon the legitimate order of the church when it suits his purposes and ambitions. His son, having presided over Orson Pratt, who ranked in the church before Brigham the First was even a member, could at the death of his father, in virtue of a special ordination to the successorship, very consistently preside over the minor apostles. The next thing that the father did, on the return of his son from the presidency of the European churches, with the glory of the labors of the elders abroad upon his head, and the prestige of having out-ranked Orson, then he daringly, but with his wonderful secretiveness, sought to throw his sons above the twelve, by an extraordinary ordination, making them a special quorum of himself. He ordained his sons, Brigham, Joseph and John, to this special apostleship, outside the legitimate twelve, under the pretence of making them his counsellors, which, in effect, was creating princes of his royal family. Brigham's apostleship was conferred upon them, and that in his mind meant the right to outrank all the apostles of the church, when the due time of the succession came up. Moreover, one day in the "Endowment House," he cornered Heber C. Kimball and forced him to assist in ordaining his son Brigham to succeed him after his death. Thus Brigham the Second has actually received the endowment of the succession, under the hands of Brigham and Heber, the two chief apostles of the first Mormon Prophet. So we see complications multiplying, and Brigham the Second appears as the Richard Cromwell of Mormondom. Heber had been betrayed by his old friend and compeer, and he went home from the ''Endowment House" overwhelmed with the burden of his wrong and his jealousy, and told all to his first wife. She asked him why he had not refused to assist Brigham in thus robbing himself, Heber, the undoubted rightful successor, and all the legitimate apostles after him. Heber answered that he dared not refuse; that he was surprised into the act, and that he was so overwhelmed that he had assisted at the ceremony of ordination almost in a state of unconsciousness. From that day Heber C. Kimball was broken off from the man who had thus betrayed him, and occasionally he would Inquire of some confidant what value ought to be put upon a forced consent. It meant that Heber C. Kimball, in case of Brigham's death before him, would set aside the spurious ordination, and take the presidency of the church, which all would have readily granted as his right. Heber held an endowment and apostleship equal to that of Brigham the First, which had been conferred by Joseph Smith, which no stolen secondary ordination could set aside: and this is also the case with Orson Hyde and Orson Pratt. It will be seen, therefore, that these deep schemes for a hereditary succession only make the prospects of the future more troublesome and revolutionary. At the time of the ordination of the ''Prince of Utah," as he has been called, there were alive four of the ''first twelve" -- namely, Brigham Young, Sr., Heber C. Kimball, Orson Hyde, and Orson Pratt. This fact known, any one could answer: ''Who will succeed Brigham Young?" in the legitimate order. It then stood, after Brigham, Heber; then Orson Hyde; and next Orson Pratt. Heber is now dead; Orson Hyde is the successor in the legitimate line to the apostolic throne; but Brigham's plots for the hereditary succession has confounded the legitimate order of the church. The death of Heber seemed to make the design practicable, for though young Brigham would have been no rival worthy of Heber, he is a rival to the unpopular Orson Hyde; yet if the ambitious sire persists in his scheme, which is as unsound in principle as in policy, he will create a great revolution at his death, this time involving the chief priests and princes of the Mormon hierarchy. He will also bring a deadly strife into his own family, for young Brigham is not the eldest son, and, moreover, there are those in the ''king's household" who have resolved upon this great family eruption, in case the hereditary succession should be maintained. Notwithstanding all this, the "Mormon king" will be almost certain to stand to his purpose, for Brigham Young never resigns his purposes as long as there is a shadow of a chance of carrying them to their issue. Let Brigham grow wise in time to save his name, or Mormondom will surely have a Richard Cromwell for a few weeks, and then his ''crown prince" would be rejected by the cardinals of the Mormon Church and the voice of the people.

ORSON HYDE.

Here is legitimately the successor of Brigham Young. He cannot be set aside by the ordinary rule. Nothing but an extraordinary act of legislation of his quorum, sustained by the voice of the entire church, could displace Orson Hyde, and that would amount to a grand impeachment; and what is so singular in the case is that the people, at least, would be almost certain to impeach their chief of the twelve apostles. It is Orson Hyde's right, but Brigham Young has been impeaching him for many years, and, as we have seen, actually setting him aside in the succession. The president, in fact, has done much to make the church feel that Orson Hyde is unworthy of the apostolic throne, though Orson was his own stepping-stone to it. Here is how the case stands between these two chief men: Brigham Young once occupied the place of Orson Hyde, and in virtue thereof, as President of the Twelve Apostles, he took the lead of the church after Joseph Smith's death. The Twelve overruled the claims of Sidney Rigdon and for four years governed the church as a quorum, Brigham being only their presiding compeer, and not a superior. But the Mormon Cromwell in his ambition conceived the design of creating a one-man power" and to rule as an absolute prince. This is contrary to the very constitution of the church, which is republican in its genius. Even in the time of the prophet Smith, the church was governed by its various quorums -- the twelve apostles, with a large body of the quorums of the seventies and high priests, constituting a parliament -- and the president of the whole church not only was elected by the vote of the entire people, but he was simply one of the ruling priesthood, acting in the presidential office. His prophetship was supposed to be from heaven, and independent of the people, but the office of president was derived from the people. But Brigham resolved to create a one-man power, and to practically set aside all the quorums of the church, absorbing all the governmental functions in himself. To do this, he saw that he must first lift himself from the quorum of the Twelve into the one of the Mormon trinity, which had been cut off by the martyrdom of Joseph and Hyrum Smith. And now we are touching the strength of Orson Hyde's claims, for of course, in working out the problem of the succession for himself, he, by the first great precedent, established the claims of Orson Hyde, who has already been his successor to the presiding office in the Twelve. And just here I will reveal a circumstance of the plotting of these two men for the apostolic throne, more than twenty years ago, and it will show to the reader whether Orson Hyde, who became Brigham's stepping-stone that he might be his successor, will resign now without a tremendous struggle that place for which he has so long plotted. As we have seen, the Twelve ruled as the first quorum of the Mormon commonwealth, and so, in order to create for himself the pontifical supremacy, Brigham found it necessary to win over the chief men of the apostles, and to tempt them through their ambitions. Having led the pioneers up to the Rocky Mountains, and asserted a moral supremacy, he deemed the time had come to carry out his scheme. So one morning on his return with the pioneers to Council Bluffs, he engaged Wilford Woodruff in conversation as they travelled along, upon the necessity of ''filling up the quorum of the First Presidency," asking Woodruff's opinion upon the subject. Though this apostle has ever been ''obedient," he gave his opinion then that ''no man could take Joseph's place," that it would be usurpation, and that the church could only be ruled by the twelve as a quorum. Woodruff was the first man to whom Brigham suggested his intentions. For the first time also is this circumstance published, and Mormondom has the revelation through The World; but let the presidents of the Twelve be set aside by another of Brigham's innovations, and the ''saints" will hear the subject enough discussed. The president of the apostles must stand as the legitimate successor, or Brigham thereafter will be called a bold usurper. Orson Hyde, who was less scrupulous than Woodruff to put himself in a direct line, joined his chief in his scheme, and at a grand conference carried him up to the presidential chair, having previously done the same in the councils of the Twelve. Heber was also carried into the first presidency, and Orson Hyde became chief of the Twelve, in virtue of being which Brigham had leapt into supreme power. If Orson Hyde, then, outlives President Young, as he most likely will -- for the chief has already had his second apoplectic fit -- Orson will be the successor to the apostolic throne, or Mormondom will be shaken to its centre.

ORSON PRATT.

Now that is just what is coming to pass -- this shaking to the centre. Any sagacious mind could foretell that Brigham's schemes for the hereditary succession, with his constant impeachment of Orson Hyde, have worked up, as the sequel to his reign, a great apostolic warfare between the rivals for his throne. It will open between Brigham the second and Orson Hyde; and then, in the issue, the people by their vote will set aside both as unworthy, and choose Orson Pratt, the next in the legitimate line. Of all the Mormon apostles, Parley and Orson Pratt stand out incomparably beyond their compeers. They were not so much of society-builders as Brigham Young, but they were far more apostolic. Indeed, Brigham has grown out of such men as the Pratts. It is questionable if Brigham has made twenty converts in all his life, while Orson and Parley Pratt have directly or indirectly converted twenty thousand to the Mormon faith. Ask the people what brought them into the church, and you would hear from every direction Parley Pratt's "Voice of Warning," or ''Orson Pratt's Tracts," until it would almost seem to you that the Pratts had created the church. Indeed, the best part of Mormon theology has been derived from them, and so it may be said that they also, to a great extent, originated Mormonism. Orson was also the master of nearly all the Utah Protestants, and of all the thinkers and rebels in Mormondom. Godbe, Harrison, Stenhouse, Tullidge, and their class all acknowledge themselves as Orson's disciples, and they still venerate their old master, whose example they are well following in measuring arms with Brigham Young, refusing to be subdued by the absolute will and thought of any mortal man. They would therefore sustain Orson Pratt; and, as they control the independent press, they would checkmate the plots and ambitions of George Q. Cannon, who would be certain to play a deep game to reach the pontifical chair of Utah. It will be remembered that the Utah reformers have not set up a head, for which the orthodox party often burlesque them. But there is method and purpose in their ''new movement." They are waiting for the death of Brigham; waiting for the ''coming man;" waiting to give many answers to the question, ''After Brigham, what?" They will say as touching the succession, ''Orson Pratt;" ''no heirship;" ''no kingcraft;" "no Orson Hyde, whom Brigham hag impeached for twenty years as an unworthy man, and whom the people impeach to-day;" "Orson Pratt is the man to succeed Brigham Young, and he shall be chosen by the vote of the people." They will agitate every settlement of Utah with this at the death of Brigham. Even to-day they control public opinion. Indeed, they create it first. Before they arose there was no public opinion in Utah. In helping Orson to maintain his rights they will forward their own reform cause, for the Pratts represent not only the idealities of Mormonism, but independence and honesty, and Parley being dead, Orson stands also in his brother's place. But I err in speaking of Orson Pratt maintaining his rights. He has no ambitions, and will be most conscientious in preferring any one of the Twelve to himself to succeed to the Presidency. This very fact, however, will enable Orson's friends to fight for him, and in the squabble of the rivals for the dead man's shoes, Orson, in his great integrity and simplicity, will rise head and shoulders above all the rest. Moreover, Dr. Newman's discussion with him has done much to lift Orson to the steps of Brigham's throne. He is the Paul of Mormondom, and at one time with the churches of Europe, and also with the Gentile public of Great Britain, Orson Pratt stood out alone the Peter of his church. This aroused the jealousy of the man who held the keys, and from that day those said keys have been often administered to Orson's "stubborn head," as his chief apostle styles it. Finding that the Pratts were moulding the church, and rivaling him even in his own day of power, Brigham resolved to crush Orson by the might of his will. His learned rival had published tracts by the hundreds of thousands, and published them upon his own responsibility as an apostle, so Brigham opened upon him by denouncing his works, calling them in, and commanding them to be burned. He also caused Orson to be tried by his quorum, and forced him to make repeated confession before thousands for teaching false doctrine. In this Orson won the respect, Brigham the reprehension, of the church; for Orson's ''confessions," as they were called, were of such a noble character that they exalted him in the public mind, and the President was ever forced to honor Orson's integrity. Yet, after fifteen years of warfare, Brigham subdued him to his will, but he cannot take from him his right, next to Orson Hyde, in the legitimate line of the succession; and now, being forced to call up his Paul to defend the peculiar institution against Dr. Newman, without designing it he has thrown him again into popularity. Should the church fall into Orson's hands, he will rule in the name of Joseph Smith and sink the name of Brigham Young.

GEORGE Q. CANNON.

This last view of the case brings up the man who is most like Brigham, and who, being only about forty-two years of age, will, if the legitimate line be continued, most likely live to reach the pinnacle of his ambition, unless Mormondom be entirely transformed into a new order of things. But there is a chance of his being the great rival of both Hyde and Pratt. Brigham knows that either one of these men would sink his name after his death, and rule in the name of Joseph Smith; whereas, George Q. Cannon, being his own creation, would rule in the name of his benefactor, thus making Brigham Young live in the future. Should this consideration, with the conviction at last forced home that young Brigham would be rejected, induce him to nominate George Q. Cannon to succeed him, we should then indeed have the giants of Mormondom in rivalry, and it is impossible to tell the result, though easy to foretell the chaos which would come. George Q. Cannon, however, is only as yet a probability in the case, but important enough to deserve a passing notice.

GEORGE A. SMITH.

This is the only other man to be considered. He is Brigham's ''First Counsellor,” and many will think that the right of the succession belongs to him, for he is now the superior of any single member of the Twelve. But the trial of the case would show, by the great precedent given at the death of Joseph Smith, that the presiding power returns to the Twelve as a quorum; for, the head of the church gone, the ''First Presidency" is at an end until the Twelve create another. George A. Smith, though now the first counsellor, will then have to return to his place as one of the apostles, and he ranks after the two Orsons. In Heber C. Kimball's case it would have been different, for he stood next to Brigham in the original quorum, called the ''First Twelve," and in returning would have been the president of that quorum, which would have given him also the presidency of the church. The legitimate line, therefore, we still trace to Orson Hyde and Orson Pratt; and, as already observed, the very trial of the rival claims consequent upon the scheme of Brigham to set up his son, will give the church into the hands of Orson Pratt, or beat it into chaos. George A. Smith would remain the right-hand man to the first president, and he would help Orson with all his might to re-establish the name of his cousin Joseph, the founder of Mormondom.

THE RULING NAME OF THE FUTURE.

The very strength of Brigham Young will after his death react upon himself. He has for many years ruled in the potency of his own name, yet at first he ruled in the name of Joseph. None of his successors will be able to make their own names dominate over Brigham's, nor will either of them be mighty enough to continue the ''one-man power" which he has created. The apostles and the elders will therefore return to the name of the founder to preserve the unity of the church. The case is exemplified in all religious sects. The prophet or the founder always comes up again as the ruling name. Joseph Smith in reality is the successor of Brigham Young, and Orson and the Twelve will sink themselves in him. On that name all can unite, including the Utah Protestants and the 75,000 of the young Josephites. The name of Brigham will be exploded in the eruption which his death and ambitious aims will cause. The temporal power also will pass away, and there will be no more strife between Utah and the United States. Orson Pratt is an apostle and not a king, not a pope, and under his apostolic rule the missions abroad will revive and Mormondom be transformed into a higher state of civilization.


Notes: (forthcoming)

A  GENTILE  IN  UTAH.

Salt Lake City, Utah, November 9. -- In travelling through the chain of valleys known as the Great Salt Lake Valley, there is much to interest one in a first trip -- many things new and novel, some wild and strange, few that are beautiful or even charmingly picturesque at this season of the year, and thousands of things to remind one of the years of toil spent in these desert wilds by the pioneer religions enthusiasts who people this section of the "Great American Desert." In journeying from the extreme southern portion of Nevada into the southernmost boundaries of Utah and then travelling northward, it was necessary that my way should be through the entire southern and middle portion of the Salt Lake Valley, thus in my trip traversing almost the entire chain of settlements that constitute the inhabitable southern portion of Mormondom. I passed through about sixty towns and villages on my route, ranging in population from three hundred to ten thousand persons, and in each and every one of them there was evidence of thrift and prosperity, and the peace and contentment that follows a large and bountiful harvest. This has been the case with the people of Utah du ring the past season; their harvests have been abundant, and their orchards and vineyards fruitful beyond anything in times past, and the citizens are joyful that their labors have been so blessed.

All the settlements in the Territory of Utah are built in the immediate vicinity of never-failing mountain streams of pure cold water, for these are their entire dependence in their system of agriculture. With these streams, by means of an extensive and general system of ditching, they irrigate the soil from time to time, as their crops demand moisture, and this makes up for the lack of rain, which seldom falls in this country during the summer season, and never to the extent of insuring a crop. All the towns and villages are built upon the same plan, in the form of squares, with so much ground allotted to each family, and canals of water brought from the mountain or nearest stream are carried along each side of every street in the settlement, thus furnishing to all an abundance of water. Along these canals, in front of every dwelling or plat of ground, shade trees have been planted, and have thriven in the desert most astonishingly; and now the wayfarer, the poor laborer, may rest his wearied head under the grateful shade, and be lulled to sleep by the music of the rippling waters as they go dancing on from the cold, snowy homes in the Wasatch Mountains to the sunny meadows of the valley below.

From St. George, in the Dixie country, far south, near the sands of Arizona, to Salt Lake City, the character of the settlements, the towns and villages, is much the same as above -- very little, if any, varied from that described. In the middle and upper portions of the valley there are hundreds of fine orchards and vineyards, all in full bearing, and producing apples, peaches, pears, and grapes abundantly, and of fine quality.

I journeyed through Utah on a Southern Express stage, and it was my misfortune to be a passenger on the mail coach that was waylaid by road agents and robbed. The robbery took place four miles from Chicken Creek Station, where we had had supper at 10 o'clock at night. We left the station at 11 o'clock, and were travelling slowly, as the night was quite dark. When ascending a slight grade -- about 12 midnight -- the horses were brought to a sudden halt by "Stop those horses, driver." "Halt." "Come down off that box, driver." "Hands up, or we'll blow the top of your head off." "Click, click," we knew that sound and appreciated the situation. A revolver and carbine pointed into the stage. None of us armed. "Come out, gentlemen; hands up as you step out of the coach."

We put up our hands "for the time being."

The robbers then sacked the Wells Fargo Express treasure-box from Pioche City, then secured and cut open the United States registered letter mail-bag, taking its contents. Then they gave their attention to us.

One villain came up to us and went through our pockets, relieving us of all our coin, whilst the rest of them stood at the coach and horses' heads with weapons covering us.

It was not pleasant looking into the muzzles of double-barrelled shot-guns and carbines.

We made no resistance, hence they relieved us soon, and nobody was hurt.

They allowed us to again enter the stage, and then said, "Drive on." The driver drove on, and we left them behind us in the dark.

And just here let me pay a tribute to the Mormons as detectives. At our next station we reported matters, and at once parties started out in pursuit, unstimulated by the offer of a large reward, &c. They had with them a good trail-dog, and before 7 o'clock that same morning had captured all the robbers, and the same day delivered them to the Sheriff of Provo, who had them at once sent under charge of the Assistant United States Marshal to this city. The names of the villains were DeKay, St. Leger, and Heath. St. Leger turned State's evidence, and told where they had hidden a part of the plunder, and it was recovered. As showing the zeal of Brigham Young in his efforts to put down and at once stop anything of the kind, I might mention that as soon as the facts of the robbery were made known here his people were notified by telegraph for five hundred miles to turn out -- young men and old men and dogs -- and also to bring into requisition the services of the Indians to track the villains, but on no account to fail in apprehending them. The response was the immediate capture of the robbers. Utah is most decidedly not a healthy place for road agents.

Approaching the city from the south we pass through a fine fertile valley and along the shores of Utah Lake, a body of fresh water thirty-five miles in length and eighteen miles wide. This lake is literally filled with fish -- trout, the largest and most beautiful I ever saw. Here the "Jordan" takes its rise and flows in a northerly direction to Zion, where the Saints have founded, on its stormy banks, their latter-day city. Leaving Utah Valley in company with the joyous and active Jordan, we pass through a narrow pass or defile in the mountains -- Hell Gate we may term it -- and at once find in the vicinity of the sacred city -- the basin proper of the great Salt Lake. Here, indeed, is a lovely city -- a garden in a desert. Here dwell the Latter-day Saints (nice old Saints they are) in their Eden upon earth, quite happy and contented, because cut off from the sin-cursed-and-soon-to-be-eternaly-damned Gentile world at large.

It is a city of about twenty-two thousand souls, has shade trees and running water in every street, and in summer time -- with its wildness of fruits and flowers -- is one vast and gorgeously beautiful garden. Here rests and rules Brigham Young, the Latter-day Saints' Prophet and the head-centre of Mormondom.

President Brigham Young in appearance is rather fine-looking as an elderly gentleman. His face is round and full -- his complexion florid -- his hair and whiskers are iron-gray, rapidly turning white, and his whole appearance betokening a hearty and well-kept man (not saint) of 65. The lines of his face show him to be a man of determined will and of fixed purpose; and though his countenance is frank and open, his smile a genial and friendly one, yet there is a counter expression at times that shows him to be intent on the one great purpose of his life.

A great change is at hand; the dawn of a new era is breaking. How far this change will be beneficial to this people and to morality in general I have my doubts. A more quiet and orderly city and people do not exist on this continent. This being "Zion," they seem to carry out the Baying, "Order is Heaven's first law;" for truly order, if not law, exists here to the fullest extent. No drunkard is allowed upon the street. The fines imposed upon them are heavy, and, if not paid, the party is at once set to work upon some public improvements.

I visited the theatre twice since I came here, and was much impressed with some things. It is capable of seating over three thousand, and in finish and general beauty, elegance, and convenience, is surpassed -- to my knowledge -- by but two or three in the United States. The company consists most generally of amateurs, residents of this city, and their performances are very creditable. On one side of the theatre -- the right -- are seats for the family of President Young; on the left hand, seats for the members of the family of the late Elder (or Bishop) Heber C. Kimball, who died about a year ago. Both nights of my attendance my attention was necessarily drawn to these quarters. I counted twenty-one fair, well-dressed, genteel, quiet, lady-like, and orderly daughters of Mr. Young, ranging in ages apparently from twelve years to seventeen. Some of them were even quite handsome, and a few were dressed in good and elegantly tasteful attire, though none gaudily. The prevailing taste with them seemed to be Scotch plaid goods, and the contrast of colors surrounding their fair and pretty faces was indeed pretty. Mr. Yonng may well be proud of the twenty-one daughters -- of the balance of the family I can't say. On the left of the house, occupying the Kimball seats, was a large lot of boys, some thirty in number, half of them the sons of the President.

I attended the Tabernacle on the Sabbath, and to me this was indeed the most pleasant and interesting part of my visit. I could not agree with them in their denunciations of the Gentile world, so won't enter into any argument there. I saw about eight thousand people gathered together in one vast building to worship God. The scene was an impressive one, and called forth emotions indescribable. I was conducted to a comfortable seat in front of the church. The choir of about one hundred singers, male and female, was executing one of Handel's most touching melodies, supported by the strains of a sweet and powerful organ. It seemed to me as though I had been transported to some other land, or that I was in the midst of a beautiful dream. I had first come from a two years' sojourn in a wild southern country where the name of God was seldom heard except in blasphemy, and where strains of such heavenly music were unknown. The congregation, although so vast, was attentive and apparently filled with devotion. As I looked around me, and my eyes dwelt upon that sea of earnest, uplifted faces, I felt lonely and sad. I asked myself what manner of people is this that thus gathers together in such a multitude in this far-away desert country to worship? Who is their master -- to whom do they pray? Is it the God of our fathers and his Son, or a strange god? I was soon answered, as the first prayer went forth to God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. Old men and women were there, the hard marks upon their faces betokening their years of toil and suffering, of the long and cruel fight to reclaim this barren desert country to obtain a subsistence. Long years ago they bade adieu to their native land, and the melody of "Home, Sweet Home" was the music of echoless years in the long ago. Here they rested their weary feet and planted the standard of their faith in a country too poor even for the savage to gain a subsistence; and, after years of toil, are rewarded by an Eden blooming in the midst of a desert. Perseverance and faith have accomplished this, and now in the "melancholy days" of life they rest in this garden of their own creation. This land, this city, these blooming gardens -- all have been created by their religious faith, stimulating them to undergo untold toil and hardships; and here are centered all the love, all that is dear to them -- their household gods -- all in life that is sacred and holy. Can we wonder that they jealously watch the comings and goings of the Gentile, or strive so hard to preserve to themselves this beautiful city, born of the desert, yet blooming as the rose?

Salt Lake contains many handsome and costly buildings, both public and private. The city is watered from the River Jordan (?), which, as before stated, rises in Utah Lake and runs in a northeasterly direction, emptying into Great Salt Lake.

That, this city and the Great Salt Lake Valley are destined to become mighty and of vast importance, as a portion of this inland country, in a very few years, there can be no doubt. That strenuous efforts should be made by the United States authorities at Washington to prevent a collision between the citizens of this country and the United States troops is much to be desired. This land rightfully belongs to the Mormons as long as they acknowledge the authority and respect the laws of the United States, and as the pioneers and reclaimers of this part of the great American desert let their homes and their religion be preserved to them in peace.


Note: The exact date and full content of this article remain undetermined. It may have appeared in the World's issue for Nov. 24th.

A bill will probably soon be presented the House changing the territorial capital of Utah from Salt Lake city to Corinne, the object of the bill is to remove U. S. officers from a city where there are so few Gentiles, to a rapidly growing town in which there are few Mormons. All the citizens of Corinne, and in fact most of the Gentiles in the territory, favor the change, and sufficient land and other inducements will be offered to protect the govemment from loss by the removal.


Note: The exact date and full content of this article remain undetermined. It may have appeared in the World's issue for Dec. 13th. One undated clipping adds the following: "Out of pure regard for the morals of our unsophisticated army officers, Congress proposes removing the capital of Utah from Salt Lake City to Corinne, which, containing but few Mormons, is deemed a fitter place to put the military corps in.... Senator Wilson proposes to dispose of the Mormon question by having Utah brought in as a State."

THE  MORMON  MUTINY.
_____

Rapid Development of the Territory --
The Agencies at Work Upsetting
Brigham -- A Mormon Girl
Attacks the Priests --
She Exposes a Brutal
Assault Upon a
Gentile.
_____

Satirical Papers at Work For and Against
the Church.

&c., &c., &c.
_____

Salt Lake City, December 6. -- A year ago this city was ''as dull as a New England village;" it is now busy and prosperous. The change has been almost magical. A larger amount of commercial business is done here than in any city of the Union with the same population. It has been a common expression in the West that railroads have ruined more countries than they have made -- except the termini, and the Pacific Railroad is probably nothing exceptional in that experience. This city, from being in a sense the terminal point of both the Union and Central Pacific Railroads, profits from them both, and foreshadows a future of greatness that will astonish older countries.

Whatever may be thought of Brigham Young, from a Christian standpoint, and whatever he may personally be, he is at least entitled to thanks for the foundation he has laid of a permanent existence in this before desert country. He has exhibited an intermixture of excellent sense with his dreams and revelations, and the society now to be reared upon the foundation that he has laid will reap many blessings from his first labors, Idaho, Montana, and Colorado were first great in minerals and tediously slow in agriculture. Utah, through Brigham's guidance and pluck, reached first after the solidities of life. Her citizens were beyond all temptation and heroically contended against the discovery of the precious ores. As a consistent fanatic, Brigham is probably the most magnificent specimen of his age. A hard-shell Baptist is nothing to him; he is the ne plus ultra of everybody who ever believed in the past and fought for it. When he "shuffles off this mortal coil" he should be embalmed with the Pharaohs. He has opposed the mining development with great bravery, and with commendable courage he has battled with overwhelming fate. Probably, to-day, he even deludes himself with the thought that he is still victorious; but the illusion is that of the three-score years and ten that is yearly growing younger. N'importe, the work goes bravely on, and that is the subject of my letter.

I look with amazement upon the change in Utah. I see around me a new people, a new country. The very atmosphere is pregnant with liberty and American breathings. It is no longer burdened with the isolation of Abyssinia and the dismal forebodings of dare-you-do-so. I recognize in the Utah present nothing of the past but its landmarks. Filling up here, settling down there, developing this, and exploring that, Utah is fast hastening to be a part of the United States. Wherever I look, to whatever I listen, there is evidence of substantial progress, and a voice crying that Utah is no longer a wilderness. I confess to a great gratification in witnessing the triumph of the country's institutions and thoughts.

In every direction the germs of liberty and rationalism are showing themselves. Men who were but a few years ago the most abject in fanaticism and devoted in their attachment to the great chief high priest, and conspicuously zealous in the propagation of the principles, doctrines, and institutions that have made Utah world-renowned, are to-day in the very antipodes of their past selves; and to this number there is a daily increase. Everywhere this is evident throughout the Territory. A glorious revolution is moving steadily onward, carrying unmistakably in its course the blessings of peace and prosperity. Unlike the spasmodic efforts of personal discontent, this change bears with it the stability of principles that never perish and the progress that knows no revulsion.

To every effort from without Mormonism has hitherto been invulnerable; but the revolution that is working such wonders reaches its weaknesses and attacks its unfounded pretensions. As day follows day, events follow each other, developing the most thorough and complete overthrow of the Mormon hierarchy. The most radical of reformers could desire nothing better. In a few short years Brigham Young and Mormonism will be but a religious sect shorn of the pomposity of authority that has hitherto marked its career in the mountains for the last twenty years. Decay requires time as well as growth; but it is easier to fall to pieces than to rise into being, and so the decline of Mormonism will be vastly more rapid than has been even its remarkable growth. Every stone loosened from an edifice weakens its neigh-bor, and now that the infallibility and prophetic character of Brigham is openly questioned, debated, and denied, the whole superstructure that leans upon him will shake and totter to the ground. It is this that I witness to-day; his prestige is departing, the authority of his bishops is questioned, and men are doing as they please, without inquiring for permission or counsel of Brigham or his priesthood. Never more emphatically and truthfully could it be uttered than here -- "the world wags."

THE AGENCIES AT WORK.

There seems a harmony of providences in the grand work of deliverance for the people of Utah from oppressive evils and the fanaticism with with which they have been martyred. Everything contributes to that end. The railroad was the death-knell to Brigham's reign. As it advanced, rebellion in his own camp, reared its head, and the completion of the iron-way was the opening of the richest mines on the continent. The kingly Brigham foresaw all this, and for years fought it bravely. His ready acceptance at last of the inevitable railroad was but the shrewdness of the man. In '62 California volunteers marched into the Territory, and Brigham, unable to prevent it, became a joint contractor for the transportation of their baggage and stores, and supplied them with flour on the way to "the City of the Saints." He has avowed and denied alternately the existence of precious ores within the territorial domain, just as occasion required, and when he has avowed that much, has predicted that none should be discovered except it was over his faith. Were he but ten years younger he would soon be the largest claim owner in the Territory; but his blood chills more readily than of yore, and he sensibly betakes himself more devotedly to the instruction of the faithful.

In the days when dissatisfaction was ostracism and leaving the Territory was a three months' journey, ''apostacy" was a dangerous experiment. It demanded huge sacrifices which few could make, and the whisperings of development were frequently stifled. In those dark days free speech was unheard; but the brighter noonday illumines now ''the valleys of the mountains," and men and women breathe with freedom. Mistakably, I think, hundreds of the dissatisfied with Brigham leave the Territory to follow the younger Joseph Smith in Illinois. But mistakably or not, the fact is suggestive of the change; the great iron highway across the desert has wrought a marvellous work. The secessionists who stay at home are daring, and sail into the follies and unfounded pretensions of the apostles with an energy that speaks of confidence in triumph. This handful of men have shaken Brigham beyond anything that he ever expected to experience, and at his death thousands who now apparently hold to him will slide from his successor as from a changing dynasty. Long years of association and the formula of habit still keep them in the old groove; but the tears shed around his bier will be the last of their attachment to his Mormonism. Polygamy has woven and entwined around the hands and feet of many a net-work from which it is almost impossible for those enmeshed to extricate themselves; but with Brigham's iron will removed, if Congress does not do so before, many a captive will be set free. It is this consciousness that is felt to-day and seen in the changed actions of both men and women.

THE MINING INFLUENCE.

Walk through the city, pass through our hotels, behold the faces of strangers from all parts of the earth, see windows filled with hundreds of specimens of rich ores, witness those long mule trains slowly wending their way through our streets bearing their precious burdens to the railroad depot, and see the laboring man with greenbacks in his hand at the merchant stores, and there you have the quiet revolution that is transforming Utah from poverty to affluence, from mental slavery to intellectual grandeur.

A WOMAN SPEAKS OUT.

The Tabernacle has no more terrors, the espionage of ''the teachers" is rebuked, and the bishops command no more -- they solicit. Women who have lived a thousand martyrdoms raise their heads with the consciousness of their, at least, equality to man, and see a time at hand when the aspirations of the purest of natures can be gratified with the sense of their ''lord's" appreciation of a helpmeet in one. The younger offspring, who never knew the Gentile world, spurn the system that has caused the suffering to their mothers, and boldly tell their hatred of the plural life. A daughter of the greatest of the apostles thus expresses herself in the Tribune:

With me the day of dupedom and of ''infallible priesthood" is at an end. I can see the dawn of freedom from the iron rulings of a priesthood, who have so long kept my sex in absolute servitude. I could name hundreds of women who to-day dare not say their souls are their own.

This is the language of a brave girl who saw a gentleman assaulted by ten ruffians because he was a Gentile and dared to escort her to the theatre and back, when even she was with him with her brother's consent. A few years ago she could have found no voice to utter her grief, but with the change of the times she fears nothing, and scathingly rebukes them thus:

About ten cowardly villains, with handkerchiefs over their faces to keep their guilty countenances from being recognized, completely surrounded us, held a pistol to Mr. Moore's head, and violently seized and roughly held me so I could see the kind of ''infliction a Gentile gets for walking with a daughter of Zion." He was brutally struck with some heavy weapon, which prostrated him and frightened me. I called aloud for help to my father but once, when a gag was put in my mouth, and I can remember but little besides being roughly pulled and hauled to my father's house.

I write the above to give the public an opportunity to get a correct statement of the dastardly outrage. I have waited eight days for some one to take up the matter and give to the world the truth, but all that has come to my observation is an article in the Daily Herald, headed ''Putting a Head On." which says, ''We have no particular fault to find with the fellow being served so."

Fine moralizing that. If Mr. Sloan indorses an attempted assassination of a gentleman for waiting on a lady to and from a theatre, or any other respectable place of amusement, I do not. This terror of the Gentiles will soon be over. Miners are not the customers to take these midnight assaults.

THE PRESS AT WORK.

The leaders of the new movement are bold, prudent men. They are not fighting Brigham, but the principles he represents. The Tribune is an ably conducted paper, and every week pours its heavy shot into the institutions antagonistic to the freedom of the people and the development of the country. The Mormon press is tame, and only interesting in its blackguardism. To the aid of the church the son of an apostle brought a sarcastic pen in a comic sheet, and significantly styled it "Keep-a-pitching-in." This, the last of follies, has provoked another into life, that appeared on Saturday under the name of Diogenes. Fancy the lantern of the philosopher moving into the dark recessess of Utah. It is a brilliant paper, and edited by men, some of them still in the church. Evil days have come upon the Prophet. It opens with a terrible dig at Brigham's claim to infallibility in a letter from Brigham I. to "Dear Brother Pius," inviting his Holiness to Utah, with the tempting offer of a portion of Brigham's wives, as the situation of the gentleman at Rome had not included the luxuries of Utah. As Brigham's infallibility was a weak and doubtful question, the holy father is kindly urged to bring his along.

Every soul of these printers will lose their church heads.


Note: This article was reprinted in the semi-weekly World's issue for Dec. 20th. It continues the correspondent's narrative from where he left off in his previous Salt Lake City letter (dated Nov. 9th).

Congressmen Preparing for the Settlement of
the Utah Difficulty.

Washington, D. C. December 22. -- It will be learned with pleasure by the people in the West that after the holidays the Utah question will be brought up in Congress and finally disposed of. There need, however, be no terror, nor apprehension even, of any great commotion. The temporizing policy of past administrations will not be indulged in, and there is no doubt that Brigham Young, seeing the inevitable march of destiny, will accept his fate and quietly lay aside the indulgences that characterize his reign in the centre of the Rocky Mountains.

The determination of Congress to get through with Utah is the result of a great many influences and for no one special purpose. The operations of Brigham Young's representatives and professed friends here have as much to do with the culmination to which the matter is now hastening as have the united operations of those who are openly opposed to him. While the one side is sanguine that the admission of Utah into the federation of States will at once dispose of polygamy and the "one-man power" by the overwhelming vote of loyal citizens by the time of election, Brigham is himself more than sanguine of a renewed lease of power by this move, and cunningly enough he offers the Senatorship to a Western Congressman for his labors in securing the admission of Utah into the Union.

Brigham is a clear-headed old fox, and unhesitatingly uses every means to the attainment of an end that he covets. The Congressman alluded to vacates his seat at the close of the session, and for the purpose of reaching the Senate when Utah becomes a State he will shortly take up residence in Salt Lake City and follow the profession of the law. Brigham's representative holds out to the said chivalrous gentleman almost entire Mormon law practice for himself and his business associates in the profession, who are already there, which, together with the suits already in hand, in which Brigham and the Mormon leaders are deeply and very heavily -- pecuniarily -- interested, will make a very handsome return.

In past years the Mormon leader has been so denunciatory of the Mormon lawyers, and abusive of the legal fraternity generally, that he has succeeded admirably in crushing every aspiration for legal lore among the young men of his own faith, and to-day in Utah there is not a single Mormon lawyer in the whole of Utah Territory capable of conducting a suit of any magnitude. This poverty of legal ability is the result of his own work, and he now feels the necessity of importing professional ability into the Territory at the highest figure, and thus makes the bid for this Western lawyer, who, by-the-bye, is a gentleman of more than average ability.

THE  GOVERNORSHIP.

Governor Vaughan's name has not yet been sent in to the Senate, while other more recent appointments have already reached the attention of an executive session. President Grant is understood to have made that appointment on the announcement of the death of Governor Shaeffer, believing that the Territory, in its present interesting condition, should not be left an hour without a Governor. He may and may not send in Governor Vaughan's name for confirmation, but, if sent into the Senate at all, it is believed that it will be more routine than desire. There will be no extra effort made to retain Vaughan in the gubernatorial chair. If confirmed without difficulty, it will be accepted as an accident; if he is rejected, another style of man altogether will be sought,

OTHER  CANDIDATES.

While Chief-Justice McKean was in the East some ten days ago, his name was given to the public as a proper successor to Governor Schaeffer; but that gentleman's friends support him in urgent refusal of that office. He is invaluable now on the bench in Utah. He has exhibited eminent qualities for the position he fills, and to take him from the active duties of the court to the routine of the Chief Executive of the Territory would be a fatal error.

The office seems to have been offered to the Hon. S. M. Cullom, of Illinois, by a sort of general sentiment among his associates of his fitness more than from anything else, Mr. Cullom contemplates devoting his time to the banking business at home on his retirement from Congress; but if offered the Utah Governorship with the cordial assent of the Senate, it is very probable that he would accept it. Up to this time I do not think that it has been named to him by the authority of the President. Should he receive this appointment, his administration of the affairs of Utah would doubtless be vigorous; but there is less reason to apprehend collision between him and Brigham than there would be with an unknown man. The Mormon autocrat respects an enemy, however luxuriously he may hate him, and Cullom's record on the Utah question is no mystery. Of all the men yet named in that connection, Cullom seems the best fitted for that position, all things considered. He is a Western man, plain, easily reached, and quickly understood. The hard sense of Western life is a better qualification than bushels of collegiate diplomas and professorships.

The last of the reports here to that connection is the name of a Mr. Fliess, a New York merchant, and though unknown to fame outside of business circles, his influence here is very extended. The Senators who present his name claim that the appointment of Mr. Fliess would be acceptable to the mercantile class now so largely interested In the peaceable development of the Rocky Mountain Territories. Mr. F. is no politician, and his administration would be characterized by a new feature of official surroundings. The governors of Utah have been stigmatized by Brigham Young as needy politicians, always at work devising mischief to him in the hopes of plunder. This new candidate, as he may be so regarded, is in affluent circumstances, and can afford to spend ten times the amount of his salary yearly without inconvenience. The senator to whom I am indebted for these whisperings affirms that it would be in Mr. Fliess's programme to give a social tone to the Governorship of Utah more than the simple bearing of an official. With the gigantic developments of argentiferous Galena recently made in the Territory, and the influx of capitalists among the Saints, I am disposed to believe that Mr. Fliess's proposed method of settling the Mormon question, by the more subtle workings of a well protected and encouraged commerce, would find a great many supporters.

HOOPER  IN  THE  CELLAR

The Utah delegate is, unfortunately, very nervous and easily excited. Of him it has been often remarked that he was either in the garret or in the cellar. He sees his influence departing, and it naturally suggests to him greater difficulties than he ever had to cope with before. He is, physically and mentally, unfitted for the task of controversy, and readily weakens. The schismatics in Utah keep up the unhealthy operation of roasting Brigham every Saturday at home, and on every following Saturday their attacks are placed upon the desks of the most prominent members of both the House and the Senate. Hooper professes to be indifferent to all that kind of thing, but his assumed airs of injured innocence are exceedingly superficial. If the truth were told, it may be that Hooper himself is unsound on Brigham. His persistent refusal to take a second wife is so adduced by the opposition in favor of that charge.

In addition to the onerous duty of defending Brigham, Hooper is to be challenged at the opening of the next session for the illegality of the vote at the last election in Utah. The retiring members of the House and Senate who have heretofore taken part in opposition to Utah, will devote the last portion of their public service to preparing everything they can for their successors in the next session; and with what they are doing, and what General Maxwell, the contesting delegate, and his party will bring to the subject, poor Hooper will be overwhelmed.


Note: This was an unusually non-partisan article for the World, the Democratic standard-bearer of that era's big city newspapers. The "Congressman alluded to" was, of course, the Hon. Thomas Fitch, Jr. of Nevada. Even though he himself credited his 1870 move to Utah to a growing professional involvement in mining law suits, Tom Fitch expected that his law partner and their staff would continue to handle that mundane work load, while Fitch gained a higher level of employment with the leaders of the Mormon Church. The San Francisco Chronicle of Jan. 5, 1871 said: "Tom Fitch will, after the 4th of March, take up his residence at Salt Lake City, Utah, with a view of becoming a prominent citizen of that Territory." The Chronicle neglected to announce Fitch's hopeful eventual elevation to a State of Utah senatorship, however.

THE  NEW  SILVERADO.
_____

A Scramble for Utah -- Rumors of Rich Silver Mines in the
Wasatch Mountains -- Waiting for the Snows to Melt --
Blind Leading the Blind.

Ogden, Utah, April 15. -- Everybody out in these territories seems scrambling towards Utah. The men who have sunk fortunes at Sweetwater and been picking and scraping the last two years to get them out again; miners who have passed through all the successive excitements in Colorado, from Cherry Creek to Cariboo; prospectors who have fought their way from White Pine to Tucson and thence to Silver City: old-timers who have "struck it rich" in California, all and everybody seem flocking towards Salt Lake. The Mormon city is full. It is claimed that there are over two thousand strangers there. Ogden and Corinne are also filling up; and now that everybody has got here the enthusiasm quiets down. The capitalist, looking towards the Wasatch range where the snows lie deeper than for twenty years, curses the bad judgment that brought him here so soon, when mining operations will be delayed till June. The laborer, out of work and out of pocket, sees the Mormon community monopolizing work at $1.50 per day, the cost of living high, business overdone, rents enormous, stores on the main street cannot be bought at any price, and the rent of a building twenty-five feet front and one hundred feet deep, poorly finished, is put at $10,000 a year, with a bonus of $2,000 cash down. Here is a saloon with nine billiard tables in a second story renting for $800 a month.

And what is all this scramble about? Silver mines, supposed to be tb\he richest in the country, and yet so little tested that it is possible they may turn out the poorest. The great extent over which the mines have been discovered -- a field broader than any of the territories can boast of -- and the fine results of a very few tests of the ore, have caused all this extraordinary rush for Utah.

These mines are located in the Wasatch and Oquirrh ranges and the mountains south of them. Commencing a few miles from Echo on the Union Pacific Railroad, the first district is Parley's Park, where galena and black and gray sulphurets are found. South of this is Big Cottonwood, with its good galena; and the Little Cottonwood, with its famous silver lodes. These latter lie within thirty miles of Salt Lake City, and are now the attractive districts. Further south, and on the Wasatch range, are the American Fork and other mines, mostly new, furnishing rich galena, copper, black sulphurets and horn silver. Starting now from Salt Lake, going to the west across the Jordan River, we came to the Oquirrh Mountain, at the south end of the lake. Here are the Tooele and Stockton districts, promising well, on the south side of the Oquirrh range, opposite Stockton, are the Bingham Canyon and East Canyon. At East Canyon is Ophir City, one of the magic cities of the far West. In October last there were only three log huts within five miles. There are now stores, hotels, saloons, and some fifteen hundred inhabitants. It has a daily mail and express, and three lines of stages run to Salt Lake City. A telegraph line will soon be completed to that point. It is the centre of the most favored district. There are no leads. The ore is found in pockets in great quantities. Over six hundred lodes are recorded here. The surroundings are building up fast, and here is likely to be the greatest activity during the coming summer. High up on the hill-side to the south is Silverado, three miles distant, nearly buried in snow. Here are chloride ores. From this point the mining belt extends 300 miles south through Greeley, Camp Floyd, Tintic, Irving, and Meadow Valley, to Pahranagat. It is said that on the Islands in Salt Lake have been found galena, copper, coal and manganese; while in the Wasatch mountains to the northeast ores assay $186 in silver. To the north west of the lake is Black Pine District. The whole silver field of Utah covers an area 400 miles north and south, and 60 east and west.

The present summer is likely to settle the facts in regard to silver-mining in Utah. If the districts now so prominent and for which so much is claimed turn out half so well as many predict, there will be a still greater rush for Utah. If things "flash out," as some are sanguine they will, then this country will experience a reverse which will have its effect for years. It looks now much like ''blind leading the blind." Prospectors and old miners base their whole faith in Utah on the close resemblance of the ores to White Pine in Nevada. It is certain that the actual results thus far are not sufficient to establish Utah at the head of our silver districts. Whatever future seasons may prove, it is certain that this season at least more fortunes will be lost than won. There is too much speculation and excitement for intelligent and persistent work. The only cheap things in Utah are labor and coach fares. You can ride from Salt Lake City to Ophlr -- fifty-five miles -- for $5; to Brigham and Cottonwood for $2.50. In Colorado and New Mexico stage fares are never less than 25 cents a mile.

The merchants of San Francisco, Chicago, and St. Louis are now racing for the trade of Utah. Corinne and Ogden are distributing points for the Territory. The merchants are already carrying on a large wholesale business, mainly in mining machinery, hardware, agricultural implements, saddlery, clothing, &c. Corinne being west of the mountains and most accessible to San Francisco, that city has built up a large business with her. But Chicago, ever pushing in for the main chance, is also filling large orders for this section. It is said that one Chicago wagon-maker sold over $100,000 worth of his ware in Corinne last year. The business of the place is gaining fast, and it is likely to shoot ahead faster and on a more substantial basis than most of the fast-growing towns of the far West. Ogden, by reason of its position as the terminus of three roads and having a fine country immediately tributary to it, is likewise a growing place. The business of the Utah Central, thirty-eight miles long, which is all transferred at this point, is quite large, as will be seen by the following statement of freight which passed over it in a single week: General merchandise, 621,966 lbs.; coal, 424,300 lbs.; lumber, 843,760 lbs.; produce, 261,311 lbs.; machinery, 24,000 lbs.; slate roofing, 89,800 lbs.; wagons, 6,600 lbs.; ores, 880,000 lbs. Add to this some $30,000 in bullion. It is said that over 5,000 passengers went over the road last month. Just at present and for some time to come, we judge, Brigham Young's railroad will prove a good thing.

Yesterday some ten car-loads of machinery, valued at $86,000, arrived at Corinne. It consisted of the boilers and other works for a new steamer about to be put upon Salt Lake. By the 1st of May the City of Corinne will be launched. She will ply between Corinne and the southwest shore of the lake, a route of seventy miles. The nearest mine to the landing is five miles, and others are thirteen, twenty, and various distances, accessible, however, and greatly in need of just such freighting facilities as this steamer will afford. Corinne secures the trade and traffic of most of the silver producing regions by this step, and the expenses will be much less than heretofore, when the ore has been hauled by teams from thirty to fifty miles over some of the worst roads in the West. The products of Rust Canyon, Tintic, Levere, and Pioche will seek this line. What the ten thousand miners who will be at work in the silver districts will need of supplies, produce, and the results of their labor, will all go to this sole steamboat venture between the Missouri and the Pacific coast. The result will be a diversion of much of the busi