The Mormon Delusion 
 
 ITS HISTORY, DOCTRINES, AND THE OUTLOOK 
 IN UTAH 
 
 Rev. M. W. MONTGOMERY 
 
 BOSTON AND CHICAGO 
 
 Congregational Sunoags&crjool ano Hubligrjtno; Soctetg 
 
copyright 1890 by 
 Congregational Sunday-School and Publishing Society 
 
 Electrotyped and Printed by 
 Samuel Usher 111 Devonshire Street Boston 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Hitherto there has not been any one book published that 
 gives all the essential facts about Moraionism and the 
 situation in Utah. Several valuable books treat only of 
 certain periods in Mormon history, or of special phases of 
 the problem. Still other volumes are "founded on facts," 
 — as if the facts themselves were not sufficiently startling. 
 A want has been widely felt for a single book which should, 
 in very brief space, cover all the ground and be adapted to 
 every class of readers who are seeking complete and accurate 
 information on this subject. The following pages are an 
 effort to occupy this open field 
 
 M. W. M. 
 Minneapolis, Minu., 1890. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. page 
 
 The Origin of Mormonism. — Early Years of the 
 False Prophet 11 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Westward Flight. — Cast Out from Civilization. — 
 
 The Prophet Killed ... 35 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Fleeing to the Mountains 62 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The First Ten Years of Mormonism in the Rocky 
 Mountains 74 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 Making Converts in Europe. — One Woman's Life in 
 Mormonism 98 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 Across the Sea to Utah. — The Hand-cart Brigade . 119 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Experiences in Salt Lake City. — Mr. Stenhouse Takes 
 Wife Number Two 138 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Blood Atonement. — Reign of Terror. — Mountain 
 Meadows Massacre 161 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Murder and Treason Unpunished. — Brigham Young . 177 
 
Contents. 
 
 PAGfl 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Polygamy and its Bitter Fruits 193 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 To and Fro in the Earth. — Methods of Mormon Mis- 
 sionaries 216 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 The Bible and Polygamy 229 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Book of Mormon, or " The Golden Bible.'- — 
 Mormonism in Rhyme and Catechism 246 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Mormon Mendacity. — Utah Morals of To-day .... 261 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 The Mormons and Congress. — Judge McKean. — Judge 
 
 Zane. — George Q. Cannon 288 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 The United States Court Denies Citizenship to Mor- 
 mon Foreigners 299 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 Shall Utah become a State ? 312 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 The Outlook. —Past Midnight in Utah. —Attitude of 
 the Mormons. — Schools and Churches. — What 
 Ought Congress to Do for Utah? — What can Citi- 
 zens Do? 327 
 
 Addenda 350 
 
" Mormon " = [xopfiwv = " a hideous monster." 
 
" I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran 
 I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.' 9 
 
 "Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the 
 Lord, that steal my words . . . that prophesy 
 false dreams, . . . and do tell them, and cause 
 my people to err by their lies," 
 
 "Being filled with all unrighteousness." 
 
 name 
 
 They . . . have spoken lying words in my 
 
 99 
 
THE MORMON DELUSION. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF MORMONISM. EARLY YEARS OF THE FALSE 
 
 PROPHET. 
 
 THE Mormons were first organized into a church 
 April 6, 1830, at the house of David Whitmer, in 
 Fayette, Seneca County, New York. Joseph Smith, who 
 called himself a prophet, was the leading spirit in its 
 organization. The six original members consisted of 
 himself and two of his brothers, Hyrum and Samuel H. 
 Smith ; Oliver Cowdery, who afterwards became the 
 prophet's scribe, and Peter and David Whitmer, brothers 
 from Pennsylvania. These men were all ignorant, and 
 some of them were not in good repute among their 
 neighbors. From this humble beginning the so-called 
 Mormon Church has grown like a coarse weed in rich 
 soil. During the sixty years (1830-1890) since that 
 time the church has risen to a membership, in the Rocky 
 Mountains, of about two hundred thousand persons, 
 including children. It also has scattered adherents in 
 most parts of the United States and in many parts of 
 the civilized world, including the islands of the sea. At 
 the first it was named the' " Church of Christ," but 
 this name was changed, several years later, to " The 
 
12 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints." The 
 Mormons, in every-day language, call themselves " Lat- 
 ter Day Saints," or " the Saints," and do not like to be 
 called Mormons. 
 
 Joseph Smith, the prophet so called, was born in 
 Sharon, Vermont, December 23, 1805. When he was 
 eleven years of age, his parents moved to Manchester, 
 New York, near Palmyra. 
 
 The Smiths worked only as necessity required to eke 
 out a half -vagrant life. The father and sons hunted 
 muskrats, peddled with a cart, lounged about the village 
 shops ; were illiterate, shiftless, profane, and intemperate. 
 The prophet's father was a babbler, lover of the marvel- 
 ous, quarrelsome, a moral wreck, and readily followed 
 the vagaries of his son with a conscienceless eye to a 
 little gain and a vulgar notoriety. 
 
 The prophet's mother had a strong mind, but ill- 
 balanced ; was a filthy housekeeper ; a fortune-teller ; 
 a quack doctor ; loved revery and mystery ; claimed that 
 miraculous healings had occurred in her family ; reli- 
 giously, was a "crank"; and was credited with being 
 "more of a fanatic than a fraud." The wild dream of 
 the coming of a prophet in these latter days originated in 
 her own disordered fancy and ambition. While they yet 
 lived in Vermont she proclaimed that a prophet had been 
 born of her, and that Alvah, her oldest son, was the com- 
 ing seer. But Alvah was human, ate too many green 
 turnips and died. The artful mother then announced that 
 it was Joseph who was to be the prophet, and the father 
 joined in telling the story to their children and neighbors. 
 In the family and abroad the fancy was treated with a 
 mysterious solemnity well calculated to make an impres- 
 sion upon similar minds. After the prophet's death she 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 13 
 
 wrote sketches of his life and claimed that miraculous 
 events had been occurring in her family for generations 
 previously. Thus the career of the prophet was planned 
 in outline by his mother even before he was born. 
 
 The parents, and especially the mother, kept before 
 the young Joseph the idea that he was to be some great 
 person, and mysteriously hinted at visions and miracles. 
 " The entire training of the youth was in the direction of 
 his mother's wish. Perhaps the seed of an actual belief 
 in this destiny was so deeply planted in his soul that it 
 bore fruit in all the years of his career. It was never 
 altogether destroyed, giving the key to some things in 
 his character not otherwise made plain. That he was an 
 immense imposition upon the credulity of man, and knew 
 himself to be such, can hardly be questioned ; yet under 
 all quackery there usually lies a stratum of self-decep- 
 tion." l 
 
 The boy had but a smattering of what was then called 
 " schooling." He read very few books and these of the 
 vicious sort. His favorites were the lives of robbers and 
 pirates, such as the ; ' Life of Stephen Burroughs," and 
 the pirate Captain Kidd. The inheritance of bad blood 
 and the impression of such baleful literature developed 
 an imagination which teemed with fraudulent schemes 
 even in the years of boyhood. 
 
 The testimony of many who knew Joseph Smith as a 
 boy and young man has been gathered, and from them 
 we learn that he was "lounging and lazy " ; "a dull-eyed, 
 flaxen-haired, prevaricating boy, noted only for his 
 indolent, vagabondish character and his habits of 
 exaggeration and untruthfulness. He could utter the 
 
 1 Early Days of Mormonism, by J. H. Kennedy. New York: Charles 
 Scribner's Sons. 
 
14 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 most marvelous absurdity with the utmost apparent 
 gravity. He nevertheless evidenced the rapid develop- 
 ment of a thinking, plodding, evil-brewing mental com- 
 position — largely given to inventions of low, cunning 
 schemes of mischief and deception, and false and myste- 
 rious pretensions. . . . He was, however, proverbially 
 good-natured, very rarely, if ever, indulging in any com- 
 bative spirit toward any one, whatever might be the prov- 
 ocation." ] He would " tell fortunes" for pay; claimed 
 that he could tell where veins of water could be found 
 and where money was buried by using a forked stick 
 of witch-hazel as a charm. 
 
 As the young Smith grew into manhood he widened 
 his pretensions and became what his neighbors called a 
 "money digger." From being a "water witch" he 
 gave his spurious claims more interest by giving out that 
 he could tell where the lost treasures of Captain Kidd 
 were buried ; where other hidden riches could be found ; 
 where mysterious chests of gold were concealed in the 
 earth; where stolen coin, silver ore, salt mines, etc., 
 could be discovered. When the possibility of sudden 
 wealth was cunningly held up before his neighbors, 
 the willing dupes multiplied rapidly. His father and 
 brothers were always ready to endorse his schemes that 
 they might share in the petty plunder sometimes secured 
 from those whose avaricious desires made them an easy 
 prey to such a humbugger. Doubtless many were drawn 
 into this fruitless digging in many places for hidden 
 money by this love of the marvelous, which Smith 
 carefully cultivated by accompanying all his pretended 
 information and searches witli strange hints, mysterious 
 signs, and claims to be in close communication with the 
 
 1 Early Days of Mormonism. 
 
The Mormon Delusion, 15 
 
 devil and other "spirits" that were "familiar" with 
 him. 
 
 Eleven reliable citizens of Manchester, New York, 
 where the Smiths lived, signed the following state- 
 ment : — 
 
 We, the undersigned, being personally acquainted with the 
 family of Joseph Smith, Sr. (father of the Prophet), with 
 whom the Gold Bible, so called, originated, state that they 
 were not only a lazy, indolent set of men, but also intemper- 
 ate, and their word was not to be depended upon, and we are 
 truly glad to dispense with their society. 
 
 Sixty- two credible residents of Palmyra, New York, 
 signed the following declaration : — 
 
 We, the undersigned, have been acquainted with the Smith 
 family for a number of j^ears while they resided near this 
 place, and we have no hesitation in saying that we consider 
 them destitute of that moral character which ought to entitle 
 them to the confidence of any community. They were partic- 
 ularly famous for visionary projects ; spent much of their 
 time in digging for money which they pretended was hid in 
 the earth, not far from their residence, where they used to 
 spend their time in digging for hidden treasures. Joseph 
 Smith, Sr., and his son (the so-called prophet) were, in partic- 
 ular, considered entirely destitute of moral character, and 
 addicted to vicious habits. 
 
 Already he began to use religion to further his ends 
 and to practice the hypocrisy which he afterwards used so 
 effectively. One who was a neighbor says : " He claimed 
 to receive revelations from the Lord, and would pray 
 with his men mornings and at other times." 
 
 His next device was what his neighbors called the 
 "peep-stone." Pie had found a stone shaped somewhat 
 like a human foot, and with a bandage over his eyes 
 would fall upon his knees and cover his face with an old 
 
16 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 hat in which this " peep-stone " had first been placed, and 
 then claim to see in the stone the location of lost treas- 
 ures and stolen goods. Some people were duped into 
 paying him for such information and many engaged in 
 extensive digging for hidden things. At one time, when 
 Joseph was overseeing a digging, he said that a fat black 
 sheep must be sacrificed or they should not find the 
 hidden gold. The dupes produced the sheep, and Smith 
 sprinkled its blood over the ground where they should 
 dig. The fact that one of the Smith family disappeared 
 with the fat sheep while the digging was in progress may 
 have been suggestive to some of them. Even this tv peep- 
 stone " humbug was an idea borrowed from a fortune- 
 telling old woman who lived not many miles distant. 
 
 The notoriety which such things gave to Joseph fed 
 the vulgar pride of himself and the Smith family, espe- 
 cially the mother ; but the most important result was the 
 hint it gave to Joseph of the gullibility of mankind. It 
 gave him the confidence necessary to carry out the larger 
 deceptions of later years. The preliminary steps toward 
 these now began to take shape in the mind so fruitful in 
 hatching frauds. 
 
 " It was by such people and amid such surroundings 
 that Mormonism had birth and was nurtured in its early 
 days. In an extended, honestly intended quest along 
 this line of information, I have been unable to find that 
 one of the Mormon leaders in the early days was an ear- 
 nest, honest-minded believer in the creed he advocated. 
 Not one of them would have met martyrdom for con- 
 science' sake. There was not one who did not value it 
 for the gain there was to be had of it. This does not 
 hold true of their followers and dupes, among whom were 
 many who beggared themselves that their church might 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 17 
 
 live, and bravely and lovingly met scorn and injustice 
 that their faith might be made manifest in their works. 
 It was through them that the church gained all the stabil- 
 ity of which it was possessed ; and it was through their 
 efforts that Smith and his co-conspirators were enabled to 
 live in the ease and comfort of which they made such 
 ready use." l 
 
 The next step in the growth of the fraudulent scheme 
 of Joseph Smith was his alleged visions and the visitation 
 of angels and the so-called discovery of golden plates in 
 a bank known as Cumorah Hill, near their residence in 
 Manchester, New York. From the alleged hieroglyphics 
 which he said these plates contained, he pretended to 
 translate by inspiration what was afterwards called the 
 "Book of Mormon," one of the so-called sacred books 
 of the Mormon Church. Great religious excitements 
 were widely prevalent during these years throughout 
 New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Kentucky. All 
 denominations of religious people were more or less 
 moved by revival interest, accompanied by remarkable 
 manifestations. 
 
 The community where the Smiths lived was moved by 
 a revival which appeared in greater or less degree in all 
 the churches, and the Smith family, with their natural 
 love of excitement, mystery, and pretence, were respon- 
 sive to the appeals made to them. Some of them are 
 said to have joined some of the churches, though no 
 reformation in their lives has been credited to them. 
 Smith claimed that the Lord visited him in visions at 
 frequent intervals and told him that the golden plates 
 contained the fullness of the Gospel dispensation. 
 
 This is the fabricated story published to the world by 
 
 1 Early Days of Mormonism, p. 18. 
 
18 TJie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 this impostor. It blinded the eyes of many whose igno- 
 rant credulity invited imposition. If baited with the 
 " mysterious and marvelous," they were ready to swallow 
 any hook which this designing Smith family should throw 
 out. 
 
 The real origin of the so-called "golden plates," how- 
 ever, was not so heavenly as the dreaming Joseph would 
 have us think. Stripped of falsehood, its origin was as 
 follows, as told by Peter Ingersoll, who lived neighbor to 
 the Smiths, and was a comrade of Joseph's. Ingersoll 
 relates that one day Joseph called upon him and was evi- 
 dently much amused by some joke which was " too good 
 to keep," and said that as he (Joseph) was coining 
 through the woods he found some very pretty, white sand 
 and took two or three quarts of it home. The family 
 were at the dinner table, and were very inquisitive about 
 what it was that he had. Their curiosity suggested to 
 him a little sport, and thinking just then of a story he 
 had heard of a "Golden Bible" alleged to have been 
 found in Canada, he assumed a very solemn manner and 
 told them it was " the Golden Bible," and that he had 
 received a commandment to let do one see it, " for," 
 said he to them, " no one can see it with the naked eye 
 and live." To his surprise, they appeared to believe him 
 and were even afraid to have the package unwrapped in 
 their presence. " Now," said Smith to Ingersoll, with an 
 oath, " / have got the fools fixed, and I will carry out the 
 fun." 
 
 Thenceforward he carried out the suggestion which 
 was the result of his little joke, added marvelous 
 details to his story, and gave an air of solemnity and 
 grave importance to the whole matter. The Smith family 
 joined in the hoax and declared their firm belief in the 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 19 
 
 story. They seemed to expect that their love for noto- 
 riety and for unearned money was about to be gratified 
 from this stupid fraud. And they were not mistaken. 
 The rumor of a wonderful discovery spread from neigh- 
 bor to neighbor. Some half-credited the story, while 
 all helped to spread it abroad. No one was more sur- 
 prised than Joseph himself at the success of his hoax, 
 and he fanned the excitement, being careful to protect 
 himself from exposure by those who came to investigate 
 by reiterating that " no one could look upon those plates 
 and live." 
 
 Among the curious callers were two young men, 
 waggish companions of Smith. They begged for the 
 privilege of one look at the mysterious plates, but 
 Joseph was solemn in his asseverations that one such 
 glance would be certain death to both. Smith finally 
 consented to show to them its hiding-place, and permit 
 them to look upon its shape, as it lay covered from 
 view in a corner of the garret. During the interview 
 one of the inquirers suddenly threw off the covering, 
 saying, " I will see the critter, live or die." This 
 unexpected exposure revealed only — a brick! Joseph 
 was not abashed ; his fertile ingenuity in falsehood 
 came to his rescue, and he gravely declared that his 
 supernatural vision had enabled him to see their pur- 
 pose, and so he had misled them as to the place where 
 he was keeping the plates. Not trusting fully in the 
 security of this sham to save him from exposure, he 
 treated his friends to whiskey, and asked them to say 
 nothing. 
 
 Such was the low origin of the whole story of "The 
 Golden Plates," "The Golden Bible," and "The Book 
 of Mormon," which have helped more than a quarter 
 of a million of souls to feed upon delusion ! 
 
20 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 As Joseph Smith was without money or credit, he 
 could not carry his scheme much further without finan- 
 cial assistance. After making many efforts to persuade 
 various persons to be imposed upon by his story of the 
 visions and the golden plates, he finally found a man 
 after his own heart, Mr. Martin Harris. Harris was 
 a farmer possessed of some ten thousand dollars' worth 
 ff property, and had belonged to each of half a dozen 
 religious sects. He was probably partially insane, but 
 he may have been at this time only so badly balanced 
 in mind as to be devoid of any sound judgment. 
 Certain it is that in later years insanity was clearly 
 developed. He had the reputation of abusing his wife 
 and being ready to be a follower of any new faith which 
 might be brought to his attention, especially if it was 
 strange. To him Joseph applied for funds to sustain 
 him in the translation of the golden plates and the 
 publication of the same in book form. Martin seemed 
 ready to be imposed upon, but asked Joseph for a copy 
 of the alleged hieroglyphics upon the golden plates and 
 a translation of some of them, that he might take them 
 to learned men for examination. Joseph was finally 
 persuaded, though with great reluctance, to comply with 
 Martin's request, and gave him a few lines of hiero- 
 glyphics which he said were 'an exact copy from the 
 so-called golden plates. Martin took these to New York 
 City and presented them to Professor Anthon, the 
 distinguished classical scholar. 
 
 Returning to northern New York, Harris reported, and 
 Joseph Smith industriously helped to circulate the report, 
 that Professor Anthon and other celebrated linguists in 
 New York, after examining the characters, stated that 
 they were Egyptian and were correctly translated ; also, 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 21 
 
 that the languages of Egypt, Assyria, and Arabia were all 
 truly represented, and that the characters were genuine. 
 When Professor Anthon heard of this report, he denounced 
 it as a falsehood and gave a written description of 
 Martin's visit to him, from which the following is an 
 extract : — 
 
 The whole story about my having pronounced the Mormon- 
 ite inscription to be "reformed Egyptian hieroglyphics'" is 
 perfectly false. The farmer said that he had been requested 
 to contribute a sum of money towards the publication of ls The 
 Golden Book," the contents of which would, as he had been 
 assured, produce an entire change in the world and save it 
 from ruin. So urgent had been these solicitations that he 
 intended selling his farm and handing over the amount re- 
 ceived to those who wished to publish the plates. As a last 
 precautionary step, however, he had resolved to come to New 
 York and obtain the opinion of the learned about the meaning 
 of the paper. I began to regard it as part of a scheme to 
 cheat the farmer of his money, and I communicated my 
 suspicions to him, warning him to beware of rogues. This 
 paper was in fact a singular scrawl. It consisted of all kinds 
 of crooked characters and was anything else than Egyptian 
 hieroglyphics. 1 
 
 In Pennsylvania, Joseph Smith ran away with Emma 
 Hale, and married her, to the bitter grief of her sensible 
 and honest parents. His father-in-law, Mr. Isaac Hale, 
 some years later gave his views of Smith's character as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Smith and his father and several other ' money- 
 diggers ' boarded at my house while digging in a mine. 
 His appearance at this time was that of a careless young 
 man, not very well educated, and very saucy and insolent 
 to his father. Young Smith gave the money-diggers 
 great encouragement at first, but when they arrived in 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints. 
 
22 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 digging near the place where he had stated an immense 
 treasure would be found, he said the enchantment was 
 so powerful that he could not see. They then became 
 discouraged and soon after dispersed. 
 
 ' ' I was informed that they had brought a wonderful 
 book of plates with them ; that the plates were then in a 
 box into which I was not allowed to look. I informed 
 him that if there was anything of that description in my 
 house which I was not allowed to see, he must take it 
 away. After that the plates were said to be hid in the 
 woods." l 
 
 After Joseph's marriage, and after he had begun his 
 so-called translation of the golden plates, Mr. Hale 
 states that he visited Joseph's home and found him 
 and Martin Harris translating. Joseph had the " stone " 
 in his hat, and his hat over his face, while the book of 
 plates was hid in the woods. 
 
 Despite all the evidence that Smith's golden plates 
 were a fraud, and despite the warnings of neighbors, 
 and of his wife's opposition, — even unto separation 
 from him, — Harris was under the spell of the prophet's 
 influence, and paid three thousand dollars for the 
 publication of five thousand copies of the Book of 
 Mormon. 
 
 Harris clung to the fortunes of Smith ; was reduced 
 in a few years to extreme poverty and suffering ; became 
 a mental wreck ; believed that his every thought was a 
 revelation ; proclaimed that he was Elijah the prophet ; 
 was the sport of street boys and had the respect of no 
 one ; and when he could no longer serve the Smiths he 
 was expelled from the Mormon Church and branded as 
 one who was ; ' a negro with a white skin," and " beneath 
 
 1 Mormon Portraits. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 23 
 
 the contempt of a gentleman." He followed the Mor- 
 mons to Utah and died among them at an extreme age, 
 an object of charity. 
 
 Smith instructed the printers that this manuscript was 
 " sacred," and that it had been "strictly commanded" 
 by revelation that not the least change should be made in 
 transferring it into print. The printers, however, found 
 the manuscript so full of errors in spelling, grammar, 
 punctuation, etc., that they refused to put it into type 
 in this discreditable condition. Smith compromised with 
 them and the work went on, while only the most glaring 
 errors were corrected. 
 
 The book was published in 1830, and was henceforth 
 industriously peddled from house to house by Harris 
 and the Smith family. There were more scoffers than 
 buyers and the scheme collapsed as a financial venture. 
 
 The real source of the Book of Mormon has been 
 much discussed and in some doubt, but recent testimony, 
 some from persons still living, — some of it as late as 
 November, 1887, — taken in connection with undisputed 
 facts and the statements of scores of credible witnesses 1 
 during the whole career of Joseph Smith, leaves that 
 question no longer in reasonable doubt. The facts ap- 
 pear to be as follows : — 
 
 Joseph Smith had told his story of the golden plates, 
 keeping it spread about for some years ; Martin Harris 
 had been his scribe, and together they had " translated" 
 one hundred and sixteen manuscript pages, Harris using 
 the pen while Joseph kept his face in " the old white 
 hat." Then Mrs. Harris became so indignant at the 
 proceedings of " the scoundrel and his dupe," that she 
 
 1 Among these witnesses is Mr. Z. Rudolph, the father of Mrs. James 
 A. Garfield. 
 
24 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 arose in the night, got possession of one hundred and 
 sixteen pages of manuscript and committed them to 
 the flames. Smith then (July, 1828) abandoned his work 
 for some months. Meantime he became acquainted with 
 Eev. Sidney Rigdon, who was henceforth to figure prom- 
 inently in the origin of Mormonism. 
 
 Rigdon was a Campbellite preacher of prominence in 
 northern Ohio, of some education and of decided ability 
 as a speaker. Being of a restless, changeable disposi- 
 tion, he was impressed by Smith's fabrications of mar- 
 velous experiences. About this time he came into pos- 
 session of a manuscript entitled " Manuscript Found." 
 He probably borrowed it' from a printing-office in Pitts- 
 burg, Pennsylvania, where it had been left by the author 
 for publication in case any one was found who would 
 furnish the money to pay for printing. The author of 
 this manuscript was Rev. Solomon Spaulding, a gradu- 
 ate of Dartmouth College, a Presbyterian evangelist, 
 who had given special attention to the question as 
 to what had become of the "lost tribes" of Israel. 
 While residing at Conneaut, northern Ohio, some human 
 bones of large size were dug up in that vicinity, 
 which greatly excited his interest, and he wondered if 
 they were not relics of the "lost tribes." This led 
 him to write a fiction in which he gave wings to his 
 imagination and full scope to his interest in the lost 
 tribes by connecting them with the bones which had been 
 found. In this fiction he followed these tribes across 
 the seas to the western world ; peopled North and South 
 America with them ; had mighty hosts fight battles with 
 results more sanguinary than any ever known in real 
 history. Spaulding traveled much, and wherever he 
 went he read, to whomsoever would listen, his story, 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 25 
 
 which he called " Manuscript Found." To carry out 
 the idea of the plot, he used an ancient style of lan- 
 guage and coined strange names for his heroes. In 
 this way Spaulding's story became well known to many 
 in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. Afterwards 
 (1812) he moved to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and, 
 having no means to get his fiction published himself, 
 left it with the printers, Patterson Brothers, of Pitts- 
 burg, to be published, "if the way should open." Four 
 years afterwards, Spaulding died at Amity, Wash- 
 ington County, Pennsylvania. The manuscript remained 
 with Patterson Brothers for some years, was read by 
 many persons, among whom was Sidney Rigdon, and 
 linallyit was carried away and never returned. There 
 is some evidence going to show that Rigdon knew what 
 "necame of this " Manuscript Found." 
 
 Although it can not be fully proved, yet the writer is 
 convinced that the reading of the fiction, " Manuscript 
 Fjound," by Sidney Ridgon, and the hearing about its 
 contents by Joseph Smith, suggested to these two 
 scvhemers the historical basis of the Book of Mormon ; 
 th'at they united their wits in the preparation of the 
 bcok, and that it may have been copied largely from 
 so: me other unpublished manuscript left by the same 
 So lomon Spaulding. Most of the evidence points clearly 
 to T vvard the conclusion that in some way — not yet fully 
 known, and which may never be known — the Book of 
 Mc >rmon owes its origin to the unpublished manuscripts 
 of Spaulding. 1 
 
 "Thus Mormonism was fairly set afloat upon its destroy- 
 ing \ course, and the trio who are chiefly responsible are 
 
 1 Tmis inquiry is pursued in detail in " New Light on Mormonism," by 
 Mrs. \Ellen E. Dickinson. New York : Funk & Wagnalls. 
 
26 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Joseph Smith, who concocted and managed the frav; 
 Sidney Bigdon, who furnished the brains and the lit' 
 learning ; and Martin Harris, who contributed t. 
 money, and stripped himself of means, home, family 
 and character. 
 
 The false prophet had now entered upon the gres 
 Bcheme to which he devoted the remainder of his life an 
 which has stamped his name with infamy. lie did n< 
 plan the end from the beginning. His villainy waa I 
 growth. From low frauds in secular things, he no- 
 descended to that bottomless pit in character which seel; 
 Id its crimes with the name of religion. Be calld 
 his book, itself a theft, a new Bible. His scheme no- 
 was to win converts without requiring them to breai 
 away from their old faith, but merely accept his late- 
 revelations, which he claimed were a continuation of tie 
 heavenly communications which had been vouchsafed o 
 the prophets of Israel. 
 
 Kev. Sidney Ixigdou. who did more perhaps than an- 
 other to draw into Mormonism a sufficient following to 
 give it standing as a sect, was always ready to preach 
 with fiery earnestness on one day, and on the next d iy 
 to reject the doctrines so taught, and advocate soi ie 
 new thing. After becoming a Disciple preacher he em- 
 braced communistic doctrines and sought to engraft them 
 upon that church. Failing in this, he fell in with Joseph 
 Smith and helped him to found a false religion in wbiich 
 there should be ample room for every wild and wielded 
 notion which the evil one could sugg st to willing tools, 
 rward he was the leading intellect among ithe 
 Mormons until he was expelled from them at Nam 
 He then went to Pennsylvania, started a u communi ty " 
 farm, and died at an advanced age. t 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 27 
 
 All the established facts point to one conclusion, 
 namely : that Sidney Rigdon heard of Joseph Smith's 
 story of the golden plates ; that he showed to Smith 
 the Spaulding manuscript which he had " borrowed'* 
 from the printing-office in Pittsburg ; that these two 
 devised the scheme of the Mormon Bible and the Mor- 
 mon Church ; that Rigdon kept in the background until 
 he had, by even more wild and visionary preaching than 
 was his wont, prepared many of his flock to accept Mor- 
 monism, when he should himself appear to become a 
 convert to it ; that by arrangement with Joseph Smith, 
 Parley Pratt, and Oliver Cowdery, Sidney Rigdon went 
 through the farce of a pretended resistance to the claims 
 of Mormonism and a final yielding ; and the final de- 
 nouement of the fraud was Rigdon's public renuncia- 
 tion of his former faith and confessed conversion to 
 Mormonism. 
 
 In view of all these deceitful plans to palm off the 
 stupid tale about the golden plates being hid for centu- 
 ries in the hill Cumorah in New York, the following 
 verses, which have long had a place in the Mormon 
 hymn-book, startle one with their striking suggestions of 
 the gullibility of the human species : — 
 
 An angel came down from the mansions of glory, 
 And told that a record was hid in Cumorah, 
 Containing the fullness of Jesus' Gospel, 
 And also the cov'nant to gather His people. 
 
 He comes to show the Gospel plan 
 In fullness to benighted man ; 
 Lo ! from Cumorah's lonely hill, 
 There comes a record of God's will. 
 
28 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Translated by the power of God, 
 His voice bears record to His word. 
 Again an angel did appear, 
 As witnesses do record bear. 
 
 An angel from on high, 
 
 The long, long silence broke ; 
 Descending from the sky, 
 These gracious words he spoke : 
 Lo ! in Cumorah's lonely hill, 
 A sacred record lies concealed. 
 
 Sealed by Moroni's hand, 
 
 It has for ages lain, 
 To wait the Lord's command, 
 From dust to speak again. 
 It shall again to light come forth, 
 To usher in Christ's reign on earth. 
 
 It speaks of Joseph's seed, 
 
 And makes the remnant known 
 Of nations long since dead, 
 Who once had dwelt alone. 
 The fullness of the Gospel, too, 
 Its pages will reveal to view. 
 
 The time is now fulfilled, 
 The long expected day ! 
 
 Mr. Z. Rudolph, the father of Mrs. James A. Garfield, 
 recently declared that, " during the winter previous to 
 the appearance of the Book of Mormon, Rigdon was in 
 the habit of spending weeks away from his home, going 
 no one knew where ; and that he often appeared very 
 pre-occupied and would indulge in dreamy, imaginative 
 talks which puzzled those who listened. When the Book 
 of Mormon appeared and Rigdon joined in the advocacy 
 of the new religion, the suspicion was at once aroused 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 29 
 
 that he was one of the framers of the new doctrines, and 
 probably was not ignorant of the authorship of the book." 
 
 We have the following significant statement from Mr. 
 D. Atwater, who sat under Rigdon's preaching in the 
 Mantua church : — 
 
 " During the winter preceding the advent of the book, 
 Rigdou had absented himself from his communistic com- 
 munity at Kirtland for several weeks, explaining to no 
 one his whereabouts, and carrying himself with a myste- 
 rious manner on his return. That he was with Smith 
 during this absence, and engaged in the promotion of 
 their scheme, there can be little doubt. In his preaching 
 during this absence he seemed to be paving the way for 
 some new things in the spiritual life of his community ; 
 and much in his course that was not then understood 
 became as clear as noontide in the light of after-events. 
 He prepared the ground with great care, so that the 
 transplanted tree, when it was brought into their midst, 
 would take sure root. He declared to his people that he 
 did not possess the full comfort of his religion as he 
 desired, and stood in the attitude of one seeking new 
 light. He so shaped the thought of those who looked up 
 to him as a spiritual guide that they were watching night 
 and morning for the coming of a sign, and were prepared 
 for any new trend of belief to which their ignorant cre- 
 dulity should be directed. Always fervent, and by nature 
 a powerful actor, Rigdon played upon their souls with 
 such power and to such purpose as he willed, and carried 
 them a long way toward the new creed before they had 
 knowledge of its existence." l 
 
 At the appointed time the forerunners of the Mormon 
 Church appeared in northern Ohio, and particularly in 
 
 1 Early Days of Mormonism, p. 71. 
 
30 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Kirtland and among Rigdon's congregation of Disciples, 
 who had been so well prepared by his previous loose and 
 uprooting harangues. "The sensation was like the 
 sparkle and exhilaration of new wine, and the whole 
 community opened its mouth and stood waiting, as men 
 perpetually athirst." Y 
 
 Rigdon pretended to assail the new doctrines and the 
 Book of Mormon, and public debates followed until 
 the whole community became greatly excited. He 
 secluded himself for two days, and then suddenly 
 re-appeared and announced his conversion to Mormon- 
 ism, declaring to his now confused flock that God had 
 given him " a sign " that all other religions were corrupt 
 and that the Book of Mormon was a divine revelation. 
 " Imagination can well measure the effect of this surren- 
 der upon Rigdon's simple followers. The last stay upon 
 which their doubt hung gave way, and they went into the 
 new fold almost en masse. Rigdon and his wife were 
 publicly baptized by Cowdery on the Sabbath following. 
 The results of this surrender far outran the changes of 
 temper and feeling in one man. New life was given to 
 the struggling and uncertain Mormon Church by the 
 accession within a short period of over one hundred 
 members ; and a house of refuge was provided in its 
 days of weakness and need." 2 
 
 While Joseph Smith's Book of Mormon was going 
 through the press, he was diligently at work in other 
 directions carrying out the plan perfected by himself 
 and Sidney Rigdon for a new Bible, a new sect, and 
 the notoriety, license, and wealth which they confidently 
 expected would follow. On April 6, 1830, he organized 
 
 1 Early Days of Mormonism, p. 77. 
 -Ibid, p. 81. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 31 
 
 his church. In June of the same year the membership 
 had grown to thirty persons. 
 
 Smith announced that he and Cowdery had received 
 authority from the Holy Spirit to baptize each other. 
 " From this date forward Smith threw off all reserve, 
 and claimed in public everywhere full possession of the 
 powers and responsibilities that he held to through all 
 his after-life. Angels constantly visited him and minis- 
 tered unto him ; the will of the Lord was ever present 
 to him in special revelations ; men were called, ordained, 
 and sent hither and thither at command ; and he became, 
 in the language of a Mormon hymn, ' the mouth-piece of 
 God.' " ! 
 
 But the notoriously bad character of the Smith family 
 was so well known in the vicinity of Manchester and 
 Palmyra, New York, that Smith foresaw that his new- 
 church scheme could not succeed unless transplanted to 
 some distant community. Even the eloquence and fervor 
 of Sidney Rigdon, who came to Palmyra and preached 
 the new doctrines, fell flat upon the hearers, and he was 
 refused even a hall in which to continue his harangues. 
 
 At Kirtland, Ohio, the circumstances were very favor- 
 able for introducing the new sect. Sidney Rigclon's 
 preaching had prepared the way for Mormonism, and 
 here it first took deep rooting. Joseph Smith, accord- 
 ing to his usual convenient custom, now announced that 
 he had received a "revelation" which was in exact 
 conformity to his own desires and plans, namely : that 
 Kirtland was the "Promised Land" of the Mormons; 
 that the church was to be removed there ; and he sent 
 thither David Whitmer to take charge of the new church. 
 
 The Smith family arrived in Kirtland in February, 
 
 1 Early Days of Mormonism, p. 73. 
 
32 Tlie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 1831, and the prophet found himself an object of 
 wonder and reverence to his followers, and of curiosity 
 to all. 
 
 He made the most of the situation, and was full of 
 " revelations." Finding that his own supposed superior- 
 ity to his brethren lay iu his alleged "revelations from 
 the Lord," he promptly proceeded to monopolize this 
 privilege by announcing a new revelation, as follows : — 
 
 "Behold, verily, verily, I say unto thee, no one shall 
 be appointed to receive commandments and revelations 
 in this church excepting my servant, Joseph Smith, 
 Jr. . . . with power and authority unto the church." 
 
 Other timely revelations announced that his wife 
 Emma was "to be supported from the church;" that 
 the Mormons were to build their prophet a dwelling- 
 house ; that most of the leading Mormons were to go 
 forth on missions and preach the new gospel. 
 
 "The love of the marvelous to which men are heir, 
 the preaching of the many missionaries sent hither and 
 thither, and the personal efforts of Rigdon and Smith 
 had their natural results, and by May numerous additions 
 had been made to the little church. Converts came from 
 all directions, many of them from New York and the New 
 England States. Some fifty families had come from the 
 vicinity of Smith's old home. The lines along which the 
 founders of the creed had done their work were found to 
 be those most nearly allied to human superstition and 
 fear, and each successful venture gave new encourage- 
 ment for another trial in the same direction." 1 
 
 The Christian ministers and churches in north-eastern 
 Ohio did not look on in silence and inactivity while this 
 gathering flood of fraud and fanaticism was sweeping 
 
 1 Early Days of Mormonism. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 33 
 
 many of their own flocks away from the moorings of a 
 sound faith, filling all that country with an unhealthy 
 excitement, and giving the vicinity an unenviable repu- 
 tation abroad. They accordingly attacked the new 
 delusion with all their power and with their combined 
 forces. Alexander Campbell came to the rescue of his 
 Disciple churches and spent twenty-two days in the 
 vicinity of Kirtland, throwing all his energies into the 
 combat, and also published a book exposing the absurd 
 claims of the Book of Mormon. Mormonism was put 
 to a test greater than it could bear, and these onslaughts 
 had utterly broken it down had it not been for the con- 
 stant accessions which it was receiving from distant 
 places where its follies and absurdities had not been 
 exposed. It should be carefully noted that this same 
 fact has kept Mormonism alive and growing from that 
 day to this. It could live at Kirtland only on its 
 recruits from outside ; the same inflow sustained it for 
 a time in Missouri ; at Nauvoo, in Illinois, the local 
 hostility would soon have throttled it, but, instead, it 
 grew like a rank weed by the numbers that poured in 
 from far-distant states ; and again, when transplanted to 
 Utah, the whole world was laid under tribute and its 
 recruiting streams of deceived humanity and wild fanat- 
 icism poured in from every quarter of the globe. 
 Mormonism has lived unto this hour upon the fresh 
 victims which its insatiable fanaticism and lust have 
 dragged into its meshes. 
 
 So at Kirtland for a time Mormonism grew, despite 
 all crushing blows brought against it. Rev. Ezra Booth, 
 a Methodist, and Rev. Symonds Ryder, a Disciple, 
 became converts, and helped to draw many others into 
 the delusion ; but being honest men at heart and really 
 
34 Tlie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 deceived, they soon publicly renounced their error, and 
 henceforth fought Mormonism with an energy and zeal 
 which could only be shown by those who had experienced 
 the power of its allurements and tasted the bitterness of 
 its poisoned cup. 
 
 "The zeal of the missionaries at various points had 
 been prolific of results, and almost every day saw an 
 accession of new members to the little community. 
 Many came from a distance, and among them were 
 families of character and wealth. Smith was treated 
 with the consideration due one to whom the mantle of 
 Elijah and the rod of Aaron had fallen in the direct 
 line of prophetic heirship, aud was loved by man} 7 and 
 feared by all. One who was present during these scenes 
 declares that ' Kirtland presented the appearance of a 
 modern religious Mecca. Like Eastern pilgrims, they 
 came full of zeal for their new religion. They came in 
 rude vehicles, on horseback, on foot. They came almost 
 every way, filling, on their arrival, every house, shop, 
 aud barn to the utmost capacity.'" 1 
 
 The poets came forth in honor of their prophet, and 
 the people sang with enthusiasm such stanzas as 
 these : — 
 
 Now we '11 sing with one accord, 
 For a Prophet of the Lord, 
 Bringing forth His precious word, 
 Cheers the Saints as anciently. 
 
 Even Joseph he inspired, 
 Yea, his heart he truly fired, 
 With the light that he desired, 
 For the work of righteousness. 
 
 1 Early Days of Mormonism, p. 109. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 6b 
 
 And the Book of Mormon, true, 
 With its Cov'nant, ever new, 
 For the Gentile and the Jew, 
 He translated sacredly. 
 
 We 'ye found the way the Prophets went, 
 
 Who lived in days of yore ; 
 Another Prophet now is sent, 
 
 This knowledge to restore. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WESTWARD FLIGHT. CAST OUT FROM CIVILIZATION. 
 
 THE PROPHET KILLED. 
 
 JOSEPH SMITH seemed to anticipate that the 
 civilization of northern Ohio would not long tol- 
 erate his pretensions and unclean practices, and to have 
 made some preparations for an early removal. Some 
 of his elders who were in the west on " missions " wrote 
 to him such glowing accounts of the country in Missouri 
 that in June, 1831, he announced another "revelation," 
 that God had chosen Independence, Missouri, as the 
 " Promised Land," and that most of the leading Mormon 
 men were to start within two weeks to Missouri, going 
 by "twos" on separate routes and preaching Mormon- 
 ism wherever hearers could be gathered. The prophet 
 himself also went via Cincinnati, Louisville, and St. Louis. 
 At Independence a large tract of land was purchased, 
 and " the foundations of Zion " were laid with many cere- 
 monies by the thirty adherents who were present. Smith 
 
36 Tlie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 proclaimed that here was to be the chosen city of God, 
 excelling in glory all the cities of the world ; its streets 
 were to be paved with gold. 
 
 " All who escaped the general destruction which was 
 soon to take place would there assemble with all their 
 wealth ; the ten lost tribes of Israel had been discovered 
 in their retreat in the vicinity of the North Pole, where 
 they had for ages been secluded by immense barriers 
 of ice, and become vastly rich ; the ice in a few years 
 was to be melted away, when those tribes, with St. John 
 and some of the Nephites, which the Book of Mormon 
 had immortalized, would be seen making their appear- 
 ance in the new city, loaded with immense quantities of 
 gold and silver. 
 
 " Under the quickening effects of this generous promise 
 of help and riches, the poor dupes dug and delved and 
 carried as Smith ordered, and counted pain and isolation 
 and exile as nothing in comparison with the spiritual and 
 temporal rewards that were to be." 1 
 
 Joseph and his band in Missouri, after having a bitter 
 quarrel which came near scattering them, returned to 
 Kirtland, many of them quite discouraged and some with 
 their eyes opened. He found his flock in Ohio in such 
 a state that it required all his cunning and ingenuity to 
 hold them together. He was, however, equal to the 
 occasion, and assumed new powers and began new enter- 
 prises, which made his followers forget their doubts 
 and unite in their labors. A store was opened, a school 
 and newspaper started, and the "gift of tongues" was 
 granted to the laity. In 1833 the Kirtland Mormon tem- 
 ple was begun, and was completed two years later. 
 
 At their testimony meetings whatever senseless jargon 
 
 1 Early Daya of Mormonism, pp. 97, 98. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 37 
 
 a speaker might utter, the next speaker would give " the 
 interpretation," and both would be claimed to be speak- 
 ing by divine inspiration. One member lost his faith 
 in "the gift" as well as in Mormonism by delivering 
 some remarks in the Choctaw language, which he under- 
 stood, and hearing another brother immediately arise 
 and give the interpretation in English, the whole inter- 
 pretation bemg upon entirely another theme ! 
 
 One of Smith's attempts to perform a miracle brought 
 upon him life-long ridicule. Always claiming to achieve 
 some miracle in blasphemous imitation of those recorded 
 in the New Testament, he caused it to be announced 
 that on a certain evening he would walk upon the 
 water. This announcement awakened great interest ; 
 unbelievers in the vicinity carefully watched the water 
 during the previous night, and saw several of the 
 leading Mormons vigorously at work driving forked 
 sticks into the ground under the water ; on these they 
 placed planks which were thus invisible, being under 
 the water. When the work was completed at near day- 
 light, and the "believing saints" had gone home, one 
 of the planks was quietly removed by a disbeliever. 
 The next evening in the presence of a large crowd, 
 the prophet, Joseph Smith, pompously arrayed in robes, 
 proceeded into the water and began to walk upon it, 
 his feet being some six inches under the surface. He 
 was loudly declaiming what wonders could be done by 
 those who had faith, when suddenly he fell headlong 
 into the river, amid the laughter and jeers of the G-entiles 
 present. True to the cunning which never deserted him, 
 upon reaching the shore, he exclaimed: "O ye of little 
 faith ! if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, I 
 could remove mountains." 
 
38 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 " The men who had been sent into the Gentile world 
 to warn it against the wrath to come did not hesitate to 
 work, when possible, upon the superstitious fears of their 
 hearers. Many who listened made haste to escape the 
 threatened wrath, and sold their possessions for such 
 price as they could command, and, hurrying to Kirtland, 
 cast their lot in with the Mormon Church. It was 
 preached through western New York that the state would 
 be sunk within two years, and that only such places as 
 were designated as stakes of Zion would escape." l 
 
 One of Smith's prophecies was as follows : — 
 
 "Let the bishop go into the city of New York, and 
 also to the city of Albany, and also to the city of 
 Boston, and warn the people of these cities, with the 
 sound of the gospel, with a loud voice, of the desolation 
 and the dread affliction which awaits them if they do 
 reject this thing ; for if they do reject these things, the 
 hour of their judgment is nigh and their houses shall be 
 left unto them desolate." 
 
 A sick Mormon was advised to take no medicine, as 
 the elders could cure him by the laying on of hands. 
 When too far gone for the reach of medicines he saw 
 his mistake and warned others. The prophet took the 
 crippled hand of one of his elders, and in the name 
 of the Lord pronounced it cured, but it never was any 
 better. Another crippled elder had faith to let the 
 prophet treat him, but got no relief. The child of a 
 Mormon family was seriously ill ; the troubled parents 
 would have a physician, but yielded to the assurances 
 of Smith and Rigdon that they could heal it. After 
 their mummeries were repeated over the child, it died. 
 The parents still kept their faith when they were prom- 
 
 1 Early Days of Morraouism, p. 125. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 39 
 
 ised that their child should now be raised from the dead, 
 and Smith had the wicked effrontery to go through a 
 pretence of trial. When the deceived parents finally 
 buried their loved one they buried with it all their faith 
 in Mormonism. These are fair samples of Mormon 
 miracles. Sometimes, by some jugglery or favoring 
 accident, they secured a plausible claim to miraculous 
 healing, and by these held their easy dupes to their 
 faith. 
 
 The missionaries of the new church were now zeal- 
 ously preaching the faith in nearly every state in the 
 Union, and Mormon "stakes" began to spring up in 
 nearly all the states of the east and the interior. In 
 1836 the Mormons claimed that their adherents in the 
 United States numbered forty-five thousand. 
 
 As Kirtland grew in size, Mormon business affairs 
 increased also. Joseph Smith's eye was alert to any 
 pecuniary advantages which the situation offered. A 
 "revelation" now appeared commanding the starting 
 of a Mormon bank by Smith and Rigdon, which was 
 "to swallow up all other banks." The legislature 
 refused a charter, but this was not to hinder a bank 
 which had the "divine sanction"! After the most 
 strenuous efforts to gather funds to start the bank, five 
 thousand dollars was the actual paid-in capital ; over 
 fifty thousand dollars in notes of the bank were issued. 
 It was announced that the bank had " a capital of four 
 millions of dollars," and the bold prophet opened its 
 doors " for business." Its chief business proved to be 
 the receiving of funds which the depositors never saw 
 again, and the issuing of its own notes with no provision 
 for their redemption. But this community had " faith," 
 and large amounts of these notes went into circulation, 
 
40 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 and "the Church," especially Smith ana Rigdon, pros- 
 pered for a season. 
 
 Many of the faithful moved on to the " Zion " in 
 Missouri, until most of the older leaders had gone. 
 Many who remained fell away from their faith ; others 
 were discontented ; quarrels, schisms, expulsions, and 
 open rebellion were frequent experiences. 
 
 The bank closed its doors. Arrest and imprisonment 
 were now likely to fall upon the prophet and his vice- 
 conspirator, Rigdon, at any moment. Securing revolvers 
 and fleet horses, this pair set out hastily (January, 1838) 
 for a night ride westward. For two hundred miles the 
 officers of the law pursued them in vain, and then gave 
 up the chase. Smith afterwards told that one night 
 these officers occupied an adjoining room in the same 
 hotel where he and Rigdon were staying, but were not 
 aware that their game was so near at hand. The fleeing 
 prophet reached his followers in Missouri in the fol- 
 lowing March, where he began again the same tactics 
 which he had employed at Kirtland. 
 
 Mr. S. F. Whitney, of Willoughby, Ohio, a reliable 
 eye-witness, says : — 
 
 " The Mormons taught their followers that they were 
 to possess all things. Foraging among the Gentiles they 
 called 'sucking the milk of the Gentiles.' . . . The Mor- 
 mon leaders brought to Kirtland a wretched set, then 
 swindled and forsook them. Those who remained gener- 
 ally became infidels, atheists, or spiritualists." 
 
 It was a favorite method with Smith to get new 
 converts to put their money into his hands, which they 
 were likely never to see again. All along Mormon history 
 this has been and is to-day a commoD practice with 
 Mormon elders. In 1838 another trustworthy witness 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 41 
 
 wrote: "The leading Mormons have aggrandized them- 
 selves and families until they have reduced their followers 
 to wretchedness and want. For the year past their lives 
 have been one continued scene of lying, deception, and 
 fraud, and that, too, in the name of God." 1 
 
 For three years prior to the disgraceful flight of Joseph 
 Smith from Kirtland, small bands of Mormons had been 
 coming into several counties of Missouri. The counties 
 of Clay, Carroll, Jackson, Davies, and Caldwell were the 
 unfortunate recipients of these troublesome people. In 
 each place there rapidly developed a strong enmity 
 between the Mormons and the other citizens of the 
 vicinity. The attitude and claims of the Mormons 
 were very irritating to their neighbors. The Mormons 
 claimed to be the chosen people of God ; they were 
 soon to possess all the land in that part of the country, 
 and finally the whole earth ; and sudden destruction from 
 God was to come upon their Gentile neighbors, and over- 
 throw all the inhabitants of the earth who were not 
 Mormons. Then the Saints were bigoted and clannish. 
 To " suck the milk of the Gentiles " was their only 
 object when they deigned to associate with the " cor- 
 rupt world " outside their own sect. They voted at 
 all times as one man the ticket dictated to them by 
 their priests (as they have since continued to do) ; they 
 were disloyal to all interests of the community as a 
 whole, to the state, and to the nation, save only as 
 such interests chanced to favor their own narrow and 
 selfish sectarianism. Added to these were their wild 
 fanaticism, low morals, and many crimes. Their hands 
 were against every man, and every man's hand was 
 against them. Many outrages were committed on both 
 
 1 Naked Truths about Mormonism, by A. B. Deming, Oakland, Cal. 
 
42 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 sides. The generating force at the center, however, 
 was that the beliefs and practices of the Mormons 
 were shocking to the common instincts and baleful 
 to the most sacred interests of the community. That 
 community rebelled against this incoming poison, and cast 
 it forth. One hostile demonstration followed another in 
 quick succession — threats, warnings, private vengeance, 
 fights at the election polls, mobs, house-burnings, assas- 
 sinations, arrests, imprisonments, the state militia, the 
 governor's proclamations, generals — until the Mormons 
 yielded to the stinging enmity which surrounded them, 
 and departed. It w T as estimated that at one time six 
 thousand citizens, including the state militia, were under 
 arms against them. 
 
 From all sides the fleeing Mormons gathered in large 
 numbers at Far West, their headquarters in Caldwell 
 County. But the Missourians were not content, and 
 determined that every Mormon settlement in the state 
 should be broken up. Mob law was to be the instrument. 
 The citizens were still further greatly exasperated by a 
 Fourth-of-July address to the Mormons by their chief 
 fanatic, Sidney Rigdon, in which he said : — 
 
 ' ' We take God and all the holy angels to witness this 
 day that we warn all men, in the name of Jesus Christ, 
 to come on us no more forever. The man, or the set of 
 men, who attempts it does so at the expense of their 
 lives ; and the mob that comes on to disturb us, it shall 
 be between us and them a war of extermination, for we 
 will follow them till the last drop of blood is spilled, or 
 else they will have to exterminate us ; for we will carry 
 the seat of war to their own houses and their own 
 families, and one part or the other shall be utterly 
 destroyed. Remember it then, all men!" 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 43 
 
 The Mormon " Danite Band," whose cruelties, private 
 assassinations, and massacres have written the blackest 
 pages in the dark history of the Mormons, originated at 
 this time. 
 
 Elder John Hyde gives the origin of the name as 
 follows : — 
 
 " A ' death society' was organized in 1838, under the 
 direction of Sidney Rigdon, and with the sanction of 
 Smith. Its object was the punishment of the obnoxious. 
 They desired a name that should seem to combine spir- 
 itual authority with a suitable sound. Micah 4:13 fur- 
 nished a name, and they called themselves the ' Daughters 
 of Zion.' Some ridicule was made at these bearded and 
 bloody ' Daughters.' 'Destroying Angels' came next; 
 the ' Big fan of the thresher that should thoroughly purge 
 the floor 'was tried and dropped. Genesis 49: 17 fur- 
 nished the name that they finally assumed. The verse is 
 quite significant : ' Dan shall be a serpent by the way, 
 an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that 
 his rider shall fall backward.' The 'Sons of Dan' was 
 the style they adopted, and many have been the times 
 that they have been adders in the path, and many a man 
 has fallen backward, and has been seen no more." l 
 
 An officer in the Mormon Church, Dr. Avard, ad- 
 dressed this Danite Band during the exciting times 
 which enveloped them in Missouri, and said : — 
 
 " Know ye not, brethren, that it will soon be your 
 privilege to take your respective companies and go out 
 on a scout on the borders of the settlements and take to 
 yourselves spoils of the ungodly Gentiles? For it is 
 written : ' The riches of the Gentiles shall be conse- 
 crated to my people, the house of Israel 
 
 1 Mormonisua, p. 105. 
 
44 TJie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 waste away the Gentiles by robbing and plundering them 
 of their property ; and in this way we will build up the 
 kingdom of God, and roll forth the little stone that Daniel 
 saw cut out of the mountain without hands until it shall 
 fill the whole earth. For this is the very way that 
 God destines to build up his kingdom in the last days. 
 . . . And if any of us transgress we will deal with him 
 amongst ourselves. And if any of this Danite Society 
 reveals any of these things, I will put him where the 
 dogs can not bite him." l 
 
 The Mormon bishop, John D. Lee, in his Confessions, 
 says : — 
 
 ' ' The members of this order were placed under the 
 most sacred obligations that language could invent. 
 They were sworn to stand by and sustain each other ; 
 sustain, protect, defend, and obey the leaders of the 
 church under any and all circumstances unto death; and 
 to disobey the orders of the leaders of the church, or 
 divulge the name of a Danite to an outsider, or to make 
 public any of the secrets of the order of Danites, was to 
 be punished with death. And I can say of a truth, many 
 have paid the penalty for failing to keep their covenants." 
 
 General Clark's report to the governor at this time 
 (November 10, 1838) says : — 
 
 " There is no crime, from treason down to petit lar- 
 ceny, but these people, or a majority of them, have been 
 guilty of — all, too, under the counsel of Joseph Smith, 
 Junior, the prophet. They have committed treason, 
 murder, arson, burglary, robbery, larceny, and perjury. 
 They have societies formed under the most binding cove- 
 nants in form and the most horrid oaths to circumvent 
 the laws, and put them at defiance ; and to plunder and 
 
 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 92. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 45 
 
 burn and murder, and divide the spoils for the use of the 
 church." 
 
 The result was that the Mormons were disarmed, their 
 leaders, including Smith, imprisoned, and an agreement 
 made that they should all leave the state in the following 
 spring. Many deserted the Mormon Church, but most 
 remained true to their delusion, cheerfully met their 
 multiplied hardships as religious persecution for Christ's 
 sake, and appeared as if they were ready to suffer even 
 death itself. 
 
 Brigham Young, who was then the president of the 
 so-called "Twelve Apostles," now began to come to the 
 front and to develop that executive ability which carried 
 him successfully through his long career. He had previ- 
 ously fled from Missouri and joined the many Mormon 
 refugees who had already found an asylum at Quincy, 
 Illinois. Here the scattered bands began to re-assemble 
 in the spring of 1839, and here the Prophet Joseph and 
 his jail companions appeared after their rapid flight from 
 the officers of the law in Missouri. 
 
 When these stripped and defeated refugees found that 
 their prophet was again among them with his deceptive 
 " revelations," and when they felt the energetic hand of 
 Brigham Young guiding their interests, they again took 
 courage. Smith soon selected for their future location a 
 charming site on the Illinois bank of the Mississippi 
 river, sixty miles above Quincy and twenty miles below 
 Burlington. He purchased a large tract of land there, 
 and laid out a city four miles wide and three miles long, 
 which he called Nauvoo, " The Beautiful." 
 
 The Mormons who were gathering at Quincy were in a 
 pitiable condition. They were all refugees who had fled 
 from their enemies in Missouri. Most of their personal 
 
46 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 property had been destroyed or taken from them ; many 
 of their former homes were in ashes ; the improvements 
 made on their new farms in Missouri were sacrificed, as 
 they had to sell out at prices set by their enemies. Most 
 of them were now glad to do any work which would feed 
 and clothe their families. The citizens of Quincy and 
 vicinity received them kindly and helped their necessities. 
 
 At Nauvoo the homeless Mormons began anew to 
 rebuild their lost fortunes. Within one year their village 
 contained two hundred and forty houses, and new 
 structures were starting up almost daily. Within a few 
 months more they had saw-mills, a flouring-mill, a 
 foundry, and factories for making chinaware and tools ; 
 and a steamboat for traffic on the Mississippi. They had 
 many missionaries scattered abroad preaching their so- 
 called gospel. Their sufferings at the hands of the mobs 
 in Missouri having been widely published awakened 
 much sympathy for them. This fact was skillfully used 
 by their traveling emissaries and it gave them a much 
 wider hearing and many new converts. 
 
 Nauvoo grew as if by magic, as the new devotees came 
 in large numbers and placed themselves and their all 
 under the control of the church. Many of the fresh arri- 
 vals were persons of some means, and the wily prophet 
 knew how to persuade them " by revelation " to deposit 
 their cash with him. 
 
 " By revelation" Joseph Smith again provided a home 
 and board for his family in these terms : ' ' And now I 
 say unto you, as pertaining to my boarding-house which 
 I have commanded you to build for the boarding of 
 strangers, let it be built unto my name, and let my 
 name be named upon it, and let my servant Joseph and 
 his house have place therein from generation to 
 generation." 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 47 
 
 Then followed another revelation commanding the 
 building of a temple of magnificent proportions. Into 
 the building of this temple the Mormons, with a devotion 
 worthy a better cause, poured their money and their 
 labor with such liberality that it was so nearly com- 
 pleted by May, 1846, as to be dedicated, and it is said 
 by themselves to have cost six hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 The presidential campaign of 1840 was the means of 
 giving to the Mormons undue political importance. The 
 judicial district in which Nauvoo was situated and, 
 indeed, the whole state of Illinois were so closely 
 balanced between the Whig and Democratic parties 
 that it was thought the Mormons from their custom of 
 voting "solid," as directed by their prophet, had the 
 balance of power. The leaders on both sides waited 
 on Smith, and the result was that he had a " revelation" 
 that the Mormon votes should be cast for the Whig 
 ticket, and it was elected. In return the Whigs were 
 to give a charter to the city of Nauvoo which should 
 suit the Mormons. When the bill came before the 
 legislature granting unheard-of powers to the Mormon 
 city, both political parties supported it — the Whigs in 
 return for past votes, and the Democrats in hope of 
 favors to come. This short-sighted pandering to the 
 Mormon vote bore early and most bitter fruits. The 
 Mormons were emboldened to make the most extraor- 
 dinary demands of the state, and even of the nation. 
 Ignoring the county in which Nauvoo was situated, they 
 provided in Nauvoo an office for the recording of deeds 
 and issuing of marriage licenses ; and for the right of 
 the municipal court to take any Nauvoo citizen under 
 arrest by state officers out of their hands and set him 
 at liberty. They also asked Congress to pay them 
 
48 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 $1,333,000 for property lost in their Missouri troubles, 
 and that the mayor of Nauvoo might call out the United 
 States troops when he should need their assistance. A 
 local military force called the ' ' Nauvoo Legion " was also 
 organized. "Thus it was proposed to reestablish for 
 the Mormons a government within a government ; a 
 legislature with power to pass ordinances at war with 
 the laws of the state ; courts to execute them, with but 
 little dependence upon the constitutional judiciary ; and 
 a military force at their own command, to be governed 
 by its own laws and ordinances, and subject to no state 
 authority but that of the governor." l 
 
 One of the results was that the governor of Illinois 
 afterwards experienced the humiliation of having his 
 own order for the arrest of Joseph Smith set aside by 
 Smith himself as mayor of Nauvoo ! 
 
 Nauvoo and the Mormons, once more freed from 
 enemies within and without, grew rapidly in numbers 
 and in power. Brigham Young went " on a mission" 
 to England, and as early as the summer of 1840 the first 
 company of English converts, to the number of forty, 
 set out from Liverpool to " gather to Zion," and were 
 followed in September by two hundred more. All 
 reached Nauvoo in safety, and also in joy, as they 
 said, that they had successfully escaped the destruction 
 that was so soon to overwhelm the Gentile world. The 
 numbers of these foreign and obedient new converts 
 which came to the young Mormon city before the 
 prophet's death were as follows: — in 1840, 240; in 
 1841, 1,135; in 1842, 1,614; in 1843, 769. 
 
 The corner-stone of the Mormon Temple in Nauvoo 
 was laid on the sixth of April, 1841 — the eleventh anni- 
 
 1 Governor Ford's History of Illinois, p. 265. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 49 
 
 versary of the organization of the church. The cere- 
 monies of the occasion were most elaborate and imposing, 
 and great crowds of people from the surrounding coun- 
 try attended, while the Mormons were present in a 
 body. 
 
 Fourteen companies of the Mormon militia, the Nauvoo 
 Legion, were on parade, armed and uniformed, while 
 their commander, the prophet, with his numerous staff, 
 in shining military regalia, reviewed them in ostentatious 
 style. Then came the Mormon ladies, in carriages, and 
 presented a silk flag to the legion, through the prophet, 
 with speeches and responses. Then there was a grand 
 parade to the site of the temple, in which several thou- 
 sands joined, and the corner-stone was laid to a temple 
 which they said was to cost one million dollars. 
 
 Little did the Mormons dream that all this pomp and 
 vanity would within fifteen short months end in blood 
 and the ashes of deep humiliation. 
 
 In May, 1842, Dr. John C. Bennett, who had been 
 mayor of Nauvoo and held most confidential relations 
 with Joseph Smith, and was utterly unscrupulous, turned 
 against the Mormons, attacked them most vigorously 
 and with decided ability, by public addresses, by exten- 
 sive newspaper correspondence, and by a book of expos- 
 ures. In all these strokes, other seceding Mormons 
 joined him with damaging effect. He got the ear of the 
 public, and the beginnings of the overthrow of Mormon- 
 ism at Nauvoo date from his merciless attacks. 
 
 Public sentiment in Illinois was rapidly gathering force 
 against the Mormons, and Smith seemed to have gone 
 mad with senseless folly. He was announced by his 
 newspaper organ as a candidate for President of the 
 United States in the spring of 1844, with the most ful- 
 
50 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 some praise. He then sent missionaries throughout the 
 country to advocate his cause, and issued over his own 
 signature an address to the people of the United States 
 which left it in doubt whether he was greatest as a fool, 
 demagogue, or lunatic. He also wrote a most insulting 
 letter to Henry Clay. 
 
 Apparently unconscious of the storm of public indig- 
 nation that was collecting and was so soon to burst upon 
 him, Smith's effrontery led him next to petition Congress 
 for authority to raise one hundred thousand volunteer 
 soldiers for the pretended purpose of protecting Ameri- 
 can citizens en route to the west ; and also asked that the 
 rank of general in the United States army be conferred 
 upon himself. This move angered almost to desperation 
 the already alarmed citizens of Illinois. It was 
 followed by a public declaration of the prophet at a 
 Mormon church conference, as follows : — 
 
 •'The Great Jehovah has always been with me, and 
 the wisdom of God will guide me at the eleventh hour. 
 I feel that I am in more immediate communion with God, 
 and on a better footing with him than I have ever been 
 in my life, and I am happy to appear among you under 
 these circumstances." 
 
 Meantime many accounts came to the public of Smith's 
 shocking immoralities, and of the secret practice of 
 polygamy by himself and many of his boon compan- 
 ions. These things became notorious. His pretended 
 revelation, by which polygamy was made a doctrine of 
 the church and its practice obligatory, was written in 
 1843, although not published to the world until nine 
 years later. Leading men began to apostatize from the 
 Mormon Church and to openly denounce the deep wicked- 
 ness of the prophet. Some of these men started a 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 51 
 
 newspaper, called The Nauvoo Expositor, to expose the 
 prophet, which Smith suppressed and had the printing- 
 office destroyed as soon as the first issue appeared. 
 
 The destruction of the printing-office Iry command of 
 Smith's city council awakened much excitement ; and 
 when those who had been arrested for it were taken out 
 of the hands of the officers and set at liberty by the 
 Nauvoo municipal court the suppressed excitement 
 became an irresistible storm of public fury. Meetings 
 were held in many places, and the Mormons were 
 denounced. The pulse of public sentiment can be seen 
 from the following resolutions which were adopted at a 
 great mass meeting at Warsaw, and endorsed by other 
 gatherings : — 
 
 Resolved, That the time, in our opinion, has arrived when the 
 adherents of Smith as a body should be driven from the sur- 
 rounding settlements into Nauvoo. That the Prophet and his 
 miscreant adherents should then be demanded at their hands, 
 and if not surrendered a war of extermination should be waged 
 to their entire destruction, if necessary, for our protection. 
 
 Resolved, That every citizen arm himself, to be prepared to 
 sustain the resolutions herein contained. 
 
 In many places in Hancock County, in which Nauvoo 
 was situated, and beyond, armed bands of citizens began 
 to form, and Nauvoo was soon to be attacked. Smith 
 rallied his legion, informed them of the danger, and 
 made preparations for resistance. Governor Ford hur- 
 ried from the capital to the scene of trouble that he 
 might prevent an outbreak and the shedding of blood. 
 His efforts were partly successful. The Nauvoo Legion 
 were persuaded to give up their arms, which belonged to 
 the state. It was afterwards learned that every house in 
 Nauvoo was amply supplied with private arms, and thus 
 
oZ The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 their seeming readiness to give up the rifles which 
 belonged to the state was not so surprising. 
 
 About eighteen hundred militia were under arms in 
 Carthage (the county seat), Warsaw, and vicinity, 
 besides the great numbers of unorganized citizens who 
 flocked together from all directions. 
 
 Joseph Smith and several of the leading Mormons 
 were persuaded to go to Carthage and give themselves 
 up to the authorities. They did so, and were released on 
 bail. They were, however, immediately re-arrested on a 
 charge of treason and lodged in jail. The governor 
 went to Nauvoo, eighteen miles distant, and addressed 
 a great gathering of the Mormons, urging them to peace- 
 able measures, and especially that they should submit to 
 the laws of the state, whatever to the contrary might be 
 taught or commanded them by their prophet and leaders. 
 Taking advantage of the absence of the governor from 
 Carthage, on the twenty-seventh of June, 1844, over one 
 hundred men, armed with rifles and disguised by black- 
 ened faces and in other ways, suddenly appeared at the 
 Carthage jail, overpowered the guards, and attacked the 
 door of the room in which Joseph Smith and his brother 
 Hyrurn, John Taylor, and another Mormon were confined. 
 Hyrum was soon killed, while the prophet defended him- 
 self with a revolver until wounded, and then leaped from 
 the second-story window of the jail. The mob below 
 received him with a volley from their guns, and the 
 career of the false prophet was at an end. 
 
 The Nauvoo Mormons were stunned with sorrow and 
 fear, and quietly buried their dead prophet with weeping 
 and mourning which indicated a sincere belief, on the 
 part of many at least, in the divine mission of their 
 departed leader. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. ' 53 
 
 The Mormon hymn-book gives many illustrations of 
 the esteem in which the Mormons held, or pretended to 
 hold, their dead prophet. Among these we find the 
 following : — 
 
 O, give me back my Prophet dear, 
 
 And patriarch, O give them back. 
 
 The Seer, the Seer, Joseph the Seer ! 
 
 I '11 sing of the Prophet ever dear. 
 
 With Gods he soared in the realms of day, 
 
 And men he taught the heavenly way. 
 
 His home 's in the sky, he dwells with the Gods, 
 
 Far from the furious rage of mobs. 
 
 Hail to the Prophet, ascended to heaven, 
 Traitors and tyrants now fight him in vain ; 
 
 Mingling with Gods, he can plan for his brethren, 
 Death cannot conquer the hero again. 
 
 Praise to his memory, he died as a martyr, 
 Honored and blest be his ever great name ; 
 
 Long shall his blood, which was shed by assassins, 
 Stain Illinois, while the earth lauds his fame. 
 
 The immorality that prevailed at Nauvoo was shock- 
 ing. The worst feature of it was that the example was 
 set by Joseph Smith himself, and by those who stood 
 nearest to him. Although their religions doctrines were 
 heathenish and their relations to the state subversive and 
 disloyal ; although they were vulgar, profane, over- 
 reaching among each other, and some were thieves and 
 counterfeiters, yet their distinguishing wickedness was 
 their licentiousness. People who are caught with such 
 crazy doctrines as are put forth by Mormon ism have 
 such mental weakness and such lack of moral stamina 
 
54 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 that many of them are easily led into any excesses, 
 even into shocking immoralities, from which the} 7 would 
 at the beginning have shrunk back in horror. Of such 
 material were most of the Mormons made who were 
 gathering by thousands at Nauvoo. The designing and 
 vile so-called prophet had a plastic people in his hands. 
 He knew his dupes well, and gave unbridled license to 
 his passions. This chapter of his wickedness is too 
 vile to put into print. Only a surface summary of lead- 
 ing facts can be given, and from this the reader must 
 draw his own conclusions. Let no denial from Mormon 
 sources or from Mormon apologists shake the reader's 
 confidence in the following statements, for they rest 
 upon evidence convincing to any fair-minded person. 
 
 Joseph Smith did not begin his vices after settling at 
 Nauvoo. He had never been above licentious immoral- 
 ity, and at Kirtland his character in this respect became 
 well known to all but the wholly blinded. At Nauvoo 
 he sought the ruin of the wives and daughters of his 
 flock, and in order to prevent a storm of indignation 
 which would otherwise have overwhelmed him, he encour- 
 aged his leading men to follow in his footsteps. True 
 to his never-failing instincts he blasphemed all holy 
 things by pretending that he had permission for his 
 teaching and practices by " a revelation from the Lord" ! 
 Sometimes he hinted to his female paramours that 
 another "revelation" permitting plural husbands might 
 soon appear. 
 
 Then began that " confusion of tongues" as to many 
 of the most sacred words in our language which has for- 
 half a century on Mormon lips dragged them in mire and 
 filth. Women were married for " time only" to one hus- 
 band, but "sealed" "for eternity" to another; some 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 55 
 
 were married "in the flesh" to one man, but "spirit- 
 ually" "sealed" to another. At that time began to 
 spring up that whole brood of false words by which 
 Mormon libertines have sought to throw a thin veil of 
 sanctity over their practices. 
 
 Joseph Smith began also to instruct his most trusted 
 men in what he called the " mysteries of the kingdom," 
 " celestial marriage," and " spiritual sealing." They were 
 generally willing pupils, although some men and some 
 women maintained their honor, and scrambled out of the 
 slimy pit. Smith would assure them that " they could 
 have all the wives they wanted." Erastus Snow, although 
 up to that time a bachelor, took several wives within as 
 many months. John D. Lee, although already married, 
 took eight more wives within twelve months after learning 
 from the prophet of his extensive privileges. Exchang- 
 ing husbands and wives was not very uncommon. In one 
 well-known case two men and their wives lived in differ- 
 ent ends of the same house, and, after bargaining all 
 around, the husbands exchanged wives, and after a few 
 weeks exchanged back again. 
 
 A trusting and innocent girl, a new convert, named 
 Martha Brotherton, who had recently arrived from Eng- 
 land with her parents, was invited by Joseph Smith and 
 Brigham Young into an upper room and the door locked 
 after them. Brigham then asked her to marry him, and 
 Smith urged her acceptance, saying that he knew " from 
 the Lord " that it was right. She begged that she might 
 have time to consider and to consult with her parents. 
 They did not wish her parents to know anything about it, 
 but she insisted. When she got away from them she 
 went before a justice and exposed them under sworn 
 testimony. 
 
56 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 The suppressed newspaper, The Nauvoo Expositor, 
 contained in that single issue which its short life sent 
 forth the following : — 
 
 " It is a notorious fact that many females in foreign 
 climes have been induced by the sound of the gospel to 
 forsake friends and come over the water, as they sup- 
 posed, to glorify God. . . . But what is taught them on 
 their arrival at this place? They are notified that 
 Brother Joseph will see them soon and reveal the 
 mysteries of heaven to their full understanding, which 
 seldom fails to inspire them with new confidence in the 
 prophet, as well as a great anxiety to know what God 
 has laid up in store for them in return for the great sac- 
 rifice of father and mother, gold and silver. . . . They 
 are visited again. They are requested to meet Brother 
 Joseph, or some of the Twelve, at some isolated point, 
 or at some particularly described place on the bank of 
 the Mississippi, or at some room which bears upon its 
 front: 'Positively no admittance.' The unsuspecting 
 creatures are so devoted to the prophet and the cause 
 of Jesus Christ that they do not dream of the deep-laid 
 scheme. They meet him expecting a blessing and to 
 learn the will of the Lord concerning them, when instead 
 they are told, after having been sworn to secrecy in the 
 most solemn manner, with a penalty of death attached, 
 that God Almighty has revealed it to him that she should 
 be his (Joseph's) ' spiritual wife.' She is thunderstruck, 
 and refuses. The prophet condemns her if she rejects. 
 She thinks of the great sacrifice, and of the many thou- 
 sand miles she has traveled over sea and land that she 
 might save her soul from ruin, and replies : ' God's will 
 be done, and not mine.' " 
 
 It should be remembered that a large part of this 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 57 
 
 development in wickedness at Nauvoo took place before 
 this so-called "revelation" of Smith's permitting and 
 commanding polygamy. There is no doubt that this 
 pretended revelation was devised and written at that 
 time (dated July 12, 1843) merely for the purpose of 
 bracing up the current practices with a so-called " thus 
 saith the Lord." The consciences of some could not 
 otherwise be debauched. The "revelation" was also 
 intended to hush the too public murmurings of Emma 
 Smith, the prophet's wife, for she is personally named 
 in the "revelation" and commanded to abide its teach- 
 ings, " for I am the Lord thy God and I will destroy her 
 if she abide not in my law." 
 
 This revelation was shown by Joseph and his brother 
 Hyrum to such of the initiated as they supposed they 
 could trust, and it was sometimes loaned to the brethren 
 to read to their wives. Several persons who saw it or 
 heard it read in this manner left the Mormons in 
 consequence. 
 
 The double-dealing and the utter disregard for truth 
 shown by the prophet and his officers about the teaching 
 and practice of polygamy at this time (1844) — the 
 determination to practice polygamy themselves and at 
 the same time deny it before " the world," and also 
 before many of "the weak" among their own people 
 — are clearly shown by the following public notice about 
 an indiscreet elder in Michigan who had been giving to 
 the Saints there the secret revelation which was 
 intended to be kept as yet only for the inner circles 
 at Nauvoo. This notice appeared in the Mormon organ, 
 Times and Seasons, in February, 1844, seven months 
 after Smith's revelation on polygamy had been written 
 and circulated in Nauvoo, and several years after he 
 himself had been in the practice of polygamy : — 
 
58 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Notice. — As we have been credibly informed that an 
 elder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, 
 by the name of Hyrum Brown, has been preaching polyganry 
 and other false and corrupt doctrines in the County of Lapeer 
 and State of Michigan, this is to notify him and the church in 
 general that he has been cut off from the church for his 
 iniquity, and he is further notified to appear at the special 
 conference, on the sixth of April next, to make answer to 
 those charges. 
 
 Joseph Smith, 
 Hyrum Smith, 
 
 Presidents of the Church. 
 
 Joseph Smith and his chief officers well knew that if 
 that "revelation" should become public, and it should 
 be known in Illinois that polygamy was a doctrine and 
 practice of the Saints, their whole city would have 
 been annihilated by the storm of public disgust and 
 anger which would have burst upon them. Hence the 
 anxiety that this secret should be "kept from the 
 Gentiles " until the Mormons should be safely isolated 
 from Christian civilization within the Rocky Mountains. 
 In 1852, five years after their arrival in the Salt Lake 
 Valley, and after its existence had been ten thousand 
 times denied by Mormon lips in this and in other 
 lands, the revelation was published. 
 
 A fair specimen of the double-tongues about this 
 matter appears in the following letter from the prophet's 
 brother : — 
 
 Whereas some of your elders say that a man having a 
 certain priesthood may have as many wives as he pleases, and 
 that doctrine is taught here : I say unto you that that man 
 teaches false doctrine, for there is no such doctrine taught here; 
 neither is there any such thing practiced here. . . . Beware what 
 you teach ; for mysteries of God are not given to all men ; and 
 unto those to whom they are given they are placed under 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 59 
 
 restrictions to impart only such as God will command them; 
 and the residue is to be kept in a faithful breast, otherwise he 
 shall be brought under condemnation. . . . Now, therefore, 
 I say unto you, you must cease preaching your miraculous 
 things and let the mysteries alone until by and by. . . . 
 
 Your obedient servant, 
 
 Hyrum Smith. 
 
 At the date of the above letter Hyrum Smith had him- 
 self been a polygamist for nearly a year, having married 
 his wife's sister. 
 
 The general consent of the Mormons to this falsehood 
 about polygamy is also further shown in the fact that on 
 October 1, 1844, there appeared in Times and Seasons 
 two cards, each declaring that the subscribers knew of 
 no other rule or system of marriage being practiced 
 in their church than the one wife system given in their 
 book of " Doctrines and Covenants." One card was 
 signed by eleven men. nearly all polygamists, and the 
 other by nineteen women at Nauvoo, most of whom 
 were already polluted with this practice. 
 
 The Mormon Salt Lake paper, The Deseret Daily 
 News, of May 20, 1886, confesses the whole matter by 
 saying, — 
 
 "The revelation on celestial marriage was revealed to 
 the prophet many years before, but not formulated in 
 writing for the church. Acting under instructions from 
 the Lord, the prophet had several wives sealed to him 
 before the date of that revelation. . . . The revelation 
 was given on that date, although the doctrines it con- 
 tains were known and had been acted upon under special 
 instructions previous to that date." 
 
 And now (May 20, 1886) comes The Deseret Daily 
 News, again, with the following apology for the Mormon 
 falsehoods : — 
 
60 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 " Polygamy, in the ordinary and Asiatic sense of the 
 term, never was and is not now a tenet of the Latter Day 
 Saints. That which Joseph and Hyrum denounced, and 
 for preaching which without authority an elder was cut 
 off the church in Nauvoo, was altogether different from 
 the order of celestial marriage, including a plurality of 
 wives, which forms the subject of the revelation." 
 
 There appears the Mormon double-tongue with its 
 falsehood upon the point of each. Polygamy as " the 
 world," as " the Asiatics," understand it is indeed a 
 vile practice ; but when Mormon falseness spreads over 
 it the thin glamour of good words — "celestial mar- 
 riage " — it suddenly becomes a holy thing ! 
 
 But The Deseret News goes on down into still lower 
 depths, thus : — 
 
 " Until the open enunciation of the doctrine of celes- 
 tial marriage by the publication of the revelation on the 
 subject in 1852, no elder was authorized to announce it 
 to the world. The Almighty has revealed things on 
 many occasions which were for his servants and not for 
 the world : 
 
 " ' And now I say unto you, Keep these things from 
 going abroad into the world until it is expedient in me.' 
 
 " ' But a commandment I give unto them that they 
 shall not boast themselves of these things, neither 
 speak of them before the world,' l etc. 
 
 " Under these instructions, elders had no right to 
 promulgate anything but that which they were authorized 
 to teach. And when assailed by enemies, and accused 
 of practicing things which were really not countenanced 
 in the church, they were justified in denying those im- 
 putations, and at the same time avoiding the avowal of 
 
 1 Doctrines and Covenants. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 6 1 
 
 such doctrines as were not yet intended for the world. 
 This course which they have taken when necessary, by 
 commandment, is all the ground their accusers have for 
 charging them with falsehood." 
 
 All this is utterly bad. The Mormon falsehoods and 
 baseness of 1844 are thus openly defended and reit- 
 erated in 1886. The leopard can not change his spots. 
 The undeniable facts of the history reveal in the 
 strongest light that the operating principle of Mor- 
 monism, through all its dark-stained years, is deception. 
 
 Some glimpses of other dark deeds at Nauvoo may be 
 gained from the following, which is vouched for by 
 Mrs. A. G. Paddock, of Salt Lake City: — 
 
 "A friend of the writer, belonging to a respectable 
 and wealthy family in an eastern state, relates the fol- 
 lowing : — 
 
 " ' My father was induced by a Mormon missionary to 
 emigrate to Nauvoo. He went in advance of the family, 
 taking a large sum of money with him. Soon after his 
 arrival he wrote for us, stating that he had bought a 
 house and lot, and that we would find a good home 
 awaiting us. We started at once, but when we were 
 within a few miles of Nauvoo we were met by the 
 missionary referred to, who told us that father had 
 suddenly died. On reaching the city we were unable 
 to learn anything of the time or manner of his death. 
 We never found out where he was buried, or, indeed, 
 whether he was buried at all ; and from that day to this 
 we have never been able to get any information about 
 the house and lot that he bought, or about any of the 
 property that he left.'" 
 
 Gladly do we come to the end of the life of this false 
 prophet. 
 
62 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Who will not henceforth agree most fully with Dr. 
 W. Wyl in the following summing up of his investiga- 
 tions into the life of Joseph Smith? 
 
 " I could not find a bright point, an extenuating 
 circumstance, in the whole life of the great impostor. 
 It is lie and crime all through. Just think of the 
 multitude of excellent people, virtuous, devout women 
 and good men who have staked their all in this life upon 
 the prophetship of 4 Joseph Smith, Junior ' ! " 1 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FLEEING TO THE MOUNTAINS. 
 
 AFTER the death of the prophet Joseph Smith, 
 Brigham Young expelled the ambitious Sidney 
 Rigdon from the church, and placed himself at the head 
 and held the reins of government over the Mormon 
 people for thirty-three years, or until his death. 
 
 The many ugly facts and rumors which came to the 
 public concerning the practices and ambitions of the 
 Mormon leaders during the tragic days which preceded 
 and followed the death of Joseph Smith did not tend 
 to dissolve the determination of the citizens around 
 Nauvoo to drive out the Mormons. 
 
 "The excitement in Hancock County was soon re- 
 newed, and the extremists on either side felt the desper- 
 ation of their situation. The one sought to justify the 
 
 1 Mormon Portraits, p. 73. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 63 
 
 assassination of the prophet, the other to revenge his 
 death. The Mormons hated the Gentiles, and the Gen- 
 tiles hated the Mormons. This was the only point upon 
 which they were agreed. They were each of them ready 
 to believe and act upon the most exaggerated and 
 groundless reports, and there was nothing too bad for 
 either of them to credit concerning the other." ] 
 
 Nauvoo was now a city of about fifteen thousand 
 inhabitants, and was fast increasing, as the followers 
 of the prophet were pouring into it from all parts of 
 the world ; and there were several other settlements 
 and villages of Mormons in Hancock County. A mob 
 assembled at the Mormon village of Lima and burned 
 about one hundred and seventy -five houses, and the 
 inhabitants fled to Nauvoo in a wretched condition. 
 Several thousand men were gathering, while the Mor- 
 mons were organized for resistance. The governor of 
 the state hastened to send a delegation of state officers 
 (among whom was Stephen A. Douglas) to negotiate 
 with the Mormons for their departure. They finally 
 agreed that most of them should leave the state in the 
 spring of 1846. 
 
 Although the Mormons must have been expecting that 
 they would soon be driven from their Nauvoo homes, yet 
 they went on devoting their time and money to the com- 
 pletion of the temple. There is an almost unexplainable 
 mixture of superstition, idolatry, and devotion in their 
 consecration to this work. Their temples are not for 
 houses of worship, but for marriages, baptisms, and 
 baptisms for the dead, as well as their so-called " endow- 
 ment" ceremonies. While finishing the temple, amidst 
 their poverty in those troublous times, the masons and 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 213. 
 
64 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 carpenters worked with their firearms lying within reach, 
 while pickets stood on guard to give warning of the 
 approach of any attacking party which they had reason 
 to expect might come at any moment. 
 
 " This fine building was destroyed on the nineteenth of 
 November, 1848, the work of an incendiary. Two years 
 later the French Icarians, brought to Nauvoo by Mon- 
 sieur Cabet, the great Socialist, endeavored to rebuild 
 it for their own uses, but a dreadful tornado in May, 
 1850, threw most of the original building to the ground, 
 and ended that project. The rock of the temple subse- 
 quently served as the ledges of a quarry to supply 
 domestic building material." 
 
 On November 1, 1845, they sent forth an official letter 
 in which they said : — 
 
 " Continued abuses, persecutions, murders, and rob- 
 beries, practiced upon us by a horde of land pirates with 
 impunity in a Christian republic and land of liberty 
 (while the institutions of justice have either been too 
 weak to afford us protection or redress, or else they too 
 have been remiss) , have brought us to the solemn conclu- 
 sion that our exit from the United States is the only 
 alternative ; ... we can then shake the dust from our 
 garments, . . . leaving this nation alone in her glory, 
 while the residue of the world points the finger of scorn, 
 till the indignation and consummation decreed makes a 
 full end." > 
 
 In 1842 Joseph Smith had said that the Mormons 
 would finally move to the Rocky Mountains, and on 
 February 20, 1844, only a few months before his death, 
 he writes iD his diary : — 
 
 " I instructed the Twelve Apostles to send out a del- 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, pp. 221-224. 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 65 
 
 egation and investigate the localities California and 
 Oregon, and hunt out a good location where we can 
 remove to after the temple is completed, and where we 
 can build a city in a day and have a government of our 
 own ; get up into the mountains where the devil cannot 
 dig us out, and live in a healthy climate where we can 
 live as old as we have a mind to." l 
 
 The prophet also sent an " apostle" to Washington City 
 to get permission for the Mormons to settle in Oregon. 
 He found Stephen A. Douglas and the cabinet all very 
 willing that the Mormons should depart, but the secretary 
 of state thought that as the title to Oregon was then in 
 dispute with England it was not best that they should go 
 there. When the Mormons actually set out from Nauvoo 
 for the west, they had no definite location in view, and 
 there is no reliable evidence that they then knew any- 
 thing of the Salt Lake Valley. Their indefinite goal was 
 merely "the Rocky Mountains." One of their songs, 
 composed and sung on the way, said : — 
 
 " The upper California, oh, that 's the land for me ! 
 
 Early in February, 1846, the first company crossed the 
 Mississippi River into Iowa, and during that month some 
 twelve hundred wagons had crossed to the western bank. 
 
 By the middle of May some sixteen thousand Mormons 
 had left Nauvoo and vicinity and were slowly making 
 their way through Iowa, enduring great hardships. 
 When the advance company had fairly got on their 
 way, and the rigors of winter were yet upon them, the 
 Mormon elders addressed a letter to the governor of 
 Iowa, asking protection while passing through that terri- 
 tory, in which they picture their situation in distressing 
 colors, as follows : — 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 146. 
 
 ! >» 
 
66 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 " To stay is death by fire and sword ; to go into ban- 
 ishment unprepared is death by starvation. But yet, 
 under these heart-rending circumstances, several hun- 
 dreds of us have started upon our dreary journey, and 
 we are now encamped in Lee County, Iowa, suffering 
 much from the intensity of the cold. Some of us also 
 are already without food, and others have barely sufficient 
 to last a few weeks ; hundreds of others must shortly 
 follow us in the same unhappy condition." 
 
 No one can place any reliance upon any of the state- 
 ments made in the foregoing petition except as con- 
 firmed by other evidence. Without doubt, however, 
 many were in a destitute condition, but they could 
 have avoided the severities of winter by waiting until 
 spring. The real cause of the harrowing nature of the 
 petition probably was to awaken sympathy and so avoid 
 the danger of attacks from citizens of Iowa who might 
 fear that they should locate in their midst. Thus an 
 army of outcasts from Christian civilization were wearily 
 stretching their way across Iowa prairies during the 
 spring and summer of 1846 — pagans in a Christian 
 land, forced to seek isolation beyond the frowning 
 peaks of the Rocky Mountains. What weariness and 
 suffering, exposure and fear, the wives, little ones, the 
 feeble and aged must have endured, we can only faintly 
 imagine. 
 
 When the great exodus had taken place, there were 
 yet left in Nauvoo perhaps one thousand Mormons, 
 some remaining to settle up their business affairs, but 
 most of them too poor or too feeble to join the long 
 emigrant trains plodding their weary way westward — 
 they knew not where. 
 
 Even this pouring exodus, leaving a silent and almost 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 67 
 
 vacant city, did not satisfy the anti-Mormons of Hancock 
 County. They meant expulsion to the uttermost or exter- 
 mination. To such as would agree to abandon the Mor- 
 mon faith they offered protection and friendship. In 
 September, 1846, eight hundred armed men and six 
 hundred unarmed laid siege to Nauvoo to expel the 
 remnant. Governor Ford says : — 
 
 ' ' As a general thing the Mormons were ordered to 
 leave within an hour or two hours, and by rare grace 
 some of them were allowed until next day, and in a few 
 cases longer. 
 
 ' ' The Mormons had been forced away from their homes 
 unprepared for a journey. They and their women and 
 children had been thrown houseless upon the Iowa shore, 
 without provisions or the means of getting them, or to 
 get to places where provisions might be obtained. It was 
 now the height of the sickly season. Many of them were 
 taken from sick-beds, hurried into the boats and driven 
 away by the armed ruffians now exercising the power of 
 government. The best they could do was to erect their 
 tents on the banks of the river, and there remain to take 
 their chances of perishing by hunger or by prevailing 
 sickness. In this condition the sick, without shelter, 
 food, nourishment, or medicines, died by scores. The 
 mother watched her sick babe without hope, and when 
 she sank under accumulated miseries, it was only to be 
 quickly followed by her other children, now left without 
 the least attention ; for the men had scattered out over 
 the country seeking employment and the means of 
 living." 1 
 
 The main body of Mormon refugees kept on their way 
 until winter overtook them at the Missouri River. Part 
 
 1 Ford's History of Illinois. 
 
68 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 of the company remained on the east side of the river 
 for the winter, and founded a village which they called 
 Kaneville, but which is now the city of Council Bluffs ; 
 but the larger numbers crossed the river and established 
 a temporary town, which they named " Winter Quarters/' 
 six miles north of what is now the city of Omaha. Here 
 they built seven hundred log-huts and " dug-outs." At 
 various places along their journey they had established 
 villages which were in part for their own present comfort 
 and also were to be occupied by some of their number, 
 that the many who were to follow them might have 
 resting-places. In Iowa these were named Mount 
 Pisgah, Garden Grove, and Kaneville. 
 
 It has been common to denounce the expulsion of the 
 Mormons from Missouri and Illinois as a resort to mob 
 law. The Mormons have made the most of this through 
 their newspapers and in their harangues throughout all 
 the world. Those also who are half-way apologists for 
 them, and some even who are heartily opposed to them, 
 have joined in this wholesale condemnation of the 
 citizens of Missouri and of Illinois who assisted in 
 these evictions. 
 
 There are some considerations on the other side of this 
 question which should not be overlooked. 
 
 1. These expulsions were not effected merely or chiefly 
 by mobs. They were partly mobocratic, largely by the 
 militia of the state, and in both nearly the whole commu- 
 nity of anti-Mormon citizens, even the officers of the 
 law, participated. 
 
 2. The Mormons were not condemned to expulsion 
 without trial. From the beginnings at Kirtland they 
 had been tried at the bar of public sentiment, were 
 known and read of all men, and had resented every 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 69 
 
 entreaty, warning, and threat, and utterly defied the 
 Christian public sentiment of these states and of the 
 world. Besides the advocacy of their so-called religion, 
 they were guilty of the gravest crimes from the legal 
 punishment of which their numbers and cunning shielded 
 them. Mr. T. B. H. Stenhouse, who was for twenty-five 
 years one of the leading and most respectable among the 
 Mormons, and whose history of them is written with a 
 thorough knowledge of both sides of the question, and 
 who is more inclined to excuse than to condemn them, 
 says about the Mormons in Missouri : — 
 
 "It is difficult not to believe that the few leading 
 men around Joseph Smith were not thorough fanatics 
 and guilty of gross crimes." 1 
 
 Again he says : — 
 
 " The intelligent Mormon knows to-day that there have 
 been in church fellowship, from the days of Avard up to 
 the present, men who have done the deeds charged to the 
 Danites, ready to execute the dirtiest and most diabolical 
 plans that ever human or demoniac vindictiveness could 
 conceive." 2 
 
 Concerning the attempted indictment of leading Mor- 
 mons at Nauvoo for counterfeiting, he says : — 
 
 "That bogus money was made and in circulation in 
 and around Nauvoo, and also was sent to a distance for 
 circulation, can certainly not be denied. That some of 
 ' the brethren ' were engaged in its manufacture seems 
 to be well supported by facts which subsequently trans- 
 pired." 3 
 
 3. These expulsions were not accomplished by men 
 gathered in sudden rage and ungovernable fury. These 
 citizens had for years been slowly and reluctantly arriving 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 86. 2 Ibid. p. 93. s Ibid. p. 218. 
 
70 Tlte Mormon Delusion. 
 
 at the conclusion that this was the only practicable way 
 to drive the Mormon monster out of their body politic. 
 Their action was the explosive force of the indignation 
 of those communities which had long been gathering 
 head. 
 
 4. The state had for years known of the unlawful 
 deeds of the Mormons, but had done nothing effective 
 to punish or to cast them forth. The slow and un- 
 adapted processes of the law seemed in this case unlikely 
 ever to rid the state of the excrescence. Instead of 
 being a religion it was a vice of such new, cunning, 
 and abnormal structure that the laws of states and of 
 Congress had not then (and have not even yet) been 
 framed so as efficiently to throttle or uproot it. 
 
 5. It is to be remembered, also, that this expulsive 
 action on the part of the loyal citizens of Missouri and 
 Illinois did accomplish its object and did effectively rid * 
 those states of Mormonism and the Mormons. Had the 
 United States long ago adopted similarly vigorous meas- 
 ures (which it might have done and still have kept 
 entirely within the letter of the law), long ago would 
 Mormonism have been a thing of the past, or have been 
 shoveled on to some foreign soil, or scooped into the 
 Gulf of California. How much of delusion, crime, un- 
 wary beguiling, and sufferings worse than death, from 
 smothered victims, would thus have been saved ! 
 
 What otherwise and better could the afflicted citizens 
 of Illinois have done? There was the Mormon city of 
 Nauvoo, with its fifteen thousand inhabitants and grow- 
 ing like a mushroom, with "cranks" drawn to it by its 
 deluding and lying miscreants sent into all the earth ; 
 prophet and people hostile to state and nation and pro- 
 claiming the early overthrow of all kingdoms but their 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 71 
 
 own ; with every male member a well-drilled and well- 
 armed enemy ; teaching and practicing crimes and the 
 vilest abominations, and throwing over the whole the 
 shocking pretence of religion ! Had this development 
 gone on unchecked a few years more, the state of Illinois 
 would have been almost under the feet of the Mormons. 
 Reader, had yon and your family been residing near 
 Nauvoo at that time, what would you have done? It is 
 much easier to denounce in this case than to suggest 
 a better practical remedy. 
 
 On the fourteenth of April, 1849, Brigham Young 
 set out from Winter Quarters with a picked company 
 of one hundred and fifty on an exploring expedition 
 to the Rocky Mountains in search of a new location. 
 On the twenty-fourth of July of the same season, they 
 reached the Salt Lake Valley. 
 
 ' ' When Brigham Young and the body of the pioneers 
 first got a glimpse of the Great Basin, there was a 
 universal exclamation : ' The Land of Promise ! The 
 Land of Promise ! held in reserve by the hand of God 
 for the resting-place of his saints ! ' " Thus writes the 
 historian. After a tedious journey over unmade roads, 
 a distance of eleven hundred miles, and passing through 
 so many difficulties by the way, it would have been 
 strange indeed had the weary travelers gazed upon the 
 beautiful scenery of Salt Lake Valley without admiration 
 and " ecstasies of joy." 
 
 "From the mouth of the canon through which the 
 pioneers had entered the valley, the view is ravishing. 
 In the distant west the Great Salt Lake lies glistening 
 like a sheet of silver, and in every direction that the eye 
 can travel lofty mountains bound the horizon." 1 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 259. 
 
72 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 It was promptly decided to make that valley their 
 future home, and within four days the future city of 
 Salt Lake was staked out, reserving, even then, a ten- 
 acre block in the center for the location of the tabernacle 
 and temple, where those costly structures have since 
 been erected. 
 
 In the autumn most of this pioneer party returned to 
 their friends on the Missouri River at Winter Quarters, 
 and when the spring came (1848) a large body took up 
 their line of march for the Salt Lake Valley. 
 
 Soon after, four thousand more followed Brigham into 
 the mountain valley, and during that year almost all the 
 Saints from Illinois, Missouri, and many other places, 
 joined in the pilgrimage, and the new settlement in the 
 " desert " suddenly became a thriving city. 
 
 A general epistle was issued in December, 1847, by 
 Brigham Young to the Saints in Europe, announcing the 
 location of " Zion" henceforth to be in the Rocky Mount- 
 ains, and that immigrants were to come from Liverpool to 
 New Orleans, then up the Mississippi to St. Louis, thence 
 up the Missouri River to Council Bluffs, and then across 
 " the plains " by wagon and foot-trains. Young's over- 
 weening ambition and bombast appeared in this letter 
 in his proclaiming that the Mormons were now " at peace 
 with all nations, kingdoms, powers, governments, author- 
 ities," and he invited " presidents, emperors, kings, 
 princes, nobles, governors, rulers, and judges to come 
 and help us to build a house to the name of the God 
 of Jacob." 
 
 One important incident of this journey should be noted. 
 Brigham Young sent a Mormon elder to Washington City 
 to beg of President Polk that the United States would 
 in some way assist the Mormons to get across the plains 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 73 
 
 or to reach the Pacific coast via Cape Horn. After the 
 elder had, by many interviews, presented his plea to the 
 President, the cabinet, and other leading men, permission 
 was given to Colonel Kearney, then en route to the 
 Mexican War, to add to his force five hundred Mormon 
 volunteers, from among those who were then crossing 
 the plains, and that twenty thousand dollars of advance 
 pay might be given them. Volunteer soldiers were com- 
 ing forward in larger numbers than the government 
 required, and this offer to the Mormons was purely a 
 charitable one to assist them in what the Mormons repre- 
 sented was " their distress." Brigham Young eagerly 
 sent the five hundred men and not less eagerly received 
 the twenty thousand dollars of advance pay ; and also 
 sent his agent along with these soldiers till the next pay- 
 day arrived to secure the next twenty thousand dollars. 
 "There are very hard stories told about the use of this 
 money in the hands of Brigham. Affidavits, bearing 
 evidence of truthfulness, have been made of his heart- 
 less indifference to the wants of the wives and families 
 of the absent soldiers." l 
 
 The kindly purpose of the United States government 
 and the fact that this was clearly understood by the 
 Mormon leaders at the time are shown also in a letter of 
 the late Mormon president, John Taylor, to TJie Millen- 
 nial Star, the Mormon organ in England at that time, in 
 which he says : — 
 
 " The President of the United States is favorably 
 disposed toward us. He has sent orders to have five 
 hundred of our brethren employed in an expedition to 
 California. ... It amounts to the same thing as paying 
 them for going where they were destined to go without." 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 247. 
 
74 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Nevertheless, afterwards, Brigharn Young fiercely at- 
 tacked the action of the United States government in 
 this matter by declaring that the government demanded 
 these five hundred men as a peremptory draft, and that 
 it was done merely to take away from the emigrants their 
 natural protectors that the women and children and 
 others might be cut to pieces by the Indians. One 
 Mormon said from the pulpit in Salt Lake City : — 
 
 " This was done that our teams and our women and 
 our children might be left defenceless in the Indian 
 country, and so be killed or perish. They said that if 
 we would furnish the men we might go on in peace ; if 
 not, they would cut us off on our journey." 
 
 This bold falsehood has been harangued to the Mor- 
 mons through all their Utah history and in all parts of 
 the world, for the purpose of nursing hatred toward the 
 United States, while Brigharn, Taylor, and all the old 
 leaders knew all the time of its utter falsity. It has 
 had a powerful influence for disloyalty upon the Mormon 
 people. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE FIRST TEN YEARS OF MORMONISM IN THE ROCKY 
 MOUNTAINS. 
 
 \ \ J HEN Brigharn Young led the Mormons into the 
 
 V V Rock} 7 Mountains it was his purpose to locate 
 
 them outside of United States territory and to set up an 
 
 independent empire which should have no higher ruler 
 
 than the despot who should sit as president of the Church 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 75 
 
 of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. When he chose 
 the Valley of Salt Lake he supposed he was beyond the 
 reach of United States laws, as that country then (1847) 
 belonged to Mexico, and he did not fear any force which 
 the Mexicans could bring against him. 
 
 Young's vision of autocratic empire was quickly dis- 
 solved. The Mexican War terminated in the treaty 
 of Guadaloupe Hidalgo, in March, 1848, by which the 
 territory now embraced in Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, 
 and Upper California was ceded to the United States. 
 Thus, within eight months after the Mormons laid out 
 the city of Salt Lake they found themselves, unexpect- 
 edly and much to their mortification, again within the 
 limits of the government to which they have never 
 willingly owned loyalty. Had Brigham Young, however, 
 then known that the United States government would 
 wait forty years before it took any effective steps toward 
 breaking up the Mormon harem he would have been less 
 regretful. After the first season in the Salt Lake Valley 
 the Mormons sent out over all the earth the most extrav- 
 agant accounts of the unparalleled productiveness of the 
 soil in that " desert." They claimed that wheat yielded 
 "sixty bushels per acre;" that one grain of wheat 
 brought seventy-two heads of wheat ; that after one 
 crop of barley had been harvested the ground was 
 resown the same season and yielded a second crop four 
 times the amount of the first ; that after one crop of oats 
 had been cut the old roots put forth new leaves and a 
 second abundant crop was harvested ; that the same soil 
 yielded three successive crops of peas in one season ; 
 etc. etc. But a clerk in Brigham Young's office, in a 
 letter to The Millennial Star, at Liverpool, England, 
 outrivaled all the Saints in his account of the glories of 
 the new Zion as follows : — 
 
76 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 "Above all, they report that (Dr.) Mother Sessions 
 has had a harvest of 248 little cherubs since living in the 
 valley. Many cases of twins. In a row of seven 
 houses joining each other, eight births in one week. 
 Oh, ye hungry souls, rejoice and shout for joy ! Oh, 
 ye barren ; ye who have been bereft of your children, 
 praise the Lord ! The place is found where you can 
 rear your tender offspring like olive branches around 
 your table. . . . Hosanna ! " ] 
 
 " However much the foreign Saints ma} 7 already have 
 rejoiced in the Latter Day faith, such a letter was worth 
 a hundred sermons and epistles upon emigration. The 
 author well remembers how it caught the toiling, strug- 
 gling, poor Saints of Britain, and the delicate comfort 
 extended to the spinsters was not unappreciated. Many 
 a downcast, mourning soul drank consolation and sang 
 with joy, ' To the West, to the West, to the land of the 
 free ! ' " 2 
 
 Immigrants began to pour in like bees into a field of 
 buckwheat in full blossom. One company of six hun- 
 dred crossed the ocean, rounded Cape Horn, and came in 
 by way of California. But grasshoppers came also, and 
 the next season's crops were destroyed. 
 
 "In the spring of 1849 the inventory of provisions 
 showed that there was only three quarters of a pound of 
 breadstuffs per day for each person up to the fifth of July. 
 The people were put upon rations, and much suffering 
 ensued. Many of them went out with the Indians and 
 dug small native roots, and ate them with anything they 
 could get. It is related that some, in their destitution, 
 even took the hides of animals with which they had cov- 
 ered the roofs of their houses, and cut them up and cooked 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints. 2 Ibid. 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 11 
 
 them for their use. The desert to which they had come 
 was as cheerless as their past history. From cruel foes 
 they had fled to as unfeeling a wilderness. Starvation 
 and nakedness stared in the gloomy faces of the despond- 
 ing people. Murmurs and complaints were uttered. 
 Brigham quelled everything ; scolded, pleaded, threat- 
 ened, prophesied, and subdued them. With a restless 
 but resistless energy he set them to work, and worked 
 himself as their example. He directed their labors, con- 
 trolled their domestic affairs, preached at them, to them, 
 for them. He told foolish anecdotes to make them laugh, 
 encouraged their dancing to make them merry, got up 
 theatrical performances to distract their minds, and made 
 them work hard, certain of rendering them contented 
 thereby. Brigham swayed them at his will. They 
 learned to dread his iron hand, and were daunted by 
 his iron heart." 
 
 " The harvest of 1849 was fortunately abundant, and 
 all was saved." 1 
 
 Young resolved not to be deterred from realizing his 
 dream of independent empire. The Mormons arrived in 
 the Salt Lake Valley in July, 1847, and in March, 1849, 
 Brigham Young proceeded to organize, by a convention 
 of citizens, " a free and independent Government by the 
 name of the State of Deseret," and gave it boundaries 
 which would include Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, and 
 parts of New Mexico, California, Idaho, Wyoming, and 
 Colorado. He had no idea of confining the Saints 
 within narrow limits which would expose them to the 
 possibility of having neighbors. He was "chosen" 
 governor of the " State of Deseret," and delegates 
 were sent to Washington to get admission to the Union. 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 271. 
 
78 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Congress, however, ignored the pretentious " Deseret," 
 and in 1850 organized a territory of fair proportions and 
 named it Utah. Although Brigham Young was appointed 
 governor of Utah Territory, he never gave up, during his 
 life-time, the organization of the State of Deseret nor 
 his governorship of that shadowy realm. Out of con- 
 gressional compulsion he carried on the territory of 
 Utah, but on the next day after the territorial legisla- 
 ture of Utah would adjourn, Brigham Young, as " gov- 
 ernor of Deseret," would convene the same persons as 
 the ;i legislature of Deseret," read his message to them, 
 and then some one would move that the laws which had 
 just been enacted by the legislature of Utah be the laws 
 for the State of Deseret. This motion would be carried 
 and then this state legislature would adjourn. This child- 
 ish and disloyal farce was kept up for over a quarter of a 
 century. This accounts for the prominence given to the 
 name u Deseret" in their literature. 
 
 President Millard Fillmore appointed Brigham Young 
 governor of Utah Territory, and other Mormons to the 
 offices of associate justice, United States attorney, and 
 United States marshal. This appointment of Mormons 
 to important offices under the United States government, 
 when the character of the Saints was well known, and 
 when Young already had several wives, was the begin- 
 ning of shame to the United States. The Mormons have 
 ever since, and especially in their efforts to secure state- 
 hood for Utah as late as 1887, 1 used this appointment 
 as an argument that the government had winked at 
 polygamy for many years, and therefore ought not now 
 to refuse statehood to that polygamous territory. 
 
 1 George Tieknor Curtis, the attorney for the Mormons, in The Forum 
 for November, 1887. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 79 
 
 The federal territorial officers who were not Mormons 
 were treated with so much indignity, and their lives put 
 in such jeopardy by the Mormons, that they soon resigned 
 and left the territory. One of the court judges in a 
 public address ventured to denounce polygamy, and 
 Brigham Young made a threatening reply and ' ' the 
 people would have torn the federal functionary into 
 shreds if the prophet had not restrained them." l The 
 Mormon legislature then gave to the territorial probate 
 courts the jurisdiction that belonged to the United States 
 courts, and thus the Saints had it all their own way for 
 a time. 
 
 But the United States government appointed other 
 officers to take the place of those who had left the 
 territory. Judges Reed and Shaver were appointed to 
 the vacant judgeships, and Mr. Ferris to be territorial 
 secretary. It was not only very unpleasant, but very 
 hazardous, to accept a government appointment at this 
 time in Utah, unless the officers were obedient to the 
 desires of Brigham Young. Judge Shaver had some 
 difficulty with Brigham Young and was soon afterward 
 found dead in his bed ; Judge Reed went eastward again 
 and soon died ; while Secretary Ferris early decided to 
 go on to California. 
 
 A third supply of United States officers appeared in 
 Salt Lake City, after a time, some of whom were Mor- 
 mons, and some were of more benefit to the Mormons 
 by their subserviency than they would have been had they 
 been open adherents. It is one of the most surprising 
 facts in the whole history of this national disgrace that 
 Presidents Fillmore and Pierce should have appointed 
 Brigham Young to be governor of the territory, and 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints. 
 
80 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 other Mormons to several minor offices. President 
 Pierce re-appointed Young in 1855. and at one time all 
 the government officers in the territory, except two, 
 were Mormons. The temper of the prophet may be seen 
 from his address at the Mormon Tabernacle, in June, 
 1853. It had been reported that Young had declared 
 concerning President Zachary Taylor, "Old Zachary is 
 in hell, and I am glad of it ;" but Brigham testified : " I 
 simply bore testimony to the truth of it." When the 
 loyal sentiment of the country was aroused against him 
 and demanded his removal, he declared in a public 
 discourse: " I am and will be Governor, and no power 
 can hinder it, until the Lord Almighty says: ' Brigham, 
 you need not be Governor any longer.' " Even after 
 this, President Pierce re-appointed him governor of the 
 territory and also superintendent of Indian affairs. 
 
 In 1857, in a dispute between a United States marshal 
 and a Mormon officer claiming the same office under Mor- 
 mon territorial appointment, the United States district 
 judge, George P. Stiles, decided against the Mormon 
 claim. The Mormon lawyers in the court-room at once 
 threatened the judge with personal violence, and he 
 immediately adjourned the court. A Mormon mob 
 afterwards entered his office, carried off and concealed 
 the records of the United States courts, and burned his 
 office with his private books and papers. 
 
 About this time the Mormon authorities commanded 
 ("counseled!") seventy of their families to remove 
 some seven hundred miles and begin a Mormon settle- 
 ment in Carson County. The Gentiles were already 
 there, and the usual hostilities sprang up. The two com- 
 munities armed and prepared for battle, but, after camp- 
 ing in front of each other for two weeks, the Mormons 
 withdrew. 
 
The Mormon Delusion 81 
 
 From that day until the present (1890) the Mormon 
 officials have invariably pursued a well-defined policy 
 toward all United States officers, as follows : — 
 
 The Mormons would first attempt by attentions and 
 flattery to blind the eyes of government officers and win 
 them over to become defenders of the Saints, or at least 
 their apologists. Mr. T. B. H. Stenhouse, from his 
 twenty-five years of life as a high Mormon official, and 
 whose daughter became the fourth polygamous wife of 
 Brigham Young's oldest son, knew intimately whereof he 
 was speaking when he described this policy. 
 
 He says that newly arrived United States officers 
 would be received with great consideration by Brigham 
 Young ; would be invited to his house and be introduced 
 to some of his wives ; would receive complimentary 
 tickets to the Mormon entertainments at Social Hall, 
 and would there be introduced to the assembled Saints 
 by Young, with high-sounding titles. If these attentions 
 produced the intended effect, the flattered officers would 
 declare that the Mormons were the best people in 
 the world ; would immediately write letters to eastern 
 newspapers that the Mormons had been greatly misrepre- 
 sented and that they deserved sympathy rather than 
 censure. 
 
 One such United States judge joined the Mormon 
 Church ; other officers danced at Mormon balls ; others 
 traveled over Utah with Brigham Young in his annual 
 parade. 
 
 ' ' The ostensible ' friendship ' of these federal officials 
 has done a great wrong to the people of Utah. Who- 
 ever else has been deceived by such testimony, there 
 is no reason for concluding that either the ruling priest- 
 hood or the officials themselves were among that number. 
 
82 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Brigham's enmity against the government was too deeply 
 rooted for him ever to have trusted one of its represen- 
 tatives beyond what he wanted the public to be told. 
 
 "These few pliant officials have more successfully 
 covered up the wrongs committed in Utah, have done 
 more to shield the guilty and to deceive the public, than 
 all their other federal associates have ever been able to 
 do in telling the truth, enforcing the execution of law, 
 bringing crime to light, and reaching the guilty with 
 punishment. 
 
 " Concealment encouraged fanaticism, and crimes were 
 committed which ivould never have been attempted had the 
 vigilance of the law been a certainty. Had the wrongs and 
 murders in Utah been dealt with promptly at the time 
 of their occurrence, it would have been to the honor of 
 the territory to-day that the violation of law had never 
 gone unpunished, and that terrible fanaticism, which 
 struck terror into the souls of all who witnessed its 
 influence, would have been suppressed in its infancy. " l 
 
 Tt should also be noted that this method of blinding 
 the eyes of visitors in Utah by assiduous attentions from 
 Mormons has been, throughout their history, their favorite 
 method of dealing with all strangers, and especially all 
 who may possibly be newspaper correspondents. They 
 are " taken in hand " from arrival to departure, and 
 many are thus deceived, and write long articles about 
 the hospitality of the Saints, and how much they have 
 been misunderstood and misrepresented. Let every wise 
 reader understand that such writing only shows either 
 that the writer thereof has been successfully fc< hood- 
 winked," or that Mormon practices are not distasteful 
 to him. 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 286. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 83 
 
 In case the foregoing method has not accomplished its 
 purpose with all United States officers they have then, by 
 falsehoods, set the officers at variance with each other, 
 and then laughed behind the curtains to see the majesty 
 of United States laws ! 
 
 If these methods have not been successful, threats, 
 intimidation, and, in some cases, assassination have 
 followed, concerning which more particulars are given 
 hereafter in these pages. In all these methods the 
 basis of Mormon success has always been in the fact 
 that some of the United States officers would be in 
 sympathy with them. 
 
 When fawning, quarrels., and violence have failed to 
 shake the faithfulness of some officers, the last resort 
 has been slander. Mr. T. B. H. Stenhouse says : " From 
 the beginning of Mormonism the ruling authorities have 
 accepted defamation of character as the best weapon with 
 which to assail." 
 
 As soon as a federal officer is appointed to Utah, 
 the Mormons quietly have the record of all his past 
 life searched out, and the documents concerning every 
 weak spot are carefully " pigeon-holed," to be brought 
 forth, exaggerated and discolored, when the time for 
 attack shall come. These slanderous reports generally 
 appear first in some daily paper in New York City, 
 Washington, or Chicago. In some cases bad men have 
 been appointed to government offices and the Mormons 
 were quick to make the most of such instances, if the 
 officer was against them. If he was their friend, his 
 peccadilloes or other immoralities were covered. As 
 early as 1854 United States officers who were capable 
 of such baseness were enticed into houses of ill-fame, 
 and then either exposed or a threatened exposure would 
 
84 Tlie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 be held as a club over their heads. Of such Young 
 said in a sermon in the tabernacle : " The Lord put a 
 hook into their noses." One thing is certain : the 
 "hook" was always held in the hands of Brigham, 
 who never failed to pull it when Morrnonism needed 
 an unwilling servant. The same method was attempted 
 upon United States officers as late as 1887. So far as 
 they have been knowingly led into such places, no right- 
 minded person will regret their discomfiture, but it is 
 safest to take Mormon statements at zero unless sub- 
 stantiated by other evidence. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth of July, 1857, the tenth 
 anniversary of their arrival in the Salt Lake Valley, 
 the Mormons had a celebration and Brigham Young 
 made an address in which he reminded them that he 
 had said, ten years prior, that if they could have ten 
 years of unmolested peace, he " would ask no odds of 
 Uncle Sam," and he was now ready to declare that " God 
 was with them," and he would now " ask no odds of 
 Uncle Sam ; " and he prophesied that in twelve years 
 more he would himself be President of the United States, 
 or would dictate who should be. 
 
 When James Buchanan became President he appointed 
 a new set of officers for Utah Territory, and the secretary 
 of war gave orders that Utah should be made a military 
 district and an army sent there to protect the United 
 States officers. Major-General Stewart Van Vliet was 
 sent in advance to Salt Lake City to prepare for the 
 needs of the coming army. A Mormon agent in New 
 York heard of the move of the government aud immedi- 
 ately hastened across the continent to apprise Brigham of 
 the approaching military force. Brigham went into a rage 
 and promptly began preparations for war. Messengers 
 
The Mormon Delusioyi. 85 
 
 were immediately sent to the Mormon colony at San 
 Bernardino, California, and to that in the Carson Valley, 
 to leave everything and hasten to Salt Lake City. 
 
 " The Saints had no time now to lose ; the enemy was 
 approaching their homes. War was then everything in 
 Utah. The leaders preached war, prayed war, taught 
 war ; while saintly poets scribbled war, and the people 
 sang their ditties. ' The God of Battles ' was the deity 
 of the hour, and his influence was everywhere seen and 
 felt. Public works and private enterprise were alike 
 suspended, while every artist who had sufficient genius 
 for the manufacture of revolvers, repairing old guns, or 
 burnishing and sharpening rusty sabres and bayonets, 
 was pressed into service for the defence of Zion. The 
 sisters too were seized with war-fever, and their weav- 
 ing and knitting talents were fully exercised in prepara- 
 tion for the coming campaign. It was a great time for 
 rejoicing in the Lord, cursing Uncle Sam, and keeping 
 powder dry." 1 
 
 A special agent was hastened to Europe to call back 
 to the Utah " Zion " all elders on "missions" abroad, 
 while the elders in the eastern states, as well as those on 
 the Pacific coast, were summoned home. 
 
 The Mormon poets also joined in arousing enthusiasm 
 for a war with the United States, and the tabernacle ser- 
 vices rang with the following song : — 
 
 Up, awake, ye defenders of Zion ! 
 
 The foe 's at the door of your homes ; 
 Let each heart be the heart of a lion, 
 
 Unyielding nnd proud as he roams. 
 
 Remember the wrongs of Missouri ; 
 
 Forget not the fate of Nauvoo ; 
 When the God-hating foe is before ye, 
 Stand firm, and be faithful and true. 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 253. 
 
S6 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Opposed by a proud, boasting nation, 
 Their numbers, compared, may be few; 
 
 But their union is known through creation, 
 And they * ve always been faithful and true. 
 
 Though assisted by legions infernal, 
 
 The plundering wretches advance, 
 With a host from the regions eternal, 
 
 We '11 scatter their troops at a glance ! 
 
 The Mormon newspapers — The Mormon, published 
 in New York City, and The Western Standard, at 
 San Francisco — were ordered to be discontinued. The 
 Mormon missionaries returning from Europe crossed the 
 Atlantic under assumed names and fictitious occupations, 
 and upon arriving in New York secreted themselves 
 until they could take steamers for the Pacific coast, 
 rather than risk a journey across the plains where they 
 might get sight of the United States troops. Those 
 who dared to return to Utah overland went by different 
 routes and carefully avoided recognition. 
 
 All this fear was most ludicrous, for the government 
 was not making war upon the Mormons, but merely 
 planting the headquarters of a military district at Salt 
 Lake City that a military force might be at hand to 
 sustain the United States officers in that territory. 
 
 Major-General Van Vliet, upon his return to Wash- 
 ington, reported to the secretary of war, in part, as 
 follows : — 
 
 "He (Brigham) stated that the Mormons had been 
 persecuted, murdered, and robbed in Missouri and 
 Illinois, both by the mob and state authorities, and that 
 now the United States were about to pursue the same 
 course, and that therefore he and the people of Utah 
 had determined to resist all persecution at the commence- 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 87 
 
 ment, and that the troops now on the march for Utah 
 should not enter the Great Salt Lake Valley. As he 
 uttered these words, all there present concurred most 
 heartily in what he said. 
 
 "I attended their service on Sunday, and in the course 
 of a sermon delivered by Elder Taylor he referred to the 
 approach of the troops, and declared they should not 
 enter the territory. He then referred to the probability 
 of an overpowering force being sent against them, and 
 desired all present who would apply the torch to their 
 own buildings, cut down their trees, and lay waste their 
 fields to hold up their hands ; every hand in an audience 
 numbering over four thousand persons was raised at the 
 same moment. 
 
 "At present Governor Young exercises absolute 
 power, both temporal and spiritual, over the people of 
 Utah, both of which powers he and the people profess 
 to emanate directly from the Almighty. Hence the oppo- 
 sition of the people to a new governor, and the remark of 
 Governor Young that should Governor Cumming enter 
 the territory, he would place him in his carriage and send 
 him back. 
 
 "I heard Elder John Taylor, in a discourse to a con- 
 gregation of over four thousand Mormons, say that noue 
 of the rulers of the earth were entitled to their positious 
 unless appointed to them by the Lord, and that the 
 Almighty had appointed a man to rule over and govern 
 his Saints, and that man was Brigham Young, and that 
 they would have no one else to rule over them." 
 
 The next day after General Van Vliet left Salt Lake 
 City for Washington (on September 14, 1857) Brigham 
 Young issued a proclamation to the " citizens of Utah," 
 in which he declared war against the United States 
 
88 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 forces, which he said were coming to conquer that terri- 
 tory, and said : — 
 
 " We are invaded by a hostile force, who are evidently 
 assailing us to accomplish our overthrow and destruction. 
 For the last twenty-five years we have trusted officials 
 of the government, from constables and justices to 
 judges, governors, and presidents, only to be scorned, 
 held in derision, insulted, and betrayed. . . . 
 
 " Our opponents have availed themselves of prejudice 
 existing against us because of our religious faith, to send 
 out a formidable host to accomplish our destruction. 
 We have had no privilege, no opportunity of defending 
 ourselves from the false, foul, and unjust aspersions 
 against us before the nation. 
 
 "The government has not condescended to cause an 
 investigating committee or other person to be sent out 
 to inquire into and ascertain the truth, as is customary 
 in such cases. . . . 
 
 " Therefore, I, Brigham Young, Governor, and Super- 
 intendent of Indian Affairs for the Territory of Utah, 
 in the name of the people of the United States in the 
 Territory of Utah : — 
 
 " 1st. Forbid all armed forces of every description 
 from coming into this Territory, under any pretence 
 whatever. 
 
 " 2d. That all forces in said Territory hold themselves 
 in readiness to march at a moment's notice to repel any 
 and all such invasion. 
 
 "3d. Martial law is hereby declared to exist in this 
 Territory from and after the publication of this procla- 
 mation, and no person shall be allowed to pass or repass 
 into, or through, or from the Territory without a permit 
 from the proper officers." 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 89 
 
 The United States was not even proposing to make 
 war upon the Mormons, but merely to protect its own 
 courts. Brigham's nature is seen in darkest colors when 
 we note that he used these words after Van Vliet had 
 fully explained to him the peaceable object of the mili- 
 tary expedition. 
 
 On the next Sunday Young preached twice to his 
 people, and said : — 
 
 " This people are free ; they are not in bondage to any 
 government on God's footstool. We have transgressed no 
 law, and we have no occasion to do so, neither do we in- 
 tend ; but as for any nation's coming to destroy this people, 
 God Almighty being my helper, they cannot come here. 
 [The congregation responded with a loud " Amen."] 
 
 ' ' We have borne enough of their oppression and their 
 hellish abuse, and we will not bear any more of it, for 
 there is no just law requiring further forbearance on our 
 part. . .. . Come on with your thousands of illegally 
 ordered troops, and I will promise you, in the name of 
 Israel's God, that you shall melt away as snow before 
 a July sun. 
 
 " I have told you that if this people will live their 
 religion, all will be well; and I have told you that if 
 there is any man or woman who is not willing to destroy 
 anything or everything of their property that would be 
 of use to an enemy if left, I wanted them to go out of 
 the territory. And I again say so to-day ; for when the 
 time comes to burn and lay waste our improvements, if a 
 man undertakes to shield his, he will be sheared down. 
 Before I will suffer what I have in times gone by, there 
 shall not be one building nor one foot of lumber, not 
 a stick, nor a tree, nor a particle of grass or hay that 
 will burn left in reach of our enemies. I am sworn, if 
 
90 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 driven to extremity, to utterly lay waste, in the name 
 of Israel's God." 1 " 
 
 When we remember that the rank and file of the 
 Mormon people were ignorant, deluded, and fanatical, 
 and that they were at this time one thousand miles 
 from civilization and railroads and where escape was 
 impossible, and looked upon Brigham as a real prophet 
 of the Lord whom they should believe in and obey, and 
 that the life or property of any human being who stood 
 in the way of Young's will was doomed, and that he 
 was surrounded by a priesthood of officers as unprinci- 
 pled and remorseless as himself, — when all these facts 
 are kept in mind, it must temper our judgment against 
 the mass of Mormon people for their rebellious acts, and 
 at the same time intensify our condemnation of Young 
 and his co-conspirators for their causeless treason. 
 
 The Mormon rebels were commanded by Daniel H. 
 Wells, a high officer of Young. The United States 
 troops must enter the Salt Lake Valley through Echo 
 Canon, a narrow defile twenty-five miles in length, with 
 precipitous sides, stretching through the Wahsatch range. 
 Upon the summit of the rocky cliffs overlooking this 
 canon the Mormons erected stone breastworks and dug- 
 trenches within which to conceal their riflemen ; and upon 
 the overhanging peaks great heaps of rocks were piled. 
 Then upon the opposite side of the defile dams were 
 constructed in which to gather water. Thus when the 
 United States troops would pass through, the water was 
 to be poured down in a destructive torrent upon them. 
 Those who should escape this would rush to the other side 
 of the defile only to receive upon their heads the deadly 
 bowlders to be thrown from the heights above and the 
 
 1 The Deseret News, the Mormon organ, November 18, 1857. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 91 
 
 bullets from the concealed rifle-pits. This was the Mor- 
 mon plan of attack, should the troops escape the dangers of 
 the plains and the murderous Mormon devices to destroy 
 them before they should enter the canon. In this latter, 
 however, they were practically successful. The whole 
 expedition was a miserable failure, bringing great suf- 
 ferings and many deaths to the soldiers and a loss of 
 millions of dollars to the United States, while it only 
 added to the defiant and rebellious spirit of the Mormons. 
 
 On the fourth of October the Mormon general, D. H. 
 Wells, issued the following order to his subordinates : — 
 
 " On ascertaining the locality or route of the troops, 
 proceed at once to annoy them in every possible way. 
 Use every exertion to stampede their animals and set fire 
 to their trains. Burn the whole country before them and 
 on their flanks. Keep them from sleeping by night sur- 
 prises. Blockade the road by felliug trees or destroying 
 the fords where you can. Watch opportunities to set fire 
 to the grass on their windward, so as, if possible, to 
 envelop their trains. Leave no grass before them that 
 can be burned. Keep your men concealed as much as 
 possible, and guard against surprise." 
 
 The United States forces were wholly inadequate in 
 numbers to cope with the Mormons when all the odds 
 were against them. They were few in numbers ; the 
 route was through a barren desert ; they knew nothing 
 of the country, while the Mormons, who were harassing 
 them at every step, knew every spot in all that region ; 
 winter was near at hand, while the cold was pitiless and 
 the forage supplies nearly exhausted ; no grass could be 
 had to recruit the starving animals, for the Mormons 
 burned all the grass in advance of the arm} 7 . There was 
 great danger that the entire force of men, horses, and 
 
92 Tlie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 cattle would suffer death before they could get relief, and 
 a large part was, indeed, "wasted away," according to 
 the orders of Brigham. One government supply-train 
 near the Green River and another on the Sweetwater 
 were burned by the Mormons, and many of the cattle 
 stampeded. The teamsters and wagon-masters, who were 
 now useless to the army, and other civilians were given a 
 supply of provisions, and started back homeward, but 
 nearly all perished upon the plains — the victims of cold, 
 exposure, and Indians. Soon the exhaustion of the ani- 
 mals in the slowly advancing army was such that their 
 utmost advance was only three miles per day. The pros- 
 pect of certain and fruitless death for the whole force 
 began to awaken open murmurings among the helpless 
 soldiers. At this critical time their new commander — 
 Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, of subsequent fame as a 
 general in the Southern army of the Rebellion — reached 
 the army, ordered the return of the troops to Camp 
 Scott, near the site of Fort Bridger, for winter quarters, 
 which they reached November 16, 1857. 
 
 The snow was deep, the animals weak and starving, 
 and the retreating army required fifteen days to make the 
 last thirty-five miles of their perilous march. Many men, 
 cattle, and mules perished in the cold. The road was 
 marked with the dead and dying animals. On the Sweet- 
 water fifty-seven head of horses and mules were frozen 
 in one night ; on the night of the sixth of November five 
 hundred animals died around the camp, which was named 
 the " Camp of Death ; " fifteen oxen froze to death while 
 crowding together in one bunch. From the stampeded 
 and stolen cattle, the Mormons in Salt Lake received 
 eight hundred in October and five hundred in November, 
 and then sang one of their most popular songs : — 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 93 
 
 There 's seven hundred wagons on the way, 
 
 Du dah ! 
 And their cattle are numerous, so they say, 
 
 Du dah ! Du dah day ! 
 Now, to let the in perish would be a sin, 
 
 Du dah ! 
 So we HI take all they 've got for bringing them in, 
 Du dah ! Du dah day ! 
 Chorus. — Then let us be on hand, 
 
 By Brig-ham Young to stand, 
 And if our enemies do appear 
 We '11 sweep them off the land. 1 
 
 The sufferings and humiliations of our soldiers at Camp 
 Scott during that winter of 1857-58 were extreme. The 
 settlers who could reach them got twelve dollars a gallon 
 for their whiskey, three dollars a pound for tobacco, 
 sugar, and coffee ; while the Indians got five dollars a 
 pound for their salt. Their animals were too weak to 
 work, and the soldiers themselves had to haul their own 
 wood five miles by hitching themselves in spans of six- 
 teen or more to one wagon. When the United States 
 army — defeated, stripped, and powerless — turned its 
 steps backward, the Mormon forces went home to their 
 warm valley of plenty, and there was great rejoicing. A 
 "Welcome to the returned Warriors of Zion " was sung, 
 as follows : — 
 
 Strong in the power of Brigham's God, 
 
 Your name 's a terror to our foes ; 
 Ye were a barrier strong and broad 
 
 As our high mountains crowned with snows. 
 
 Fear filled the myrmidons of war, 
 
 Their courage fell in wordy boast ; 
 
 The faith and prayers of Israel's host 
 Repelled the tyrant's gory car. 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 
 
94 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 " The orators of the tabernacle waxed bold and spoke 
 of the government and the army in terms of supreme 
 contempt. A questioning voice was never heard ; there 
 was one current of unvarying boast of independence and 
 victory for Israel, and of defeat and disgrace for the 
 nation. For years previous, the people had been taught 
 to look forward to the time when ' the kingdom ' should 
 throw off its allegiance to all earthly power, and now 
 they naturally concluded that ' the long-expected, blessed 
 day ' had arrived." 1 
 
 The sermons in the Mormon tabernacle during this 
 winter were boastful to vulgarity. They declared that 
 the army at Camp Scott was so weak that " a swarm of 
 long-billed mosquitoes could eat them up at a supper 
 spell;" and one speaker declared that he had "wives 
 enough to whip the United States," and another said that 
 " the whole United States and the whole world could not 
 prevail against the Saints." 
 
 A correct picture of the utter delusion of the com- 
 mon Mormon people at this time (1857-58) is found 
 in the following extracts from a letter from a Mormon 
 woman in Salt Lake City to her children in Providence, 
 Rhode Island : — 
 
 " I expect you have heard the loud talk of Uncle 
 Sam's great big army coming to kill the Saints. Now, 
 if you did but know how the Saints rejoice at the folly 
 of the poor Gentiles ! There are about four thousand 
 on the border of our territory, and six hundred wagons, 
 — one naked mule to draw them, all the rest having 
 died. The men are sitting in the snow, about a 
 hundred and fifteen miles from us, living on three 
 crackers a day and three quarters of a pound of beef 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 375. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 95 
 
 a week. Thus you see the old prophet's words are 
 fulfilled : Whoever shall fight against Zion shall perish. 
 The time has come when the Lord has called all the 
 elders home, and commanded them to bind up the law 
 and seal the testimony. They are now coming home as 
 fast as possible. What comes next? The judgment, 
 hailstorm, thunder, lightning, pestilence, war ; and 
 they that will not take up the sword against their 
 neighbor must flee to Zion for safety. Will you come, 
 O my dear children ? " l 
 
 There is no doubt whatever that the majority of the 
 Mormon people have from that day believed in all igno- 
 rant sincerity just as that mother believed then ; and that 
 they still believe so, and do not doubt, even yet, that, 
 though it be two hundred thousand Mormons against 
 over sixty-five millions of people, the Mormons will yet 
 be victorious. There are the best reasons for believing 
 that if the United States government had, in 1858, — as 
 it then had every legal and moral right to do, — punished 
 the Mormon leaders with such severity that most of 
 them would have been destroyed, and the remainder 
 made to supplicate for mercy, then the Mormon common 
 people would have had the scales torn from their eyes, 
 and the shell of their delusion so broken that Mormon- 
 ism would now have been a thing of the past. 
 
 Although such a course would, for the time being, 
 have been hard for the leaders, yet it would have saved 
 many thousands of women and children and of deluded 
 men from countless sufferings and debasement. The 
 United States government committed a grave error when 
 it compromised its honor by appointing polygamous 
 Mormons to hold federal offices ; and when it refrained 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 379. 
 
96 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 from visiting upon Brigham Young and his leading 
 officers in open rebellion the punishment they deserved, 
 or even demanding that they should sue for peace, or 
 even requiring a probation of true loyalty, the govern- 
 ment then did an irreparable wrong. The result has 
 been — the rapid growth of the Mormon tumor and 
 national shame through forty long years. 
 
 The outcome of this military expedition of the United 
 States to its rebellious territory was that in the spring 
 of 1858 the troops escorted the new governor, Alfred 
 dimming, of Georgia, to Salt Lake City, marching 
 through the Echo Canon and the streets of the city in 
 peace. Brigham Young's sober second thought had con- 
 vinced him of the utter folly of resistance. Neither 
 Brigham nor his people was punished, and President 
 Buchanan sent special commissioners all the way to 
 Utah to bear to the offenders the pardon of the United 
 States ! Whether our government also sent an apology 
 to Brigham for attempting to protect United States 
 officers, or whether it promised never to do so again, is 
 not stated. 
 
 But the commissioners of an unasked pardon, upon 
 their arrival in Salt Lake City in June (1858), found 
 the city deserted. Brigham Young, fearing that a large 
 army would visit them in the spring with such punish- 
 ment as he well knew they deserved, had in March 
 announced that the Mormons were to evacuate Salt Lake 
 City. This move was just as causeless and unreason- 
 able as had been his ludicrous bluster and military atti- 
 tude against the government a few months previous. 
 
 " Before anything was learned upon which to base a 
 well-grounded hope of a peaceful adjustment of the 
 difficulty between Brigham Young and the government, 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 97 
 
 ' counsel ' had been given to the Saints to vacate the 
 city and to move southward. Obedient to this ' coun- 
 sel,' the people gathered all that they could take with 
 them ' upon wheels,' and, leaving the rest of their 
 possessions as best they could, prepared for another 
 exodus. 
 
 ' ' Before turning the key to the outer door for the last 
 time, straw, wood, shavings, and everything combustible 
 was massed in heaps and placed throughout the houses, 
 so that if it became necessary to burn the city, the work 
 of destruction would be so speedily executed that there 
 would remain no shelter for the advancing enemy or 
 their camp-followers. Less than a score of men were 
 left behind to apply the torch and repeat upon a small 
 scale the tragedy of Moscow, should it become neces- 
 sary. 
 
 " The governor (Cumming) followed his ' constituents ' 
 fifty miles south, beseeching them to turn back, and 
 representing to them that there was no danger to be 
 apprehended from the troops ; that their homes would 
 be preserved, and that they would be unmolested ; but 
 it was to no purpose. As well say to the tidal wave : 
 ' Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further.' The governor 
 and the peace commissioners spoke in vain. The power 
 that led away the Mormons from their firesides alone 
 could send them back again. 
 
 " At Provo, on the fifth of July, Brigham announced 
 his intention to return to Salt Lake City, and left the 
 people to do as they pleased. In a few hours afterwards 
 the greater number were on the march home. Many who 
 had exhausted their resources in going south were unable 
 to return immediately, and some remained permanently 
 where the flight had landed them. 
 
9o The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 " In this memorable flight there were probably no less 
 than thirty thousand persons on ' the move south ' from 
 the latter part of March till the beginning of August." 1 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MAKING CONVERTS IN EUROPE. ONE WOMAN* S LIFE IN 
 
 MORMONISM. 
 
 SOME years ago Mrs. T. B. H. Stenhouse wrote a 
 book entitled "An Englishwoman in Utah; or, 
 A Life's Experience in Mormonism." For twenty-five 
 years she and her husband were devoted Mormons, he 
 standing very high in the counsels of the church and 
 near to Brigham Young, and she suffering the trials and 
 degradation which polygamy has brought upon so many 
 families in Utah. Both husband and wife were far 
 above Mormons generally in intelligence and character. 
 He was an exceptionally able preacher, as preaching 
 goes among the Mormons ; was editor of a paper called 
 The Mormon in New York City, and afterwards editor 
 and proprietor of The Salt Lake City Daily Telegraph. 
 They experienced nearly all the phases of life among the 
 Mormons, except those of abject poverty. Their intelli- 
 gence and material prosperity kept them above those 
 experiences which the large majority of victims to Mor- 
 monism have passed through. They were reputable peo- 
 ple, born and reared in England ; he went as foreign 
 missionary for Mormonism to Italy, and both went to 
 
 » Rocky Mountain Saints, pp. 394, 398, 399. 
 
The Mormon Delusion . 99 
 
 Switzerland ; then emigrated to Utah ; there went into 
 the vileness of polygamy ; saw their daughter become 
 the fourth wife of Brigham Young's oldest son, Joseph 
 A. Young. Afterwards they experienced the efforts 
 and success of Brigham Young to break Mr. Stenhouse 
 down in business ; finally they opened their eyes to the 
 delusions and enormities in which they had lived, left 
 the Mormon Church, and experienced the most shocking 
 indignities and persecutions therefor. Afterwards, not 
 being able to endure the constant annoyances to which 
 they were subjected by the Saints in Salt Lake City, 
 they moved to California, where Mr. Stenhouse died. 
 Mrs. Stenhouse returned to Salt Lake City, where her 
 children lived, but finding it very unpleasant there, went 
 back in her old age to dwell among the scenes of her 
 childhood in England, where she was still living in 1888. 
 
 It will help to give a true picture of Mormonism — 
 especially its better phases — to trace the actual life of 
 this husband and wife through all their varying experi- 
 ences in Mormonism during twenty-five years, and their 
 observation of the experiences of others. That this 
 picture may be as life-like as possible it will be given, so 
 far as space will permit, in Mrs. Stenhouse's own words. 
 It adds to the value of her testimony that it is entirely 
 reliable. 1 
 
 She lived at Southampton, England, and in her early 
 years united with the Baptist church, of which her father 
 and mother were also members. While still quite young, 
 she went to France, where she remained three years as 
 
 1 All the quotations from Mrs. Stenhouse in this and some of the follow- 
 ing-chapters are from her book, "An English Woman in Utah," by Mrs. 
 T. B. H. Stenhouse, published by Sampson Low, Marston & Co., Fleet 
 Street, London. To avoid repeated foot-notes, this general acknowledg- 
 ment is here made. The paragraphs quoted herein have first been greatly 
 condensed. 
 
■I 00 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 governess in a French family ; there she became engaged 
 to be married to a Frenchman of high rank and ample 
 fortune. While visiting her parents during a vacation 
 she came under the influence of Mormon missionaries 
 who were then preaching in Southampton. Her parents 
 had already embraced Mor monism, and although she at 
 first denounced it as a delusion and declared she would 
 never become a believer, she finally yielded to its seduc- 
 tions, joined the Mormon Church, and was sought in 
 marriage by the Mormon missionary through whose 
 influence she had been converted, Mr. T. B. H. Sten- 
 house. She says: "The trial of my profession in the 
 new faith came swiftly to my door. My marriage engage- 
 ment must be broken off. I was brought face to face 
 with the fact that I could not marry out of the Mormon 
 Church. Great as was the trial, and painful as was the 
 sacrifice, I resolved to be true to my religion." 
 
 She soon married Elder Stenhouse, and says: "I was 
 now a Mormon in every sense of the word, although 
 entirely ignorant of Utah politics and polygamy. My 
 dreams were of a life of happiness spent in seeking to 
 convert the whole world to the religion of Jesus, which I 
 believed had been restored again to earth by the ministry 
 of holy angels. There was no sacrifice too great for me 
 to make, there was no object too dear for me to resign, 
 if it stood in the way of my sacred calling. Henceforth 
 it was my duty to be entirely forgetful of self and to 
 devote my energies, my all, to the advancement of the 
 kingdom of God. My life was to be identified with the 
 Saints ; my faith required it, and I was willing that it 
 should be so." 
 
 The character of the Mormon meetings held in England 
 at this time was almost wholly different from Mormon 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 101 
 
 meetings held in Utah. The meetings in England were 
 characterized by most earnest preaching, in which self- 
 sacrifice and a devotion to the best interests of the king- 
 dom of Christ were strongly urged by enthusiasm, great 
 rejoicing, the singing of inspiring hymns, and testimony 
 of new converts who were full of zeal. One of the 
 hymns with which the meetings were apt to be opened 
 was as follows : — 
 
 The morning breaks, the shadows flee; 
 
 Lo ! Zion's standard is unfurled ! 
 The dawning of a brighter day 
 
 Majestic rises on the world. 
 
 The clouds of error disappear 
 
 Before the rays of truth divine ; 
 The glory bursting from afar, 
 
 Wide o'er the nations soon will shine. 
 
 Angels from heaven and truth from earth 
 Have met, and both have record borne; 
 
 Thus Zion's light is bursting forth 
 
 To bring her ransomed children home. 
 
 Another stanza of one of their hymns for such occa- 
 sions is the following, which seldom fails to produce a 
 marked effect upon a congregation : — 
 
 The Spirit of God like a fire is burning ! 
 
 The latter day glory begins to come forth; 
 The visions and blessings of old are returning, 
 
 The angels are coming to visit the earth. 
 We '11 sing and we '11 shout with the armies of heaven, 
 
 Hosannah ! Hosannah to God and the Lamb ! 
 All glory to them in the highest be given 
 
 Henceforth and forever : Amen, and Amen. 
 
 v 'The congregation sang with an energy and enthusi- 
 asm which made the room shake. Self and the outer 
 
102 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 world were alike forgotten, and an ecstasy of rapture 
 seemed to possess the souls of all present. Then all 
 kneeled down and prayer was offered for the officers of 
 tin 1 church, blessings were invoked upon the Saints with 
 power to convert the Gentiles, and as the earnest words 
 of supplication left the speaker's lips the congregation 
 shouted a loud ' Amen.' There was no prepared ser- 
 mon (there never is at a Mormon meeting) . The people 
 are taught that the Holy Ghost is ' mouth, matter, and 
 wisdom.' Whatever the preaching elder may say is sup- 
 posed to come directly by inspiration from heaven, and 
 the Saints, listening, as they believe, not to his utterances 
 but to the words of God himself, have nothing to do but 
 to hear and obey. In the evening I listened to a lecture 
 from the missionary upon the character, spirit, and 
 genius of the new church. I was captivated by the 
 picture which he drew of the marvelous latter day work 
 which he affirmed had already begun. The visions of 
 bygone days were again vouchsafed to men ; angels had 
 visibly descended to earth ; God had raised up in a 
 mighty way a prophet as of old to preach the dispen- 
 sation of the last days ; gifts of prophecy, healing, and 
 the working of miracles were now, as in the days of the 
 apostles, witnesses to the power of God ; the long-lost 
 tribes of Israel were about to be gathered into the one 
 great fold of Christ, and the fullness of the Gentiles 
 being come, they too were to be taken under the care of 
 the Good Shepherd. All were freely invited to come and 
 cast away their sins ere it was too late, and the fullest 
 offers of pardon, grace, sanctification, and blessing in 
 this world and the next were presented to every repentant 
 soul. 
 
 '-Surely, thought I, these are the self -same doctrines 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 103 
 
 which my mother taught me when I knelt beside her in 
 childhood and which I have so often heard urged from 
 pulpits. Who can wonder that I listened with rapt 
 attention and that my heart was even then half -won to 
 the new faith? 
 
 " The Mormons in England were then simple and 
 earnest religious people, in many respects like the 
 Methodists — especially in missionary zeal and fervor of 
 spirit. The missionary had come to Southampton with- 
 out purse or scrip. He was quite a young man and 
 almost penniless, but he was rich in faith and overflowing 
 with zeal. He knew no one there, and, homeless and fre- 
 quently hungry, he continued his labors. Of fasting he 
 knew much, of feasting nothing. He first preached 
 under the branches of a spreading beech-tree in a pub- 
 lic park, and when more favored he held forth in a 
 school-room or public hall. He had come to convert 
 the people to Mormonism or he was going to die 
 among them, and before such zeal and determination 
 discouragements, of course, soon vanished away. Mor- 
 monism was bold then in Europe. It had no Amer- 
 ican history to meet in those days. The reader must 
 remember that at that time polygamy was unheard of as 
 a doctrine of the Saints, and the blood atonement, the 
 doctrine that Adam is God, together with the polytheism 
 and priestly theocracy of after years, were things 
 undreamed of. The saving love of Christ, the glory 
 and fullness of the everlasting Gospel, the gifts and 
 graces of the Spirit, together with repentance, baptism, 
 and faith, were the points upon which the Mormon teach- 
 ers touched. Who can wonder that with such topics as 
 these, and by fortifying every statement with numerous 
 and powerful texts of Scripture, they should captivate 
 the minds of religiously inclined people ? " 
 
104 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Four months after Mrs. Stenhouse's marriage, her young 
 husband was sent as a missionary to Italy, she remaining 
 in England. No provision was made for her support ; she 
 was merely committed to the care of the Saints. She 
 suffered greatly even for the commonest necessities of 
 life, for weeks not enjoying even a cup of tea and living 
 upon bread only, but believing most thoroughly in her 
 religion and rejoicing that her husband could be a foreign 
 missionary, and that in thus suffering she was sharing 
 somewhat in the missionary sacrifice. She did not let 
 her husband or her parents know of her destitution. 
 
 kt I was in extreme poverty certainly," she says, " but 
 for myself I was not in trouble. God would provide for 
 me, I felt, and it was glorious to suffer in a sacred cause. 
 But darker days, days of severer trial, were creeping 
 slowly near me. Up to this time I had worshiped God and 
 loved my husband with a perfect heart. Now the dark 
 shadow of an accursed thing was looming in the distance, 
 and approaching surely, if slowly. 
 
 " In some way an idea had got abroad that the 
 Mormons were unsound respecting the marriage ques- 
 tion. Still the elders stoutly denied the charge, and 
 the more they were accused the more strenuous became 
 their denials. 
 
 tl At a public discussion in France, the Mormon 
 apostle, John Taylor, in reply to such accusations, 
 denied them most strenuously, and quoted many pas- 
 sages of Scripture, and from the Mormon book, Doc- 
 trines and Covenants, each quotation powerful to put 
 aside even the idea of polygamy ; and each powerful as 
 an argument against polygamy itself. 
 
 " Let the reader here note the value of what Mormons 
 say when their faith is called in question : Brother Taylor, 
 
The Mormon Delusion. lOo 
 
 who spoke at that meeting and utterly denied polygamy, 
 at that very moment when he so atrociously perjured 
 himself, and when he swore that no Mormon had more 
 than one wife, himself had Jive wives living in Salt Lake 
 City ! One of his companion missionaries there present 
 had two wives ; and the other was married to a mother 
 and her own daughter ! 
 
 " It became very common for the Mormon elders to 
 discuss in visiting circles the apostasy of the Christian 
 Church from the true order of God's salvation, and prom- 
 inence would be given to the history of Abraham and his 
 descendants, and occasional allusion would be made to 
 their marital relations. It was very evident that these 
 elders only wanted to drop a word or two here and there 
 to suit those who wanted it, but yet spoke obscurely and 
 mysteriously, unwilling openly to avow. It became very 
 clear to me that some of the elders were polygamists "at 
 heart. The more my mind dwelt on these things, the 
 more sick at heart did I become. Sometimes I would sit 
 alone and think of the whisperings of that accursed doc- 
 trine which has since brought desolation and anguish to 
 the hearts of so many, many women ; think of my future 
 life, dark as its promise even then appeared. 
 
 " Sometimes I heard from Italy how my husband Was 
 progressing with his work there, and with wifely love I 
 sympathized with him in all his difficulties, for he told me 
 how arduous the task was in which he was engaged. 
 
 " It was not the expectation of the Mormon apostles 
 that the missionaries would do much in Catholic Italy. 
 The same causes were in operation there as affected the 
 work in France. Few, if any, really good Roman Cath- 
 olics have ever joined the Saints. The Irish mission was 
 never successful, and the same mav be said of the French 
 
106 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 and Italian missions. In France and Italy by far the 
 greater part of the people might be classed under two 
 heads, Roman Catholics and infidels. The first had 
 already an infallible guide in which they trusted, and 
 as for the infidels, they ridiculed the idea of any guide at 
 all. Both classes were utterly devoid of that acquaint- 
 ance with Scripture of which the Mormon missionaries 
 understood so well how to take advantage, and which 
 rendered those so susceptible to religious influences who 
 took the Bible as their basis. The missionaries in Italy 
 soon experienced the difficulties presented by these facts. 
 
 "For many years it had been supposed among the 
 Saints that the ' gift of tongues ' would be all-sufficient 
 for missionaries, and that they would not have to acquire 
 foreign languages, and the apostles had eloquently dis- 
 cussed the subject in print ; but the missionaries soon 
 discovered by experience in foreign lands that this ' gift ' 
 was not of much service for practical purposes, and that 
 they must ' acquire ' the languages for themselves. A 
 letter from my husband, now in Switzerland, told how 
 he had shut himself up in his room for a whole winter 
 poring over a French grammar, and deploring his hard 
 fate in being- denied ' the gift of tongues.' 
 
 u Soon after this my husband returned to England, and 
 we attended a general conference of the Mormons in 
 Great Britain held in London. We had preaching and 
 prayers. The business occupied but very few minutes, 
 for no measure was questioned. Among the Mormons 
 there are no opinions, no discussions. The presiding head 
 has made out his program before he comes to the confer- 
 ence, and no one ever questions him. He may, for 
 form's sake, invite the brethren to speak on any point 
 he introduces ; but when lie has furnished the clew to his 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 107 
 
 wishes, the elders who speak only spend their time in 
 favoring his measures. 
 
 " Mormonism was then most successfully preached in 
 Great Britain. There were more Mormons there than in 
 all of Utah Territory. There were fifty conferences, 
 over seven hundred organized ' branches,' and more than 
 six thousand men ordained to the priesthood. 
 
 "During all that conference (June, 1851), I listened 
 carefully for a word from the lips of any of the speakers 
 which might indicate in any way that polygamy was a 
 part of the Mormon faith ; but not a whisper, not a hint, 
 was uttered. Still I could not altogether banish my 
 apprehension of coming evil ; but so bound to secrecy 
 were those who did know of polygamy being practiced in 
 Utah that there was not one who would admit it, and even 
 my own husband's lips were sealed to me. He did not 
 deny it, but he would not talk about it." 
 
 Afterwards Mr. Stenhouse returned to her and they 
 were both sent on a mission to Switzerland, settlins; 
 first at Geneva, and afterwards in Lausanne. There 
 they suffered together even more bitterly than she had 
 suffered alone in Eugland. They had one child at this 
 time, and were reduced to such poverty that days together 
 passed in cold and hunger without anything more than 
 bread to eat. "I can even recall to mind," she says, " oue 
 trying week in Switzerland, when for the whole seven 
 days we had less than a pint of corn flour to live upon, 
 and that was chiefly reserved for our poor child." So 
 high-spirited was she that their landlady, who lived in 
 another part of the house, was all this time ignorant of 
 their suffering ; for Mrs. Stenhouse, so long as she was 
 able to walk about, would go to the kitchen at regular 
 hours, get out the cooking utensils, and go through the 
 
108 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 routine of cooking as though she had a well-filled larder 
 all the time, in order that the good widow landlady might 
 not suspect that they were in want. 
 
 But their faith in Mormonism and their devotion to 
 missionary service was such that they bore these trials 
 without complaint. 
 
 Mr. Stenhouse first attempted the conversion of the 
 shoemaker beside whose bench he would sit and read 
 from a French Testament and interweave discourses 
 about the new religion. Next he plied the tailor with 
 his persuasions, then four or five of the neighbors were 
 persuaded to gather in meetings at his house, where most 
 that was done was to read the Bible and expound it in 
 the interests of the new faith. The women were not 
 allowed to speak in Mormon meetings, but after the 
 meeting closed Mrs. Stenhouse began her work as a 
 missionary, which proved far more effective than that 
 of her husband, owing to her knowledge of the French 
 language and her unusual abilities. 
 
 "At Lausanne we resided in a part of the house of 
 Monsieur Balif, who had become a convert to Mor- 
 monism. After I had been in their house a few weeks 
 Madame Balif was baptized into the faith. She impressed 
 me as being one of the happiest of wives, and he one of 
 the best of husbands. But she was never satisfied with 
 Mormonism. Poor dear lady ! how often have I bitterly 
 regretted that I was instrumental in leading her into the 
 Mormon Church, in which (years later, in Utah) she 
 endured such cruel humiliation and martyrdom ! " 
 
 At this time Mrs. Stenhouse received a letter from 
 England from a dear friend, Mary Burton, whom she 
 describes as a mere child, not yet fifteen, a sweet and 
 gentle girl of rare beauty. The letter narrated the 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 109 
 
 unseemly intimacy of married Mormon elders with their 
 unmarried female converts and their hints at polygamy 
 as a possibility, and closes thus : — 
 
 With all my faith, I am very much troubled about these 
 things. Sister Stenhouse, is this the Mormonism the elders 
 used to teach us? Perhaps, after all, I am wrong, aud ought 
 to see things in a different light. For have not the elders and 
 apostles positively denied that polygamy, or any other sin, was 
 practiced in Utah, or formed any part of the Mormon religion? 
 And we know that these men of God would not deceive us. 
 
 With fondest love, remember your own 
 
 Mary Burton. 
 
 "I read this letter through carefully. It brought a 
 sad confirmation of all my fears. After three months' 
 absence Mr. Stenhouse returned to Lausanne, and there 
 were a number of new converts to be baptized. I was 
 now more than ever anxious about polygamy. It had 
 become the haunting specter of my existence, and I 
 dreaded what any day might bring forth. The news 
 which my husband brought with him was by no means 
 re-assuring. He had heard in England from the Ameri- 
 can elders that there was a general expectation among 
 the Saints in Utah that at the October conference in 
 Salt Lake City Brigham Young would publish to the 
 world that polygamy was a doctrine of the Mormon 
 Church. 
 
 " As this truth became clearer to my mind, I thought 
 I should lose my senses. The very foundations of my 
 faith were shaken with repugnance to the unholy doctrine, 
 but I also began to realize that the men whom I had 
 regarded as the representatives of God were guilty of 
 deliberate and unblushing falsehood. Might they not 
 also be guilty of deception on other points? Whom 
 
110 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 could I trust now ? For ten years the Mormon prophets 
 and apostles had been living in polygamy at home, while 
 abroad they vehemently denied it and spoke of it as a 
 deadly sin. This was a painful awakening for me. We 
 had all of us been betrayed. I lost confidence in man 
 and almost began to question whether I could even trust 
 in God. 
 
 " My husband assured me that he had as great 
 repugnance for the doctrine as I had. The London 
 elder, of whose flirtation in Southampton I have already 
 spoken, was then in Switzerland, and he now confirmed 
 my fears. He said that I and those like me were ' babes,' 
 to whom only milk must be given. My husband enjoined 
 me not to speak a word of what 1 had heard. I felt little 
 inclination to do so — my heart was too full. What could 
 I now look forward to ? My pleasant dreams and hopes 
 in life were ended. Still, the 'revelation' sanctioning 
 a change in the doctrines and practices of the church 
 was not yet published; and until polygamy was openly 
 avowed, I felt that the doom of my happiness was not 
 yet sealed, and like many another heart-broken woman, 
 I hoped against hope. 
 
 " Time flew by, and at length the dreaded ' revelation' 
 came. Eeturning from the post-office my husband handed 
 me The Millennial Star, a Mormon paper published at 
 Liverpool, ' containing the revelation,' he said. As 1 
 took it I felt as if I was receiving my death-warrant. 
 It was indeed the death-warrant to all my hopes. I 
 rose from the breakfast table, asking them to excuse 
 me, and overcome with agitation and conflicting emo- 
 tions, I retired to my own chamber. There for the first 
 time I read that document which has since brought 
 so much sorrow and misery to so many wronged and 
 
The Mormon Delusion. Ill 
 
 heart-broken women. The reader may perhaps like to 
 see the only formulation and authority for the practice 
 of polygamy ever produced by the Mormon leaders ; so 
 I copy here the essential parts of this ' revelation ' : — 
 
 Celestial Marriage! A revelation on the patriarchal 
 order of matrimony, or plurality of wives, given to Joseph 
 Smith, the Seer, at Nauvoo, July 12, 1843. . . . 
 
 Prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions 
 which I am about to give unto you; for all those which have 
 this law revealed unto them must obey the same ; for behold ! 
 1 reveal unto you a new and everlasting covenant, and if ye 
 abide not that covenant, then are ye damned ; for no one can 
 reject this covenant, and be permitted to enter into my glory ; 
 for all who will have a blessing at mj r hands shall abide the 
 law which was appointed for that blessing and the conditions 
 thereof, as was instituted from before the foundations of the 
 world : and as pertaining to the new and everlasting covenant, 
 it was instituted for the fullness of my glory ; and he that 
 receiveth a fullness thereof must and shall abide the law, or 
 he shall be damn* d, saith the Lord God. . . . 
 
 16. I am the Lord thy God, and I gave unto thee, my 
 servant Joseph, an appointment, and restore all things. ... I 
 have conferred upon you the keys and power of the priest- 
 hood, wherein I restore all things, and make known unto you 
 all things in due time. . . . 
 
 20. Verily I say unto you, a commandment I give unto 
 mine handmaid Emma Smith, your wife ... let mine hand- 
 maid Emma Smith receive all those that have been given unto 
 my servant Joseph Smith ; . . . 
 
 21. And I command mine handmaid Emma Smith to 
 abide and cleave unto my servant Joseph, and to none else. 
 But if she will not abide this commandment, she shall be 
 destroyed, saith the Lord ; for I am the Lord thy God, and will 
 destroy her if she abide not in my law. . . . 
 
 24. And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood : 
 If any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another, 
 and the first give her consent 5 and if he espouse the second, 
 
112 Tlie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 and the}' are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then is 
 ho justified. He can not commit adultery, for they are given 
 him; for he can not commit adultery with that that belongeth 
 unto him, and to none else; and if he have ten virgins given 
 unto him by this law. he can not commit adultery, for they 
 belong to him; and they are given unto him — therefore is he 
 justified. 
 
 25. And again, verily, verily, I say unto 30U, if any man 
 has a wife who holds the keys of this power, and he teaches 
 unto her the law of my priesthood, as pertaining to these 
 things, then shall she believe and administer unto him, or she 
 shall be destined, saith the Lord your God : for I will destroy 
 hr. . . . 
 
 t; The 'revelation' roused within me feelings of horror 
 and dismay, but I did not dare to question its authenticity. 
 It brought bitterness to my soul, but I believed it was from 
 God, and that I must learn to bear the cross patiently. 
 I did not at that time read the document through from 
 beginning to end. No ; my indignation was such that 
 before I had read half of it I threw it from me in anger. 
 1 felt bitterly that this new doctrine was a degradation to 
 woman, and I wondered why G-od should see fit to humil- 
 iate my sex in this way. I was willing to devote myself, 
 my life, my all to His service, but wherefore should He 
 doom me to everlasting sorrow? What now was to be a 
 woman's lot among the Mormons ? A life without hope ! 
 Hereafter our hearts were to be daily and hourly tram- 
 pled upon ; the most sacred feelings of our sex were to 
 be outraged ; our affections were to be crushed. Hence- 
 forth we were to be nothing by ourselves ; without a hus- 
 band, we were told, we could not even enter heaven ! 
 But death was to bring no hope to us ; we were told that 
 in the other world polygamy should be the only order of 
 marriage, and that without it none could be exalted in 
 
TJie Mormon Dehisi 07i. 113 
 
 glory. We were told these things by men whom we 
 believed were true and holy men of God ; and we trusted 
 in them. 
 
 " Rebellious I felt, indeed, as I paced the room after I 
 had thrown the ' revelation ' on the ground : I almost felt 
 as if I should lose my reason. I had neither relation nor 
 friend to whom I could speak of this trial ; there was no 
 one who could understand me. I could not turn to my 
 husband in this sorrow, and I dared not even kneel to my 
 God to implore His aid. It was He, they said, who had 
 declared that this ' revelation ' was His will ; how, then, 
 could I turn to Him ? No ; my heart sank within me ; 
 henceforth there was to be no hope, no peace for me ! 
 
 " There was a knock at my chamber door, and my hus- 
 band came in. He knew how acutely I must feel, and he 
 came to comfort me. I was almost choked with emotion 
 and tears, but he threw his arms around me tenderly and 
 spoke to me as if I had been a child that needed conso- 
 lation. He tried to persuade me that God, as a loving 
 Father, could never have intended the pain or misery of 
 his children, and that when we came to understand the 
 doctrine better, we should find that all would be well. 
 He spoke also of his own unchanging attachment, and 
 appealed to me whether I thought he could ever love me 
 less, or place his affections on another. I tried to believe, 
 and when I felt a little better I went with him to the 
 breakfast room, where the others were waiting for us. 
 
 " I now entered upon a new phase of my missionary 
 life. The elders assured me that it was my duty to teach 
 polygamy to the women of Switzerland. How I strove 
 against my rebellious nature ! How I battled with 
 myself! My heart must be subdued. I tried to reason 
 with myself, and to persuade myself that it was I who 
 
114 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 was to blame and not the ' revelation,' and I must not 
 refuse the cross that he called upon me to bear. Ere I 
 slept at night one dreadful thought was haunting my 
 pillow ; it disturbed my very dreams, and when I awoke 
 in the morning, it was with a feverish apprehension of 
 coming evil hanging over me. All through the long, 
 weary day it haunted my footsteps like a specter ; and 
 like a fearful blight that had fallen upon me, it seemed 
 to be withering my soul. One thought was ever present 
 in my mind — that thought, polygamy! Over my little 
 daughter Clara I mourned, for I thought if this ' revela- 
 tion' were acted upon by the Saints, as doubtless it 
 would be, she would some day be called upon to suffer as 
 I did. How little did I then, however, anticipate in what 
 way my fears would be realized ! My Clara became 
 the daughter-in-law of Brigham Young, having married 
 his eldest son, Joseph A. Young, becoming his fourth 
 wife. 
 
 " My husband and the elders had anticipated that I 
 would not readily submit, and they bore with me 
 as patiently as they could, losing no opportunity of 
 strengthening me in the faith, ever keeping before me 
 the obligation that rested upon me in particular to 
 explain the doctrine to the Swiss sisters. Among the 
 Swiss we had never spoken on polygamy. My husband 
 did not at once openly tell that such a ' revelation ' had 
 been sent from Zion ; but whenever an opportunity pre- 
 sented he took them aside singly, and spoke to them 
 about the ancient patriarchs who practiced polygamy ; 
 ... he soon won them over to the new teaching. 
 
 " After many days and nights of prayer and fasting I 
 prepared myself for my work. To a certain extent I 
 had brought my own self under control — or I thought 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 115 
 
 I had ; and I almost felt anxious to begin, so that I 
 might get over the painful scenes which I fully antici- 
 pated. It was agreed that Madame Balif should be the 
 first to whom the intelligence should be imparted, for it 
 was thought that if she accepted this ' revelation ' without 
 much difficulty, the other sisters would be more easily 
 won over. As I before mentioned, Madame Balif and 
 her husband were models of affection to one another, and 
 it seemed to me quite a sin that I should introduce into 
 such a household a doctrine which could only produce 
 disunion and misery. I was chosen to introduce this 
 pleasant subject, and to persuade those I loved to their 
 own ruin. It is miserable work to try to convince others 
 of a thing you yourself detest. One day, quite unex- 
 pectedly to her, they had told Madame Balif that a new 
 'revelation' had been sent from Zion, and that I would 
 explain it to her ; then Monsieur Balif left the house, 
 and remained absent until the wife whom he so devotedly 
 loved should have heard this new thing. Madame Balif 
 came downstairs singing, in her usual gay spirits, little 
 expecting what she was going to hear ; and when she 
 came to me I felt so unfitted for my task that I dared 
 not look her straight in the face, although she was my 
 dearest friend and I had such an affection for her. I 
 stood there, pale and trembling, and she thought that 
 I was not well. I was not, indeed, well ; I was sick at 
 heart. Never before had the face of a friend been so un- 
 welcome. She asked me what it was that I had to tell her, 
 and when I hesitatingly denied having wanted to speak 
 to her at all, she said she knew there must be something, 
 as her husband had told her so. I hesitated still ; but 
 at last found courage, and told her all. It was a cruel 
 task to impose upon me. She sat and listened eagerly as 
 
116 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 I told my story ; and when at length she began to under- 
 stand what was meant by it, she thought that I must be 
 playing some unseasonable joke upon her, and showed 
 as much in her countenance. But when she saw that I 
 really was in earnest, she sprang up and cried out, ' Oh, 
 my God ! what a beastly religion ! How dared your hus- 
 band and you come to us Swiss with such a religion as 
 that ? ' My eyes sank before her as she turned on me 
 with mingled rage and disgust, as if she would wither 
 me with her contemptuous looks. I felt as humbled as if 
 I myself had been the author of the ' revelation.' 
 
 " 'And does my Serge believe this?' she cried. I 
 assured her that he did believe it, and she paced the 
 room to and fro as if she would go crazy ; my heart 
 ached for her. She gave way to a perfect storm of 
 rage, and then sobbed and cried like a child who has 
 lost its mother. I was silent, for I knew how she must 
 feel, and I felt that she would be relieved by tears. I 
 had gone through the trial all alone, without one word 
 from a woman's heart that could reach my own ; and I 
 tried to comfort her. I remembered how I had felt 
 myself, and I believed that thus it was now with her. 
 In an instant, when I first realized that polygamy had 
 anything to do with me, just as I have heard it said of 
 dying men, all my past life rushed to my remembrance, 
 and every word or deed of love therein stood out in 
 brightest reality. Thus I doubted not that it was with 
 my friend. Every tender word which her husband had 
 ever uttered, every loving deed he had ever done, came 
 to her recollection with a tenfold clearness as she realized 
 the horrors which awaited her in the future. I tried to 
 soothe her, and she threw her arms passionately around 
 me and pressed me to her throbbing heart, and wept 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 117 
 
 again. She thought of her husband and her little girls. 
 But with all her fears she dreamed not how miserable 
 was the life before her in poverty and polygamy. She 
 was herself handsome in form and fair in feature, and, 
 in the full enjoyment of all that could be desired in 
 her sphere of life ; she was as happy as a } T outhful wife 
 could be. She pictured to herself a time — not now, her 
 Serge loved her too truly now — when her husband 
 might cast his eyes upon some blooming damsel, younger 
 than she was then, and might begin to take nearer 
 interest in polygamy. She pictured him bestowing on 
 the youthful beauty the love and tenderness which he had 
 always bestowed on her; how his affections would die 
 out towards her ; how her heart would be desolate and 
 alone ! I took her hand in mine and spoke very gently 
 to her ; and when she was calmer, I talked to her more 
 freely. We found now, as we tried to look our common 
 enemy in the face, how strong a hold Mormonism had 
 taken of us ; and it is in this that persons unacquainted 
 with the Saints have so greatly misjudged the women of 
 Utah ; they know how small a hold such a religion — now 
 that they look upon Mormonism and polygamy as identi- 
 cal — would have upon them ; and they forget how all 
 absorbing was our faith in Mormonism ivithout polygamy. 
 ' ' In this state of mind we knelt and prayed for the 
 Lord to increase our faith in that very doctrine which in 
 our hearts we cursed and hated ; and on our knees we 
 wept again ; and natural feelings of repugnance mingled 
 with an earnest struggle to submit to the will of God. 
 . . . All her (Madame Balif's) anticipations of the 
 future were overshadowed by a terrible apprehension. 
 Thus we were equally troubled, though I had to endure 
 most, as the task of teaching fell upon me. I did at 
 
118 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 last manage to persuade her not to offer any active 
 opposition to the 'revelation,' but I could not satisfy her 
 that all was right. She even went so far as to promise 
 to try to overcome her own feelings, for if it was really 
 true she did not wish to be found fighting against the 
 Lord. She had, however, hardly ceased speaking when 
 the thought of her little daughters crossed her mind, and 
 once more she paced the room like an enraged tigress, 
 declaring angrily that ' no vile polygamist should ever 
 possess either of her sweet girls.' I had felt like this 
 for my own darling Clara. I had now a companion in 
 misery, some one who could sympathize with me. . . . 
 Her sympathy was very dear to me ; misery loves com- 
 panionship ; we were sisters in affliction. Not only so : 
 Madame Balif declared that this painful task should not 
 rest on me alone ; she would help me in speaking to the 
 sisters. 
 
 ' ' My faith in Mormonism was too firmly grounded to 
 admit of my giving it up. Though I hated polygamy, I 
 did not dare question its divine origin. I only pitied 
 myself and my sex for the burden God had seen fit to 
 lay upon us. I never for a moment supposed that any 
 man would have been so wicked as to fabricate a ' revela- 
 tion,' or so blasphemous as to palm it off in the name of 
 the Lord. Oh, yes, I hated polygamy in my heart, and 
 my efforts in teaching it only increased my hatred. The 
 same sorrow and indignation which Madame Balif had 
 so forcibly expressed were shown by almost every new 
 convert. The sisters became unhappy, and wished they 
 had died in ignorance of Mormonism. I looked 
 anxiously for a change, but the only change that 
 seemed probable was that we might be permitted to 
 emigrate to Utah, and there was no comfort for me in 
 that prospect." 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 119 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ACROSS THE SEA TO UTAH. THE HAND-CART BRIGADE. 
 
 ELDER STENHOUSE and his wife returned to 
 England and prepared to emigrate to Utah. They 
 were not allowed to sail in any steamer which might suit 
 their convenience, but were "counseled" to sail in the 
 ship chartered by the Mormon agent. While en route 
 they suffered greatly from the want of proper food and 
 clothing, and many useless indignities were heaped upon 
 them. This was because of the inbred heartlessness 
 and despotism that sways the higher officers of the Mor- 
 mon Church. Finally they arrived at Castle Garden, 
 and although Mrs. Stenhouse had four little children, 
 was in poor health, and had endured great suffering on 
 the voyage, her husband was required by the Mormon 
 authorities to give his entire attention to the other emi- 
 grants for a whole week after their arrival, leaving Mrs. 
 Stenhouse, in cold weather and unaccustomed to such 
 exposures, with nothing but bare boards to sleep on and 
 deprived of every comfort. 
 
 Of these times Mrs. Stenhouse says: u I could not 
 refrain from contrasting my life before and since I knew 
 Mormonism. I never knew what it was to be without 
 money or to want for anything ; but now I was a stranger 
 in a strange land, in the depth of winter, without a home, 
 without a pillow to rest my weary head upon, and with 
 a future before me so dark that not a single ray of light 
 gave to it the promise of hope. Could any slavery be more 
 complete than mine? My fanaticism and zeal were all 
 
120 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 gone. I had nothing to sustain me. Certainly I was 
 still held by the fear that Mormonism after all might be 
 of God, and that all this suffering might be necessary 
 for my salvation ; but if at that time I had only had a 
 friend whose mind was clear from all the nonsense of 
 Mormonism and who had felt sufficient interest in me to 
 advise me for my good, I think even then I might have 
 freed myself from the mental slavery in which I was 
 bound. But I had no intercourse with any but Mormons ; 
 and, indeed, a wish to form Gentile friendships I should 
 then have considered a sin. 
 
 " A week after our arrival (1855) my husband found 
 time to seek for apartments for his family, and I was 
 thankful to leave our miserable quarters at Castle 
 Garden. 
 
 " The Mormon authorities had, meanwhile, given 
 instructions to the other emigrants how to act, and they 
 did little more than this. Those who had not found work 
 or places to go to were ordered to leave the Garden, and 
 received permission to occupy an old dilapidated school- 
 room in Williamsburgh, which had been used for preach- 
 ing. I went there almost daily to see them, and therefore 
 state what I saw as an eye-witness, and neither exag- 
 gerate nor misrepresent. There were huddled together 
 about one hundred and fifty men, women, and children. 
 Most of the men had been respectable mechanics in 
 their own country ; many of them I had known person- 
 ally and had visited in their cozy English homes ; and 
 their wives and children had been decently brought up. 
 What they must have suffered under this change of 
 circumstances, I leave the reader to guess. 
 
 ' ' In that miserable place they lived da}' and night ; 
 the poor, dispirited mothers (many of them very sick) 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 121 
 
 having to cook and wash and perform all the necessary 
 domestic duties round two small sheet-iron stoves. It 
 was not long before the place became like a pest-house 
 from so many being confined in so small a place and 
 breathing the same fetid and pestilential atmosphere ; 
 and many of the young children died of an epidemic 
 which was raging among them. 
 
 " They had saved some of the ship's provisions, and 
 that was all they had to eat, and it did not last long. 
 To me it was most distressing to witness so much misery 
 without being able to render any assistance, particularly 
 to see the poor little children shivering and crying with 
 hunger and cold, while many of their mothers were in 
 such a miserable state of apathy that they paid little 
 or no attention to them. I often tried to awaken in 
 them feelings of human sympathy, but I was met with 
 a murmur of discontent. The people — men and women 
 alike — seemed to be utterly demoralized. Nor can this 
 be a matter of wonder ; for in England the men had 
 been told that while at home they could earn only four 
 or five shillings a day and would never be able to put 
 away enough to carry them all the way to Utah, in New 
 York they would be able to earn two and a half to three, 
 and even four, dollars a day, and that employers would 
 even come on shipboard anxious to engage them. Thus 
 they had by false statements been allured from their 
 homes and plunged into the most abject poverty. Day 
 by day they went out seeking work but finding none ; 
 willing to do anything to provide bread for their families, 
 but returning nightly, unsuccessful, to their starving 
 wives and children. 
 
 "In the midst of all this, the apostle John Taylor 
 learned that some of these poor souls had been seen 
 
122 TJie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 begging. So he came from his comfortable boarding- 
 house in Brooklyn, well wrapped up in a handsome 
 overcoat, and scolded these poor starving creatures, 
 and harangued them concerning the meanness of beg- 
 ging. With great swelling words he spoke of the 
 dignity of the Saints of the Most High, and told them 
 that he despised a Mormon who could fall to the level 
 of a common street beggar. 
 
 "Could he have heard the unspoken curses of the 
 poor wounded hearts of those who listened to him, as 
 thej 7 thought of his brother ' apostle ' in England, and 
 of how he had deceived them and sent them into a 
 strange country in the depth of winter, to beg, to 
 starve, or to steal, he would have learned that though 
 the victim of a delusive faith may mentally submit to 
 man-made creeds and priesthoods, in his heart he will 
 judge not so much the words he hears as the man who 
 utters them. 
 
 "One of those emigrants very recently related to me 
 some of the painful circumstances through which he 
 passed at that time. He told me that he walked the 
 streets of Williamsburgh for three days and three nights 
 without a mouthful of anything to eat, or a place to lay 
 his head. He could obtain no work, and at length, in 
 sheer desperation, he was forced to beg. The church 
 authorities knew well the misery of the people, but took 
 no adequate steps to alleviate it. 
 
 " During the first weeks after our arrival in New York 
 City, we had nothing to depend upon but the provisions 
 which we had saved from the ship's rations. These 
 rations consisted chiefly of sugar that was almost black, 
 very bad black tea, which when made looked like dye, the 
 poorest kind of sea-biscuit, and other things accordingly. 
 
The Mormon Delusion, 123 
 
 The provisions for the Mormon emigrants were purchased 
 in bulk by the church authorities, who made their own 
 profits on them, and the apostle at Liverpool had the 
 benefit of all that could be saved out of them during the 
 voyage, and yet the emigrants paid the price of the best." 
 
 Mrs. Stenhouse then relates that Apostle Taylor, 
 afterwards president of the Mormon Church, was living 
 in Brooklyn in an elegant house, surrounded by every 
 comfort and luxury, while he knew that his victims had 
 not so much as a chair or even a bed to lie upon. One 
 of his high priests was doing some very zealous courting 
 of a young English girl who lived in Williamsburgh, while 
 his two unsuspecting wives at home in Salt Lake City 
 were earnestly praying the Lord to bless him in his 
 mission ; while Taylor himself was paying special atten- 
 tion to a young Connecticut girl, and was only waiting 
 for special permission from Brigham Young to add her to 
 the half-dozen wives he already had. There was also 
 another high priest who was courting a Connecticut girl, 
 a sister of the one whom Apostle Taylor was going to 
 marry. When Brigham's permission arrived, Taylor pro- 
 ceeded to practice a little polygamy while in New York 
 City, and married this Miss Young and set up house- 
 keeping handsomely in Brooklyn. The high priests 
 were, however, required to wait before marrying their 
 girls until they had reached Salt Lake City. 
 
 ' ' In all cases it may be safely asserted that all that 
 has been said about getting the consent of the first wife 
 before marrying a second, and obtaining a revelation 
 from the Lord, is pure folly and nonsense. Brigham 
 Young is the only ' Lord ' who has ever been consulted 
 on that question. The Mormon apostles and elders 
 themselves are not deceived ; they know well enough 
 
124 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 that there is no truth in all this mockery ; they know 
 that the only source of all their revelations is the man 
 Brigham Young." 
 
 Previous to 1856 Mormon emigrants had found their 
 way to St. Louis by rail from New York or by the 
 Mississippi River from New Orleans, and from St. Louis 
 westward by ox-teams for the old and feeble, the others 
 going on foot, both male and female. Although many 
 came, yet in insufficient numbers to satisfy the ambition 
 of Brigham Young, and although these cost only about 
 fifty to sixty dollars per head from Liverpool to Salt 
 Lake City, he determined upon a cheaper plan. The 
 Mormon missionaries and newspapers proclaimed to the 
 Saints in Europe that God had specially inspired Brigham 
 Y'oung with a much better plan, namely : instead of ox 
 and mule wagons from St. Louis, the emigrants were 
 to go on foot and draw the larger part of their baggage 
 in small hand-carts, to be specially built for this purpose 
 under " divine " direction. Hence this came to be known 
 among the Mormons as the "divine plan" or as the 
 "hand-cart scheme," and thousands of devotees who were 
 waiting in Europe to gather to Zion were told that this 
 was the time and this the "divine " plan. It is estimated 
 that five or six thousand emigrants left Liverpool in the 
 spring and summer of 1856 bound for Salt Lake City. 
 They came in companies of five or six hundred each at 
 a time, and Brigham Y'oung had one agent in Europe, 
 one in New York, one at St. Louis, and one at Iowa 
 City, Iowa. This latter was the point from which the 
 emigrants were to be equipped that year for their journey 
 across the plains. 
 
 Mrs. Stenhouse's intimate friend in England, Mary 
 Burton, was now married to the Mormon elder Shrews- 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 12 5 
 
 bury. She was in one of these hand-cart companies, 
 and the following account of the journey is condensed 
 and quoted largely from her letter to Mrs. Stenhouse. 
 When a ship-load had arrived in Castle Garden, Mrs. 
 Stenhouse and her husband went to meet them. Mrs. 
 Stenhouse says: "A strange spectacle was presented 
 to our view. More than six hundred Mormon emigrants 
 were gathered there, all on their way to Zion, and burn- 
 ing with zeal and enthusiasm worthy of a better cause. 
 There were aged men and women, whose heads were 
 hoary with the snows of many a winter, and whose 
 tottering steps had borne them to the verge of three- 
 score years and ten ; there were stout-hearted fathers 
 and families, and matrons with sons and daughters 
 growing up around them ; there were young men in the 
 pride and strength of manhood, and maidens in the 
 modest blush of womanly beauty ; and little toddling 
 children, and babes in their mothers' arms — all obedi- 
 ent to what they thought was the command of God 
 himself, all with their faces set steadfastly and anxiously 
 Zion ward. 
 
 " Let not the reader smile at the blind infatuation of 
 those poor emigrants. Would he or she have suffered 
 so confidingly, so faithfully, for his or her religion? 
 They might be mistaken, but truly theirs was a faith 
 which ' hoped all things, believed all things, endured all 
 things.' 
 
 " Poor Mary, in her innocent zeal, writes : ; My 
 husband said that we ought to be an example to the 
 poor Saints ; so we gave away nearly all our money 
 to put into the emigration fund and came along with the 
 rest. We both glory in making sacrifices. The apostle 
 tells us that this is to be the most pleasant and success- 
 
126 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 ful journey for emigrants ever made across the plains. 
 There is one thing, however, that I do not like. The 
 prophet and Heber C. Kimball and Jedediah Grant 
 counseled the richer emigrants to give as much as the}' 
 could — all their property, if they had faith enough — 
 to help the poor brethren to emigrate ; but the American 
 elders had private instructions — so brother Shrewsbury 
 told me — to use the money to help out all the unmarried 
 girls who are willing to go. I confess that this troubled 
 me not a little ; but my husband says that when we get 
 to Zion we shall find all will be right, and of course I 
 believe him.' I asked her whether the Saints in Eugland 
 had heard any of those strange reports about Brigham 
 Young defying the government, which had attracted so 
 much attention in this country. ' Certainly,' she said ; 
 ' it is because the day is so very near when all inter- 
 course between God's people and the Gentile world shall 
 be cut off forever that these great efforts are being made 
 to gather the Saints to Zion. Why, at the last general 
 conference in Liverpool the president had instructions 
 from Salt Lake City to propose Brigham Young as 
 " prophet, seer, revelator, and King ! " ' ' King ! ' I said. 
 'How can President Young ever be "king"? Utah is 
 part of the territory of the States, and under their 
 jurisdiction ; it is not even a state itself yet, and Con- 
 gress has refused to sanction the name of " Deseret." 
 This country will never suffer a kingdom to be set up in 
 Utah.' 
 
 " ' No, sister Stenhouse,' she exclaimed, ' I am under 
 no mistake. My husband assured me that the confer- 
 ence accepted the proposition, and that it was received 
 unanimously. The Saints are gathering in from all parts 
 of the world, and when war is declared thev will not be 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 127 
 
 found unprepared. Why, here on board with us the 
 American elders are all provided with swords and 
 revolvers of the very best make that could be got, 
 and I myself have heard them say that Brigham Young 
 intends shortly to declare his independence of the United 
 States. We did n't know this before we left England, 
 but we felt sure that he had some great purpose in view 
 which had been revealed to him. 
 
 " ' You have no idea how excited and anxious every- 
 body is. Some of the people, in order to obey counsel, 
 sold their watches and jewelry, and even their best 
 clothes, scarcely keeping enough for the journey, and 
 ever} 7 one who had any money gave it away. ' " 
 
 Mr. Tenant, a rich new convert in England, gave 
 thirty thousand dollars — all that he had in the world — 
 to Brigham Young for this emigrant fund, under the 
 assurances of the Mormon missionaries that Brigham 
 would upon Mr. Tenant's arrival in Salt Lake City give 
 back to him far more than the value of his thirty thou- 
 sand dollars. He was one of the "hand-cart" emigrants 
 and after intolerable hardship and suffering died on 
 the plains, not feasting his eyes upon that Zion for 
 which he beggared himself. Mrs. Stenhouse says : 
 ' ' How little did either of us imagine that after poor 
 Mr. Tenant's miserable death upon the plains we should 
 live to see his wife destitute and defrauded of her 
 property by Brigham, dragging out a miserable existence 
 in Zion, and dependent even for a crust of bread upon 
 the kindness of the brethren : and yet this was how the 
 prophet, under the mask of liberality, contrived for his 
 own purposes to cheat this unfortunate and too-confiding 
 Saint ! " 
 
 It pays from the financial standpoint to hold high 
 
128 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 office in the Mormon Church. The Mormon leaders 
 fattened upon their victims. The emigrant officers were 
 no exception, and sought to make the most of their 
 "opportunities." The agency of the Mormon emigra- 
 tion was at that time a very lucrative position. The 
 agent in England received a half-guinea per head from 
 the ship-brokers at Liverpool for every adult emigrant 
 that crossed the Atlantic, and the agent at New York 
 was paid by the railroad companies a percentage on emi- 
 grant tickets and extra baggage, but a more profitable 
 position was that of the agent at the outfitting stations in 
 the interior. The Mormon agent purchased all the cattle, 
 wagons, tents, wagon-covers, flour, cooking utensils, 
 stoves, and the staple articles for a three months' journey 
 across the plains, and from them the emigrant Saints 
 must supply themselves. Much was said in Mormon 
 newspapers and sermons upon the blessings of unity, 
 especially in purchases, and no one was held as in good 
 standing in the church who would sail by other ships or 
 travel by other directions than those prescribed by the 
 Mormon agent. 
 
 Most unfortunately for the poor emigrants, during the 
 season of 1856 these agents of the Mormon Church 
 made no arrangements for receiving and forwarding and 
 providing for the unprecedented immigration which sought 
 that year to gather to the Utah Mecca of fools and 
 fanatics. 
 
 Mary Burton's pitiful tale continues: " When we left 
 Liverpool we were told that hand-carts, provisions, and 
 all that was needed should be provided before we arrived ; 
 when we arrived in Iowa City not the slightest prepara- 
 tion had been made. Three companies had, after a long 
 delav, been sent out before we reached Iowa Citv. As it 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 129 
 
 was then early hi the season, they completed their jour- 
 ney before the cold of winter set in. We waited three 
 weeks in Iowa City, while they were making the hand- 
 carts. They were very lightly made, and I think not at 
 all suitable for such a long and wearisome journey ; and 
 being so hastily put together, and most of the wood 
 unseasoned, they were utterly unfit for the rough work 
 for which they were constructed. Twenty of these carts 
 — one to every five — were allowed to every hundred 
 persons, who were also allowed five good-sized tents and 
 one wagon, with three yoke of oxen, to transport the 
 baggage and provisions. We were only allowed seven- 
 teen pounds of bedding and clothing each, which, with 
 cooking utensils, etc., made up about one hundred 
 pounds to each cart, and that was quite as much as 
 the cart (itself only sixty pounds in weight) could 
 carry. 
 
 " You can see how difficult it must have been, out of 
 every hundred persons, — men, women, and children, — 
 to find twenty who were strong enough to pull even 
 such frail things as those hand-carts were. The married 
 men and the young men and boys did the best they could, 
 but they could do no more, and some of the carts were 
 drawn by young women alone. 
 
 " What weary days we spent! Hour after hour went 
 by, mile after mile we walked, wearily, hopelessly, never, 
 never seeming to be a step the further on our way. 
 When night came on, tired and footsore, we lav down to 
 rest, but seemed no nearer to our home in Zion. 
 
 " What we felt, God alone knows ; but our poor, weary 
 hearts were full of confiding faith in him, and we placed 
 undoubting confidence in the promises we had received. 
 The old folks walked behind, and so did the children ; but 
 
130 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 sometimes, when the little ones were very weary indeed, 
 the parents would place them on the top of the bedding 
 in the hand-cart and give them a lift. But some of the 
 elderly people who were unused to walking far, and whom 
 it was impossible to carry, suffered a great deal ; and 
 sometimes mothers with children at their breasts would 
 trudge on mile after mile in all the heat and dust without 
 a murmur or complaint, until they almost dropped down 
 with fatigue. What some of these poor creatures suffered 
 no words could tell. Had we been left to ourselves, we 
 should, of course, have provided for every contingency ; 
 but we came in obedience to counsel uuder the direction 
 of the church, and after we had paid for everything the 
 church even ' took care ' of our money, so that we there- 
 fore could not procure necessaries by the way, as other- 
 wise we might have done. 
 
 ' ' Meetings were held nearly every evening to keep up 
 the courage of the, emigrants by preaching, counsel, and 
 prayer, and the burden of all the preaching was : ' Obey 
 your leaders in all things.' The emigrants were entirely 
 ignorant of the country and climate. Simple, honest, 
 earnest to go to ' Zion ' at once, and obedient as little 
 children to the ' servants of God ' — under these circum- 
 stances they must leave their destinies in the hands of the 
 leaders. A council was held and all the leaders declared 
 that the company must move forward, but one of them, 
 Levi Savage, dared to tell the truth. He said that people 
 well mounted or with good teams could make the journey 
 before winter, but that for a band of people like our- 
 selves, with aged folks and women and little children and 
 drawing heavy burdens, it was impossible. He strongly 
 urged that we take up our quarters and remain until 
 spring, when we could safelv continue our journey. The 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 131 
 
 other leaders denounced him as weak in the faith, and 
 prophesied in the name of God that we should get 
 through in safety. One of them wound up his proph- 
 esying by saying that though it might storm on our right 
 hand and on our left the Lord would keep our way open 
 before us, and that we should get to Zion in safety. 
 These assurances had a telling effect on the people. To 
 them it was the voice of God. They gave a loud and 
 hearty Amen, while tears of joy ran down their sun-burnt 
 cheeks ; but, sister Stenhouse, before the month was over 
 I saw with my own eyes that prophecy, those promises, 
 falsified to the very letter. 
 
 " It was early in September when we reached Laramie, 
 Wyoming, but we found nothing awaiting us there. We 
 were all very much discouraged at this. We now learned 
 that if we continued at the same rate as that at which 
 we had previously been traveling, and received each 
 the same allowance daily, we should be left utterly desti- 
 tute of provisions when we were yet three hundred and 
 fifty miles from the eud of our journey. Nothing 
 remained but to reduce our allowance, and at the same 
 time we were forced to make incredible exertions to 
 travel faster. Soon our allowance was again reduced. 
 Picture to yourself these men drawing after them each 
 one a loaded cart, with one or more children most fre- 
 quently superadded to its weight, trudging wearily eveiy 
 day ten, fifteen, or twenty miles over the rough desert, 
 wading across streams with the women and children, 
 setting up tents at night, working as the} 7 never worked 
 before in all their lives, and withal keeping soul and 
 body together upon twelve ounces of flour a day ! Think 
 what the feeble and aged, the sick, the women and 
 children must have endured ! We could not stop the 
 
132 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 attacks of dysentery, no proper medicines being in the 
 camp, and in almost every instance it carried off the 
 parties attacked. It was surprising to the unmarried 
 men to witness the devotion of men to their families. 
 Many a father pulled his cart with his little children 
 on it until the day preceding his death. I have seen 
 some pull their carts in the morning, give out during 
 the day, and die before the next morning. The Sweet- 
 water River we had to cross again and again upon our 
 way. As usual we had to wade through the water each 
 time, and though the men helped over the women and 
 children as well as they could, many of us got very wet 
 indeed and quite chilled, and we were all cold and mis- 
 erable. Still, our faith never gave way. Some, I know, 
 began to doubt a little, but they had not yet lost all 
 faith, and discouraged and wretched, as indeed we were, 
 the greater number bore up with heroic resolution. I 
 noticed, however, on the faces of some poor souls a 
 peculiar expression which it is quite impossible to 
 describe — the presentiment of that fearful death which 
 so soon overtook them. We crept out of our tents 
 cramped and miserable, half -frozen, and with our eyes 
 red and tearful with the cold. These things soon began 
 to tell upon the health of every one of us, especially 
 upon the aged and those who were sickly. Hope at 
 last died out in their poor weary hearts. One by one 
 they fell off, utterly worn out. Poor things ! how they 
 had longed to see the promised Zion, and now all 
 expectation of peaceful rest on earth was over — the 
 bitter end had come. We dug graves for them by the 
 wayside in the desert, and there we laid them with 
 many tears, scarcely daring to look one another in the 
 face, for we felt that our own time might perhaps be 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 133 
 
 nearer than we thought. It was seldom that we left 
 a camp-ground without burying one or more. Soon it 
 was no longer the aged and sickly who were taken off, 
 but the } 7 oung and strong. Cold, hunger, and excessive 
 toil brought on dysentery ; and when once attacked by 
 that there was little hope for the sufferer, for we had 
 no medicine. 
 
 " I saw one poor man, whose health had evidently 
 never been strong, draw the cart with his two little ones 
 in it, as well as the baggage, mile after mile, until he 
 could hardly drag his weary limbs a step further ; his 
 wife carried a little five months' old baby in her bosom. 
 This the} 7 did day after day, until disease attacked the 
 husband, and it was evident that he could bear up no 
 longer. The next morning I saw him, pale as a corpse, 
 bowed down, and shiveriug in every limb, but still 
 stumbling on as best he could. Before the day was 
 half -over the poor wife lagged behind with her babe, 
 and her husband did not seem to notice her. This was 
 not the result of heartlessness on his part ; I believe 
 that even then he had lost all consciousness. He did not 
 know it, but he was dying. The poor man dragged the 
 cart up to the last moment, and when the company 
 halted for the night he had turned aside, and, sitting 
 down, he bowed his head between his knees and never 
 spoke again. Later still, the poor wife reached the 
 camp, and I saw her then. There was no tear in her 
 eyes, and she uttered neither cry nor moan, but there 
 was upon her features a terrible expression of fixed 
 despair which I dared not even look upon. A few 
 days after this I saw that poor mother in her tent frozen 
 to death. 
 
 ' ' As death thinned our ranks there were hardly enough 
 
134 Tlie Mormon Delusion, 
 
 left with strength sufficient to pitch our tents at night. 
 At last the snow fell. I think it must have been five 
 or six inches deep within half an hour. The wind was 
 very keen and cutting, and it drifted the snow right 
 into our faces ; and thus blinded by the storm and 
 scarcely able to stand, we stumbled on that day for 
 fully sixteen miles. What we suffered it would be 
 useless for me to attempt to describe. Some of the 
 scenes we witnessed were heart-rending. 
 
 " One young girl, vainly struggling to drag her hand- 
 cart through the snow, froze her limbs, which were ampu- 
 tated after reaching Salt Lake City. A poor old woman 
 lingered behind late in the day. When night came it 
 was impossible for any one to go back to search for her. 
 The next morning there were found near the camp some 
 torn rags, — the remnants of her dress, — a few bones 
 well gnawed, with the marks of the wolf fangs still upon 
 them, and the snow all round crimsoned with blood. 
 
 " The morning broke at last, dark and dreary, and 
 a thick, heavy mantle of snow covered all the camp ; 
 but we contrived to communicate with each other, and 
 soon it was whispered that five poor creatures had been 
 found dead in the tents, and we looked at one another 
 wistfully, wondering which of us would be taken next. 
 We buried those five poor frozen corpses in one grave, 
 wrapped in the clothing in which they died. A meeting 
 of the leaders was held, and it was resolved that we 
 should remain where we were until the promised supplies 
 reached us. We could not, in fact, do otherwise, for 
 the snow was so deep that it was impossible for us to 
 proceed, and the sick and dying demanded immediate 
 attention. That morning for the first time no flour w;is 
 distributed — there was none. All that remained besides 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 135 
 
 our miserable cattle was a small quantity of hard biscuit 
 which Captain Willie bought at Laramie, and a few 
 pounds of rice and dried apples. Nearly all the biscuit 
 was at once divided among the whole company, and the 
 few pounds which remained, together with the rice and 
 apples, were given to the sick and the very little children. 
 They also killed two of the cattle and divided the beef. 
 Most of the people got through their miserable allow- 
 ance that very morning, and then they had to fast. 
 
 ' l We waited three long days for the return of Captain 
 Willie. The misery that was suffered in that camp was 
 beyond the power of words to describe. On the second 
 day they gave us some more beef rations, but they did 
 us little good. The beef was, of course, of the poorest, 
 and eaten alone it did not seem to satisfy hunger, and 
 those who were prostrated by dysentery, although they 
 ate ravenously, suffered much in consequence afterwards. 
 The number of the sick rapidly increased, and not a few 
 died from exhaustion ; and those really seemed happiest 
 who were thus taken from the horrors which surrounded 
 them. Had it not been for the intense frost we should 
 all probably have fallen victims to the intolerable atmos- 
 phere of the camp. I would not even allow my mind 
 to recall some of the scenes which I witnessed at that 
 time : scenes, the disgusting and filthy horrors of which 
 no decent words could describe. 
 
 " The third day came and still no relief. It was 
 evident that if no help arrived speedily the end was not 
 far off. The sun was sinking behind the distant western 
 hills, but at that moment some raised a shout of joy. 
 We knew what it was ! Men, women, and children 
 rushed from their tents to welcome the approaching 
 wagons. The poor creatures shouted wildly for joy ; 
 even the strong men shed tears ; and the sisters, over- 
 
I06 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 come with the sudden change from death to life, flung 
 themselves into the arms of the brethren as they came 
 into the camp and covered them with kisses. Such 
 happiness you never saw. To some this change for the 
 better arrived too late. They turned from us with a look 
 of terrible apathy ; and one or two, who partly seemed 
 to understand, only replied with an indifference painful 
 to witness, ' Too late ! too late ! ' 
 
 " As we journeyed, the weather every day grew colder. 
 Many of the unfortunate people lost their fingers and 
 toes, others their ears ; one poor woman lost her sight ; 
 and I was told of a poor sick man who held on to the 
 wagon-bars to save himself from jolting, and had all 
 his fingers frozen off. Few, if any, of the people recov- 
 ered from the effects of that frost. One morning they 
 found a poor old man who had vainly tried the evening 
 before to keep up with the rest. His corpse was not 
 far from the camp, but it had been sadly mangled by 
 the wolves. Some of the people, even women and 
 children, who lagged behind were whipped so as to 
 make them keep up, and to keep life in them. 
 
 " The next day we remained in camp, for there were 
 so many sick and dying that we could not proceed. 
 Early in the morning they went round to see who was 
 dead. They found in the tents fifteen corpses, all stiff 
 and frozen. Two more died during the day. A large 
 square hole was dug and they were buried in it three 
 abreast, and then they were covered with leaves and 
 earth, every precaution being taken to keep them from 
 the w r olves. The atmosphere seemed to become sensibly 
 warmer, and our sufferings were proportionately less 
 as we approached Zion. What the feeliugs of others 
 might have been when they first saw the goal of our 
 hopes — Zion of our prayers and songs — I can not 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 137 
 
 tell. When we left Iowa City we were about five hun- 
 dred in all. Some left us on the way. When we left 
 Florence and began the journey across the plains, we 
 were over four hundred and twenty, of which number 
 we buried sixty-seven — a sixth of the whole. The 
 company which followed us fared worse than we. They 
 numbered six hundred when they started, but they 
 buried one hundred and fifty on the journey — one in 
 every four." 
 
 The hand-cart company next behind that in which Mary 
 Burton traveled was under the guidance of Elder Martin. 
 The sufferings of this company were even more severe. 
 When meat was consumed then the starving creatures ate 
 the hides, and also all the hide wrapped around the wheels 
 of the hand-carts, and every scrap about the wagons and 
 the neck-piece of the buffalo-skin which had already done 
 service as a door-mat for two months. A small number 
 of them remained in camp during the winter, and in the 
 spring subsisted on thistle roots and a species of wild 
 garlic until flour reached them from Salt Lake City. 
 Of the intensity of the cold which this company endured 
 almost incredible accounts are given. Men and women 
 sitting on a wagon-tongue or on the ground, or leaning 
 against their fragile carts, while eating their scanty fare, 
 would in an instant die without an evidence of coming 
 change : with a morsel of bread or biscuit in their hands, 
 nearing it to their mouths, men could be seen stiff in 
 death. Such scenes can hardly be imagined by those who 
 did not witness them, but to the hundreds of men and 
 women who had fled from " merry England " to escape 
 the destruction which they had been taught was coming 
 upon the Gentile nations they were a bitter reality. 
 
 Such was the ending of the " divine plan " for emigrat- 
 ing the poor victims to Mormonism in the year 1856. 
 
138 TJie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 1 
 
 EXPERIENCES IN SALT LAKE CITY. MR. STENHOUSE TAKES 
 
 WIFE NUMBER TWO. 
 
 OUR company across the plains to Salt Lake was 
 what was called an ' independent company ' ; by 
 which I mean that we were able to defray our own 
 expenses without borrowing from the church ; the poorer 
 emigrants were assisted from a fund provided for that 
 purpose by the Perpetual Emigration Fund Company. 
 " What living contradictions we were as we crossed 
 the plains — singing in a circle, night and morning, the 
 songs of Zion, and listening to prayers and thanksgivings 
 for having been permitted to gather out of Babylon ; and 
 then during the day as we trudged along in twos and 
 threes expressing to each other all our misgivings and 
 the bitterness of our thoughts against polygamy ! How 
 little sometimes do the songs of gladness reflect the real 
 sentiments of the heart ! How often have I heard many 
 a poor heart-broken woman singing the chorus, — 
 
 1 1 never knew what joy was, 
 Till I became a Mormon ! ' 
 
 1 never could sing that song. 
 
 " It was in the month of September when we emerged 
 from the canon and caught sight of Salt Lake City. 
 Everything looked green and lovely, and in spite of all 
 my sad forebodings I involuntarily exclaimed : ' Ah, what 
 a glorious spot ! ' It looked like a beautiful garden — an- 
 other Eden — in the midst of a desert valley. We had a 
 
 1 All of this chapter is condensed from Mrs. Stenhouse's story. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 139 
 
 o-limpse of the Great Salt Lake far away in the distance, 
 stretching out like a placid sheet of molten silver, while 
 everywhere around were the lonely-looking snow-capped 
 mountains, encircling us like mighty prison-walls. 
 
 " While I was enchanted with the glorious prospect 
 before me, there arose again in my mind that hauntiug 
 specter of my existence — polygamy. I believed that 
 this little earthly paradise would probably be to me, and 
 to my daughters after me, a prison-house ; and with a 
 mother's instinct I shuddered as I thought of what they 
 might be destined to suffer there. Lovely as the scene 
 was, there was a fatal shadow overhanging it all. I felt 
 that my doom was sealed, and there were many women in 
 our company who were troubled at heart with fears as 
 sad as mine. 
 
 " Regardless of the teachings of the elders, and of 
 my own husband's directions, I had, when we left New 
 York, stowed away many little necessaries toward house- 
 keeping. I noticed that the brethren who gave this 
 counsel were constantly purchasing while they advised 
 every one else to sell, and I thought it wiser to follow 
 their example than their precepts. 
 
 " The tabernacle services seemed as strange to me as 
 the people. There was no regular order of conducting 
 the proceedings, but the prominent brethren made 
 prayers, or ' sermons,' as they were called upon to 
 do so. The sermons would more properly be called 
 speeches ; they were nothing but a rambling, disconnected 
 glorification of the Saints, interspersed with fearful 
 denunciations of the Gentiles, and not infrequently with 
 a sprinkling of expressions such as are never used in 
 decent society. The free and easy manners of the 
 speakers and the brass band stationed in front of the 
 
140 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 platform made people feel as if they had come lo a 
 puppet-show rather than to attend a religious meeting. 
 There was one lady at the tabernacle whom I regarded 
 with considerable interest — Eliza R. Snow, one of the 
 prophet's wives. She was the first woman married in 
 polygamy after Joseph Smith received the 'revelation.' 
 Her principal occupation at the present time is converting 
 rebellious wives to obedience to their husbands, and con- 
 vincing young girls that it is their duty to enter into 
 polygamy. Unhappy husbands derive great consolation 
 from her counsels. In matters of religion she is a perfect 
 fanatic, and in connection with the Female Relief Society 
 she reigns supreme. 
 
 " Another of the late Joseph's wives is a Mrs. Doctor 
 Jacobs, who was actually married to the prophet while 
 still living with her first husband. Under the same cir- 
 cumstances she married Brigham Young after Joseph's 
 death. For some time her husband knew nothing of the 
 whole affair, but Brigham very soon gave him to under- 
 stand that his company was not wanted. 
 
 " I may as well explain what is meant by ' spiritual' 
 wives and ' proxy ' wives. 
 
 " Marriages contracted by the Gentiles, or by Mormons 
 in accordance with Gentile institutions, are not considered 
 binding by the Saints. We were told that we had never 
 been married at all and that our husbands and our chil- 
 dren were not lawfully ours. For a marriage to be valid 
 it must be solemnized in the Endowment House in Salt 
 Lake City, or the persons contracting it can never expect 
 to be husband and wife in eternity. Should the husband 
 die before he reaches Zion, and if the wife loves him suf- 
 ficiently well to wish to be his in eternity, when she 
 arrives in Salt Lake City, if she receives an offer of mar- 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 14] 
 
 riage from one of the brethren, and does not object to 
 him as a second husband in this world, she will make an 
 arrangement with him that she will be his wife for time, 
 but that in eternity she and all her children shall be 
 handed over to the first husband. A woman thus married 
 is called a ' proxy ' wife. 
 
 " Now 'spiritual' wives are of two classes. The one 
 consists of old ladies who have plenty of money or prop- 
 erty which, of course, needs looking after ; and generous 
 elders marry them, and accordingly ' look after ' the said 
 property, and the owner of it becomes the elder's spirit- 
 ual wife. She will only be his real wife in eternity when 
 she is rejuvenated. 
 
 "The other kind of 'spiritual' wife is one who is 
 married already, but who does not think that her hus- 
 band can ' exalt ' her to so high a position in the celestial 
 world as she deserves (perhaps some kind brother who 
 takes a great interest in her welfare has told her so) ; she 
 then is secretly ' sealed ' to one of the brethren who is 
 better able to exalt her (perhaps to this same brother) ; 
 and in the resurrection she will pass from him who was 
 her husband on earth to him who is to be her husband in 
 heaven — if she has not done so before. 
 
 " I think it will be evident, even to the dullest compre- 
 hension, that under such a system ' the world, the flesh, 
 and the devil ' are far more likely to play a prominent 
 part than anything heavenly or spiritual. All this is so 
 repugnant to the instincts and feelings of a true woman 
 that I feel quite ashamed to write about it. And yet the 
 working out of this system has produced results which 
 would be perfectly grotesque were it not that they outrage 
 every ordinary sense of propriety. 
 
 "It is not generally known that the Mormons are 
 
142 TJie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 taught that the marriage at Cana of Galilee was Christ's 
 own nuptial feast, and that Mary and Martha were his 
 plural wives, and that those women who in various parts 
 of the New Testament are spokeu of as ministering to 
 him stood to him in the same relation. 
 
 " Malicious first wives, especially if they are rather 
 elderly themselves, frequently call the proxy wives 'fix- 
 in's ' ; and the tone in which some of them utter the word 
 is in the last degree contemptuous. These poor ' fixin's' 
 are seldom treated as real wives by the husband himself. 
 Some men, after having married a young proxy wife, 
 have become so enamored that they grew jealous of the 
 dead husband, and have tried to get the wife to break 
 faith with him, aud be married to them for eternity as 
 well as time. This is certainly rather mean ! 
 
 "The poverty of the man, of course, was of no con- 
 sequence. Living in the primitive style in which necessity 
 then compelled the Saints to live, one or half a dozen 
 extra wives made very little difference, and Brigham and 
 the leading elders have always represented it as a merito- 
 rious act, for the young especially, to ' build up the king- 
 dom ' without regard to consequences, or the misery of 
 bringing up a family in a destitute condition. 
 
 " It was necessary, we were told, that the woman 
 should keep in favor with her lord, otherwise he might 
 withdraw his protection and refuse to take her into the 
 celestial kingdom, in which case when she got to heaven 
 she would only be an angel ! To be an angel is not con- 
 sidered by the Saints to be by any means the highest 
 state of glory. Those who do not obey the ' Celestial 
 Order of Marriage ' will, like the angels, neither marry 
 nor be given in marriage ; they will be located, the men 
 in one place, and the women in another, and will serve as 
 
The Mormori Delusion. 143 
 
 slaves, lackeys, and boot-blacks to the Saints. Those 
 who have obeyed the Gospel of the new dispensation, but 
 who have failed to enter into polygamy, will be as upper 
 servants, but the rebellious — the 'vile apostates' and 
 the ' wicked Gentiles ' — will join the angels and do all 
 the drudgery for the men of many wives. Thus I learned 
 in Zion that my youthful notions about the glory of the 
 cherubim were quite a mistake, and that it was not such 
 a fine thing to be an angel after all. 
 
 " The Mormon women, as well as the Mormon men, 
 are noted for attending to their own business ; they do 
 not care to tell their sorrows and trials to strangers or to 
 people who are not of their own faith. In this way visi- 
 tors to Salt Lake who have gone there with the intention 
 of c writing up ' the Saints in the newspapers or in a book 
 have generally been misled. 
 
 iC In the Mormon Church the feelings or sufferings of 
 women are seldom considered. If an order is given to 
 any man to take a journey or perform any given task, 
 his wife or wives are not to be thought of. They are his 
 property just as much as his horses, mules, or oxen ; and 
 if one wife should die, it is of little consequence, if he has 
 others ; and if he has not he can easily get them. If he 
 is not young or fascinating enough to win his way with 
 the young ladies, he has only to keep on good terms with 
 his bishop and every difficult} 7 will be smoothed away, and 
 they will be ' counseled' to marry him. It would never 
 be tolerated in any Mormon woman that she should exer- 
 cise her own judgment in opposition to her husband. I 
 have frequently seen intelligent women subjected to the 
 grossest tyranny on the part of ignorant and fanatical 
 husbands who were influenced by the absurd teachings of 
 the tabernacle. 
 
144 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 " ' Yes,' a Mormon woman said to me, l my child is .a 
 very great source of happiness to me, and I love my 
 husband very much, but ' — hesitatingly — ' are you in 
 polygamy?' 
 
 "'No, not yet; but I do not know how soon my 
 husband may take it into his head to take another wife.' 
 
 " ' Are you the first wife? ' she asked. 
 
 " ' Yes,' I replied, ' and I suppose you are also?' 
 
 " ' No, I am third wife,' she said. ' I wish I were first 
 wife.' 
 
 "'But why,' I suggested, 'do you wish that? If 
 polygamy is the true order of marriage, I do not see 
 that it makes much difference whether one is the first or 
 the twentieth wife.' 
 
 " 'Oh, dear, yes,' she replied, ' it does make a great 
 deal of difference ; for the first wife will be queen over 
 all the others, and reign with her husband. If I had 
 known that before I was married I should have made my 
 husband promise to place me first. Men can do that if 
 they like.' 
 
 " ' If that is so,' I said, ' it is a wonder to me that any 
 woman should consent to become second, third, or fourth 
 wife, seeing they can not be queens.' 
 
 " ' I can see that you have not yet had your " Endow- 
 ments," ' she said, ' or you would understand more about 
 these things ; but as you are a good Mormon, I can speak 
 freely to you. You see, it is not always those who are first 
 wives in this world who will be first in the celestial kino-- 
 do in. It all depends upon the amount of sacrifice the 
 wife is capable of making for her husband, her faithful- 
 ness to him, and the number of children she has borne 
 him. If she pleases him in every particular, and is good, 
 patient, and above all things obedient to all his wishes 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 145 
 
 and commands, then she is almost certain to be made 
 queen, unless the first wife is just as good, and then I 
 don't know how they fix that. And so you see it is safer 
 to be first wife at once.' 
 
 "'Well, but,' I asked, 'knowing all this, I am 
 surprised that you consented to be third wife ! ' 
 
 " ' But I did not know it then,' she continued. k My 
 husband told me that all wives were queens — all equal — 
 and he says so still when I talk to him about it. But he 
 can't deceive me. I have spoken to some of the old 
 Nauvoo women who know all about it, and they tell me 
 that all the polygamic wives will be subject to the first 
 wife ; but the first wife, having suffered most, will be the 
 one who has gone through the fire and been purified, and 
 found worthy.' 
 
 " ' But do you think that your husband would wish to 
 deceive you about such an important matter?' I said. 
 
 " 'Wait till you have lived a little longer here,' she 
 replied, ' and you will be able to answer that question 
 yourself, or else your experience will be very different 
 from that of the rest of the people here.* 
 
 " Just then the husband made his appearance, and put 
 an end to the conversation. He was a tall, dark-looking 
 man, with gray hair, old enough to be her father. He 
 appeared to be well educated, and to have seen better 
 days, though everything about their home indicated 
 poverty. The room in which we were sitting had no carpet 
 on the floor ; there was a plain white-pine table in the 
 middle, a small sheet-iron stove, four wooden chairs, a 
 small looking-glass, and some cheap pictures. This was 
 the sitting-room for the whole family — three wives, 
 eleven children, one husband. 
 
 "He asked me if I had seen the rest of the family. 
 
146 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 I replied negatively, and he said he would see if any 
 of them were about. Presently he returned, accompanied 
 by an elderly woman whom he introduced as Mrs. Simp- 
 sou. Then came another, not quite as good-looking as the 
 first, but a great deal younger, and he introduced her as 
 ' My wife Ellen. And this one, ' he said, turning to the 
 one with whom I had been conversing, ' is my wife Sarah. 
 Don't you think I have got three fine-looking women?' 
 Then, after a pause, he added, ' And they are just as good 
 as they are good-looking — good, obedient wives. I have 
 no trouble with them ; my wishes are law in this house. 
 Here you have a family in which the Spirit of God reigns. 
 We are not rich in worldly goods, as you see, but we are 
 laying up treasure in heaven. We all live in this little 
 house of four rooms. My wife Ellen, here, has given up 
 her room for a parlor for us all to meet together in, and 
 she sleeps in a wagon box ; it is not the most comfortable, 
 but she never grumbles. Then here is our Sarah ; we are 
 obliged to humor her a little, and give her a room all to 
 herself. She is young and inexperienced, and does n't 
 like to put up with the inconveuiences that the Saints 
 have to bear with ; while old mother, here, has got to 
 have half a dozen children in her room, but she never 
 complains. ' 
 
 " ' Why did you not wait, ' I said, ' until you had a 
 larger house ? ' 
 
 " 'Then where would my kingdom be?' he answered. 
 1 Young men may wait, but old men must improve their 
 time.' 
 
 " There came in now a troop of children of all ages. 
 They had been playing in the lot, were miserably clad, 
 barefooted, and some looked gaunt and hungry, manners 
 to match. ' There,' he said, with all a father's fondness, 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 147 
 
 4 these constitute my kingdom, and I am proud of 
 them.' 
 
 " I felt thankful that I was not destined to be queen 
 over such a kingdom, wished them good-by, and with a 
 sad heart went home to my own darling little ones, not 
 knowing what might be their fate. 
 
 " One bright summer morning, about six months after 
 our arrival in Salt Lake City, I was sitting in the work- 
 room, busy with my girls, when a light tap was heard at 
 the door, and the next instant a lady entered, and, coming 
 straight up to me, was about to kiss me. I started back a 
 step, held out my hand, looked her full in the face, and 
 in a moment we were in each other's arms. It was my old 
 friend, Mary Burton ! 
 
 " The whole expression of her face was that of one 
 whose heart was utterly crushed and broken ; and when 
 her eyes met mine-, I could hardly refrain from tears as I 
 saw the mournful look of subdued pain, which told me 
 the terrific conflict which her heart had endured. I took 
 her to my own room, and again and again I held her in 
 my arms and tried to comfort her, and at last she wept. 
 I was glad to see that passionate flood of tears, for I 
 knew that it would relieve her, and in that I was not 
 mistaken. ' There is no help, sister Stenhouse, no 
 comfort for me; I'm past all that,' she said. ' Oh ! I 
 could have borne death a thousand times rather than 
 this. I would gladly have seen my husband die rather 
 than see him changed as he is now. You do not know, 
 sister Stenhouse, how my whole soul was wrapped up 
 in that man, how I almost worshiped him. When we 
 suffered so much together on the Plains, I felt happy in 
 comparison with what I feel now. We were getting over 
 the effects of our sufferings on the Plains, and I was 
 
148 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 gaining strength and was looking forward to the time 
 when my child should be born. It was then that they 
 came and taught him that devil's doctrine and led him 
 away from me. Oh, dear ! it will drive me mad ! ' 
 
 " I did not utter a word ; my own sorrows were hidden 
 in my own heart. The heart knoweth its bitterness, 
 and a stranger intermeddleth not in the matter. 
 
 " ' We can not help ourselves ; there is no hope,' she 
 said ; ' but it is a cruel wrong. You know well enough 
 how determined I was never to marry a man who would 
 take another wife. He solemnly vowed to me that he 
 never would enter into polygamy without my consent ; 
 which, of course, was the same as saying that he never 
 would do so at all.' 
 
 " ' I reminded him of his promise,' she said, ' but he 
 told me that the " revelation" justified him in breaking it. 
 I knelt down before him, and I wept and prayed as if for 
 life itself. I entreated him, if no more, to wait and put 
 off all thoughts of another marriage for a few months, 
 until he had time to consider the matter carefully. He 
 even told me who it was — a young girl named Wilbur, 
 about fourteen years of age — a mere child. I asked 
 him if he could be so wicked as to perjure himself and 
 wrong me so foully.' 
 
 " ' Mary,' I said, ' this system is a fearful curse.' 
 ' Curse ! ' she exclaimed ; ' curse is a heavenly word to 
 apply to such a system. Why, there is nothing in hell so 
 hateful, so vile, so detestable. ... I sit down and have 
 a good cry. Sometimes that is n't enough to calm me, and 
 I shut the door and walk up and clown the room and swear. 
 There ! don't look so horrified, sister Stenhouse ; I can 
 not help it. And sometimes I break a few things, but he 
 never knows it, and it does me good.' She sat down with 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 149 
 
 me and told me all her troubles, and I need hardly say 
 how deeply I sympathized with her. We agreed that the 
 only way whereby we might prevent our children from 
 experiencing sorrow and misery similar to our own was 
 to teach them from the very first that polygamy was 
 the natural and proper, as well as the revealed, order of 
 marriage \ in fact, to bring them up in the system. 
 
 ' ' ' There are stories whispered here of women who did 
 refuse to consent to a second wife, and who stood in 
 their husband's way ; and it is said that the priesthood 
 did not wait for the Lord to destroy, but carried out the 
 law themselves. It is nothing but a piece of folly to talk 
 about women having the power to withhold their con- 
 sent, and it is simply an insult and a mockery for their 
 husbands to ask it ; they well know before they ask that 
 their wives dare not refuse to give it. But it enables 
 them to boast to the Gentiles that they do not take other 
 wives until their first wife gives her consent. Every one 
 knows perfectly well that this is all a farce. He told 
 me (Mary Burton) that if I refused, it would make not 
 the slightest difference ; and as I believed him, I, of 
 course, went to his second wedding, and did not make 
 a scene. It would have only made matters worse. 
 When my husband took his other two wives, he did not 
 consult me at all, but simply told me that on a certain 
 day I must go with him to the Endowment House. We 
 went, and he married two sisters on the same day. The 
 second wife, poor child, suffered most when he married 
 the other two. She did not seem to like me very well at 
 first, which was quite natural ; but when the other two 
 were brought home, she seemed quite to cling to me, and 
 I have, strange to say, taken quite a fancy to her. In 
 all our disputes she always sides with me, and I in 
 
150 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 return always stand up for her, as a matter of course. 
 I am getting used to this wretched life.' 
 
 " Not long after this. I was enabled to visit my Swiss 
 friend, Madame Balif, for I felt much interested in 
 learning how time had passed with her since we parted 
 in Geneva, Switzerland. I found her in a little log 
 cabin of two rooms, with bare walls, bare floor, and 
 miserably furnished ; and in this wretched abode pov- 
 erty and polygamy had wrecked the life of my poor 
 friend, whom I had known under different circumstances. 
 Here, together with their five children, lived also the 
 second wife with her two children. It was with 
 difficulty that I could recognize in the poor, careworn, 
 broken-spirited woman who stood before me, the once 
 gay, light-hearted, happy, and elegantly dressed lady 
 whom I had known in Switzerland. Mormonism had in 
 her case utterly blighted her existence. What a pang I 
 felt at the remembrance that I myself had been instru- 
 mental in leading her into Mormonism and polygamy ! 
 
 " My own life was wretched with the one continual 
 fear of what I might see or hear of my husband. I 
 tried to drive away such thoughts. Arguing with 
 myself I said, ' No, my husband will be frank and true 
 with me ; ' but I was destined to realize in my own 
 experience how utterly impossible it is for any man, 
 no matter how honest and truthful he may naturally be, 
 to practice polygamy without becoming a Irypocrite. 
 Mechanically I went through the daily routine of duty, 
 but my heart was in nothing that I did. I dared not 
 even trust myself to speak to any one, for the position of 
 a ' rebellious woman ' in those days was anything but 
 pleasant. I stood alone. Upon my husband I looked 
 with suspicion. One evening when he came home, he 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 151 
 
 intimated to me that it had been arranged that he should 
 take another wife. The idea that some day another 
 wife would be added to our household was ever present 
 in my mind ; but somehow, when the fact was placed 
 before me in so many unmistakable words, my heart 
 sank within me, and I shrank from the realization that 
 our home was at last to be desecrated by the foul 
 presence of polygamy. I was almost fainting, now that 
 the truth came home to me in all its startling reality. 
 The feelings of my heart naturally led me to hate with 
 a most perfect hatred the very mention of the word 
 polygamy, while at the same time I still believed, or 
 tried to make myself believe, that the 'revelation' was 
 from God, and must therefore be obeyed. Such was 
 the strange and contradictory position in which I was 
 placed. From that moment I felt like a condemned 
 criminal for whom there was not a shadow of hope or 
 a chance of escape. 
 
 ' ' And now began the ' painful task ' of wooing the 
 young lady. My husband told me that it was ' a very 
 painful duty,' and as an obedient wife I was bound to 
 believe him. It was, of course, no pleasure to him to 
 pay his addresses to an interesting young girl ; it was no 
 anxiety to be with her which made him hasten away to 
 the damsel's house of an evening. Oh, dear, no ! It 
 was pure principle, love for the kingdom of God, and 
 ' a very painful task ! ' 
 
 " He seemed, however, to bear it remarkably well, 
 and manifested a zeal which was perfectly astonishing to 
 me, considering the circumstances. In fact, I felt it my 
 duty to restrain him a little for the sake of his health, 
 for he seemed so anxious to perform his ' task ' prop- 
 erly that he could hardly spare time to take his meals ; 
 
152 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 but, regardless of his own feelings, he did not pay much 
 attention to my suggestions. 
 
 " Sometimes I shut myself up in my own room and 
 tried to reason with myself ; then I would kneel and 
 pray, and weep with passionate emotion ; and again 
 I would pace the floor, my heart overflowing with anger 
 and indignation. I longed to die. A woman can nerve 
 herself to endure almost anything, and outwardly she 
 may conceal her feelings ; but there are limits beyond 
 which endurance is not possible. A chance meeting with 
 the girl who has superseded her in her husband's love — 
 or worse still, should she chance to surprise the affection- 
 ate couple t&te-h-t&te — is sufficient to dispel all her good 
 resolutions and destroy that tranquillity of mind which 
 she finds it so difficult to preserve. She becomes sick at 
 heart, nervous, and entirely unfitted for her duties. I 
 have frequently heard Mormon women say that, not- 
 withstanding their husbands had been for many years 
 polygamists, they never could see the other ivives without a 
 feeling of anger and indignation arising in their hearts. 
 
 " As the time approached I felt like a condemned 
 criminal awaiting the day of execution. A sense of 
 apprehension, a dread of coming evil, was ever present 
 to my mind. The dreaded day at length arrived. I 
 had spent a very wakeful and unhappy night, and felt 
 very sick and nervous, for I was about to become a 
 mother, and my health was anything but strong. Ever 
 since I had first embraced Mormonism I had been 
 entirely cut off from Gentile society. Tims it was that 
 I never conversed freely with any one who could have 
 informed me truthfully of the origin of Mormonism, and 
 consequently I brooded over my religion as a melancholy 
 fact ; but, though with moments of weakness and waver- 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 153 
 
 ing, I never thoroughly doubted its divine origin. The 
 terrible sacrifice which was about to be required of ine 
 might, I thought, be painful to make, but it was no less 
 the will of God. I must submit, whatever the effort 
 might cost me. Utterly cast down and broken-hearted, 
 I felt almost as if the Lord himself had forsaken me, 
 and there was no one to whom I could look for aid. I 
 could not go to my husband in that hour for sympathy. 
 
 " With such feelings I went to the Endowment House. 
 There at the altar I was to give proof of my obedience 
 and of my faith in my religion by placing the hand of 
 the new wife in that of my husband. The thought was 
 almost madness. Brigham Young performed the cere- 
 mony. He sat at the end of the altar and we three 
 knelt down — my husband on one side, and Miss Pratt 
 and myself on the other. Speaking to me, Brigham 
 Young said : ' Are you willing to give this woman to 
 your husband to be his lawful wife for time and for all 
 eternity? If you are, you will signify it by placing her 
 right hand within the right hand of your husband.' I 
 did so, but what words can describe my feelings? The 
 anguish of a whole life-time was crowded into that one 
 single moment. I had now laid everything upon the 
 altar of sacrifice, for I had given away my husband. 
 What more would the Lord require of me that I was not 
 prepared to do? I was bewildered and almost beside 
 myself, and yet I had to hide my feelings. Hope was 
 forever banished from my life. To whom could I look 
 for sympathy among those who were around me ? They 
 were most of them men who had ruthlessly wrecked the 
 lives and lacerated the hearts of hundreds of women 
 before my turn came, and the sight of an unhappy wife 
 was so common in their experience that it was more 
 
154 Hie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 likely to awaken their anger than their pity. I felt this 
 instinctively, and I resolved that they should never know 
 how much my poor heart was torn. 
 
 " From that day I began to hide all my sorrows from 
 my husband, and it was but very seldom that I uttered 
 a word of discontent, and when I expressed what I felt, 
 it was in anger. But during the remainder of the day, 
 how I watched their looks and noticed every word ! To 
 me their tender tones were daggers, piercing my heart 
 and filling me with a desire to revenge myself upon the 
 father of my children. Oh, what fanatics we Mormon 
 women have been ! I felt that day that if I could not 
 get away by myself alone and give expression to my 
 overcharged feelings, I should certainly lose my reason. 
 I was utterly miserable. It was only in the dead of 
 night, in my own chamber, that I gave way to the 
 terrible anguish that was consuming me. God and my 
 own soul can alone bear witness to what I suffered in 
 that time of woe. That night was to me such as even 
 the most God-forsaken might pray never to know ; and 
 morning dawned without my having for a moment 
 closed my eyes. 
 
 " I confess that for my husband's intended bride I felt 
 such a detestation that I could not endure her presence. 
 And yet a visitor to our house would have said, ' How 
 very pleasantly those two wives get along together ! ' 
 This has been said of scores of women in Utah by 
 casual observers — Gentiles who thought they ' under- 
 stood ' the system. On one occasion, not long after the 
 wedding, my husband asked me to take a walk with 
 him, and I consented. When I came out of my room 
 ready dressed, I found him and his wife, Belinda, wait- 
 ing and chatting pleasantly together, and looking unut- 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 155 
 
 terable love at each other — a,t least, I thought so — and 
 I felt greatly insulted and annoyed, and told them I did 
 not wish to go. My refusal appeared to be just what 
 they wanted. They tripped off together as light-hearted 
 and happy as children, while I remained rooted to the 
 spot, tearing my pocket handkerchief to pieces and wish- 
 ing I could do the same with them. 
 
 "I was now upon an equal footing with other first 
 wives. They had, therefore, no hesitation in confiding 
 to me their griefs ; and, situated as I was, I had 
 abundant opportunities of hearing stories of cruelty, 
 wrong, and suffering, under the ' celestial ' system, 
 many of them so utterly revolting that I would not 
 dream of relating them again. Polygamy among the 
 Mormons is so full of disgusting and disgraceful details 
 that a modest woman would not dare to relate them. 
 
 " We had lived together in polygamy about a year, 
 when my husband told me that his young wife desired to 
 have a home of her own, and that he intended to provide 
 her with one. This was very pleasant intelligence to me ; 
 for the sight of that other wife constantly before my 
 eyes, sitting at my table, in the midst of my family, 
 walking in the garden with my husband in the evening, 
 or t&te-h-t&te with him in the parlor, was more than I 
 could bear. This, however, was all changed when my 
 husband established a second home. I did not mind 
 being deprived of his society so long as I could get rid 
 of her: her presence was painful to me, and when she 
 was near me I hardly felt able to breathe. 
 
 " Not long after, I received another visit from a 
 talkative friend. ' You '11 be surprised, sister Sten- 
 house,' she said, ' to see me looking so utterly miserable. 
 You don't know what I have been suffering, and how 
 
156 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 shamefully I have been used. I never thought I should 
 come to this. I hate every man in the place, and I 
 detest my husband most of all, and I loathe his wives, 
 and I execrate brother Brig — Why, he married that 
 wretched little shrimp of a girl, with blue eyes and red 
 hair, and a die-away, lackadaisical manner. It was he, 
 my husband Henry ; he married her this very day. If 
 that miserable little minx had had black hair or green 
 eyes, I daresay Henry would not have cared two straws 
 about her, unless he had done it out of sheer perversity, 
 for all men are made of the same contrary stuff. But he 
 dotes on blue eyes ; I heard him myself tell her so one 
 day, when I was listening to them through the crack of 
 the door, and they did n't know I was so near. But my 
 wounded feeling would not suffer me to remain silent, 
 and I bounced in and said I, " Henry, how dare you 
 talk such outrageous nonsense to that child in my 
 presence ? " 
 
 " ' " But I didn't know you were present," he said. 
 
 '""I tell you," said I, " I'm quite disgusted with you 
 — a man with three wives, and me one of them, to go 
 talking twaddle to a little chattering hussy like that, with 
 her cat's eyes and her red hair ! " 
 
 " ' " Golden hair, my dear," he said, " Charlotte's hair 
 is golden." 
 
 " ' "I say red ! It 's straight, staring red, as red as red 
 can be," I told him ; and then we had a regular fight over 
 it. I don't mean that we came to blows, but we had some 
 hot words, and he went out and left us two alone. Then 
 that young hussy was impudent, and I don't know how 
 it was, but somehow, when we left off our conversation, 
 I found some of Charlotte's red hair between my fingers ; 
 and there,' she said, innocently, holding out quite a 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 157 
 
 respectable sized tuft of auburn hair, — ' there ; I put it 
 to you, sister Stenhouse, is that red or is it not? ' 
 
 "In polygamy love dies a natural death; and it is 
 galling to a woman's pride to have it said that she has 
 been cast off for another. When a man has several 
 wives, there is no necessity for him to stay with an 
 unhappy or mopish one, as he can always find a more 
 pleasant reception elsewhere. He has no home; his 
 houses are simply boarding-places. When the wives 
 are all in one house, each is watching the others, and 
 they know it, trying to discover something that can 
 secretly be told to the husband to draw his affections 
 away from the rest. 
 
 " In the early days in Utah polygamists were glad 
 enough to get even one roof for their families, but as 
 they grew into better circumstances some would provide 
 a house for each wife, while others, however wealthy 
 they might be, would keep all their wives in one house. 
 Poor men always keep their plural wives in one house 
 with two or more front doors, or in separate hovels in the 
 same yard. Some Mormons with several wives pass 
 frequently and with no regularity from one house to the 
 other ; while others spend a week at one house, or in 
 the apartments of one wife (if they all live under one 
 roof) , then a week with another, and so on. 
 
 " In every settlement in Utah long, low-roofed houses 
 may be seen with a row of front doors and windows 
 alternating. To every door and window there is of 
 course one wife ; and the furniture of her room consists 
 of a bed, three chairs, and a table. Then if the devout 
 Mormon wishes to add another wife to the inhabitants of 
 the long, many-doored house, a wagon box is so arranged 
 as to form a sleeping apartment for the new-comer ; or, 
 
158 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 what is more likely, one of the old wives is put into the 
 wagon box, and the new one takes her place. Man} 7 
 men live with two, three, and even four wives, with all 
 their children, under one roof, in one room, in the 
 most disgraceful and barbarous manner. The com- 
 mand of the leaders, ' Build up the kingdom,' ' build 
 up the kingdom,' — in other words, take many wives 
 and raise large families, — has been so constantly 
 insisted upon that good sense and propriety have 
 been entirely overcome. When there are only two 
 apartments, the husband, if not in one, is supposed to be 
 in the other, and the neglected wife frequently expresses 
 her opinion of her rival in the opposite room in very 
 powerful language. Scenes may be witnessed in such 
 households which are too shocking to disclose. Brigham 
 Young was conscious of this when he said he ' would 
 stand no more fighting and scratching around him.' 
 With many wives living together in a large house there 
 are many advantages. The whereabouts of the husband 
 is not so easily discovered, and the unhappy or jealous 
 wife is at a loss to know upon whom to vent her ire. 
 On this account even men with small means prefer to 
 have three wives instead of two, as each wife, not know- 
 ing which of the other two she ought to hate the most, 
 divides her jealousy. It takes, however, a wise man to 
 know how to live in polygamy so as to balance all the 
 conflicting interests and obtain a little peace, if happiness 
 is out of the question. 
 
 "It would be quite impossible, with any regard to 
 propriety, to relate all the horrible results of this dis- 
 graceful system. It has debased the minds and de- 
 graded the lives of good and honest men and women, while 
 those who naturally had a tendency towards evil have 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 159 
 
 become a hundred times worse. Marriages have been 
 contracted between the nearest relatives ; and old men 
 tottering on the brink of the grave have been united to 
 little girls scarcely in their teens ; while unnatural alli- 
 ances of every description, which in any other commu- 
 nity would be regarded with disgust and abhorrence, are 
 here entered into in the name of Glod, and under the 
 sanction of a ' revelation ' supposed to proceed from the 
 pure and holy Saviour. 
 
 "It is quite a common thing in Utah for a man to 
 marry two and even three sisters. I was well acquainted 
 with one man who married his half-sister, and I know 
 several who have married mother and daughter. I know 
 also another man who married a widow with several 
 children ; and when one of the girls had grown into her 
 teens, he insisted on marrying her also, having first by 
 some means won her affections. The mother, however, 
 was much opposed to this marriage, and finally gave up 
 her husband entirely to her daughter, and the daughter 
 bears children to her step-father, living as wife in the 
 same house with her mother. 
 
 "In another instance, a well-known man in Salt Lake 
 City, who has several wives and married daughters, 
 married a young girl of fifteen years of age whom his 
 wife had adopted and brought up as her own. 
 
 " Quite a number of the leading Mormons have wives 
 in the various settlements ; and this is very convenient to 
 them if they have to travel much. If the wives are old 
 and experienced, as wives who are sent into the country 
 generally are, they can then look after and manage a 
 farm ; and if they have growing boys, the farm can be 
 worked upon a very economical plan. The younger wives 
 in the city can be supplied from them with all the butter, 
 
160 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 cheese, vegetables, etc., that they require. It takes con- 
 siderable shrewdness to manage women in such a way as 
 to turn all their abilities to good account and to make 
 them profitable. 
 
 ik Before we left England, when speaking of the cere- 
 monies of passing through the Endowment House, my 
 husband told me that they were simply a privilege and a 
 matter of choice. But what a choice ! I might go or 
 refuse to go ; but he must then take another wife in my 
 place, and, as I knew, there would be no difficulty in 
 finding one. I should, in consequence, be known as a 
 rebellious woman ; annoyance and indignity would be 
 heaped upon me ; while within my own home I should be 
 compelled to occupy the position of second wife, as the 
 one who is married first in the Endowment House is 
 considered the first wife, and has the control of every- 
 thing. My husband told me that it was an honor for 
 which many people had waited for years. My husband 
 reminded me that we had been married by a Gentile and 
 while living among Gentiles, and that, as I said before, 
 our marriage was not valid, and our children were not 
 legitimate. Only those children of ours who were born 
 after the ceremony in the Endowment House would be 
 legitimate ; the others were outcasts from the ' kingdom, ' 
 unless we adopted them after our initiation, and thus made 
 them heirs. So I agreed to go, trying to persuade 
 myself that it was a sacred duty. . . . 
 
 " Thus we passed through the mysteries of the Endow- 
 ment House, and at three o'clock in the afternoon we 
 found ourselves at liberty to return home. The various 
 ceremonies had occupied eight hours! When we reached 
 home, my husband said : k Well, what do you think of 
 the endowments?' But I did not dare to answer him 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 161 
 
 truthfully at that time. Had I done so, I should have 
 told him that I was ashamed and disgusted. Never in 
 all my life did I suffer such humiliation as I did that 
 dav." 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 1 
 
 BLOOD ATONEMENT. REIGN OF TERROR. MOUNTAIN 
 
 MEADOWS MASSACRE. 
 
 THE people of Utah were now thoroughly excited. 
 Their religious antipathy, their political hatred had 
 been appealed to, and both in public and private had they 
 been stirred up to a pitch of frenzy which is hardly pos- 
 sible at the present time to comprehend. There were 
 whisperings now of a most fearful doctrine, calculated 
 not only to strike terror into the hearts of those whose 
 faith was weakening, but even to shock with a sense of 
 horror those who only heard of it from afar. I mean the 
 doctrine of the Blood Atonement. 
 
 " This was the doctrine that certain sins can not be 
 forgiven here on earth — even the blood of Christ does 
 not avail to atone for them. Shedding innocent blood ; 
 divulging the secrets of the Endowment House ; marital 
 unfaithfulness on the part of the wife; leaving the Mor- 
 mon Church, — these are unpardonable. Only the shed- 
 ding of the blood of the person committing these sins will 
 atone for them and save him. It is to this day a matter of 
 fact that if any apostate from the Mormons were to com- 
 
 iA large part of this chapter is a continuation of Mrs. Stenhouse's 
 narrative. 
 
J G2 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 mit any of the unpardonable sins, and were to be assassi- 
 nated, all zealous Mormon leaders would maintain not 
 only that the deed was justifiable, but even meritorious ! 
 This seems bad enough, but it is not the worst. The 
 doctrine of Blood Atonement is that the murder of an 
 apostate, that is, one who has left the Mormon Church, 
 is a deed of love! If a Saint sees another leave the 
 church, or if he only believes his brother's faith is 
 weakening, he knows that only by his brother's blood 
 being shed is there any chance of forgiveness for him ; 
 it is therefore the kindest action that he can perform to 
 his brother to shed his blood ! It is making atonement — 
 not a crime. 
 
 " That such doctrines have, over and over again, been 
 distinctly taught in the plainest words in the public 
 hearing of thousands ; that they have been printed and 
 reprinted by authority ; that they have been practiced, 
 and the very highest of the Mormon leaders have 
 applauded ; and that, even at the present moment, 
 these doctrines form a part of the dogmas of the 
 church, are evidenced by the following : — 
 
 " Jedediah M. Grant said in a sermon in the taber- 
 nacle on this subject : — 
 
 I would advise some of you men here to go to President 
 Young and confess your sins, and ask him to take you outside 
 the city and have your blood shed to atone for your sins. 
 There are men and women that I would advise to go to the 
 president immediately, and ask him to appoint a committee to 
 attend to their case ; and then let the place be selected and let 
 that committee shed their blood. . . . 
 
 I would ask how many covenant-breakers there are in this 
 city and in this kingdom? I believe that there are a great 
 many ; and if they are covenant-breakers, we need a place 
 designated where we can shed their blood. . . . We have 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 163 
 
 been trying long enough with this people, and I go in for 
 letting the sword of the Almighty be unsheathed not only 
 in word but in deed. 
 
 What ought this meek people, who keep the commandments 
 of God, to do unto them? " Why," says one, ki they ought to 
 pray the Lord to kill them." I want to know if you would 
 wish the Lord to come down and do all your dirty work? . . . 
 When a man prays for a thing, he ought to be willing to 
 perform it himself. . . . Putting to death the transgressors 
 would exhibit the law of God, no matter by whom it was done. 
 
 " Brigham Young, in a discourse delivered in the 
 Bowery, Great Salt Lake, and afterwards reprinted by 
 authority in the Journals of Discourses, said : — 
 
 There are sins that men commit for which they can not 
 receive forgiveness in this world or in that which is to come; 
 and if they had their eyes opened 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. 
 
 I know when you hear my brethren telling about cutting 
 people off from the earth that you consider it is strong doc- 
 trine; but it is to save them, not to destroy them. ... I have 
 had men come to me and offer their lives to atone for their 
 sins. 
 
 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, but they must be atoned 
 for by the blood of the man. 
 
 When will we love our neighbors as ourselves? Now take 
 a person in this congregation who has committed a sin 
 that he knows will deprive him of that exaltation which he 
 desires, and that he can not attain to it without the shedding 
 of his blood, and also knows that by having his blood shed 
 he will atone for that sin ; is there a man or woman in this 
 house but would say, " Shed my blood that 1 might be saved 
 and exalted with the gods"? Will you love your brothers 
 
164 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 or sisters likewise when they have a sin that can not be atoned 
 for without the shedding of their blood ? Will you love that 
 man or woman well enough to shed their blood V That is 
 what Jesus Christ meant. He never told a man or woman to 
 love their enemies in their wickedness, never. 
 
 I could refer you to plenty of instances where men have been 
 righteously slain in order to atone for their sins. I have seen 
 scores and hundreds of people for whom there would have 
 been a chance if their lives had been taken and their blood 
 spilled on the ground as a smoking incense to the Almighty, 
 but who are now angels to the devil. 
 
 1 have known a great many men who have left this church, 
 for whom there is no chance whatever of exaltation, but if 
 their blood had been spilled it would have been better for 
 them. This is loving our neighbor as ourselves : if he needs 
 help, help him ; if he needs salvation, and it is necessary to 
 spill his blood on the earth in order that he may be saved, spill 
 it. . . . That is the way to love mankind. 
 
 Now, brethren and sisters, will you live j r our religion? How 
 many hundreds of times have I asked that question ! Will the 
 Latter Day Saints live their religion ? 
 
 t; And so, according to Brigham Young, their prophet, 
 this was the religion of the Saints ! And the people acted 
 up to the ' religion ' thus taught ; and the story is so 
 terrible that one dare not even whisper all its details. 
 
 " It is no secret that all this was understood literally. 
 The wife of one elder, when he was absent on a mission, 
 acted unfaithfully toward him. Her husband took coun- 
 sel of the authorities, and was reminded that the shedding 
 of her blood alone could save her. He returned and 
 told her, but she asked for time, which was readily 
 granted. One day, in a moment of affection, when she 
 was seated on his knee, he reminded her of her doom, 
 and suggested that now when their hearts were full of 
 love was a suitable time for carrying it into execution. 
 She acquiesced, and out of love he cut her throat from 
 ear to ear. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 165 
 
 " In many instances the outrages committed against 
 persons who were known to be innocent were so revolting 
 that no woman, nay, even no right-minded man, would 
 venture to do more than just allude to them. A few, 
 however, and only a few, and the}' by no means the worst, 
 of the milder cases I will just mention. 
 
 " There was the murder of the Aikin party, six persons, 
 who were killed on their way to California. The same 
 year a man named Yates was killed under atrocious 
 circumstances ; and Franklin McNeil, who had sued 
 Brigham for false imprisonment and was killed at his 
 hotel door. There was Sergeant Pike, and there were 
 Arnold and Drown. There were Price and William 
 Bryan at Fairfield ; there were Almon Babbitt, and 
 Brassfield, and Dr. Robinson ; there were also James 
 Cowdy and his wife and child, and Margetts and his 
 wife ; and many another, too, to say nothing of that 
 frightful murder at the Mountain Meadows. 
 
 "Besides these, there is good reason to think that 
 Lieutenant Gunnison and his party were also victims, 
 although it was said that they were shot by ' Indians.' 
 The Potter and Parrish murders were notorious ; Forbes, 
 and Jones and his mother, might be added to the same 
 list ; the dumb boy, Andrew Bernard ; a woman killed by 
 her own husband ; Morris, the rival prophet, and Banks, 
 and four women who belonged to their party ; Isaac 
 Potter and Charles Wilson and John Walker. These 
 are but a few. The death list is too long for me to 
 venture to give it. 
 
 " These were all well-known and notorious instances. 
 I say nothing of those of whose fate nothing, not even 
 a whisper, was ever heard ; and I say nothing of the 
 frightful ' cuttings off ' before the reformation and in 
 recent years. 
 
166 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 " Gentile men and women were killed, for hatred ; and 
 that ' killing ' was no murder, for theirs was not innocent 
 blood. Apostates and Saints of doubtful faith, and 
 those who were obnoxious, had their blood shed all for 
 love, and that ' cutting off ' was also no murder because 
 to secure their salvation by cutting their throats was an 
 act of mercy. 
 
 " All through the Reign of Terror, marrying and giv- 
 ing in marriage was the order of the day. It mattered 
 not if a man was seventy years of age ; according to 
 Brother Brigham he was still a boy, — ' the brethren are 
 all boys until they are a hundred years old,' — and some 
 young girl of sixteen, fifteen, or even younger would be 
 'counseled,' that is, commanded, to marry him. She 
 might even have a sister no older than herself, and then 
 as likely as not he would take the two to wife, and very 
 probably both on the same day. The girls were told 
 that to marry a young man was not a safe thing, for 
 young men were not tried ; it was better to marry a well- 
 tested patriarch, and then their chances of ' exaltation ' 
 in the kingdom of heaven were sure and certain. In this 
 way the life-long happiness of many a girl, little more 
 than a child, was blighted forever. At the time of 
 which I speak, every unmarried woman, or girl who 
 could by the utmost stretch of possibility be thought old 
 enough to marry, was forced to find a husband, or a 
 husband was immediately found for her, and without any 
 regard to her wishes was forced upon her. Young men, 
 and even boys, were forced, not only into marriage, but 
 even into polygamy, and none dared resist. The marrying 
 mania in fact was universal and irresistible ; every one 
 must marry or be given in marriage. So evidently was 
 this the case that women in jest said that if one were to 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 16 / 
 
 hang a petticoat upon a fence-pole, half a dozen men 
 would flock at once to marry it ! Absurd as this may 
 seem, it was not very far from the truth. Young men 
 and maidens, old men and children, widows, virgins, and 
 youths, in fact, every one, whether married or unmarried, 
 it mattered not, was ' counseled,' commanded, to marry. 
 Even during that strange time in which every Saint 
 seemed to have gone stark crazy mad, the frightful 
 anomaly of men of fifty, sixty, and even seventy, marry- 
 ing mere children, girls of fourteen and even thirteen, 
 forced itself upon the attention of some of the leaders. 
 The question arose, an odd question to Gentile ears, 
 ' At what age is a girl old enough to marry ? ' Consider- 
 able discussion ensued, and even in the tabernacle the 
 question was taken up. The voice of authority, how- 
 ever, eventually answered the matter, but not in the way 
 that any ordinary civilized person would expect. I am 
 afraid that the reader will think that I exaggerate or 
 misrepresent facts. I wish it were so, for the case is so 
 outrageously atrocious ; but I am sorry to say that scores 
 and hundreds of instances similar to this, which occurred 
 during the reformation, might be given. 
 
 "There are before me, as I write, letters, papers, 
 documents of various sorts relative to marriage and the 
 matrimonial affairs of the Saints at the time of which I 
 speak, that I wish the reader could peep at. I would 
 not like him to read them ; in fact, I dared not read them 
 all myself, for some of them are so shameful that the 
 mere knowledge of having read them through would 
 make any right-minded person blush. Taking more 
 wives was the order of the day ; how, was of little 
 matter. 
 
 ' ' The work of the reformation was in full progress ; 
 
168 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 the people were excited to frenzy ; the federal troops 
 were expected ; men were marrying and maidens were 
 given in marriage ; every one in Utah was looking for- 
 ward to the time when the prophecies of Joseph the 
 Seer should be fulfilled, and the Son of man should 
 come : and then, when one would have supposed that 
 eve^ man would have wished that his hands should be 
 pure, was perpetrated a deed which is unparalleled in 
 modern civilized times — a deed at which angels and men 
 have stood aghast with horror." 
 
 The doctrine of Blood Atonement had borne its 
 fruit in a hundred places in Utah. There had been the 
 secret assassination of Gentiles, the "cutting off" of 
 "apostates" in hours of darkness; private vengeances 
 had been assuaged in blood; "the Indians had killed" 
 those whom the air whispered had offended Brigham or 
 some officer of the church ; some, it was said, " fell off a 
 mountain precipice;" others strangely "disappeared;" 
 and still others went on journeys which had no end. 
 Murder stalked abroad, vengeance filled the air. The 
 only safety was in silent and implicit obedience to the 
 every wish ("counsel") of Brigham and his high 
 officers. Under cover of this doctrine of blood, he who 
 did not yield his money or business, or betrothed or wife 
 to the " counsel " of the covetous higher officer was way- 
 laid, and none dare ask too many questions concerning 
 him. The murderous poison of this doctrine spread 
 throughout Utah. Its culmination was the "Mountain 
 Meadows Massacre " — the most horrid crime that stains 
 the American continent. 
 
 One of the causes that led up to it was that Parley P. 
 Pratt, a high officer in the Mormon Church, while on a 
 "mission" in Arkansas, ran off with the wife of a Mr. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 169 
 
 McLean. The injured husband caught up with the 
 fleeing pair and shot down the despoiler of his home. 
 The Mormons were greatly incensed at this resentment 
 of their right to " prey upon the Gentiles," and nursed 
 hatred against all people from Arkansas. The main 
 features of this massacre shall be told in the words of 
 Mrs. Stenhouse : — 
 
 " I feel myself utterly incompetent to tell the story of 
 the Mountain Meadows Massacre, it is so shocking, so 
 fiend-like. And yet it must be told. 
 
 " While the work of reformation, that is, the so-called 
 reforming of the Mormon Church, was going on, and 
 when the United States troops were constantly expected 
 in the valley of the Great Salt Lake, a large train of emi- 
 grants from Arkansas came into Utah on its way to Cali- 
 fornia. They were one hundred and twenty people, hard- 
 working, plain folks, but well-to-do, and, taken all in all, 
 about as respectable a band of emigrants as ever passed 
 through Salt Lake City. 
 
 " They traveled along in the most orderly fashion. On 
 Sunday they rested, and one of their number conducted 
 divine service. All went well until they reached Salt 
 Lake City, but it was there that they first discovered that 
 feeling of enmity which finally resulted in their destruction. 
 
 u Weary and footsore they encamped by the Jordan 
 River, trusting there to recruit themselves and their 
 teams, and to replenish their stock of provisions. 
 Brigham Young was then governor of Utah Territory, 
 commander-in-chief of the militia, and Indian agent as 
 well : he was therefore responsible for all that took pkice 
 within his jurisdiction. These emigrants were ordered 
 to break up their camp and move on ; and it is said that 
 written instructions were sent on before them, directing 
 
1 1 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 the people in the settlements through which they would 
 have to pass to have no dealings with them. 
 
 " Compelled to travel on, they pursued their journey 
 slowly towards Los Angeles. At American Fork they 
 wished to trade off some of their worn-out stock and to 
 purchase fresh ; they also desired to obtain provisions. 
 There was abundance of everything from the farm and 
 from the field, for God had very greatly blessed the land 
 that year ; but they could obtain nothing. They passed 
 on, and Avent through Battle Creek, Provo, Springville, 
 Spanish Fork, Payson, Salt Creek, and Fillmore, and 
 their reception was still the same. The word of the 
 Mormon pontiff had gone forth, and no man dared to 
 trade with them. Now and then some Mormon, weak 
 in the faith or braver or more fond of money than his 
 fellows, would steal into the camp, in the darkness of 
 the night, bearing with him just what he was able to 
 carry ; but beyond this they could obtain nothing. Their 
 only hope now lay in the chance of holding out until 
 they could push through to some Gentile settlement. 
 Through fifteen different Mormon settlements did they 
 pass, without being able to purchase a morsel of bread. 
 
 " At Beaver they were again repulsed, and at Parowan 
 they were not permitted to enter the town ; they were 
 forced to leave the public highway and pass round. 
 
 " At Cedar City they were allowed to purchase fifty 
 bushels of tithing wheat, and to have it ground at the 
 mill of that infamous scoundrel John D. Lee, upon whose 
 memory will rest the eternal curses of all who have 
 ever heard his name. The sellers of this wheat knew 
 well enough even then that it would return to them 
 again in the course of a few days. 
 
 " They remained in Cedar City only one day, and so 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 171 
 
 jaded were their teams that it took them three days to 
 travel thence to Iron Creek, a distance of twenty miles ; 
 and two days were occupied in journeying fifteen miles, 
 the distance between Iron Creek and the Meadows. 
 
 u The morning after they left Iron Creek, the Mormon 
 militia followed them in pursuit, intending, it is sup- 
 posed, to assault them at Clara Crossing. That this was 
 done by authority is evident from the sworn testimony to 
 the effect that the assembling of those troops was the 
 result of ' a regular militia call from the superior officers 
 to the subordinate officers and privates of the regiments. 
 . . . Said regiment teas duly ordered to muster, armed 
 and equipped as the law directs, and prepared for field 
 operations.'' A regular military council was held at 
 Parowan, at which were present President Isaac C. 
 Haight, the Mormon high priest of southern Utah, 
 Colonel Dame, Major John D. Lee, and the apostle 
 George A. Smith. 
 
 " Brigham Young was in this case the superior author- 
 ity ; he was the commander-in-chief of the militia. The 
 inference is obvious. 
 
 " The regiment which started from Cedar City under 
 the command of Major John D. Lee, the sub-agent for 
 Indian affairs in southern Utah, was accompanied by 
 baggage wagons and the other paraphernalia of war. 
 A large body of the Piede Indians had been invited to 
 accompany them. 
 
 "An order came from headquarters to cut off the 
 entire company except the little children. The emi- 
 grants were utterly unprepared, and the first onslaught 
 found them defenceless. Accustomed, however, to bor- 
 der warfare, they immediately corraled their wagons 
 and prepared for a siege. The next morning, Major 
 
172 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 John D. Lee assembled his troops, including the 
 auxiliaries which he had summoned, about half a mile 
 from the entrenchment of the fated emigrants, and 
 then and there informed them, with all the coolness 
 which such an infamous scoundrel alone could muster, 
 that the whole company was to be killed, and only the 
 little children who were too young to remember anything 
 were to be spared. The unfortunate emigrants did not 
 know who their foes were. They saw Indians, or men 
 who were so colored that they looked like Indians, and 
 they saw others who were more than strangers to them, 
 but they had no clew to the cause of their detention. 
 The emigrants supposed that they were surrounded by 
 Indians, and expected the crudest treatment in case of 
 resistance, not only death, but the outrage and shocking 
 atrocities of savages. 
 
 " So day followed day. The agony of the unhappy 
 men and women who were thus besieged, and were in 
 daily, hourly peril of the most frightful of all deaths, can 
 be imagined, not told. Meanwhile, what were those 
 atrocious scoundrels doing who were lying in wait for 
 their blood ? Some of them were tricked out as Indians ; 
 some were in their own proper dresses ; and, moreover, 
 real Utes were there. The unhappy victims could not 
 possibly escape. There was time for the murderers to 
 do their work leisurely. Between chance shots, which 
 were intended to, and did, carry death with them, they 
 amused themselves with k pitching horse-shoe quoits.' 
 Such heartlessness is almost beyond conception. 
 
 " In terrible need of water, the emigrants dressed two 
 little girls in white and sent them to the well. But the 
 fiends — the Mormon militia — shot them down. They 
 could not possibly advance. Their corn would not last 
 long. They were famishing for water. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. ±7o 
 
 "A wa^on came near and was found to be filled with 
 
 o 
 
 armed men. Surely now, the unhappy emigrants 
 thought, substantial help had come. The authorities 
 of Utah in the neighborhood, whether Gentile or 
 Mormon, had come out in the cause of civilization and 
 humanity, and succor was at hand. 
 
 ' ' A white flag was waved from the wagon as an 
 emblem of peace, and in order that the emigrants might 
 know that it was white men and not the red demons 
 of the hills who approached. They did not, indeed, 
 know that these themselves were the monsters who had 
 wronged them all the time, and who were even now 
 compassing their death. 
 
 u Inside that wagon were President Haight, the 
 infamous Mormon bishop John D. Lee, and other 
 authorities of the church in southern Utah. They 
 professed to the emigrants that they came upon the 
 friendly errand of standing between them and the 
 Indians. They said the Indians had taken offence at 
 something that the emigrants had clone, that they were 
 thirsting for their blood, but that they, these Mormon 
 officials, were on good terms with the Indians, and had 
 influence, and would use their good offices in the cause 
 of mercy and of peace. After some discussion they 
 left with the professed view of conciliating the Indians. 
 They returned, and said that the Indians had agreed 
 that if the emigrants marched back to Salt Lake City, 
 their lives should be spared ; but that they must leave 
 even r thing behind them in their camp, even including the 
 common weapons of defence which ever} 7 western man 
 carries about his person. The Mormon officials then 
 solemnly undertook to bring an armed force and to 
 guard the emigrants safely back again to the settlements. 
 
1 /4 TJie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 " This agreement being made, the Mormon officials 
 retired, and after a short time again returned with thirty 
 or forty armed men. Then the emigrants were marched 
 out — the women and children in the front, and the men 
 following, while the Mormon guard followed in the rear. 
 When they had inarched in this way about a mile, and 
 had arrived at the place where the Indians were hid in 
 the bushes on each side of the road, the signal was 
 given for the slaughter. So taken by surprise were the 
 emigrants, and so implicitly had they confided in these 
 murderers, that they offered no resistance. The 
 Mormon militia, their guard, immediately opened fire 
 upon them from the rear, while the Indians and Mor- 
 mons disguised as Indians, who were hidden among 
 the bushes, rushed out upon them, shooting them down 
 with guns and bows and arrows, and cutting some of the 
 men's throats with knives. The women and children, 
 shrieking with mortal terror, scattered and fled, some 
 trying to hide in the bushes. Two young girls actually 
 did escape for about a quarter of a mile, when they were 
 overtaken and butchered under circumstances of the 
 greatest brutality. About half an hour was probably 
 occupied in the butchery, and every soul of that company 
 was cut off, excepting only a few little children who were 
 supposed to be too } T oung to understand or remember 
 what had taken place. The unfortunate victims were 
 stripped, without reference to age or sex, and then left 
 to rot upon the field. There they remained until torn and 
 dismembered by the wolves, when it was then thought 
 prudent to conceal such as lav nearest to the road. 
 
 "The remains were subsequently gathered together by 
 Major Carleton, the United States commissioner, who 
 erected over them a large cairn of stones, surmounted 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 175 
 
 by a cross of red cedar, with the inscription thereon : 
 '•Vengeance is mine: I will repay, saith the Lord;' and 
 on a stone beneath were engraved the words : — 
 
 " ' Here one hundred and twenty men, women, and 
 children were massacred in cold blood early in Sep- 
 tember, 1857. They were from Arkansas.' 
 
 "It is said that this monument was subsequently 
 destroyed by Brigham Young, when he visited that 
 part of the territory. 
 
 " The little children, while their parents were being 
 butchered, had clung about their murderers' knees, en- 
 treating mercy, but none of them finding it save those 
 who were little better than infants. Their fears and 
 cries the night after the murder are said to have been 
 heart-rending. One little babe, just beginning to walk, 
 was shot through the arm. Another little girl was shot 
 through the ear, and the clothes of most of them were 
 saturated with their mothers' blood. They were dis- 
 tributed among the people of the settlements, and when 
 finally the government took them under the protection 
 of the nation, the people among whom these little ones 
 lived actually charged for their boarding. Two of them 
 are said to have uttered some words from which it was 
 presumed that their intelligence was in advance of their 
 years. They were taken out quietly and buried! This 
 happened some time after the massacre. 
 
 " Most of the property of the emigrants was sold by 
 public auction in Cedar City. The Indians got most of 
 the flour and ammunition, and the Mormons the more 
 valuable articles. They jested over it and called it 
 ' Spoil taken at the siege of Sevastopol.' There is legal 
 proof that the clothing stripped from the corpses, blood- 
 stained, riddled by the bullets, and with shreds of flesh 
 
176 \ TJie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 attached to it, was placed in the cellar of the tithing 
 office in Salt Lake City, where it lay about three weeks, 
 when it was privately sold. The cellar is said to have 
 smelled of it for years. Long after this time, jewelry 
 torn from the mangled bodies of the unfortunate women 
 was publicly worn in Salt Lake City, and every one knew 
 whence it came. Brigham Young, who was at the time 
 governor of the territory and also Indian agent, made no 
 report of the matter. 
 
 " Mr. Jacob Forney, the first superintendent of Indian 
 affairs after Brigham Young, gathered up sixteen of the 
 children made orphans by that foul, treacherous deed, 
 and gives the names and ages, eighteen months after the 
 occurrence, as follows : — 
 
 " John Calvin, now seven or eight years old, does not 
 remember his name ; says his family lived at Horse Head, 
 Johnston County, Arkansas. Ambrose Mironi, about 
 seven years, and William Taggit, four and a half years, 
 brothers ; these also lived in Johnston County. Pru- 
 dence Angeline, six years, and Annie, about three years ; 
 these two are said to be sisters. Rebecca, nine years ; 
 Louisa, five years; and Sarah, three and a half years; 
 from Dunlap. Betsy, six years, and Anna, three years, 
 said to be sisters ; these know nothing of their family 
 or residence. Charles Francher, seven or eight years, 
 and his sister Annie, three and a half years. Sophronia 
 or Mary Huff, six years, and Elisha W. Huff, four years. 
 A boy ; no account of him ; those among whom he lived 
 called him William. Francis Hawn or Korn, four and 
 a half years old. 
 
 " Facts in my possession warrant me in estimating 
 that there was distributed a few days after the massacre, 
 among the leading church dignitaries, $30,000 worth of 
 property. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 177 
 
 "Mormons have been accused of aiding the Indians 
 in the commission of the crime, but, unfortunately, every 
 step in my inquiries satisfied me that the Indians acted 
 only a secondary part. White men were present and 
 directed the Indians." 
 
 Mr. T. B. H. Stenhouse says : — 
 
 "To this should be added that wives and daughters 
 of some of those murderers wore the apparel of the 
 massacred women and maidens, while their polygamic 
 husbands and fathers wore the masculine garments of 
 their victims, plowed the fields with their cattle, and 
 drove to their religious assemblies with the horses that 
 they had stolen from the Arkansas train, and no one 
 called them to account. 
 
 " It has been repeatedly asserted that the best carriage 
 was taken to Salt Lake City and was there seen rolling 
 through the streets of that place for years afterwards." l 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MURDER AND TREASON UNPUNISHED. BRIGHAM YOUNG. 
 
 IT seems incredible that such a crime as the Mountain 
 Meadows Massacre could have been committed in 
 the United States ; and still more incredible that it 
 should have been eighteen years before any one was 
 brought to trial for it ; and yet such is the burning fact. 
 Brigham Young, the chief criminal, was at that very 
 time a United States officer, in the double capacity of 
 governor and Indian agent ; and John D. Lee, who had 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 452. 
 
178 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 charge of the massacre, was a deputy Indian agent 
 appointed by Young. 
 
 In 1875 John D. Lee was tried for being one of the 
 Mountain Meadows murderers. The jury were mostly 
 Mormons, the whole Mormon people, from Young down, 
 conspired to keep back evidence, and the jury " dis- 
 agreed"! A second trial came in 187G, and Brigham 
 Young having then concluded that the only safety for 
 himself and others was in having a scapegoat, deserted 
 Lee, the evidence was forthcoming, and Lee was found 
 guilty, and executed upon the very spot where his vic- 
 tims had pleaded with him for their lives. Before his 
 death he wrote a full confession and indirectly laid 
 the responsibility on Brigham Young, to whom, after 
 the bloody work, he made a detailed report of the 
 massacre. Brigham told him to write to him (Young) 
 an account of it, and to lay it all on " the Indians," 
 and then never to mention the matter again to any 
 human soul. 
 
 And Brigham Young, the arch-murderer, with all the 
 others who helped Lee to do his terrible work, went free ! 
 One hundred and twenty innocent lives sacrificed, and the 
 United States government, after nineteen } T ears, executes 
 one wretch for the crime, and then folds its hands ! 
 
 " There is implanted in the human breast an instinct- 
 ive horror of the act of murder, and a large number of 
 the Mormons who took part in the massacre were too 
 good men to rest in peace after the commission of a 
 dreadful deed that was forced upon them. It has unmis- 
 takably withered and blasted their happiness, and some 
 of them have suffered agonizing tortures of conscience, 
 equal to those of Shakespeare's Thane of Cawdor. Two 
 of them are said to have lost their reason entirely, and 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 179 
 
 others have gone to early graves with a full realization 
 of the terrible crime upon their souls." 1 
 
 One of the cases which illustrates the result of the 
 teaching of the Blood Atonement doctrine is that 
 which is known as the " Parrish murders" at Springville, 
 Utah. After having been a fanatical Mormon for many 
 years, Mr. Parrish apostatized, and prepared to leave 
 Mormondom for California. The Mormon elders of that 
 village held a council and appointed two men to go to the 
 Parrishes and, pretending that they were themselves 
 getting dissatisfied with the church, find out the time set 
 for their departure. On the fourteenth of March, 1857, 
 the evening of their proposed departure, they were led by 
 these professed friends into ambush, and the father 
 stabbed to death, one son shot, and the other son 
 wounded. Some of the Mormon men who were guilty 
 were put upon the coroner's jury and the verdict was 
 that the murderers were " unknown " ! 
 
 This Reign of Terror had been for several years 
 absolute in Utah. It was well understood that the 
 penalty of death, or worse than death, followed apos- 
 tasy from the Mormon Church, or even dissent from 
 any of its teachings, or the least criticism of any of its 
 tyrannical methods or w r icked deeds. What the situa- 
 tion of the people of Utah — the poor victims of 
 this terror, half-deluded, half-cowed, and hushed — ■ 
 would have come to be, had not the United States 
 army entered the territory, is too dark a picture to 
 paint. The teachers of this doctrine (that each man's 
 sins must be atoned for by having his own throat cut) 
 must have given themselves over to wickedness so fully 
 that they came to a state of madness. 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Sainta, p. 447. 
 
180 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 One of the first things clone by Governor Camming 
 after his arrival and of that of the United States troops 
 was to announce protection to all who wished to leave 
 the territory. The fear, however, that they would be 
 detected and "cut off" b} 7 the Danite assassins of the 
 church before they could get safely under the guard of 
 United States soldiers was so general that few dared 
 to avail themselves of this offer of escape. Others were 
 hindered also by their extreme poverty. Mr. Albert G. 
 Browne says : l 
 
 " During the ensuing week nearly two hundred persons 
 registered themselves in the manner he proposed, and a 
 greater number would undoubtedly have been glad to 
 follow their example, but were deterred b} 7 the surveil- 
 lance to which they were subjected by certain function- 
 aries of the church before being admitted to his presence. 
 Those who were registered were organized into trains, 
 with the little movable property they possessed, and 
 despatched toward Fort Bridger. They arrived there 
 in the course of May — as motle} 7 , ragged, and destitute 
 a crowd as ever descended from the deck of an Irish 
 emigrant ship at New York or Boston. The only gar- 
 ments which some possessed were made of the canvas 
 of their wagon covers. Many were on foot. For pro- 
 visions they had nothing but flour and some fresh meat. 
 It is a fact creditable to humanity that private soldiers 
 by the score shared their own abridged rations and 
 scanty stock of clothing with those poor wretches, and 
 in less than a day after their arrival they were provided 
 with much to make them comfortable." 
 
 United States Judge Cradlebaugh charged the grand 
 jury at Provo, Utah, in March, 1859, in part, as follows: 
 
 iThe Atlantic Monthly, April, 1859. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 181 
 
 " I said to you in the outset that a great number of 
 cases have come to my knowledge of crimes having been 
 committed through the country, and I shall take the 
 liberty of naming a few of them. The persons commit- 
 ting those offences have not been prosecuted. The rea- 
 sons why I can not tell, but it strikes me that outside 
 influences have prevented it. If you do your duty you 
 will not neglect to inquire into those matters, or allow 
 the offenders to go unpunished. I may mention the 
 Mountain Meadows murders. If it is a fact that citi- 
 zens have been guilty of that offence, indict them, send 
 for them, and have them brought before this court. 
 
 "One is the case of the Parrishes and Potter. Spring- 
 ville is a village of several hundred inhabitants. There 
 was one young man whom it was intended to kill. He 
 ran to his uncle's, and was followed to his uncle's house. 
 Here are three persons killed, and the criminal goes 
 unpunished. This is sufficient to show that there has 
 been an effort to cover up instead of to bring to light and 
 punish. 
 
 " At the same place there was another person killed. 
 When Henry Fobbs was here, he made his home at 
 Partial Terry's, stayed there a few weeks ; during that 
 time his horse and revolver were stolen. He made his 
 escape, tried to get to Bridger, was caught, brought 
 back, and murdered ; and that is the last of Henry 
 Fobbs. No investigation has been made. His body 
 has been removed several times, so that now, perhaps, 
 it could not be found. Here is a man said to be killed 
 by the Indians and then his horse is taken by Mr. Terry 
 and traded for sheep. It seems to me that these are 
 matters that you ought to investigate. Fobbs, I believe, 
 lived in the state of Illinois. He had a wife and chil- 
 
1 82 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 dren, and was anxious to get back, and I suppose his 
 wife is still anxious about him ; but as to what has 
 become of him she can not tell. 
 
 " A few days before the matter of the murder of the 
 Parrishes and Potter, the stable of Parrish was broken 
 into, and his carriage and horses were taken out ; this 
 was clone in the night. These horses have never been 
 returned. That woman, the wife of Mr. Parrish, told 
 me that since then at times she has lived on bread and 
 water, and still there are persons in this community 
 riding about on those horses. Mr. Lysander Gee has 
 those horses. He says that a few days after they were 
 stolen the}' were given to him, and that he was directed 
 to give them to no person whatever. 
 
 "Now, it is a strange kind of matter that persons 
 should go to Parrish's, break open his stable and rob 
 him, and then take the horses to Mr. Lysander Gee and 
 tell him to keep them. It does not look reasonable. 
 It would look more reasonable to suppose that Mr. 
 Lysander Gee was engaged in it himself, and it is an 
 outrageous thing that this woman, one of whose children 
 was killed with her husband, has been obliged to live in 
 the very dregs of poverty. I say, bring that man up 
 and compel him to restore those horses, and give the 
 property to her, and do not allow her to live in poverty 
 while others are riding about the country here with her 
 husband's property. Young Parrish is here ; if the 
 grand jury desire to have him, they can use him as a 
 witness. To allow these things to pass over gives 
 a color as if they were done by authority. The very 
 fact of such a case as the Mountain Meadows shows 
 that there was some person high in the estimation of the 
 people, and it was clone by that authority ; and this case 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 183 
 
 of the Parrishes shows the same ; and, unless you do 
 your duty, such will be the view that will be taken 
 of it. 
 
 " You can know no law but the laws of the United 
 States and the laws you have here. No person can commit 
 crimes and say they are authorized by higher authorities, 
 and if they have any such notions they will have to dispel 
 them." 
 
 ' ' After Judge Cradlebaugh had waited for two weeks 
 for some action on the part of the grand jury against the 
 murderers, his patience was exhausted, and he discharged 
 them, assigning as his reason the folly of trying to bring 
 any of the murderers to justice with a Mormon jury. 
 He narrated how the officers of the court had sought to 
 apprehend criminals in Springville, and how, when they 
 got to that settlement, a trumpet was sounded, and the 
 persons sought were secreted until the departure of the 
 officers, when the trumpet was again sounded, and the 
 accused came out of their hiding-places and went about 
 their ordinary business. 
 
 "After the jury was discharged, the judge continued 
 to take the affidavits of the witnesses, which revealed the 
 existence of a reign of terror in the country settlements 
 wherever there were apostates, beyond all credibility. 
 Evidence in possession of the court was most positive 
 that the witnesses testifying of the murders in Springville 
 believed themselves to be in constant jeopardy, and that 
 their lives were insecure but for the protection afforded 
 by the troops." ' 
 
 At the close of the term, Judge Cradlebaugh was filled 
 with righteous indignation at the cool refusal of the grand 
 jury, several of whom were themselves guilty, to indict 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 407. 
 
1S4 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 the Mountain Meadows murderers and other criminals. 
 He discharged the jury with these remarks : — 
 
 ww Until I commenced the examination of the testimony 
 iu this case, I always supposed I lived in a land of civil 
 and religious liberty, in which we were secured by the 
 Constitution of our country the right to remove at pleas- 
 ure from one portion of our domain to another, and also 
 that we enjoyed the privilege of 4 worshiping God accord- 
 ing to the dictates of our own conscience.' But I regret 
 to say that the evidence in this case clearly proves that, 
 so far as Utah is concerned, I have been mistaken in such 
 supposition. Men are murdered here, coolly, deliberately, 
 premeditatedly murdered. Their murder is deliberated 
 and determined upon by church council-meetings, and 
 that, too, for no other reason than that they had apos- 
 tatized from your church, and were striving to leave the 
 territory. 
 
 " You are the tools, the dupes, the instruments of a 
 tyrannical church despotism. The heads of your church 
 order and direct you. You are taught to obey their 
 orders and commit these horrid murders. Deprived of 
 your liberty, you have lost your manhood, and become 
 the willing instruments of bad men. 
 
 kt I say to you it will be my earnest effort, while with 
 you, to knock off your ecclesiastical shackles and set 
 you free." 
 
 Defeated in every attempt to bring offenders to justice, 
 Judge Cradlebaugh adjourned his court and entered upon 
 the docket this record, namely: " The whole community 
 presents a united and organized opposition to the proper 
 administration of justice." 
 
 The result was that the Mormons finally succeeded in 
 getting an order from President Buchanan's secretary 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 18o 
 
 of war that the military could be used as a posse only 
 upon call of the governor of the territory. As the 
 governor was a friend of the Mormons, the United 
 States courts were left without military protection, and 
 the Mormons were, as usual, victorious. 
 
 Some apostate Mormons, called " Morrisites," who 
 rebelled against the leadership of Brigham Young, started 
 a colony at Weber, Utah, and Joseph Morris, an ignorant 
 and excessively fanatical Welshman, was their prophet. 
 They quarreled among themselves, refused to obey the 
 summons of the court ; the Mormon militia were called 
 out, and after a siege of three days, in which eight 
 persons were killed, four of whom were women, the 
 Morrisites surrendered. The Mormon Colonel Burton 
 then rode into the village and deliberately shot down 
 Morris himself, two women, and others. And thus 
 Brigham's rival prophet came to his death. 
 
 When Edward M. Stanton became secretary of war, 
 Colonel Connor was sent to Utah in charge of a small 
 number of United States troops, with instructions to 
 establish a military post near Salt Lake City. On the 
 twentieth of October, 1862, he marched through that city 
 and established Fort Douglass on a bench of the Wah- 
 satch range, in the suburbs of Salt Lake City, where the 
 guns of the United States could point to any part of the 
 city, and were within easy range of the harem of Brigham 
 Young. The new governor, Stephen B. Harding, of 
 Indiana, sent a message to the Mormon legislature, in 
 which he warned them against violations of the new anti- 
 polygamy law of that year, 1862. The presence of the 
 United States soldiers and their offensive location at 
 Camp Douglass, overlooking the " City of the Saints,'' 
 aroused Brigham and all Mormonclom to indignation. 
 
186 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Brigham added also insult to defiance at this time by 
 taking another polygamous wife (Amelia Folsom), not- 
 withstanding the recent passage of the anti-polygamy 
 law. The Mormons held an indignation meeting, de- 
 nounced the United States officers and soldiers, declared 
 Camp Douglass "a nuisance," and appointed a committee 
 " to request the United States officers to resign and leave 
 the territory." Judge Waite prepared to have Brigham 
 arrested for polygamy. Mormon spies reported this to 
 Brigham, who hastily flung out a signal, and there was 
 instantly a gathering of Mormon militia, and within one 
 hour two thousand ar*ned Mormons were guarding the 
 premises of the polygamous prophet. Cannon, rifles, and 
 ammunition were brought forth from concealment, and 
 the Mormon city was in a fever of excitement. Spies 
 watched every move at Camp Douglass, and signals 
 were sent out, by which the whole Mormon people could 
 be assembled at any moment, by day or by night. But 
 Judge Kinney, who was friendly to the Mormons, came 
 to their aid. Brigham was politely invited to appear 
 before Judge Waite and give bonds to await the action 
 of the grand jury. This body, composed of Mormon 
 church officers, gravely reported to the court that they 
 found " no evidence" that Brigham Young had married 
 Amelia Folsom, although it was notorious that he had 
 courted her with such silly demonstrations as to excite 
 universal ridicule, had married her, and was then living 
 with her and calling her his wife. 
 
 Brigham Young believed that the United States was 
 to be torn asunder by the war of the Rebellion, then in 
 its darkest days, and he preached fiery denunciations 
 from the tabernacle, and the hostile feeling between the 
 Mormons and the little band of soldiers in Camp Doug- 
 
The Mormon Delusion, 18 < 
 
 lass increased, and a collision seemed certain. Both 
 parties knew that the Mormons were in such superior 
 numbers that they could at any time massacre every 
 United States soldier in the territory, and finally Brigham 
 ordered the Mormon mayor to drive the soldiers out. 
 Upon a false signal, in March, 1863, in the dead of 
 night, the Mormon men rushed from their houses and 
 gathered as one man around the prophet's harem, armed 
 and desperate. 
 
 When Colonel Connor learned of Brigham's order he 
 said: " I know that Brigham Young could use up this 
 handful of men ; but there are sixty thousand men in 
 California who would avenge our blood, and behind them 
 the whole nation." Young's sober second thought led 
 him to recall his order. Had he not done so, and had 
 the troops in Camp Douglass then fallen victims to Mor- 
 mon hatred of the United States and her laws, the volun- 
 teers which would have poured into Utah from the Pacific 
 coast and from adjoining territories would have wiped out 
 the Mormons so effectively that the " Mormon Problem " 
 would never again have vexed the peace and shamed the 
 honor of our fair country. 
 
 " There is one thing I wish to call attention to that is 
 generally overlooked. All good Mormons are equally 
 criminal. I mean by this that if not guilty of the crime 
 in chief, they are aiders and abettors. In civilized coun- 
 tries, all citizens are anxious to have crime punished ; 
 here the order is reversed. I have been a detective 
 officer for many years, but I must say that Utah is the 
 hardest place I have ever worked in. Men who have 
 lived from boyhood iu a little settlement are ' not known ' 
 by any of the inhabitants. The very children who have 
 been raised with the man you are looking for, if asked 
 
loo Tlie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 his residence or anything about him, will answer ' dunno.' 
 In fact, none of them seem to know anything except how 
 to commit a crime and cover it up." 1 
 
 Brigham Young was born in Whittingham, Windham 
 County, Vermont, June 1, 1801, and died in Salt Lake 
 City, August 29, 1877, aged seventy-six years. He was 
 one of ten children, five sons and five daughters. When 
 he was a babe his parents moved to Smyrna, Chenango 
 County, New York ; thence, in 1813, to Genoa, Cayuga 
 County, New York, where he remained until he was 
 twenty-eight years of age. He then moved to Mendon, 
 Monroe Country, next to Canandaigua, and soon after 
 returned to Mendon. Here, on .April 14, 1832, he was 
 baptized into membership in the Church of Jesus Christ 
 of Latter Day Saints, and soon afterwards "gathered" 
 with those of like ilk to Kirtland, Ohio, and became an 
 energetic assistant to the prophet Joseph Smith. 
 
 Brigham's parents were poor and he learned the trade 
 of painter and glazier, and, as he said, " did many a 
 hard day's work for six ' bits ' a day." 
 
 When he desired to attend a conference early in the 
 history of the church he had to go in a borrowed suit 
 and boots. It was always his boast that he had " never 
 attended school but eleven and one-half days." 
 
 Brigham Young's official residence was known in Salt 
 Lake City as the Bee-hive House, where he had his 
 private office, reception room, and bedchamber. Ad- 
 joining was the Lion House, so called, where dwelt about 
 one dozen of his wives and their children. Mrs. Sten- 
 house says : — 
 
 "The Lion House is what ought to be the home of 
 the prophet, for here nearly all of his wives reside. (He 
 
 1 Fate of Madame La Tour, ]>. 359. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 189 
 
 has, however, many other houses in the city.) On the 
 basement floor is the dining-room, kitchen, pantry, and 
 other general offices. The first floor is divided by a long 
 passage with doors on each side. On the right hand, 
 about half a dozen wives with small families find 
 accommodations. On the left, at the entrance, is the 
 parlor, and the other rooms on that side are occupied by 
 mothers with larger families, and ladies who have a little 
 more than ordinary attention. The upper floor is divided 
 into twenty square bedrooms. 
 
 "When I first knew brother Brigham, poor man, he 
 had only sixteen wives living with him in Salt Lake City ; 
 and even now he has no more than nineteen ! Perhaps 
 I ought to say eighteen, since Eliza Ann has run away 
 from him, and left the poor old gentleman desolate and 
 forlorn. Of course brother Brigham has had many more 
 than nineteen wives, but besides the living ladies, others 
 are dead or have strayed away, no one knew whither, 
 and x^erhaps, as brother Heber once said to me, nobody 
 cared." 
 
 From Nauvoo onward till his death Brigham Young 
 was the life and soul of Mormonism, its guiding spirit, 
 its unyielding despot. Of him it may be said almost 
 with literal truth that his eyes constantly followed 
 and his hand was always upon every man and every 
 woman in all the Utah country. He carried his right 
 to rule farther than any despot before him had ever 
 dared. He held that every man's entire religious belief, 
 daily routine, business affairs in detail, and political 
 action were under his absolute control ; and it is one 
 of the marvels in the world's history that he succeeded, 
 in the main, in carrying his claims into recognition and 
 securing such unquestioned yielding. 
 
190 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Mr. T. B. H. Stenhouse says : — 
 
 " No one to-day, even in Utah, can form any idea of 
 the thorough control that Brigham once had over the 
 people. Nothing was ever undertaken without his 
 permission. He knew of everything. No person could 
 enter into business without consulting him, nor would 
 any one ever think of leaving the city to reside in any 
 other part of the country without first having his 
 approval. Merchants who went east or west to pur- 
 chase goods had to present themselves at his office, and 
 report their intention of going to the States at such a 
 time — if he had no contrary orders to give them. 
 Some, no doubt, may have sought his counsel on their 
 proposed undertakings and journeys, believing that his 
 superior wisdom could aid them, but in his own mind he 
 claimed that the Saints should do nothing without his 
 knowledge and approval. That oft-reiterated expression, 
 that it was his right to dictate and control everything, 
 ' even to the ribbons that a woman should wear,' or ' to 
 the setting up of a stocking,' was the truthful illustration 
 of his feelings. 
 
 "A ball even could not take place until he was con- 
 sulted upon the propriety of dancing then ; and before 
 the invitations were issued, the list of the invited was 
 read to him, and he erased or added names at his 
 pleasure. Before any of the married brethren could 
 make love to a maiden with the view of making her a 
 second, third, or tenth wife, he was expected to go and 
 obtain Brigham's permission, and even the young men 
 were instructed that properly they should do likewise. 
 " But the worst form of this surveillance, control, and 
 dependence upon his will was the power which Brigham 
 assumed in the most vital interests of every man's affairs. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 191 
 
 He not only sent the missionaries abroad when and 
 whither he pleased, but when he desired it, he sent the 
 elders away for some cause of offence, real or imaginary. 
 Time after time he has called men living in Salt Lake 
 City to close their business and go down to ' Dixie,' — 
 the southern part of the territory, — which has been 
 regarded by most people as a penal settlement, or place 
 of banishment. Repugnance to such a country or 
 the inadaptability of the person to any pursuits there 
 was nothing to him. Quite a number of persons had to 
 sacrifice property in the city in order to go to Dixie, 
 and free tongues have not been slow to insinuate that, 
 in some instances, those persons were sent away for the 
 very purpose that the prophet might the more easily 
 purchase their property." ] 
 
 As a speaker, Brigham Young was always listened to 
 with attention. This was not so much because his dis- 
 course was interesting, but because he was liable, at any 
 time, to be excited or angry on the platform, and was 
 then sure to say things which were interesting to the 
 Mormon crowd before him and disgusting to all persons 
 of any refinement. He was unacquainted with history, 
 knew no logical methods, and was innocent of rhetoric. 
 His language was ungrammatical and coarse, and, at 
 times, most indecently low, vulgar, and profane. His 
 addresses were direct and bold, his illustrations apt, 
 and his delivery vigorous. In "set speeches" he was 
 a failure. When Vice-President Colfax and some of 
 his friends visited Salt Lake City, Brigham was expected 
 to do his best, but he failed signally. He had been 
 " coached" by some of his brethren to use Philip, Land- 
 grave of Hesse, for illustrating a certain point, and he 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 657. 
 
192 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 blundered out, " Mr. Philip Landgrave" etc., to the 
 infinite merriment of his visitors and mortification of 
 his more intelligent Mormon brethren. 
 
 Brigham s greed for wealth showed itself in his youth 
 and clung to him to the grave. From poverty he came 
 to be the owner of several millions of property. As the 
 officer of the church upon a salary, and having church 
 matters which demanded all his time, that he should thus 
 pile up millions of private property shows on its face that 
 his gains could not have been honestly acquired. His 
 absolute control over the tithing income of the church, 
 which grew to be hundreds of thousands of dollars 
 annually, accounts for his large acquisitions of wealth. 
 At Nauvoo there was complaint that Brigham did not 
 account for the collections and tithings gathered when 
 on his missions. When Joseph Smith confronted him 
 with the accusation, Young replied: ''Thou shalt not 
 muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn." 
 To this Joseph responded: "True, but Moses did not 
 say the ox was to eat up all the corn." 
 
 The peculations of Brigham Young from the church 
 amounted to enormous sums, and after his death the 
 facts were publicly admitted by his executors when 
 brought into open court. At one time, finding that his 
 indebtedness to the church funds amounted to $200,000, 
 he directed the church bookkeeper to credit his account 
 with the church with that amount " for services ren- 
 dered," and thus a " settlement" was made. After his 
 death the officers of the church presented a claim against 
 the executors of Young's estate for $999,932.90 for church 
 property which he had converted to his own use, and the 
 executors paid it. Some of Young's heirs were dissatisfied 
 with this action of the executors, and brought suit against 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 193 
 
 them. One of the affidavits presented in behalf of the 
 heirs made such damaging exposures that the executors 
 paid the heirs $75,000, and the affidavit was withdrawn 
 from the tiles of the court, and never brought to light. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 POLYGAMY AND ITS BITTER FRUITS. 
 
 THE introduction of polygamy as a doctrine and 
 practice of the Mormon Church was the digging 
 of a pit down which the Mormons have ever since been 
 descending. 
 
 In a sermon in the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake 
 City, Orson Pratt said : " The doctrine of a plurality of 
 wives is a part of our religion, and necessary for our 
 exaltation in the eternal world. Take unto yourselves 
 more wives. These wives are to be sealed to the Saints, 
 for time and eternity, only by the priesthood. If men 
 neglect this sealing they will be dammed to all eternity." 
 
 If the wife objects to polygamy she is met with the 
 following ''revelation " of the prophet : "If any man have 
 a wife, and he teaches unto her the law of my priesthood 
 as pertaining to these things (that is, polygamy), then 
 shall she believe, and administer unto him, or she shall be 
 destroyed, saith the Lord your God, for I will destroy 
 her." 
 
 A fifteen-year-old daughter was bound hands and feet 
 by her father, and whipped because she refused to be 
 married to an old polygamist ; an unwilling first wife 
 
194 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 was locked up while her husband removed the best of 
 the furniture to furnish another house for a new and 
 second wife ; a first wife's own money is taken by the hus- 
 band to buy furniture for the new "second." It is not 
 uncommon for a polygamist to live in a house of two to 
 four rooms, and sometimes in one room, with two to four 
 wives. There is a house in Salt Lake City where a man 
 lived with three wives who were mother, daughter, and 
 granddaughter, and he had children by each. 
 
 The bitter quarrels, which often come to blows, in these 
 families, the cruelties, the fierce jealousies, the burning 
 hatreds which never die between these wives, the crushed 
 hearts, the hopeless lives, the insanities and suicides, the 
 numberless and nameless immoralities and crimes which 
 are sought to be hidden from Gentile eyes — what a 
 chapter of horrors ! and all in the sacred name of 
 religion ! And yet all these horrors are a necessary 
 result of the Mormon system and have existed there 
 for forty years, and have spread into the adjoining 
 territories. 
 
 The Mormons teach that marriage is not a civil con- 
 tract ; that only those marriages are valid and binding 
 whose ceremonies are performed by Mormon priests ; 
 that all non-Mormon marriages are void, and the chil- 
 dren of such marriages are lost ; that when husband or 
 wife joins the Mormons and the other does not, the one 
 joining is entirely freed from the previous marriage 
 contract ; that when both husband and wife become 
 Mormons they must again be married by the priesthood ; 
 that if the husband or the wife thereafter leave the 
 Mormon Church the other is thereby entirely divorced, 
 and free to marry again. Until the late law of Congress 
 there have been no civil marriages in Utah, and now that 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 195 
 
 the law of Congress requires all marriages to be accord- 
 ing to civil law, such Mormons as wish to be legally 
 married are first married by a civil officer, and then 
 remarried by a priest in a Mormon temple. 
 
 As all marriages were to be performed in the Endow- 
 ment House in Salt Lake City, there were sometimes 
 scarcely hours enough in the day to get all the marrying 
 done ; and, to facilitate matters, special days were set 
 apart for particular places ; for instance, the couples 
 (or triples) from Provo must come on " Provo day," etc. 
 Then these lecherous Saints began to arrange with those 
 who were going to the states or foreign countries as 
 missionaries to engage from one to several extra wives 
 for them, sometimes furnishing money in advance to pay 
 their way. This worked well, except that the mission- 
 aries wanted extra wives themselves, and always had first 
 choice. When a company of new arrivals landed in Salt 
 Lake City and were turned loose in the ' ' cattle-yard " 
 at the tithing-house, Mormon men were sometimes seen 
 hastening to this free " market" to select a second or a 
 fifth wife ! The heart-broken and angry first wife was 
 often seen at this yard getting a third wife for her own 
 husband, in order to spite the hated second wife. 
 
 In one village two old polygamists, the one seventy 
 years old, and the other nearly sixty, were almost beside 
 themselves with grief ( !) because there were no more 
 unmarried women, and they went to a neighboring 
 family where there were two little girls, one fourteen 
 years of age and the other twelve years, and told the 
 parents that the prophet of Salt Lake City had a reve- 
 lation from the Lord that they were to many these girls ; 
 the parents dared not disobey this " counsel," and these 
 unhung villains "married" these infant victims I 
 
196 Tlie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Why do women go into polygamy ? Because the better 
 class of Mormon women actually believe that their con- 
 sent to polygamy is necessary to their salvation, or, at 
 least, to any exaltation in the future life. It is because 
 of woman's willingness to sacrifice for her religion even 
 the dearest instincts of her heart, though her heart breaks 
 and it sinks her life into misery and hopelessness. 
 
 Mormonism holds out to men unlimited license in this 
 life, with glory and unlimited license in the world to 
 come. To women it offers the requirement of strict 
 obedience to their husbands and the priesthood, the 
 sacrifice of their soul's desire for the whole heart of 
 their husbands, and the duty to rear as many children 
 as possible. 
 
 In other words : — 
 
 Indulgence for Men, 
 Sacrifices for Women . 
 
 At one time, at a largely attended public meeting of 
 male members only of the Mormon priesthood in Salt 
 Lake City, Brigham Young, after pharisaically denounc- 
 ing sin, said : " All of you who have been guilty of com- 
 mitting adultery, stand up." More than three fourths of 
 those present rose to their feet. As these were men 
 only, the moral condition of the other sex also can be 
 inferred. A bishop present asked if there was not some 
 misunderstanding of the question, as the} 7 probably 
 understood that it applied to their actions before they 
 became Mormons. Then Brigham reiterated the ques- 
 tion, saying it meant that sin committed since they 
 entered the church ; and again every man still stood up. 
 Brigham then instructed them how to evade another 
 exposure by saying, " Be baptized for the remission of 
 your sins, and, as they are washed away by the ordi- 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 197 
 
 nance of baptism, you can then truly say you are not 
 guilty of the sins inquired of, although you may have 
 committed them." 
 
 The following is upon the authority of The Salt Lake 
 Tribune and of a widely known and reliable citizen of 
 Salt Lake City : The town of Lehi is situated about 
 twenty-five miles south of Salt Lake City and has 
 fifteen hundred population. The statement was made 
 that no Mormon girl had been married in that town for 
 three years who had not become a mother before the 
 proper time. While on the cars between Lehi and Salt 
 Lake City a number of Mormons urged the Mormon 
 bishop of Lehi to publish a denial of this statement, but 
 his answer was that there was too much truth in it. 
 
 A United States officer who resided in Utah for six 
 years wrote to The Denver Tribune that he saw in 
 southern Utah, dining at one table, five polygamous 
 wives of one Mormon bishop, having at home at that 
 time thirty-six children, boys and girls from ten to 
 twenty years of age. These young Mormons all slept 
 in one very large single room overhead in the winter, 
 and in the summer they all huddled together in the 
 straw at the barn. Several of these young unmarried 
 girls were bearing children to their male relatives. 
 Cattle and hogs do likewise. These things were winked 
 at by the Mormon Church. 
 
 An investigation of the subject of plural marriages 
 was made by a committee at the request of a society 
 in the east, and from the facts obtained the conclusion 
 was reached that "about eighty per cent, of the plural 
 marriages were necessitated by previous immorality." 
 In a Mormon village of four hundred people there were 
 more than a dozen illegitimate births in one year. 1 
 
 1 Hand-book of Mormonism. 
 
1J8 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 "Again and again parties have been sealed to each 
 other ' for time and eternity,' and in less than six months 
 divorced by the same power that sealed them. . . . Mul- 
 titudes of women in Utah have been divorced and remar- 
 ried so many times that they scarcely know themselves 
 by name. It is a common thing to find women living in 
 polygamy who have been divorced three or four times 
 from as many different husbands. An Englishwoman, 
 who, a few years ago, abandoned her husband and chil- 
 dren for the purpose of gathering with the Saints to 
 Zion, has been divorced and remarried five times since 
 she came to Utah. The present writer has lived within 
 half a block of a woman who, after being divorced from 
 five husbands, is now living in polygamy with the sixth ; 
 and one of our district judges reports the case of an 
 elderly Saintess, living near the place in which he holds 
 court, who has been divorced fourteen times." l 
 
 There has never been in Utah a civil marriage law or 
 any provision for licenses, or anything else respecting 
 marriage, until 1888, when the Mormon legislature was 
 coerced to enact some laws on this subject for fear they 
 could not otherwise secure statehood. Until then the 
 whole matter has been left with the Mormon Church, and 
 by it concealed in the iniquitous Endowment House, and 
 that being a secret place, what is done there none but 
 the head of the church knows ; and even he has per- 
 jured himself to conceal his knowledge from the courts. 
 
 One woman who had been inveigled into polygamy at 
 the age of seventeen, speaking of her husband, said : 
 " The happiest day I spent for twenty years was the day 
 when I saw him laid in his grave." 2 
 
 1 Fate of Madame La Tour. 
 
 2 Many of the items following in this chapter are condensed from "The 
 Women of Mormonism," hy the kind permission of the publisher, Mr. 
 C. G. G. Paine. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 199 
 
 Nothing was left undone to compel women to accept 
 the pretended revelation on polygamy, and the cruelest 
 persecution pursued those who would not consent that 
 their husbands should take more wives ; their reputations 
 were blasted, and their eternal condemnation threatened. 
 Husbands withdrew from their wives not only all marks 
 of affection, but also almost the very necessaries of life. 
 Women were driven into polygamy by flattery, threats, 
 or even by special pretended " revelations." One wo- 
 man declares: "Indeed, death would have been gladly 
 welcomed by many of us, but alas ! we cried in vain ; 
 he would not come. If men also were rebellious they 
 were sent off on missions and their wives commanded 
 to receive the attentions of other men during their 
 absence. I dare not report the 'counsel' given on this 
 point, it is so grossly indelicate and immoral. In fact, 
 we were regarded as simply brood animals. Brigham 
 Young frequently told the women that they need not 
 expect their husbands to love them ; that it was honor 
 enough to be allowed to bear children to a Saint. "When 
 the Reign of Terror existed, hundreds of women went 
 into polygamy to escape being ' blood-atoned.' " 
 
 It is conceded by all Mormons, men or women, that 
 all women naturally hate polygamy. John T. Caine, the 
 Mormon delegate to Congress, is reported to have said 
 in 1888: — 
 
 " The nature of woman is the same the world over. 
 Only religious conviction of an overwhelming character 
 can constrain any good woman to have her husband's 
 affections shared by another. But that conviction of 
 religious duty and self-sacrifice will enable a woman to 
 curb her feelings and endure unselfishly, and even with 
 cheerfulness, so great a trial, there can be no doubt." 
 
-^OO TJie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 "When the revelation on polygamy was first published 
 as the doctrine of the Mormons in 1852, over seventeen 
 thousand members left the church in England within six 
 months. But those who were already at Nauvoo or, 
 later, in Utah, were in a net from which escape was 
 impossible to many, unless they were ready to meet 
 death. Some men apostatized, some resisted for a time, 
 and finally yielded to the pressure brought to bear by 
 the prophet and his aids. Most of the women at first 
 considered the so-called "revelation" a cloak to cover 
 immoralities. Some fanatical women, and some who 
 were already thoroughly bad, assumed to believe the 
 revelation was divine, and, being high in the church, 
 exerted almost a controlling influence over many who 
 were weaker-minded, but strong in the faith. So the 
 struggle went on, until the infatuation became general. 
 
 A first wife tells the following story: "Friends who 
 have heard me complain of the sorrows I endured in 
 polygamy censure me deeply for having given my 
 consent for my husband to take another wife. I will 
 relate the facts. We had lived happily together for 
 fifteen years, and seven children had been born to us, 
 four of whom were still living. When he told me of his 
 intention to go into polygamy, he also said he had been 
 ' counseled ' to marry a certain woman. I had many 
 reasons to regard this woman with special aversion. He 
 had been advised to marry this woman on purpose to 
 humble me. It was like a drowning man clutching at a 
 straw that I wept and prayed him not to ruin our happy 
 home. I reminded him of what we had been to each 
 other for fifteen long years ; how I had forsaken all my 
 friends for him, how I had tried to be a good wife and 
 mother. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 201 
 
 " ' It is well,' he replied, w that you think of your 
 children ; for if you will not permit me to do my duty 
 by living up to the privileges of a Latter Day Saint, they 
 shall have neither food, clothing, nor shelter of my pro- 
 viding during the coming winter.' 
 
 "What could I do? I was not strong, and had a 
 three months' babe at my breast, and could not go out 
 to work for their support ; neither could I bear to see 
 them suffer. ' Then,' said I, ' choose any other woman 
 in the world rather than the one you have named.' He 
 answered, ' She it must be, and there need be no 
 trouble. You keep your side of the house, and mind 
 your children, and I will make her keep hers.' 
 
 " ' Henry,' said I, ' the day that woman enters this 
 house will be the last day of happiness for us ! ' 'I 
 can not help it, Mary,' he replied. ' I am determined to 
 live my religion ; and if you know when you are well 
 off you will not make any fuss.' 
 
 " Again I ask, What could I do? Nothing. I went 
 to the Endowment House, and gave as wife to my 
 husband the woman that I most hated and despised of 
 all women in the world. I saw her enter my house and 
 take my place in the heart of the man for whom I had 
 given up all that I held dear in this life. 
 
 " I could tell you how all that was evil in my nature 
 was fostered ; how we women together changed my kind 
 and tender husband into a perfect brute. But of what 
 avail? There was neither law, justice, nor mercy for 
 women in this territory then." 
 
 One man of brutal instincts had two wives, and they 
 had made his house at times like the infernal regions, an 
 abode of strife and discord. Upon his death-bed, his 
 first wife went to enter the room where he was, when his 
 
202 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 second wife held the door against her, and it had to be 
 forced open. Another polygamous first wife who was 
 present said to the offending woman : " This is his wife, 
 and she has a right to be here, and you have not." In 
 the meantime the poor old first wife of the dying man 
 stood by his bedside, weeping, when the woman con- 
 tinued : " Why do you weep ? You should rather laugh, 
 for you are now freed from your misery. There lies the 
 man who wrecked your happiness, powerless to harm you 
 any more ! " Then, touching the hand of the dying man, 
 she exclaimed, " Thank God, this hand can never again 
 strike a woman I" Nearly all the occupants of the room 
 left in horror, frightened at this woman who appeared 
 like an avenging angel. 
 
 Another polygamous wife says : " After awhile it be- 
 came impossible for me to control myself, and our 
 house was a perfect hell, as every polygamous house 
 is, no matter what the advocates of polygamy may say 
 to the contrary. I affirm that I have been intimate with 
 many polygamous families from those highest in author- 
 ity down, and I have never known one where hatred 
 and discord did not exist. I have known families 
 who were extolled as models, where the most disgraceful 
 quarrels were of daily occurrence, and where the wives 
 had scarcely risen from their knees after family devo- 
 tions before they would renew their quarrels and bestow 
 the lowest kind of epithets upon each other. I defy any 
 man or woman in this territory to cite one instance of a 
 polygamous family where there is anything approaching 
 harmony." 
 
 One woman, who had been brought to the verge of 
 the grave by her husband's taking a second wife, says 
 that her husband watched with her during the nights. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 203 
 
 "Sometimes the new wife shared his night-watches by 
 my bedside ; at other times she managed to have some 
 other person do so, that I might have no opportunity to 
 talk with him alone, lest I should regain my old influence 
 over him. One night when they thought me asleep, he 
 said : ' We must not blame Sarah too much, for she loved 
 me devotedly.' 'That may be so,' she replied; 'but, 
 William, you know that I love you just as well as she ever 
 has, and I should die if you should take another whom you 
 would love more than you do me.' I felt as if I could 
 spring from the bed and choke her, but controlled 
 myself to wait for his reply. ' You need never fear 
 that, Louise,' said he ; ' I shall never care for any one 
 but you ! ' 
 
 " I experienced a thousand deaths in those few moments, 
 and my love for my husband was struck dead at one 
 blow. Then I made a vow, which I kept only too well, 
 that he should care for another, and that this second 
 should endure the same torments I had experienced. 
 I laid my plans well and was in no haste." 
 
 She then recounts the steps she took to get her hus- 
 band to marry, without the knowledge or suspicion of the 
 second wife, a third wife, and one whom the second had 
 discharged as a hateful servant-girl, and continues her 
 narrative thus : — 
 
 "After returning from the wedding, I sent word to 
 Louise to come and take supper with me, as I had com- 
 pany I would like her to meet. When she came in we 
 were all seated in the parlor, and I shall never forget the 
 satisfaction, I may say exultation, I felt as I said : 
 ' Louise, allow me to present brother B. and his third 
 wife. They were married to-day, and will come and live 
 with you next week.' 
 
204 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 " She turned scarlet, then pale as death, and I thought 
 she was going to faint. But instead, she broke into a 
 terrible rage which frightened all the rest. Some years 
 later she literally died of a broken heart, when she found 
 it impossible to win him back. 
 
 "I was once counted an amiable woman, but polyg- 
 amy has made me a cold, calculating, heartless woman, 
 with no faith in any religion whatever." 
 
 A sixteen-year-old girl, who was reared to believe in 
 polygamy, became a third wife, but soon learned to hate 
 the system, and told her husband that she should leave 
 him, and asked him to continue to help support their 
 children. He refused, and she appealed to a high 
 church officer. He heard her story and then said : 
 " Sister H., you know that in the church you are a wife, 
 and your children are perfectly legitimate, but outside 
 the church you will be nothing but a common ivoman. A 
 Latter Day Saint could not conscientiously contribute to 
 the support of the children of a prostitute. Do you not 
 think you better remain where you are ? " 
 
 It takes some courage for a poor woman, without 
 friends, with a family of dependent children, and in 
 midst of thick slanders upon her character, to face the 
 world alone, under such circumstances. 
 
 In southern Utah, where Mormonism and polygamy 
 are found in their darkest features, there lived in a 
 miserable hut of two small rooms a Saint with three 
 wives, all of whom had children. Two of the wives 
 were sisters, and the third was the daughter of one of 
 these sisters by a former husband. This third wife left 
 him and married another man, who soon died, and she 
 then returned to her first husband, and brought her 
 children by her second husband with her, and one of 
 
Tlie Mormon Delusion. 205 
 
 these children, a young girl, was also married to this 
 first husband, thus becoming fourth wife to an old wretch 
 who had for his three other wives her mother, grand- 
 mother, and great-aunt ! 
 
 The very worst class of women in Mormonism, and 
 those who do the most injury, are those who are too 
 intelligent to believe that there was ever a revelation 
 commanding polygamy, and who know full well its evil 
 effects. They are hypocrites in religion, and degraded 
 in character. They are now not only the defenders of 
 polygamy, but are zealous to drag others into it. " The 
 earth holds no viler of their sex than some of these 
 women." 
 
 A young woman, who was reared in a polygamous 
 household of a church dignitary, and was familiar with 
 the part that some of these women are acting, said : — 
 
 "I can only compare these women to those dreadful 
 characters that they say exist in the outside world, 
 whose business it is to lure young girls to destruction. 
 They are nothing but tools of the priesthood ; and while 
 professing to be working for the elevation of women are 
 in reality doing nothing but seeking new victims to gratify 
 the base passions of their infamous masters." 
 
 The Mormon women have a society called the 
 " Female Relief Society ; " but its real objects are the 
 spread of polygamy and the gathering of tithes for the 
 advance of Mormon interests at Washington City and 
 in national newspapers. The chief topics discussed at 
 their meetings are polygamy, subservience to husbands, 
 and implicit obedience to the priesthood. This female 
 organization is constantly at work carrying out the plans 
 of a licentious and tyrannical priesthood. Young girls 
 are brought to these meetings to be taught these doc- 
 
206 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 trines, and when they are fourteen or sixteen j^ears of 
 age they are. told they must be "sealed" to Brother 
 So-and-So, and that thus their eternal happiness and glory 
 will be assured. And those reared thus become plural 
 wives almost without hesitation. Some girls say: "We 
 shall have to live in polygamy any way, and we may as 
 well marry in it, and be third wives as first wives." 
 
 These female teachers of polygamy make a semi- 
 annual tour of the territory, visiting every settlement, 
 holding meetings and expounding the beauties and glories 
 of polygamy, and exhorting the sisters to be faithful 
 followers of "the new and everlasting covenant of 
 marriage." 
 
 When calls are made for money to be used in main- 
 taining a lobby and its corruption fund at Washington 
 City, this " Female Relief" ( !) Society begins its work 
 of levying on the poor. Every egg and every ounce of 
 butter available is called for, under penalty of excom- 
 munication, and money is thus squeezed out of the very 
 body and blood of these poor people. 
 
 Mrs. Ann Eliza Young, the " wife No. 19 " of 
 Brigham Young, after she had fled from Utah, wrote as 
 follows : — 
 
 ' ' Ever since my escape from the dark prison-house of 
 polygamous slavery into the light of freedom and 
 Christianity, one thought has been in my mind — to 
 show to every woman the contrast between the lives of 
 women in Utah and those in other parts of this great 
 land. If I could make the women of Utah understand 
 what a glorious sense of freedom one feels upon breaking 
 away from the gloom and misery of an existence under 
 the teachings of the Mormon priesthood, and coming 
 into the society and civilization which is based upon 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 207 
 
 Christianity, which protects the family and honors 
 womanhood ; if they could only see and feel even a 
 little of the wonderful difference in the two cases, then 
 it seems to me they would make every effort, run almost 
 any risk, to break their chains and find true liberty. 
 When I first began to travel and go into the houses of 
 this country, I was filled with new sensations to see the 
 respect and courtesy shown by husbands to wives — the 
 affectionate solicitude for their comfort, the glad welcome 
 given after separation, the pride which husbands seemed 
 to feel in their wives. It was all so wonderful and new 
 to me ! How many, many times did tears spring to 
 my eyes at witnessing so often the tender parting of 
 husbands and wives, or the joyous greetings after only a 
 few days of separation. What touched me most of all 
 was the anxious and unceasing care which frail or sick 
 wives received from their husbands. Such things are 
 of such daily occurrence that people do not notice them, 
 but such devotion is unknown to the women of Utah, 
 except it be to the reigning favorite. And every Mor- 
 mon woman knows how certain it is that even this 
 favoritism will be transient." 
 
 Some scenes in polygamy are as ludicrous as they are 
 coarse. One who had three wives took a fourth. The 
 three wives secreted all eatables, so that when he returned 
 with his new wife from the long and fatiguing ceremonies 
 of the Endowment House, there was not only no sup- 
 per prepared, but not a crust to be found. The baffled 
 husband took his bride to a compassionate neighbor, who 
 provided a meal. They returned about midnight, found 
 the doors and windows secured and barred, and no 
 amount of knocking could get them open. After stand- 
 ing in a pouring rain for nearly an hour, they agaiu 
 
208 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 applied to the neighbor for hospitality. One of the 
 wives afterwards said that nothing in her life gave her 
 so much satisfaction as seeing those two standing out- 
 doors at midnight in a drenching rain ! 
 
 A Mormon bishop, who had two wives, refused to 
 postpone his marriage to the third on account of the 
 dangerous illness of his first wife, and she died and was 
 buried without the presence of her husband, who was on 
 his wedding journey. 
 
 Another Mormon married his first wife's servant-girl, 
 and when the two quarreled, severely whipped and 
 bruised the first wife, saying, " I am determined to live 
 my religion if it kills us all." 
 
 Some tourists in Utah were on a fishing excursion, 
 when one fell sick, and they sought shelter at a cabin of 
 one room, occupied by three beds and three wives ; and 
 one wife remarked that they were " more crowded than 
 usual, as the old man had brought home a new wife that 
 day." A Mormon first wife, whose husband had several 
 other wives, lost by sickness her two only children, and 
 when a neighbor was making sympathetic remarks to the 
 father, he said: "My poor wife is indeed broken down 
 with grief, but it is not so bad for me, for you know I 
 still have sixteen children by the other women." 
 
 A Mormon lost his only wife by death, and five poWga- 
 mists officiated at the funeral and descanted upon the 
 advantages of polygamy, and one said: "We should 
 sympathize with our brother more deeply, for he has lost 
 his only companion. If I should lose one of my com- 
 panions I should still have several left to console and 
 comfort me." 
 
 What effect must it have upon a woman's modesty when 
 she must often say of her husband : "He is gone to stay 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 209 
 
 with some of the other women " ! What effect upon chil- 
 dren who talk about " father's week at the other house ; " 
 who discuss freely which is his favorite woman, and why, 
 and to the children of which one he is most indulgent ! 
 One woman, who knows the facts by experience, says : 
 " Mormon youth and children are precocious in wicked- 
 ness to a remarkable degree, and lacking in that 
 simplicity and innocence which is a natural attribute of 
 children. Most Mormon men enter polygamy only from 
 licentious motives and pure wickedness." 
 
 Ninety per cent of polygamous marriages are entered 
 into when the other or favorite wife is in a delicate con- 
 dition, and the neglect of the husband and her hatred 
 toward the new wife produce most deleterious effects 
 upon the offspring. 
 
 The dreadfuluess of the situation is sometimes relieved 
 by the amusing. One day a bishop called upon a 
 faithful Mormon family, who, although living happily, 
 had neglected the privileges of plural families, and began 
 to exhort the husband to " live his religion" and take 
 another wife. The angry wife seized the broom and 
 said : " Get out, you villain! " and rapidly laid the blows 
 upon his head and shoulders. Hurrying to the door and 
 into the street, he supposed he had escaped, but he found 
 the broomstick still falling frequently upon his head 
 while he ran up street until he turned the next corner. 
 
 "The writer knew a family that lived in such a home 
 as he will now describe. The house was constructed of 
 logs, and contained but two rooms, about fourteen feet 
 square ; overhead some rough boards had been placed 
 upon the timbers, making a little loft beneath the roof ; 
 outside a small shed had been constructed, where fuel was 
 stored in winter and a stove placed in summer ; and in 
 
210 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 that house lived a man with eight wives and over twenty 
 children ! There was a bed in each of the two rooms, 
 trundle-beds beneath, and cots overhead, while some of 
 the children slept constantly in the barn. But this home 
 was luxurious as compared with certain homes that he 
 saw in Utah. The reader can imagine, or rather, he 
 can not imagine, what kind of training and discipline 
 prevails in such homes, and what kind of moral influ- 
 ences prevail there." 1 
 
 ' ' Orson Pratt was the great theologian of the Mormon 
 Church. Mrs. Pratt gave me the history of her strug- 
 gles and those of her husband when the order came from 
 the priesthood that he should enter into plural marriage, 
 a decree which is inevitable, which is irresistible, which 
 is written above every marriage altar by ghostly fingers 
 in filmy outline, which on some fateful morning some 
 stray sunbeam shall bring out into colors of inky black- 
 ness and flash upon the startled wife the terrible sen- 
 tence : ' Thy kingdom is finished.' 
 
 " The life of Mr. and Mrs. Pratt had been one of 
 exceptional unity, and long he resisted the instruction 
 of the priesthood.* Night after night he came home to 
 toss upon a couch of thorns, ' to sleep, perchance to 
 dream.' But the fatal night came. He returned to his 
 home about midnight. He opened the door. His wife, 
 faithful in her vigils, rose to meet him. There was a 
 rigidity of the muscles, a pallor of the cheeks, such as 
 the death angel will never paint. He laid his icy hands 
 in hers, his colorless lips parted, and in a husky voice he 
 said, ' It is all over, wife. I have consented to take a 
 second wife.' 
 
 "As though an arrow had pierced her soul, she fell at 
 his feet as one dead, without pulse, without breath. 
 1 The Mormon Problem, p. 142. 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 211 
 
 " A little further oil we see this devoted husband aud 
 father transformed into a fiend. We see him with two, 
 three, five wives ! He was worth one hundred and fifty 
 thousand dollars when he went to Utah, and yet Mrs. 
 Pratt was soon sitting in midwinter without fire or fuel, 
 her shivering children crowded about her. The husband 
 and father enters. His benumbed soul uo longer responds 
 to the appealing eyes of the sufferers. He looks upon the 
 ruin he has wrought, the home where Want's gaunt figure 
 stalks undisguised and thrusts his skeleton fingers at their 
 heart-strings. Yet he is not stirred. In response to 
 their shivering appeal he replies, ' I have other and 
 younger families ; you must shift for 3-ourselves ; ' and 
 he slammed the door and left them to their fate. 
 
 "Mrs. Pratt told me that many and many a night she 
 had gone out in* the pitiless winter storm and walked 
 around the building that sheltered Mr. Pratt and another 
 wife, and felt that with her icy fingers she could dig out 
 every brick in the walls. There she would have perished, 
 but that her little boys, who had learned to miss her, 
 would spring from their sleep to come out in the storm 
 and lead her home. 
 
 " Said one of these mothers to me : ' Do not talk to me 
 about this government ! The flag that floats over this 
 city mocks at woman's tears. It never saved my daugh- 
 ter from the tyrant's lust or the despot's fury. I have 
 often asked, Is there a God in heaven? and if so the 
 cries of the broken hearts in the secret graves of these 
 valleys must long ago have jostled his very throne. Yet 
 where is the angel of deliverance? ' " 1 
 
 It is related that this Mrs. Sarah M. Pratt, when 
 surrounded with the polygamy mania and the dangers 
 
 "■Mrs. Angie F. Newman before the United States senate committee on 
 territories. 
 
2i\2i The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 of the Reign of Terror in Utah, was accustomed to 
 gather her five little boys closery around her in the 
 center of the sitting-room and then talk to them in 
 whispers of her hatred of polygamy, lest even the 
 very walls of her own home should have spying ears 
 and she should be betrayed unto the priesthood. Her 
 boys all stood by her and are to-day non-Mormon citi- 
 zens of Utah. Mrs. Pratt was a woman of remarkable 
 strength of mind, and of such irreproachable character 
 that even the Mormons never succeeded in despoiling 
 it. She died in Salt Lake City, at an advanced age, 
 on Christmas morning, 1888. 
 
 Out of twenty leading Mormon women in Salt Lake 
 City, one was born in Maine, one in Vermont, three 
 in Massachusetts, two in Connecticut, six in New York, 
 one in West Virginia, one in Indiana, two in England, 
 and two in Salt Lake City ; that is, seven were born 
 in New England, and six in New York, and seven 
 elsewhere. 
 
 Would the readers like to see what women who are 
 polygamists have to say themselves in defence of the 
 plural wife system? They shall be gratified with the 
 following nauseating words from some of the leading 
 plural wives of Salt Lake City. 1 
 
 "Polygamy, at different periods, has been practiced 
 as a corrector of evils and a promoter of purity. . . . 
 It was revealed to the prophet Joseph Smith that there 
 were thousands of spirits, yet unborn, who were anx- 
 iously waiting for the privilege of coming down to take 
 tabernacles of flesh, that their glory might be complete. 
 This, Lucifer and his armies, who were cast out of 
 heaven down upon this planet, have been doing their 
 1 Why we Practice Plural Marriage, pp. 7, 10, and 31. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 213 
 
 utmost to prevent. Their greatest punishment is in not 
 having bodies, and their mission is to throw dust in the 
 eyes of the children of men, that they may not see 
 the truths of heaven. It is through Lucifer's wicked 
 schemes that so many thousands of tabernacles have 
 been and are being destroyed, and thereby those choice 
 spirits have been hindered from coming into this state of 
 existence, which event is of the greatest importance to 
 them. But the work of the Almighty is rushing towards 
 its completion, which makes this plural wife system an 
 actual necessity. It was our Father in heaven who 
 commanded that it should be established, and we have 
 nothing to fear for what we have done. It is a con- 
 troversy between G-od and Satan. The principle was 
 established by the prophet Joseph Smith, and all who 
 have entered into it in righteousness have done so for 
 the purpose of raising a righteous seed ; and the object 
 is that we may be restored back to that Eden from 
 whence we fell." 
 
 " If I had not known that my husband was actuated by 
 the purest of motives and by religious principle, I could 
 not have fortified myself against that ' demon, Jeal- 
 ousy.' I do not believe I could have submitted for a 
 moment. I was afraid of no man, but I feared to rebel 
 against the Almighty, though at times it was like the 
 tearing of my very heart-strings, and it took much 
 prayer and struggling to overcome. Yet through it all 
 I have stood as a pillar by the side of my husband, and 
 can say with truth that my soul has been purified and 
 my love has become more exalted. My willing and 
 undivided heart is laid upon the altar. ... I know by 
 my own experience and that of my sainted mother, 
 and also of other first wives, who have acted their part 
 
214 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 nobly, that they have not only retained the affection of 
 their husbands, but to see such a great sacrifice made 
 by the wife of his bosom has increased his love and 
 exalted her in his eyes. I have had this testimony from 
 different husbands and wives." 
 
 "My father had a number of wives. Some were old 
 ladies who chose to be sealed to him, but he never lived 
 with them only to support them. Different ones of his 
 wives lived with my mother at various times, and they 
 all loved her and she loved them. ... I assure you 
 there is as much delicacy, modesty, and refinement 
 among those who live in this plural order as can be 
 found anywhere, and I am acquainted with some model 
 families. One or two I will mention. A young man 
 took two sweet women as his wives, one some time 
 previous to the other. . . . The two women are nearly 
 always seen together. The children love and cling to 
 the first wife more, even, than to their own mother. 
 Another is a well-to-do man, a widower, who married a 
 3 T oung lady and soon after wedded another. Both were 
 young and pretty, and are good, industrious wives. 
 Each has a large family of children. The wives loved 
 each other from the first and have appeared like twin- 
 sisters, dressing alike when the} 7 went out together. 
 The} r live under one roof, though in different apartments, 
 and are well provided for. They are separated only by 
 a hall. If there has ever been any jealousy, I should 
 say it was on the husband's side, on account of their 
 mutual devotion. I could mention others, but these 
 will probably suffice. Polygamy is not the worst trial 
 in the world, for it has been made honorable among 
 our people, and it is not in the power of man nor of 
 Congress to make it otherwise." 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 215 
 
 " Mormon women are not so ignorant as some 
 suppose. We know the power we hold to declare 
 polygamy illegal. If there was any necessity, or if 
 we felt our chains to be galling, we could assuredly 
 avail ourselves of it and call upon the United States 
 army stationed here to protect us. . . . The means 
 gathered to assist in reforming the ' Mormons,' in free- 
 ing the ' poor down-trodden women from their polygamous 
 yoke,' is a most ridiculous farce. It will compare with 
 the collecting of money for the poor heathen, who would 
 have been better off a thousandfold had they never seen 
 a ' Christian.' " 
 
 It need only be said concerning the above that the 
 women who write such driveling nonsense are those who 
 are in polygamy themselves, and are enwrapped with it 
 through relationships. Their only chance to maintain 
 any respectability lies in the estimation in which polyg- 
 amy is held. They maintain a sort of respectability if 
 polygamy is held to be respectable ; if it be looked upon 
 as a wicked device of sensual men, then they go down to 
 a very low level. Since they have not the moral honesty 
 which would lead them frankly to denounce polygamy as 
 a shameful sin under all circumstances, their only effort 
 is to put on a bold face, claim that they are ivives, and 
 defend the iniquitous system, even if they must do so in 
 such a feeble manner as in the above. 
 
216 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 TO AND FRO IN THE EARTH. METHODS OF MORMON 
 
 MISSIONARIES. 
 
 THE right wing of the Mormon Church work is its 
 missionary army. The elders from Utah who are 
 abroad in all the earth calling themselves missionaries 
 are the forage corps that gathers in the victims upon 
 which the Utah monster feeds and fattens. They are the 
 " crank" hunters and the delusion scavengers. 
 
 "One elder testifies that in October, 1849, he was 
 drafted to go to Great Britain, having no intimation of 
 what was in store for him till a motion was carried to that 
 effect, but, notwithstanding, fitted himself out at the cost 
 of nearly all he had in the world, and within eight days 
 was off through the canons. 
 
 " Nor must it by any means be supposed that though 
 Mormon missionaries are commonly unlettered and are 
 selected so often in a way so full of haphazard, they pos- 
 sess no furnishing for their difficult task. On the con- 
 trary, though after the peculiar Mormon fashion, they 
 usually go forth fully armed and equipped. From child- 
 hood, and every Sunday, every boy is drilled in the 
 doctrines of the church and supplied with proof -texts by 
 the hundred." 
 
 " The falling away of those who have professed to be 
 converted to Mormonism would discourage any other 
 people. An elder of twenty-five years' standing affirms 
 that not one in twenty who starts holds out. Of the 
 eleven famous and original ' witnesses,' nine turned their 
 back upon the church, and that within ten years. Of the 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 217 
 
 first twelve ' apostles,' Joseph once exclaimed, ' All but 
 two have lifted up the heel against me ! ' and out of a 
 total of thirty-four twelve became apostate." ] 
 
 The number of these missionaries increases from year to 
 year. During the late years since the enforcement of the 
 United States laws against polygamy and unlawful cohab- 
 itation, the leaders have had so good a prospect of being 
 sent to the penitentiary that hundreds of them have fled 
 the country, or gone into hiding, or, by changing their 
 names, have scattered through the United States. Wher- 
 ever these fugitives from justice have gone, they have 
 become missionaries of their faith. As their crimes are 
 outlawed in three years (as the law now, 1890, stands), 
 they remain away during that length of time, and then 
 return to their harems, like the sow " to her wallowing in 
 the mire." During this exile in foreign lands, or in hid- 
 ing in our own country, they most industriously seek to 
 delude people into becoming Mormons. 
 
 One such was in Denmark in 1889, an old Dane from 
 Spanish Forks, Utah, who has ten or fifteen wives, and 
 to escape the penitentiary took his favorite wife and fled 
 to his native land. If it be possible, he and many others 
 like him will, in foreign lands, deceive " the very elect." 
 All such deserve the exposure and condemnation of every 
 good citizen, and the severest penalties of the laws of 
 any country to which they may flee. 
 
 The easiest victims to Mormonism are those who have a 
 deep religious nature and are inclined to be fanatical. 
 Add to these elements ignorance and the visions of plenty 
 which the New World holds out to the poor of other lands, 
 and we can partly understand why so many foreigners are 
 deluded into this maelstrom of fanaticism and sin. The 
 
 1 Rev. D. L. Leonard, in The Andover Review. 
 
218 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 universal inclination in the United States to " go West" 
 leads many in our own country to give attentive ears to 
 the seductive songs of these recruiting agents. Spirit- 
 ualists and " free-lovers" make fruitful soil in which to 
 sow the seeds of Mormonism. 
 
 These Mormon elders are adepts at deception and 
 falsifying, and they lead their dupes to believe that 
 Utah is a very paradise of God, a land of plenty, the 
 home of real saints and apostles, in whose mountains God 
 meets the Mormon prophet face to face. 
 
 The methods of the Mormon elders and missionaries 
 are most deceptive from first to last. They are the most 
 untruthful people in the world. They get their converts 
 by falsehoods, and by falsehoods and delusive hopes 
 allure them to Utah ; and then by renewed falsehoods, 
 the poverty and helplessness of their victims, by threats 
 and tyranny, they hold them until death. They go out 
 by twos, professedly " without purse or scrip," and beg 
 a night's lodging or a few days' board. In recent years 
 they are generally supplied with money and pay their way 
 or beg, at intervals, according as they judge to be best 
 for their cause. 
 
 When once thus inside a family, they cautiously begin 
 to preach their views, keeping back all their bad doctrines, 
 deceiving their intended victims with the " milk for 
 babes " of a good gospel. They say much about repent- 
 ance, faith, and baptism, as if these were their leading 
 doctrines, whereas they are only the net with which they 
 fish. They also represent that they have left family and 
 home and country for the sake of preaching this gospel ! 
 
 By degrees they ingratiate themselves into the esteem of 
 the family ; soon they begin to talk about the visions which 
 God is now again giving to men through the Mormons, or 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 219 
 
 Latter Day Saints ; and that he is again making so-called 
 il revelations" to men, and that any true Saint may have 
 the visits of angels. When they have thus made one or 
 two converts they begin to hold public meetings, gener- 
 ally, at first, in some out-of-the-way place and in a private 
 house. Their worst doctrines are broached only by de- 
 grees, as they find their converts deluded or " cranky" 
 enough to receive them. Thus they weave their webs 
 and enwrap their blinded followers. It is uncertain, 
 during this time, whether or not these Mormon elders 
 will restrain their animal passions and illicit loves. 
 
 It is said that there dwells in the sea a tiny living 
 thing whose stomach is stretched all over the outside of 
 its body, and that if any morsel of food touches this 
 stomach at any point, there opens immediately at that 
 place a mouth which takes it in. Upon a similar plan 
 the Mormon missionaries work. They adapt themselves 
 to those for whom they are angling, not according to the 
 apostle Paul's method, but by an utter disregard of the 
 truth. They will affirm or deny anything or everything 
 as touching their religion or their own belief or pur- 
 poses, with the most unblushing apparent innocence. 
 These are severe things to sa} 7 , but the truth of history 
 requires that they be said. Their sixty years of open 
 record in this matter brings confirming voices from ten 
 thousand places where this has been their practice. 
 Thus it has been, and still is, with these missionaries. 
 In 1888, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at the close of an 
 address against Mormonism, a Mormon missionary arose 
 and began to reply, saying, however, that he was " no 
 Mormon ; " and then denied that polygamy was then or 
 ever had been a doctrine of the Mormon Church. At 
 the same time, several persons were in the audience who 
 
220 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 testified at the close of the meeting that this man had 
 visited their homes and tried to persuade them to become 
 Mormons. 
 
 Mrs. Stenhouse says that no one who knows them 
 would think of believing anything which a Mormon mis- 
 sionary elder might say about his religion. 
 
 There is only one safe rule, and that is to consider 
 that everything which a Mormon elder says is false, 
 whether of affirmation or denial. It is either all false, 
 or is a mixture of lying and some truth. All foreigners 
 in Utah who have given up Mormonism testify 7 in every 
 case that they were deceived by the Mormon mission- 
 aries ; that they discovered when it was too late the 
 lying, deceptions, and frauds practiced upon them. 
 
 A Scandinavian lady missionary of high character, 
 laboring in Utah, sent to the author in 1888 the following 
 testimonies upon this point : ' ' We came here twelve 
 years ago. Deceiving missionaries had told us it was 
 such an earthly paradise. We did not find it as rep- 
 resented, either as to the country or the church. They 
 had kept back from us the worst doctrines, and we took 
 no comfort in Mormon meetings after we got here." 
 
 An aged Danish lady in Salt Lake City says: ki We 
 left Copenhagen in 1851 to come to Utah. Enticing 
 missionaries had pictured its glories to us. But we did 
 not find as it was told us. We knew nothing about 
 polygamy until we came here, and other bad beliefs were 
 revealed to us from time to time. Mormon church officers 
 stripped us of all our property and gave us nothing in 
 return. AVhen I had nothing to live on but what was 
 given me, the church officers insisted on my paying tith- 
 ing. Our want and woe have become beyond endurance." 
 
 A Norwegian family say : ' ' Soon after we got here 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 221 
 
 we learned to our sorrow that we had been enticed and 
 deceived, both about the church and the country. For 
 a long time we continued to attend Mormon services, for 
 our lives were in jeopardy if we dared assert our dis- 
 appointment. When we finally left the church, Brigham 
 Young and others came and demanded our property ; 
 letters were sent us threatening to hang us. We had to 
 defend our lives and property by armed resistance, and 
 had thus to keep on guard night and day for years." 
 
 Thus most foreigners of all nationalities, especially 
 the poor, the wives, and the unprotected young girls, 
 have been most bitterly disappointed upon their arrival 
 in Utah. It is often asked, " Why, then, do they not 
 turn back and come away?" " Poverty'''' is, in most 
 cases, the sufficient answer. Since the railroads have 
 gone into Utah and the United States officers are there 
 in force all the year round, it is much less difficult, but 
 even now the wretched poverty of those who have been 
 real victims of Mormon deceptions holds them there. 
 It is almost impossible for those who are not familiar 
 with the situation of the poor people in Utah and the 
 conditions which surround them to understand how diffi- 
 cult it is, for many reasons, for such to come away from 
 Utah. They are indeed very poor ; they generally have 
 large families ; they are strangers in a strange land ; are 
 densely ignorant about other parts of the United States, 
 and have been taught that the states are the modern 
 " Sodom and Gomorrah ; " are very far away from those 
 who would succor them ; are under a remorseless and 
 cruel hierarchy which forbids their leaving, and pun- 
 ishes weakness in the Mormon faith with social and 
 business ostracism, refusal of employment, destruction 
 of crops, and (in times recently past) by the burning of 
 
222 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 buildings and by secret assassinations. There are man} 7 
 thousands now in Utah and adjoining territories whose 
 life hopes have thus been crushed out, and who are mis- 
 guided, full of fear, smothered, and unheard. 
 
 The hymns of the Mormon Church give a clear insight 
 into some of the methods of their missionaries. The call 
 to the missionaries and to their flocks is sung thus : — 
 
 Come all ye sons of God, who have received the Priesthood, 
 Go spread the Gospel wide, and gather in His people ; 
 
 The latter-day Work has begun, to gather scattered Israel in, 
 And bring them back to Zion, to praise the Lamb. 
 
 Come all ye scattered sheep, and listen to your Shepherd ; 
 While you the blessings reap, which long have been pre- 
 dicted ; 
 By Prophets long it 's been foretold, He '11 gather you into 
 His fold ; 
 And bring you home to Zion to praise the Lamb. 
 
 The congregations cheer the departing elders by such 
 stanzas as these : — 
 
 O Lord, preserve Thy chosen seed, 
 
 They 've keenly felt the stroke 
 Of vile oppression's iron grasp, 
 
 And every Gentile yoke. 
 
 And bring Thy long-since scattered band 
 Unto their lands again. 
 
 Thy servants too, preserve from harm 
 As through the earth they roam. 
 
 Thrones shall totter, Babel fall, 
 Satan reign no more at all; 
 Saints shall gain the victory, 
 Truth prevail o'er land and sea, 
 Gentile tyrants sink to hell ; 
 Now 's the day of Israel ! 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 223 
 
 When the elders have reached their recruiting grounds 
 and made such progress that they venture to hold public 
 meetings, they then sing with great enthusiasm such 
 hymns as the following : — 
 
 Israel, Israel, God is calling ; 
 
 Calling thee from lands of woe; 
 Babylon the great is falling, 
 
 God shall her towers o'erthrow. 
 Come to Zion 
 
 E'er His floods of anger flow. 
 
 The dawning of that day has come, 
 See! Abra'm's sons are gath'ring home; 
 And daughters too, with joyful lays, 
 Are hast'ning here to join in praise. 
 
 Then hail to Deseret, 
 
 A refuge for the good, 
 And safety for the great, 
 If they but understood 
 That God with plagues will shake the world 
 Till all its thrones shall down be hurled. 
 
 Deseret. Deseret ! O, I love to be there, 
 With my brethren and sisters each blessing to share, 
 Nor regret I "ve forsaken the land of my birth, 
 To dwell on that sweet, favored spot of the earth, 
 Where Brigham and Heber and Daniel preside, 
 With all the full quorums of Priesthood beside; 
 Where the Law of the Lord is the standard of life 
 Apart from foul Babylon's darkness and strife. 
 
 With seductive winning they sing : — 
 
 There is a place in Utah that I remember well, 
 And there the Saints in peace, and joy, and plenty, ever 
 dwell ; 
 
224 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 My Mountain Home, thou *rt dear to me ! to thee I fondly 
 
 cling, 
 While here I roam, far from my home, my Mountain Home 
 I sing, 
 
 My Valley Home, My Mountain Home, 
 The dear and peaceful Valley ! 
 
 And again : — 
 
 Come, go with me beyond the sea, 
 
 Where happiness is true, 
 Where Joseph's land, blest by God's hand, 
 
 Inviting waits for you. 
 
 When the many sufferings during the long, long 
 journey to Utah cause the feet of many to be weary 
 and the courage of some to droop, the elders have 
 the whole company join in a hearty singing of the 
 following verses : — 
 
 Cheer, Saints, cheer ! We 're bound for peaceful Zion ! 
 
 Cheer, Saints, cheer, for that free and happy land ! 
 Cheer, Saints, cheer ! We '11 Israel's God rely on ; 
 
 We will be led by the power of his right hand. 
 
 Cheer, Saints, cheer ! etc. 
 
 Very few persons know how great are the numbers 
 who are converted to Mormonism in foreign lands and 
 brought to Utah. This will be illustrated by showing 
 the extent of their work in a single country — Scandi- 
 navia. The Mormons keep the most complete statistics 
 of all their missionary operations. The author procured 
 from them, not without difficulty, the official statistics 
 of their missionary work in Scandinavian countries for 
 thirty-two years, ending December 31, 1881. From this 
 book we extract the following table. The statistics of 
 each country are not given separately, but Sweden, 
 Denmark, and Norway are all classed together as the 
 " Scandinavian Mission." 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 225 
 
 Statistics of Mormon Missions in Scandinavian 
 Countries from the Year 1850 to 1881. 
 
 
 
 Elders from 
 
 
 
 Date when 
 
 Conference 
 
 Zion (i.e., 
 
 Total 
 
 Emigrated 
 
 begun. 
 
 Branches. 
 
 Missionaries 
 from Utah). 
 
 Converts. 
 
 to Utah. 
 
 1850 
 
 
 4 
 
 135 
 
 17 
 
 1851 
 
 12 
 
 3 
 
 475 
 
 
 1852 
 
 
 3 
 
 1,036 
 
 28 
 
 1853 
 
 48 
 
 5 
 
 2,063 
 
 195 
 
 1854 
 
 69 
 
 2 
 
 2,447 
 
 783 
 
 1855 
 
 79 
 
 2 
 
 2,692 
 
 311 
 
 1856 
 
 94 
 
 1 
 
 2,988 
 
 113 
 
 1857 
 
 142 
 
 3 
 
 3,353 
 
 603 
 
 1858 
 
 125 
 
 
 3,709 
 
 70 
 
 1859 
 
 145 
 
 2 
 
 3,934 
 
 263 
 
 1860 
 
 145 
 
 12 
 
 4,416 
 
 240 
 
 1861 
 
 . 166 
 
 14 
 
 5,585 
 
 455 
 
 1862 
 
 155 
 
 9 
 
 5,800 
 
 1,177 
 
 1863 
 
 132 
 
 10 
 
 5,644 
 
 1,061 
 
 1864 
 
 93 
 
 8 
 
 5,454 
 
 601 
 
 1865 
 
 84 
 
 23 
 
 5,388 
 
 454 
 
 1866 
 
 83 
 
 18 
 
 4,959 
 
 831 
 
 1867 
 
 78 
 
 19 
 
 4,941 
 
 248 
 
 1868 
 
 70 
 
 12 
 
 4,808 
 
 622 
 
 1869 
 
 70 
 
 16 
 
 4,652 
 
 463 
 
 1870 
 
 65 
 
 15 
 
 4,789 
 
 275 
 
 1871 
 
 63 
 
 13 
 
 4,907 
 
 467 
 
 1872 
 
 58 
 
 11 
 
 4,817 
 
 605 
 
 1873 
 
 56 
 
 22 
 
 4,649 
 
 793 
 
 1874 
 
 45 
 
 18 
 
 4,530 
 
 674 
 
 1875 
 
 47 
 
 23 
 
 4,468 
 
 583 
 
 1876 
 
 44 
 
 24 
 
 4,537 
 
 402 
 
 1877 
 
 45 
 
 30 
 
 4,762 
 
 584 
 
 1878 
 
 46 
 
 35 
 
 5,069 
 
 589 
 
 1879 
 
 44 
 
 47 
 
 5,207 
 
 368 
 
 1880 
 
 45 
 
 56 
 
 5,363 
 
 549 
 
 1881 
 
 46 
 
 61 
 
 5,247 
 
 656 
 
 
 
 
 
 15,080 
 
 Children under eight years are not included in the 
 number given as "emigrated" to Utah; adding these 
 the number rises to about twenty-one thousand who 
 emigrated in fifty-five different companies. 
 
 The total results of the thirty-two years of Mormon 
 missionary work in Scandinavia are summarized as 
 follows ; — 
 
226 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Emigrated to Utah 21,000 
 
 Number of missionaries who began in 1850 4 
 
 Largest number of missionaries in any one year (1881) 61 
 
 Largest number of converts in any one year (1862) 5,800 
 
 Number of converts the last year shown (18S1) 5,247 
 
 Average yearly converts for the whole thirty-two years 4,149 
 
 A Swede, now in Utah, who was for five years a Mor- 
 mon missionary in Sweden, told the author that on one 
 occasion in a retired country place in Sweden he began 
 baptizing Mormon converts at eleven o'clock p.m., and 
 continued until four o'clock a.m., and then fled the 
 country. 
 
 The rapid growth of Mormonism is not the least of the 
 marvels connected with its history. 
 
 Despite all the disgust and opposition which it has 
 everywhere awakened, Mormonism has steadily grown, 
 through sixty years of dishonor to our country, from its 
 first church organization of six members to a total 
 membership in the Rocky Mountains of about two 
 hundred thousand souls. To these must be added their 
 adherents in all the states, and in many countries in 
 various parts of the world, which are probably as many 
 more not yet ''gathered to Zion." 
 
 This iniquity has all tin's time grown proportionally 
 faster than the nation itself. At this rate, when shall the 
 end come ? 
 
 The Mormons control a territory almost as large as 
 the area of the states of New York and Pennsylvania 
 combined, and have a controlling influence in a tract of 
 territory as large as that of the New England and Middle 
 States. For sixty years they have sent out an average 
 of eighty missionaries per year, and for the last twenty 
 years have sent out from Utah an average of one hun- 
 dred and thirty each year ; while the number at work in 
 1890 is above two hundred. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 227 
 
 During these sixt} T years this delusion has been fed by 
 gathering converts from all nations. The Americans 
 would probably have long ago crushed out this monster 
 as they did in Ohio, Missouri, and Illinois, had it not 
 been for the recruiting streams which have constantly 
 poured in from other lands. 
 
 The Mormons, however, have not neglected to cultivate 
 the United States. Their elders are operating in every 
 state. Even in Massachusetts they have members suffi- 
 cient to hold annual conferences in out-of-the-way places ; 
 they are very industriously canvassing the Southern 
 States, especially the " poor white " communities; while 
 throughout the north-west they are ever on the alert. 
 In all the large cities their emissaries work continually, 
 and not less effectively, perhaps, because very quietly, 
 almost secretly. No community in any of the states 
 may expect to be long without the introduction of this 
 virus. They work " in the dark," or by pretending not 
 to be Mormons (which is a very common method among 
 them), until they dare to be more bold. If then the 
 community offers decided opposition, they suddenly dis- 
 appear to re-appear in a new place where the same 
 tactics are repeated. When the first community shall 
 have forgotten their former visit, these elders (or more 
 probably other elders) return to their Jesuitical attack. 
 Thus the Mormon elders appear, disappear, and re- 
 appear, here and there, ever and anon, in city and 
 country, in the states and in all the earth, going to and 
 fro, seeking whom they may devour. 
 
 The following paragraph appeared in the newspapers 
 in November, 1888, and similar paragraphs frequently 
 appear concerning the work of Mormon elders in various 
 parts of the country : — 
 
228 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 " Mormon apostles are quite successful in obtaining 
 recruits at the South. A party of fifty left Birmingham, 
 Alabama, on Wednesday for Salt Lake City. Of the 
 fifty, eighteen were girls between twelve and twenty 
 years of age, sixteen were women between twent} T and 
 forty, and the others were men and boys. They were 
 of the poorest class of country people, and only niue of 
 the entire party are able to read and write." 
 
 About two thousand converts yearly come across the 
 seas and gather to Utah. 
 
 The extent of their missionary operations is amazing. 
 Five elders were originally chosen to "roll forth the 
 kingdom" across the sea. " At the end of July, landing 
 in Liverpool without a farthing, they pushed back at 
 once to Preston, England, and within thirty days from 
 New York had baptized nine, and by the end of the 
 year had made a thousand, converts. Two years after, 
 when just driven from Missouri, the Twelve were sent to 
 enlarge the hopeful work. Herefordshire was the scene 
 of their toils and their triumphs. One of their number 
 baptized eighteen hundred in eight months, including 
 two hundred preachers, two hundred in thirty days, and 
 six hundred in a single pool. B} T 1851, the British 
 mission contained nearly thirty-three thousand church 
 members, while probably half as many more had found 
 their way to Utah. 
 
 " As soon as the church was fixed in Utah the work of 
 evangelization began to be pushed with vigor. Already 
 in 1840 the East Indies and Australia had been reached. 
 In 1843 four missionaries had been sent to the Society 
 Islands. In 1849 Mormon doctrines were carried to 
 France; in 1850 to Denmark, Sweden, Italy, Switzer- 
 land, and the Sandwich Islands ; in 1851 to Norway, 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 229 
 
 Iceland, and Chili ; in 1852 to the Cape of Good Hope, 
 the Crimea, Burma, and Hindustan ; in 1853 to Prussia, 
 the West Indies, and China ; in 1854 to Turkey and 
 Siam ; in 1855 to Brazil ; in 1861 to the Netherlands ; 
 in 1864 to Austria, and in 1877 to Mexico. In 1855 
 the church called 170 elders, making in all 331 Mormon 
 missionaries then in the field. The next year 250 were 
 appointed, and 216 in 1880, 189 in 1881, and in 1882 a 
 round 200. Probably not less than 250,000 have been 
 baptized in Europe, one half of them in the British 
 Isles, and Scandinavian countries alone have furnished 
 some 50,000."! 
 
 What do those men deserve who go into all the earth 
 persuading people to become Mormons? There are no 
 laws in the United States by which they can be reached. 
 If the righteous indignation of Christian people could 
 fairly express itself against them, its explosive force 
 would hurl them so far as to pass (if it might be 
 possible) beyond the reach of the law of gravitation, 
 there to sink into eternal darkness, and never return 
 to curse again with their presence any planet in the 
 universe ! 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE BIBLE AND POLYGAMY. 
 
 THE Mormons would trail even the stars of the 
 heavens- in the mire under their feet to give an 
 appearance of sanctity to their practices. They claim 
 that nearly all the leading characters in the Bible were 
 1 Rev. D. L. Leonard, in The Andover Review. 
 
2o0 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 polygamists. When they say that Christ was a polyga- 
 mist, they reach an extreme in blasphemy from which the 
 Christian world starts back in righteous indignation. 
 
 George Q. Cannon, the polygamist who disgraced the 
 United States for so many years as the delegate from 
 Utah in Congress, said in a sermon in Salt Lake City : — 
 
 "The Bible sustains this doctrine from beginning to 
 end. . . . There is nothing with which the Latter Day 
 Saints can, with more confidence, refer to the Scriptures 
 for confirmation and support, than the doctrine of plural 
 marriage." 
 
 Nevertheless, the Mormons do not claim that they get 
 their authority for practicing polygamy from the Bible. 
 
 In the same sermon, Mr. Cannon further says : — 
 
 ' ' While there is abundant proof to be found in the 
 Scriptures in support of this doctrine, still it is not be- 
 cause it was practiced four thousand years ago by the 
 servants and people of God that the Latter Day Saints 
 have adopted it and made it a part of their practice, but 
 it is because God, our heavenly Father, has revealed it to 
 us. If there were no record of its practice to be found, 
 and if the Bible, Book of Mormon, Book of Doctrines and 
 Covenants, were totally silent in respect to this doctrine, 
 it would, nevertheless, be binding upon us as a people, 
 God himself having given a revelation for us to practice 
 it at the present time." 
 
 Orson Pratt, the chief expounder of Mormonism, says : 
 " The Latter Day Saints in this territory practice polyg- 
 amy, not because the law of Moses commands it ; not 
 because it was extensively practiced by the best of men 
 we know of mentioned in the Bible, the old patriarchs, 
 Abraham, Jacob, and others, who are saved in the king- 
 dom of God. We have no right to practice it because 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 231 
 
 the} 7 did, but because it is enjoined upon us by divine 
 command." 
 
 Indeed, the Mormons themselves originally condemned 
 polygamy. The Book of Mormon says : — 
 
 " Behold, David and Solomon truly had many wives 
 and concubines, which thing ivas abominable before me, 
 saith the Lord. . . . Wherefore, I, the Lord, will not 
 suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old . . . 
 for there shall not any man among you have save it be one 
 wife; and concubines he shall have none." 
 
 The Mormon Book of Doctrines and Covenants, in a 
 revelation claimed to have been given to Joseph Smith in 
 1831, says: — 
 
 " Thou shalt love thy wife with all thy heart, and shalt 
 cleave unto her, and unto none else." 
 
 How this same false Joseph Smith should, in 1843, 
 claim to have received another "revelation" from the 
 same Lord, commanding the practice of polygamy, is 
 explained as follows by the Mormons : — 
 
 " The first command was given in 1831, when the one- 
 wife system alone prevailed among this people. In the 
 forepart of the year 1832, Joseph told individuals then in 
 the church that he had inquired of the Lord concerning 
 the principle of the plurality of wives, and he received 
 for answer that the principle of taking more wives than 
 one was a true principle, but the time had not yet come 
 for it to be practiced. That was before the church was 
 two years old." l 
 
 The Mormons therefore waive all right to base their 
 polygamous practices upon the Bible, or upon the custom 
 among any other people, and rest their case solely upon 
 the so-called "revelation" of Joseph Smith in 1843. 
 
 !The Bible and Polygamy, p. 81. 
 
232 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 That ' ; revelation," as has clearly been shown in the fore- 
 going pages, was born out of the lust of Joseph Smith 
 and out of the resistance of his wife to his lewd practices. 
 Downward, then, to this low depth of filth have the 
 Mormons gone for their excuse ! 
 
 However, so long as they drag the Bible into their 
 muddy stream, their pretexts must be recorded. Many of 
 their arguments are simply untruthful and unsupported 
 assertions, having not even a foundation in fact. When 
 any of these false statements are exposed, they imme- 
 diately coin others as startling. To undertake to chase 
 them through this labyrinth would be folly. We will, 
 therefore, notice only their leading arguments which have 
 some show of basis in the Bible. 
 
 They say that the children of plural wives mentioned 
 in the Jewish history were to have the same blessings as 
 the children of first wives. This claim is based upon 
 Deuteronomy 21 : 15-17, and that is simply a provision 
 to protect the oldest son in his inheritance, whether he 
 be the son of the first wife or of the second. It gives 
 no endorsement of polygamy. But the Bible gives some 
 conspicuous instances where the children of the first wife 
 are specially blessed of the Lord, while the children of 
 other wives and concubines are not thus favored. Take 
 the case of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar, as given in 
 the seventeenth and twenty -first chapters of Genesis. 
 When Sarah came to hate Hagar and her son Ishmael, 
 she besought Abraham that he would " cast out this 
 bondwoman and her son ; " and God approved of Sarah's 
 request by saying to Abraham, u In all that Sarah hath 
 said unto thee, hearken unto her voice." Then Abraham 
 cast forth his polygamous family. When God foretold 
 to Abraham that Ishmael would become a great nation, 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 233 
 
 he also specially selected Isaac, the son by the first wife, 
 to receive the blessing, and said : " But my covenant will 
 I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bare unto thee," 
 etc. Futhermore, God, in speaking of Isaac, seems to 
 ignore the polygamous offspring, Ishmael, and repeatedly 
 refers to Isaac as the only son — "thy son, thine only 
 son" (Genesis 22 : 2, 12, 16). 
 
 The Mormons make a further use of Deuteronomy 
 21: 15-17, which says: — 
 
 " If a man have two wives, one beloved, and another 
 hated, and they have born him children," etc. 
 
 Concerning this verse the Mormons argue : — 
 
 " We have a right to believe from this law that plural- 
 ity of wives is just as legal and proper as that of the 
 marriage of a single wife. . . . They are acknowledged 
 as wives in this passage at least — ' If a man have two 
 wives.' " * 
 
 That this argument has no force whatever will appear 
 from the following verses, where it is manifestly improper 
 to argue thus : — 
 
 " If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son," etc. 
 (Deuteronomy 21 : 18). 
 
 " If a man be found stealing any of his brethren," etc. 
 (Deuteronomy 24 : 7). 
 
 " If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep," etc. (Exodus 
 22: 1). 
 
 " And if a man have committed a sin worthy of death," 
 etc. (Deuteronomy 21: 22). 
 
 If, because it is said, " If a man have two wives," 
 etc., therefore the Bible sanctions polygamy, then, by 
 the same reasoning, we must say that in the passages 
 quoted above the Bible sanctions having stubborn sons, 
 
 1 Orson Pratt, in The Bible and Polygamy, p. 10. 
 
234 TJie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 stealing brethren and oxen and sheep, and committing 
 sins worthy of death — which is an absurdity. 
 
 The Mormons argue that God specially blessed the 
 children of Jacob by Rachel, who was a second polyg- 
 amous wife. It should be noted that Rachel was Jacob's 
 first love and his only love : ' ' And Jacob served seven 
 years for Rachel ; and they seemed unto him but a few 
 days, for the love he had to her." Then Laban practiced 
 a fraud upon Jacob, and it was not until the next morn- 
 ing after the wedding that Jacob found that Leah, whom 
 he did not love, and whom he had not intended to marry, 
 had been wedded to him. Considering the different ideas 
 prevalent in those days about such matters from what 
 would now be considered right, and especially consider- 
 ing the power of the father over his children at that 
 time, amounting almost to full ownership as property, 
 Jacob did what was, by the ideas of that age (and also 
 of the present day in some eastern countries), the best 
 thing he could do under the hard circumstances in which 
 he was placed. His polygamy was forced upon him b} T a 
 fraud. By the ideas of those times he was an example 
 of righteousness in working seven more years to secure 
 Rachel. So far from approving of his polygamy, the 
 Lord seems rather, from his blessings upon the children 
 of Rachel, to show his sympathy with Jacob and 
 Rachel and his approval of marriage for true love. 
 
 It may also be said that Jacob is nowhere spoken of as 
 a saintly man until after his wrestliug and conversion at 
 the brook Jabbok ; and that Laban's fraud upon him was 
 very similar to his own fraud upon Esau. 
 
 The Mormons also claim that Moses was a polygamist 
 in that he took an Ethiopian woman while he already had 
 Jethro's daughter for his first wife. This may be igno- 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 235 
 
 ranee on the part of the Mormons in not knowing that 
 Zipporah and the Ethiopian woman are one and the same 
 person. Even if they were not identical, there is then 
 no proof that Zipporah was not dead before he took the 
 Ethiopian woman. " Midian " and " Ethiopia" are iden- 
 tical terms, meaning the country where Jethro lived ; and 
 the "priest of Midian" was Jethro himself; and Moses 
 was not a polygamist. 1 
 
 The Mormons attempt to draw an argument from the 
 following verses : — 
 
 " If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and 
 have no child, the wife of the dead shall not marry with- 
 out unto a stranger : her husband's brother shall go in 
 unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the 
 duty of an husband's brother unto her. 
 
 "And it shall be, that the firstborn which she beareth 
 shall succeed in the name of his brother which is dead, 
 that his name be not put out of Israel " (Deuteronomy 
 25: 5, 6). 
 
 The Mormons here argue that sometimes the surviving 
 brother would be already a married man with a living 
 wife, and that, nevertheless, this would be a law unto 
 him, and he is thus commanded to become a polygamist. 
 The Utah polygamists claim that this is an argument of 
 conclusive force. 
 
 On the contrary, they can not prove that this law 
 applied to married men, and the presumption is that it 
 did not. The object of the law was the preservation of 
 the family line and the family inheritances. Not an 
 instance can be found in the Bible where a married man 
 was compelled to obey this law. In the case of Tamar, 
 the brother who was to have married her had to wait 
 
 1 Bishop John P. Newman, in The Bible and Polygamy, p. 60. 
 
236 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 until he grew up. In the case of Ruth, Boaz would not 
 marry her until her nearer kinsman had refused, and 
 Josephus says that the reason that this nearer kinsman did 
 not marry Ruth was because he was already a married 
 man ; and there is no proof that Boaz had been married. 1 
 
 Exodus 21 : 7-10 is claimed to support polygamy, but 
 entirely without reason ; for it simply provides for the 
 protection of a betrothed maiden in case the man to 
 whom she is engaged does not fulfill his agreement, but 
 marries another woman. 
 
 Numbers 31 : 13-18 is also quoted for the purpose of 
 arguing that the female prisoners of war were to become 
 polygamous wives. This inference is purely a gratuitous 
 assumption, without any proof. The Jews then num- 
 bered about two and one-half millions of people, and 
 these captives in war were to be made domestic slaves, 
 according to the custom of the time. 
 
 The Mormons argue that Exodus 22 : 16, 17 and Deu- 
 teronomy 22 : 28, 29 are applicable to married men, but 
 there is no proof whatever that such is the case, and 
 no instance can be cited in support of that interpreta- 
 tion. In order that they may make the New Testament 
 seem to support their abominations, the Mormons quote 
 in published sermons the following verse in the way here 
 given : — 
 
 " I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify unto you 
 these things in the churches. I am the root and 
 offspring of [the polygamist] David, the bright and the 
 morning star." 
 
 They also quote God's promise to Abraham (Genesis 
 17:5) to make him "a father of many nations," and 
 Mark 10 : 29,30, and deliberately argue that these and 
 
 1 Bishop John P. Newman, in The Bible and Polygamy, p. 43. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 237 
 
 similar promises can not be fulfilled except through the 
 practice of polygamy. This is a fair specimen of their 
 lack of candor in argument. They do not seem to think 
 that all sensible people will call to mind that the human 
 race began with oue husband and one wife in Eden, and 
 that the monogamic nations of the earth have multiplied 
 through all history, and are multiplying to-day " so many 
 as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand 
 which is by the sea shore innumerable." 
 
 The Mormons make much of Isaiah 4:1: " And in 
 that day seven women shall take hold of one man, say- 
 ing, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own 
 apparel : only let us be called by thy name, to take away 
 our reproach." This passage does not give a shadow of 
 sanction to polygamy. A time of grievous calamity is 
 predicted, wherein the loss of men in war should pro- 
 duce so great a preponderance of females that instances 
 would occur where some women would lose their native 
 modesty, and one man might have seven suitors for his 
 hand. A mere prediction carries with it no sanction of 
 the act predicted ; no more than does Christ's foretelling 
 that Judas would betray him imply an approval of that 
 treachery. 
 
 It is said in 1 Timothy 3 : 2 : "A bishop then must be 
 blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of 
 good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach." The 
 Mormons say that this means that a bishop must be " the 
 husband of one wife " — "at least one wife, if not more." 
 Such manifest subterfuges in argument and interpretation 
 are scarcely worthy of notice, except as they belong to 
 the history of the very weak literature on this subject. 
 
 The Mormons have two general arguments from the 
 Bible which, they urge, give sanction to polygamy, 
 
238 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 namely : — 1. That Abraham, Jacob, Gideon, David, 
 Solomon, and other characters recorded in the Bible 
 were polygamists. 
 
 2. That God does not reproach Abraham, Jacob, etc., 
 on account of their polygamy. 
 
 These two arguments they amplify and reiterate almost 
 without limit. The} 7 say that because Isaiah, Jeremiah, 
 Ezekiel, Christ, and the apostles do not definitely mention 
 and denounce polygamy by name, therefore they all sanc- 
 tion it. They repeat to weariness this further illogical 
 argument that because some leading Bible characters 
 were polygamists, therefore polygamy is a divine institu- 
 tion and has the sanction of the Bible. 
 
 In reply to these statements several things are to be 
 said : — 
 
 1. Because the Bible, in giving the history of certain 
 men, records that they had plural wives, it does not, 
 therefore, follow that God sanctions the plural-wife sys- 
 tem. That reasoning would make God to approve of all 
 the wicked deeds recorded in the Bible which were not 
 specifically denounced ; and all historians to be approvers 
 of all the deeds which they merely record. Because the 
 inspired historians record that Jacob deceived Isaac, that 
 Gideon was at one time guilty of idolatry, and that Peter 
 denied his Lord, and do not also at the same time declare 
 the wickedness of such sins, therefore (according to the 
 reasoning of the Mormons) God approves of deceit, idol- 
 atry, and falsehood. 
 
 On the other hand, such records show the imperfections 
 of the men named, and the severe fidelity of the inspired 
 writers that they would thus record the evil as well as the 
 good deeds of their characters, and so leave a true and 
 an impartial history ; but they give no approval of the 
 Utah evil. 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 239 
 
 2. God works through men. Man is an imperfect 
 being. God, therefore, to accomplish his purposes 
 among men, works through the agency of imperfect 
 men. Among all the race, where has there been one 
 perfect man, save Jesus of Nazareth, through whom 
 God could work? In both biblical and profane history 
 are recorded many great and good deeds of men who 
 were, in some respects or at some period in their lives, 
 not only imperfect, but even very wicked. 
 
 Although such men as Gideon and David, in the hands 
 of providence, wrought great deeds in behalf of God's 
 kingdom in the earth, yet they were also stained with 
 sins. But since the inspired record nowhere gives any 
 approval of their wickedness, it can not be properly 
 argued that God favors such evil-doing. 
 
 3. Polygamy existed among the nations with whom the 
 Old Testament deals. Not at once could such a deeply 
 rooted custom, with its many complications, be destroyed. 
 Under the Mosaic law Christ says that God permitted 
 divorces under certain circumstances on account of " the 
 hardness of their hearts." So in the Old Testament times 
 God tolerated those who had a plurality of wives, but he 
 never sanctioned the system. He restrained and discour- 
 aged it, knowing that his primal law of marriage would 
 eventually lead his followers to cast it off utterly. And 
 so they did. Wherever on the earth the Bible has been 
 believed and its precepts followed, from the time of Christ 
 downward, there polygamy has been spurned and out- 
 lawed. The children of Israel had been four hundred 
 years in the debasing degradation of Egyptian slavery, 
 and yet during all their journey forth from Egypt to 
 Canaan their detailed history reveals but two cases of 
 polygamy. There may have been other cases, but the 
 
240 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 practice could not have been common without its coming 
 to the light much more often than appears in the Bible 
 narrative. And through all the centuries embraced in 
 the Old Testament record but twenty-five or thirty 
 instances of the existence of this practice are given. 
 In the New Testament polygamy never appears among 
 the disciples of Christ ; and to this day all Christian 
 people of every race or nation regard it as an intolerable 
 abomination. The Mormons are no exception to this 
 statement, for they are not Christian people. They scorn 
 and slander Christianity. Their claim to believe the Bible 
 is a mere pretext, and is one of the chief among their 
 innumerable false professions. The Bible has no real 
 believers or friends among the Mormons. 
 
 4. Throughout the Bible the only law and teaching 
 respecting marriage is that it shall be between one 
 man and one woman, and they shall be one husband 
 and one wife — "one flesh." The marriage in Eden is 
 the pure model for the race. The primal marriage law 
 for all ages and races was there given: "Therefore 
 
 SHALL A MAN LEAVE HIS FATHER AND HIS MOTHER, AND 
 SHALL CLEAVE UNTO HIS WIFE : AND THEY SHALL BE ONE 
 
 flesh " (Genesis 2 : 24) . 
 
 Had the plural-wife system been instituted by God, 
 would he not have created and given to Adam more than 
 one wife? Would not the law then have been that "a 
 man shall cleave unto his wives" ? So again God took 
 into the ark four men and their four wives, according to 
 the model in Eden. 
 
 Christ re-affirmed the law given in Eden with emphasis : 
 " Have ye not read, that he which made them at the 
 beginning made them male and female, and said, For 
 this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 241 
 
 cleave to his wife : and they twain shall be one flesh ? 
 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What 
 therefore God hath joined together, let not man put 
 asunder" (Matthew 19: 4-6). 
 
 Can a polygamist cleave to his first wife ? Can they 
 twain be one flesh? Furthermore, every husband who 
 takes a plural wife thereby " puts asunder " all the true 
 ''husband and wife" relations which before existed 
 between him and his first and only real wife. 
 
 Paul repeats this law with the utmost distinctness : 
 " Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman 
 have her own husband " (1 Corinthians 7:2). 
 
 Thus there was given in the morning of the race this 
 beautiful law of marriage — one husband to one wife; 
 proclaimed anew by Christ at the opening of the new 
 dispensation, and reinforced by the apostle Paul when 
 the gospel began to be preached to the Gentile world. 
 Furthermore, there is not one word in the Bible counter- 
 manding this law or giving any approval of the plural- 
 wife system. 
 
 It is not to be overlooked that the instances of 
 polygamy recorded in the Bible begin in wickedness, 
 and while they continue sin abounds. 
 
 Sarah was sad, unreconciled, and angry because God 
 had not bestowed upon her the blessing of children, 
 which was among her people the chief crown of woman- 
 hood. In her rebellious impatience she gave her maid 
 Hagar to her husband to be his wife, saying, "It may 
 be that I may obtain children by her" (Genesis 16 : 2). 
 Sarah seemed to have the idea that she herself was to 
 have in some sort the honor of being the mother to 
 Hagar's children. Through his wife's sin Abraham also 
 was led into sin. Next the maid despised her mistress, 
 
242 Tlie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 and a bitter jealous} 7 and hatred sprang up between these 
 two wives, as naturally as the same thing occurs in Utah 
 in these later times. Sarah abused Hagar. The jealousy 
 between the mothers descended to the children, and 
 Hagar's son " mocked" when a feast was made in honor 
 of the weaning of the baby Isaac ; and then Sarah, 
 apparently with the divine approval, drove Hagar and 
 her son out of the family, and God gave his peculiar 
 blessings to the son of the first wife. The whole case 
 as recorded is the history of one sin after another until 
 the unnatural wife is evicted. It reads like a chapter of 
 to-day from thousands of wretched families in Utah. 
 
 Let it be noted also that the birth of Isaac showed that 
 Sarah's sin in giving her husband a plural wife was 
 unnecessary even in order that she should have offspring. 
 Had she waited in patience the Lord's time when she 
 could present her own son Isaac to Abraham, how much 
 sin and misery would have been avoided ! 
 
 Just the same sins are again repeated in the case of 
 Jacob and his wives as have been repeated times innum- 
 erable wherever polygamy has been tolerated. Jacob was 
 led into polygamy by the fraud of Laban ; the fierce jeal- 
 ousy of Rachel toward Leah led her to commit the sin of 
 giving her maid to her husband. Then the anger of Leah 
 is so aroused against Rachel that she retaliates by giving 
 her maid to Jacob. Thus, at every step, there was sin, 
 jealousy, and hate ; and the sins of both Rachel and 
 Leah in giving their maids to Jacob proved to be even 
 without the poor excuse of spiting the other wife, since 
 they both themselves afterwards bore children. 
 
 Polygamy is a sin, and all its wages ; ; death ! How 
 rapidly in Bible history polygamy brought ruin to kings !. 
 Saul had two wives ; David, ten wives ; Solomon, one 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 243 
 
 thousand; and then came depraved character, idolatry, 
 and the kingdom in ruins ! 
 
 These are some of the polygamists of Bible history : 
 Lamech, the murderer ; Jacob, the deceiver and the de- 
 ceived ; David, a seducer and murderer; Solomon, the 
 idolater. " Now let me call the roll of honor. There 
 were Adam, Enoch, Noah, Isaac, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, 
 and Joseph, and Samuel, and all the prophets, and all the 
 apostles." l 
 
 Outside of the Bible, there are in nature several argu- 
 ments against polygamy which plainly stamp it as an 
 unnatural abomination and contrary to the will of God. 
 Some of these are : — 
 
 1. In the beginning God created man, "male and 
 female," — one man and one woman, — an equal number 
 of each, and substantially equal in numbers they have con- 
 tinued unto this day. If God had designed to give the 
 plural-wife system his approval, or if he had seen that 
 under the monogamic system mankind could not multiply 
 rapidly enough to fulfill his purposes and promises, he 
 certainly would have begun the race with more females 
 than males. If some men have plural wives, there must 
 then be an equal number who can have not even one wife. 
 The Mormons attempt to escape this dilemma by saying 
 that God does not sanction the marriage of wicked men, 
 and that such persons should never marry, while righteous 
 men should have plural wives. The effrontery of this 
 implication that the crime-stained polygamists of Utah 
 are better men than their fellows is only equaled by their 
 collateral statements that women in Christian lands are 
 far more debased than they are in polygamous nations. 
 
 If some men may have many wives, and, therefore, many 
 
 1 Bishop John P. Newman, in The Bible and Polygamy. 
 
244 Tim Mormon Delusion. 
 
 others can have none, then what becomes of that other 
 Mormon argument for polygamy that it is 4i a corrector 
 of evils and a promoter of purity " ? 
 
 Concerning the relative numbers of males and females 
 in the United States the Mormons have made the boldest 
 misrepresentations. Orson Pratt, in a discourse in the 
 Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, said : " Many will 
 tell us that the number of males and the number of 
 females born are just about equal. Supposing one should 
 admit, for the sake of argument, that the sexes are born 
 in equal numbers, does that prove that the same equality 
 exists when they come to a marriageable age? By no 
 means. If you go to the published statistics you will 
 find, almost without exception, that in every state a 
 greater number of males die the first year of their exist- 
 ence than females. The same holds good from one year 
 to five y ears, and from five years to ten, from ten to 
 fifteen, and from fifteen to twenty. This shows that the 
 number of females is greatly in excess of the males when 
 they reach a marriageable age. . . . We might go on 
 from state to state, and then to the census taken by the 
 United States, and a vast surplus would be shown of 
 females over males of a marriageable age." l 
 
 The facts, however, are directly contrary to the above 
 statements. Examinations of the United States census 
 reports for 1860, 1870, and 1880, show that there were at 
 each of those dates more males than females in the 
 United States ; and also that of those aged twenty to 
 twenty-nine inclusive, there were more males than fe- 
 males, as follows : — 
 
 In 1860 there were 729,085 more males than females ; 
 and of those aged twenty to twenty-nine years inclusive, 
 
 1 The Bible and Polygamy, p. 84. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 24 
 
 there were 96,738 more males than females. By the 
 United States census of 1870, after all the terrible losses 
 of men during the war, the males were still in excess of 
 the females by 428,759. Even in Utah herself the males 
 were then in excess of the females by 1,456. By the 
 census of 1880, the males exceeded the females by 881,- 
 857 ; and then again in Utah there were 5,115 more males 
 than females. Of those who were twenty to twenty-nine 
 years inclusive, there were 160,456 more males than fe- 
 males ; and if we omit the colored people, there were then 
 170,569 more white males of that age than white females ; 
 and if we omit both the colored and the foreign-born, we 
 still have (aged twenty to twenty-nine inclusive), of 
 native whites, 91,676 more males than females. Even in 
 Utah the males aged twenty to twenty-nine inclusive are 
 in excess of the females by 1,156. In newer countries 
 such as the United States there would naturally be a 
 greater preponderance of males. 
 
 From every point of view it remains true that in the 
 beginning God made them male and female, in equal 
 numbers, and that the race continues to be born in 
 about the same proportion — an incontrovertible argu- 
 ment against the plural-wife system. 
 
 2. The other argument from nature is the natural 
 hatred of woma7i's heart against polygamy. This hatred 
 is as natural to every woman as her breath ; it never 
 slumbers while life lasts ; and it is the most intense 
 hatred of which the human heart is capable. Even those 
 women whose better natures have been crushed by sin, 
 or those who have grown up in polygamous surround- 
 ings, — most of even these poor creatures hate polyg- 
 amy. The thought or suggestion that her husband will 
 take another wife fills everv true woman's heart, even 
 
246 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 though she be deluded by Mormouism, and has brought 
 herself to think that she believes polygamy to be right, 
 with the keenest agony and the most unrelenting hate. 
 Even the woman who is a third or a fifth wife is broken- 
 hearted with grief and filled with sleepless hate if her 
 husband shall take another wife. This opposition, which 
 fires and sways the soul of every woman against this un- 
 natural, cruel, and base iniquity, can not be harmonized 
 with the doctrine that polygamy is ordained of God. 
 God's best earthly gifts to man and to woman — Love, 
 Marriage, the Family, and the Home — he has not embit- 
 tered with undying pain, jealousy, and hate. Only sin 
 introduces these. 
 
 3. The history of the race shows that God's primeval 
 plan, in the morning of time, best fosters the virtue, 
 happiness, and prosperity of mankind, namely, The 
 Family and The Home : one husband and one wife, 
 and their children around one hearthstone. That is the 
 natural nest of the human race. Therein grow love and 
 blessing for all. Polygamy enters this Eden and blights 
 it. In polygamy there can be no perfect Family, no real 
 Home. The condemnation of God, of the Bible, and of 
 nature rests upon it. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE BOOK OP MORMON, OR "THE GOLDEN BIBLE." 
 
 MORMONISM IN RHYME AND CATECHISM. 
 
 THE Mormons hold the Bible, the Book of Mormon, 
 Doctrines and Covenants, and the so-called " rev- 
 elations " given from time to time, to be of equal author- 
 ity, except that, where they differ, the latest "revelation" 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 247 
 
 is held to be the binding one. While they generally pro- 
 fess to believe the Bible, yet their leaders say and pub- 
 lish many things tending to undermine faith in the Bible. 
 The book called Doctrines and Covenants, above referred 
 to, contains some lectures on Faith, by Joseph Smith, 
 and all his published " revelations; " an account of his 
 death ; and one k ' revelation" by Brigham Young, direct- 
 ing- the manner in which the Mormons should make their 
 first journey across the plains in 1847. 
 
 The Book of Mormon is the so-called translation by 
 Joseph Smith of his alleged golden plates. It claims to 
 be the history of three colonies from the Old World who 
 came to the Western Continent in pre-historic times and 
 dwelt here for twenty-five hundred years. It also claims 
 to give the so-called " fullness of the Gospel of Christ," 
 by which it seems to mean a more full account of the 
 plan of salvation than is to be found in the Bible. It 
 imitates the Bible in many ways, one being that it is 
 divided into books. 
 
 It narrates that twenty to thirty persons left Asia just 
 after the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel, 
 sailed to North America, spread over the whole land, 
 divided, and quarreled. Then they fought, each with an 
 army numbering two millions, until all were exter- 
 minated except one. A second colony of two families 
 left Jerusalem six hundred years before Christ, and 
 landed in South America, while a third colony, also 
 from Jerusalem, settled in Central America. These two 
 colonies soon populated the Entire Western World, and 
 often engaged in desolating wars, especially in 384 a.d. 
 One tribe had a prophet named Mormon, who gathered 
 up their records and engraved them upon the so-called 
 golden plates, and his son hid them in the hill Cumorah, 
 
248 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 near Palmyra, New York, where, after fourteen hundred 
 years, their existence and location were revealed to 
 Joseph Smith, who translated them into the Book of 
 Mormon. The reader will remember the " peep-stone" 
 and "old hat" scene during the alleged translation, as 
 previously narrated. 
 
 Some brief extracts from the Book of Mormon will 
 sufficiently reveal its character, as follows (the italics 
 are ours) : — 
 
 ' ' Wherefore these plates are for the more part of the 
 ministry ; and the other plates are for the more part of 
 the reign of the kings, and the wars," etc. " For a 
 more history part are written upon mine other plates." 
 "And then the more part of the year did pass away." 
 "And yet did they deny the more parts of his gospel." 
 
 The expressions "and it came to pass" and "the 
 more part" occur seventy-nine times in the first ten 
 pages, and in another part of the book " it came to 
 pass " is repeated thirty-nine times in five pages. Mark 
 Twain says that this expression occurs so many times 
 that if it were taken out of the book there would be 
 nothing left to "come to pass." 
 
 The ludicrous attempts to imitate the style of the 
 Bible are illustrated in the following use of the word 
 "thereof" : — 
 
 "And great and terrible was the battle thereof; yea, 
 great and terrible was the slaughter thereof." 
 
 "And he fastened it upon the end of a pole thereof." 
 
 Its illiterate bungling wrll appear from the following : 
 
 "And seeing also the enormity of their number . . . 
 notwithstanding the enormity of our numbers . . . these 
 our dearly beloved brethren, who have so dearly beloved 
 us . . . among those who they so dearly beloved, and 
 among those who had .so dearly beloved them." 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 249 
 
 " Yea, if my clays could have been in them clays." 
 
 " But, behold, I am consigned that these are my days." 
 "And they having been waxed strong in battle." "We 
 did arrive to the promised land." " Even until they had 
 arriven to the land of Middoni." " And were compelled 
 to hoist the title of liberty upon their towers, and in their 
 cities." " He being stabbed by his brother by a garb of 
 secrecy.''' "He went forth among the people, leaving the 
 rent of his garments in the air, that all might see the 
 writing which he had wrote upon the rent.'''' 
 
 In one part of the book a single scene is described 
 which briugs into view Jesus, Samson, Peter's prison, 
 and the Philippian jail, all these combined, and occurring 
 eighty years before Christ was born. 
 
 Mr. Lamb points out another monstrous blunder, as 
 follows : — 
 
 " That is, in fifty-five years, these priests of Noah, with 
 twenty-four wives, have increased to tens and hundreds of 
 thousands ! The most rapid possible increase would not 
 have given them more than two hundred to three hundred 
 grown men able to take up arms." 1 
 
 Leading and most shameful features of the Book of 
 Mormon are its treatment of Christ : its irreverence, its 
 falsehoods about him, and its cunning efforts to under- 
 mine the Gospel records. It represents Christ as coming 
 to America hundreds of years before he came into the 
 world by Gospel accounts, and doing and saying here the 
 same things which he afterwards did among the scenes 
 which shine upon us from Palestine. His miracles are 
 anticipated, imitated, and exaggerated, and his very 
 words repeated, and then dated centuries before he came 
 to the earth, if we believe the beautiful records in the 
 iThe Golden Bible, by Rev. J. A. Lamb, p. 113. 
 
250 
 
 Tlie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Gospels. How such a stupid and shocking fraud could 
 deceive thousands who claim to be followers of Jesus is 
 one of the many seemingly incredible things about the 
 whole history of this sad imposture. 
 
 The following extracts from the words of Christ are 
 here placed alongside of Joseph Smith's pretended trans- 
 lation from the golden plates after they had been " hid 
 up," as he said, hundreds of years before our King 
 James Version of the New Testament was in existence : 
 
 From the New Testament. 
 
 " I . . . know my sheep, and am 
 known of mine." '-There shall be 
 one fold, and one shepherd." " He 
 . . . shall go in and out, and find 
 pasture." John 10: 14, 16, 9. 
 
 " I lay it down of myself." " And 
 I, if I be lifted up from the earth, 
 will draw all men unto me." John 
 10 : 18 and 12 : 32. 
 
 " But lie that shall endure unto 
 the end, the same shall be saved." 
 Matthew 24: 13. 
 
 " Strait is the gate, and narrow is 
 the way, w r hich leadeth unto life." 
 Matthew 7 : 14. 
 
 " Men ought always to pray, and 
 not to faint." Luke 18: 1. 
 
 " Nevertheless not my will, but 
 thine, be done." Luke 22: 42. 
 
 " Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
 inherit the kingdom prepared for 
 you from the foundation of the 
 world." Matthew 25 : 34. 
 
 From the Book of Mormon. 
 
 " And he numbereth his sheep, 
 and they know him, and there shall 
 be one fold; and he shall feed his 
 sheep, and in him shall they find 
 pasture." 
 
 " He layeth down his own life, 
 that he may draw all men unto 
 him." 
 
 " He that endureth to the end, the 
 same shall be saved." 
 
 " And there are ye in this straight 
 and narrow path which leads to 
 eternal life; yea, ye have entered 
 in by the gate." 
 
 " Ye must pray always, and not 
 faint." 
 
 " Nevertheless not my will be 
 done." 
 
 " Come unto me, ye blessed, there 
 is a place prepared for you in the 
 mansions of my Father." 
 
 One writer in the Book of Mormon, who claims to be 
 writing at a date long before Christ came into the world, 
 actually quotes from the Gospels of Matthew and John, 
 and begins by saying " we read," thus : — 
 
 " But we read that in that great and last day, there are 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 251 
 
 some who shall be cast out ; yea, who shall be cast off 
 from the presence of the Lord ; yea, who shall be con- 
 signed to a state of endless misery, fulfilling the words 
 which say they that have done good shall have everlasting 
 life, and they that have done evil shall have everlasting 
 damnation. And thus it is, Amen." 
 
 Mr. Lamb well says : — 
 
 " There are sentences by the thousand, and whole 
 chapters, whose very presence in the Book of Mormon, 
 in the form in which they are found, settles the question 
 of the modern origin of the book beyond the possibility 
 of dispute. They are every one of them, with scarcely 
 an exception, made verbatim from our King James 
 Version." 1 
 
 That the Mormons have no real regard for the Bible is 
 well known to all who have had experience with them 
 sufficient to see through their shallow pretences ; but the 
 following quotation from the Book of Mormon fastens 
 this charge beyond dispute : — 
 
 "And my words shall hiss forth unto the ends of the 
 earth, for a standard unto my people, which are of the 
 house of Israel. And because my words shall hiss forth, 
 many of the Gentiles shall say, a bible, a bible, we have 
 got a bible, and there can not be any more bible. .But 
 thus saith the Lord God : O fools, they shall have a 
 bible ; and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine 
 ancient covenant people. And what thank they the 
 Jews for the Bible which they receive from them ? . . . 
 Thou fool, that shall say a bible, we have got a bible, 
 and we need no more bible." 
 
 "Wherefore, because that ye have a bible, ye need not 
 suppose that it contains all my words ; neither ye suppose 
 that I lrave not caused more to be written." 
 *The Golden Bible, p. 239. 
 
252 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Among the so-called " revelations" of Joseph Smith to 
 be found in the Mormon book, Doctrines and Covenants, 
 is the following so-called " prophecy," which is claimed 
 to have been given in 1832 : — 
 
 " 1. Verily, thus saith the Lord, concerning the wars 
 that will shortly come to pass, beginning at the rebellion 
 of South Carolina, which will eventually terminate in the 
 death and misery of many souls. 
 
 "2. The days will come that war will be poured out 
 upon all nations, beginning at that place. 
 
 " 3. For, behold, the Southern States will be divided 
 against the Northern States, and the Southern States will 
 call on even the nation of Great Britain, as it is called." 
 
 This has been proclaimed throughout all the world by 
 the Mormons as a remarkable prophecy and which has 
 been " completely fulfilled." Let us examine it more 
 closely. Doctrines and Covenants, section 87, gives the 
 prophecy in full, and says: '-Given by Joseph Smith, 
 the Seer, December 25, 1832." The facts are that on 
 November 19, 1832, South Carolina adopted the famous 
 ''nullification ordinance," which declared that the tariff 
 laws of the United States were not binding upon her 
 citizens, and prohibited the payment of such duties, and 
 also declared that, if the general government should seek 
 to enforce the tariff law, the people of South Carolina 
 would "hold themselves free from all further obligation 
 to maintain or preserve their political connection with the 
 people of the other states." President Andrew Jackson 
 at once ordered General Scott to take possession of the 
 forts of Charleston. There was then great excitement, 
 and during November and December of that year scores 
 of Whig newspapers and thousands of citizens in the 
 North were predicting war with South Carolina, in which 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 253 
 
 all the Southern States would finally unite against the 
 North. The nullificationists were claiming, further, that, 
 in case of war on the tariff issue, free-trade England 
 would be called upon by the South for aid. General 
 Jackson said, after the flurry was over: "This time it 
 is the tariff ; next time it will be the slavery question." 
 
 There were at that time hundreds of just such pre- 
 dictions made, but others did not have the mendacity 
 to claim that they were " revelations from the Lord." 
 
 But there are several things in Joseph's rash 
 " prophecy " that did not come to pass as predicted. 
 In the second paragraph above it is stated that " war 
 will be poured out upon all nations, beginning at that 
 place" (that is, South Carolina). But it signally failed 
 to come true either in 1832 or during our late war of 
 the Rebellion that war was poured " out upon all 
 nations." As for its beginning in South Carolina, 
 everybody expected if there should be war in 1832 that 
 it must begin there, as it was that state that was in 
 rebellion ; and it required no prophet to predict that, if 
 war should break out concerning slavery , it would begin 
 in South Carolina. 
 
 Further on in this same prophecy, paragraph 6 says : 
 
 "6. And thus with the sword, and by bloodshed, the 
 inhabitants of the earth shall mourn ; and with famine and 
 plague and earthquakes, and the thunder of heaven, and 
 the fierce and vivid lightning also shall the inhabitants 
 of the earth be made to feel the wrath and indignation 
 and chastening hand of Almighty God, until the con- 
 summation decreed hath made a full end of all nations." 
 
 But neither accompanying the speck of war in 1832, 
 nor in the late Rebellion, was there either famine, or 
 plagues, or earthquakes; neither did "the inhabitants 
 
254 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 of the earth mourn"; neither was there made "a full 
 end of all nations " ! Several nations in the world have 
 been quite lively since this prophecy made " a full end " 
 of them many years ago. 
 
 But the seventh paragraph of this ' k prophecy," so 
 called, brings out the animus of the whole, thus : — 
 
 " 7. That the cry of the Saints and the blood of the 
 Saints shall cease to come up into the ears of the Lord 
 of Sabaoth, from the earth, to be avenged of their 
 enemies." 
 
 All this terrible devastation of " all the nations" was 
 to take place merely to avenge the Mormons of their 
 Gentile enemies ! The simple facts are that all the parts 
 of this pretended prophecy that were fulfilled had either 
 already occurred when it was written or were matters of 
 general expectation ; and the parts which were real 
 predictions originating with Joseph Smith have, every 
 one of them, conspicuously failed to come to pass as 
 predicted. 
 
 Some years after the Mormons settled in Utah they 
 printed a catechism for children, but it was so absurd 
 and obscene that it was found to react against them and 
 was withdrawn from sale and destroyed, and this was 
 so thoroughly done that no copy can now be found by 
 Gentiles. A new catechism has since been in use among 
 them, from which the following extracts are taken : — 
 
 Q. Has God given many revelations to men? 
 
 A. Yes, a great many. 
 
 Q. Where have we an account of his doing so? 
 
 A. In the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Book of Doctrines 
 and Covenants, and other publications of the Church of Jesus 
 Christ of Latter Day Saints. 
 
 Q. Is any account given, in any other publication of the 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 255 
 
 Latter Day Saints, of God revealing Himself to any other 
 person in our day? 
 
 A. Yes. The Lord revealed Himself and His Son Jesus 
 Christ to Joseph Smith. 
 
 Q. Can you mention any other revelation given in our day? 
 
 A. Yes. The revelation of John the Baptist to Joseph 
 Smith and Oliver Cowdery. 
 
 Q. Are these all the revelations given in our day, and 
 recorded in the publications of the Latter Day Saints? 
 
 A. No. Numerous revelations have been given in these 
 days, many of which are published in the Book of Doctrines 
 and Covenants : in one it is said that God opened the heavens 
 to Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon. 
 
 Q. Are there more Gods than one ? 
 
 A. Yes, many. 
 
 Q. How, then, can God be like man? 
 
 A. Man has a spirit, though clothed with a body, and God 
 is similarly constituted. 
 
 Q. Has God a body, then? 
 
 A. Yes, like unto a man's body in figure. 
 
 Q. How can God be the Father of all men. when every man 
 has a natural father upon the earth ? 
 
 A. God is the Father of the spirits of all men. 
 
 Q. Did the spirits of all men exist, then, before they took 
 bodies upon the earth? 
 
 A. Yes, they existed in the spirit world. 
 
 Q. For what purpose are the spirits of men sent to take 
 bodies upon the earth? 
 
 A. That they may be educated, developed, and perfected, 
 that they may enjoy a fullness of knowledge, power, and 
 glory forever, and thus increase the dominion and glory of 
 God. 
 
 Q. How many states of existence do intelligent beings, who 
 become Gods, experience? 
 
 A. Three grand states. 
 
 Q. What is the first state of existence ? 
 
 A. Intelligences are begotten spirits — sons and daughters 
 to God, in the spirit world, the spirits being in form of man's 
 natural body. 
 
256 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Q. What is the second state of existence? 
 
 A. The spirits are sent to dwell upon some world, and take 
 upon themselves mortal bodies, etc. 
 
 Q. What is the third state of existence? 
 
 A. After having laid down their mortal bodies, through 
 corruption and death, the spirits receive bodies not subject to 
 death, etc. 
 
 Q. Have spirits, when in the spirit world, any understand- 
 ing of the experience through which they must pass before 
 their arrival at perfection ? 
 
 A. Yes ; they have a general idea of it. 
 
 Q. Did the spirits who were to take bodies on this earth 
 rejoice or grieve at the prospect before them? 
 
 A. They rejoiced, and sang songs together, and shouted 
 aloud for joy. 
 
 Q. When the spirits pertaining to this earth were begotten, 
 what event took place ? 
 
 A. A grand council, or series of councils, was held in 
 heaven, when it was determined that this earth should be 
 organized as a dwelling-place for the spirits while they took 
 upon themselves bodies, etc. 
 
 Q. Is it proper for us to consider the transgression of 
 Adam and Eve as a grievous calamity, etc. ? 
 
 A. No. But we ought to consider the Fall of our first 
 parents as one of the great steps to eternal exaltation and 
 happiness, etc. 
 
 Q. But as baptism is an outward ordinance, can not men be 
 saved without it if they believe and repent ? 
 
 A. No person who has arrived at years of accountability, 
 and has heard the Gospel, can be saved without baptism. 
 
 Q. Where will the New Jerusalem be commenced? 
 
 A. In Jackson County, Missouri, where a temple, the site 
 of which was dedicated in 1831, will be eventually built. 
 
 Q. Why will so many temples be erected? 
 
 A. Because in them the Saints will be baptized for those 
 persons who have died without a knowledge of the Gospel, 
 and will attend to all the ordinances of salvation and exalta- 
 tion for themselves and their dead friends. 
 
Tlie Mormon Delusion. 257 
 
 Some of the doctrines of the Mormons are brought out 
 very clearly in their hymns. A favorite hymn with them 
 is that which teaches their doctrine of the preexistence of 
 souls. Some of the verses are as follows : — • 
 
 O my Father, thou that dwellest 
 
 In the high and glorious place ! 
 When shall I regain Thy presence, 
 
 And again behold Thy face '? 
 In Thy holy habitation, 
 
 Did my spirit once reside ? 
 In my first primeval childhood, 
 
 Was I nurtured near Thy side? 
 
 For a wise and glorious purpose 
 
 Thou hast placed me here on earth, 
 And withheld the recollection 
 
 Of my former friends and birth : 
 Yet ofttimes a secret something 
 
 Whispered, You 're a stranger here; 
 And I felt that I had wandered 
 
 From a more exalted sphere. 
 
 Their hymn-book teaches baptism for the dead in the 
 following verses : — 
 
 Among the things which have been sealed, 
 
 And from the earth kept hid, 
 The Lord has to His Saints revealed, 
 
 As anciently He did. 
 
 And through the Priesthood, now restored, 
 
 Has e'en prepared the way 
 Through which the dead may hear his word 
 
 And all its truths obey. 
 
 As Christ to spirits went to preach 
 
 Who were in prison laid, 
 So many Saints have gone to teach 
 
 The Gospel to the dead. 
 
258 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 And we for them can be baptized, 
 
 Yes, for our friends most dear, 
 That they can with the just be raised, 
 
 When Gabriel's trump they hear. 
 
 Healing the sick by the laying on of hands by the 
 elders is a Mormon doctrine, and it is enforced by the 
 leaders among the poorer classes with shocking cruelty. 
 Physicians are denied, and much needless suffering en- 
 sues. This doctrine they versify thus : — 
 
 The sick, on whom the oil is poured 
 
 And hands in meekness laid, 
 Are by the power of God restored, 
 
 Through faith, as Jesus said. 
 
 Heber C. Kimball said in a sermon in the tabernacle 
 in Salt Lake City : " Brigham Young is my God, and he 
 is your God, and the only God you will ever see if you 
 do not obey him. Joseph Smith was God to the inhab- 
 itants of the earth when he was among us, and Brigham 
 is God now." l 
 
 " The Mormon theory of the Godhead is that God the 
 Father has a body like our own ; that he is a polygamist, 
 having a great number of wives ; that Mary, the mother 
 of Jesus, was one of these, and that he sent her to earth 
 and loaned her to Joseph for a time and for a purpose ; 
 which purpose being fulfilled, he took her back to him- 
 self, and that she is now one of his wives again in the 
 spirit world." 2 
 
 The Mormon doctrinal expounder, Orson Pratt, said : — 
 
 "The Virgin Mary must have been for the time being 
 the lawful wife of God the Father. We use the term 
 lawful wife, because it would be blasphemous in the high- 
 
 1 Rocky Mountain Saints, p. 294. 2 The Mormon Problem, p. 130. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 259 
 
 est degree to say that he overshadowed her, or begat a 
 child of her unlawfully. ... It was also lawful in him, 
 after having thus dealt with Mary, to give her to Joseph, 
 her espoused husband. Whether God the Father gave 
 Mary to Joseph for time only, or for time and eternity, 
 we are not informed. Inasmuch as God was the first 
 husband to her, it may be that he only gave her to be the 
 wife of Joseph while in this mortal state, and that he 
 intended after the resurrection to again take her as one 
 of his own wives to raise up immortal spirits in eternity." 
 Even into the disgusting subject of polygamy Mormon 
 rhymsters have dipped their filthy pens, thus : — 
 
 Through him who holds the sealing power, 
 
 Ye faithful ones, who heed 
 Celestial laws, take many wives, 
 
 And rear a righteous seed. 
 
 Though fools revile, I '11 honor you, 
 
 As Abraham, my friend; 
 You shall be Gods, and shalt be blest 
 
 With lives that never end. 
 
 The time the prophet saw is on the wing, 
 When seven women to one man shall cling. 
 Not for the lack of clothing or of bread, 
 But for a husband — a man — a head ! 
 
 If you perchance among the worthies stand, 
 And seven women claim your saving hand, 
 Do not reject the six and save the one, 
 And boast of magnanimity when done. 
 
 Then, O, let us say, 
 
 God bless the wife that strives 
 And aids her husband all she can 
 
 To obtain a dozen wives. 
 
260 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 The extent to which the doctrine of polygamy is 
 carried will be understood by the following exposition 
 of it by Orson Pratt to the Saints. In a sermon, speak- 
 ing of the prospects of a Mormon who should appear at 
 the judgment with but one wife, Mr. Pratt said : — 
 
 "If during the life of that man he had gone out into 
 all the earth and approached every woman he could 
 possibly find and solicited her hand in plural marriage, 
 and all had refused ; if then he had taken his wife with 
 him, and she had joined her labors with his and they had 
 both done their very utmost to persuade some woman to 
 come to the rescue, and all had refused, then that couple 
 might be saved, ' so as by fire.' " 
 
 A leading doctrine of the Mormons is that concerning 
 tithes. It is the foundation of their very successful 
 financial system, and a great source of power to the 
 church and of enrichment to its leaders. In the hands 
 of the priesthood it is an instrument of oppression. 
 
 Ten per cent, of all gross income or time, wages, 
 products, grain, live-stock, butter and eggs, fruit, day- 
 labor in shop, or field, or hovel, or attic, etc., is required 
 to be paid to the church each year, until its income has 
 risen to over $500,000 annually ; and then the poverty- 
 stricken, as well as wealthy, are vigorously exhorted to 
 give extra to build temples, and to carry on the lobby at 
 Washington, and to pay the attorneys of the church, and 
 to muzzle and bribe newspapers whose columns are for 
 sale. The officers of the church use up forty-Jive per 
 cent, of this vast annual income in collecting and dis- 
 bursing it, so that only a little over half of it is available 
 for church purposes. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 261 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 MORMON MENDACITY. UTAH MORALS OF TO-DAY. 
 
 A FACT to be kept constantly in mind in all matters 
 about Utah is that the Mormons are utterly un- 
 truthful when the interests of Mormonism are involved. 
 The country and Congress may as well recognize this fact 
 and, after sixty years of experience of it, act accordingly. 
 What is the evidence ? Here are a few points : — 
 
 Readers of the foregoing pages will recall the fact 
 that although Joseph Smith wrote and secretly circu- 
 lated his so-called " revelation" commanding his follow- 
 ers to practice polygamy, yet he and his brother Hyrum, 
 seven months afterwards, published a card denying that 
 polygamy was a doctrine or practice among the Mormons ; 
 that sixteen leading Mormon women, already in polyg- 
 amy, published a similar denial ; that two Mormon 
 missionaries in France publicly denied that any such 
 doctrine or practice existed among them, while both 
 these meu then had polygamous wives in Utah ; that 
 Mrs. Stenhouse says that every one who knows them 
 would not think of believing anything a Mormon elder 
 might say ; that they have always denied the well-known 
 existence among them of a " Danite Band;" and that 
 Brigham Young and his aiders during many years 
 falsified about the action of the United States govern- 
 ment in relation to the enlistment of Mormon troops 
 for the Mexican War. It will also be recalled that their 
 whole missionary system is carried on by deceptions 
 and the most unblushing falsehoods. 
 
 Further facts are these : Lying is publicly taught by 
 
262 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Mormon leaders. Orson Hyde, a high officer of the 
 church, said in a sermon: '* Suppose the officers of the 
 law had a warrant to arrest Brigham Young or some of 
 the authorities, and they came to your house for safety. 
 If you knew where they were, would it not be better to 
 tell lies and put the officers off their guard, than to tell 
 the truth and have the brethren arrested ? " 
 
 In 1874 George Q. Cannon said in his report to 
 Congress, on his contested election : " I deny that I am 
 living and cohabiting with any wives in violation of the 
 law of Congress of 1862 to prohibit polygamy." It was 
 notorious at that time in Utah that Mr. Cannon then had 
 four wives with whom he cohabited. Later, when this 
 same Cannon was indicted for polygamy by the court in 
 Utah, he fled ; and when caught by the officers, repeat- 
 edly denied that his name was Cannon, and is reported 
 to have offered one thousand dollars as a bribe to an 
 officer to let him go. 
 
 Brigham Young swore before the United States court 
 in Salt Lake City that he had but one wife. The Mor- 
 mons explain that he meant that according to civil law 
 he had but one wife. His previous claim to having 
 many wives, his perjury in court, and the explanation of 
 his friends, all illustrate the utter untruthfulness of the 
 whole brood in all matters pertaining to the interests of 
 their church. 
 
 The rules of the Mormon Church say, respecting mar- 
 riage ceremonies : — 
 
 " The usual form of ceremony is performed between 
 the husband and the bride. The scribe then enters on 
 the general record the date and place of marriage, 
 together with names of witnesses. 
 
 " Section 4. And be it further ordained that said 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 263 
 
 church shall keep in every organized branch or stake a 
 registry of marriages, free for inspection of all mem- 
 bers." 
 
 Orson Pratt also published that all Mormon marriages 
 were carefully recorded. Afterwards this same Pratt 
 and Daniel H. Wells and John Taylor, the late president, 
 all testified under oath before the United States court 
 that they did not know that any such records were kept. 
 This was done to prevent the court from getting posses- 
 sion of the records of polygamous marriages. As if 
 the Mormon Church had kept no marriage records for 
 sixty years ! and as if President Taylor could not have 
 laid his hand upon them at any time ! 
 
 "One of the evils of Mormonism is untruthfulness 
 and, when necessary, false swearing. At the last session 
 of the Third District Court in Salt Lake City, I heard 
 more perjury to shield polygamists, in one day, than I 
 ever heard during all the time I lived in Michigan." 1 
 
 " If the witness is placed on the stand and questioned 
 as to facts of recent occurrence, his mind is a blank. 
 Mothers have frequently testified that they did not know 
 their daughters were married, and when asked if the fact 
 of the daughter having children did not at least excite 
 some interest as to the fact of marriage, the answer 
 would be, ' It was none of my business,' or, ' My 
 daughter is old enough to take care of herself.' Mem- 
 bers of the priesthood have denied facts while on the 
 stand which were notoriously known to be true." 2 
 
 "The marriage ceremony is performed in secret, and 
 the most terrible oaths are taken never to reveal what 
 transpires. To these oaths are attached the most hor- 
 
 1 H'on. P. T. Van Zile, ex -United States Attorney for Utah. 
 
 2 Report of A. L. Thomas, Governor of Utah, 1889. 
 
264 The Mormon Deo usion. 
 
 rible penalties, some of which are that the participants 
 will have their tongues torn out by the roots, their throats 
 cut from ear to ear, their bodies sawn asunder, their 
 knee-joints broken, and the like, should they ever reveal 
 what they see or hear in the Endowment House. Think 
 of putting a witness on the stand to testify, who feels 
 himself bound by these oaths ! And these penalties are 
 not meaningless, as many a poor victim would testify if 
 his voice could be heard. I mention these facts that you 
 may understand some of the difficulties we have to meet 
 when we undertake to enforce a law of Congress forbid- 
 ding polygamy in the territories." 1 
 
 By the Edmunds-Tucker law of 1887, citizens of Utah 
 were required, before registering as voters, to take an 
 oath not only that they were not polygamists, but also 
 that they would obey the laws of Congress respecting 
 polygamy, and would not aid or counsel others to commit 
 this crime. Before the day for registration, the Mormon 
 party issued a circular to their people in which they 
 said : — 
 
 " As to male voters of the People's party (Mormons), 
 there is no provision in the law which need necessarily 
 reduce their numbers. . . . The questions that intending 
 voters need therefore ask themselves are these : ' Are we 
 guilty of the crimes in said act?' or, 'Have we the 
 present intention of committing, or aiding any person to 
 commit, them ? ' Male persons who can answer these 
 questions in the negative can qualify under existing 
 laws as voters and office-holders." 
 
 Thus the requirement of the law of a promise to obey 
 was turned into a mere worthless negative — "I have no 
 present intention " to disobey. B3 7 this device the leaders 
 
 1 Hon. P. T. Van Zile, ex-United States Attorney for Utah. 
 
TJw Mormon Delusion. 265 
 
 taught their foolish followers to disobey the laws, deceive, 
 and commit perjury. 
 
 The Mormons have become very numerous in Idaho 
 Territory. Out of a total population (in 1890) of 125,000, 
 about 18,000 are Mormons ; aud of these about 5,000 
 are polvgamists. 
 
 Idaho laws make it unlawful for a Mormon to vote, on 
 the ground that all Mormons give higher allegiance to 
 their priesthood than to the state. A Mormon has to 
 take an oath, in order to register, that he does not belong 
 to any organization which teaches violation of the laws, 
 or which violates the laws, or any of them, as a religious 
 duty. First the Mormons undertook to register, after 
 swearing falsely that they belonged to no such organ- 
 ization. The judge stopped this by committing them 
 to prison for perjury. They next sought to evade the 
 law by pretending to secede from the church just before 
 the election. 
 
 On January 21, 1889, Mr. B. W. Brown, a Mormon, 
 was before the court in Provo, Utah, and was under 
 examination touching his qualifications as a juror, when 
 he testified he did not believe it right for a man to have 
 living and undivorced more than one wife, and stated 
 that he did not believe polygamy or unlawful cohabitation 
 right, whether there was a law against it or not. He was 
 afterwards taken to task by the Mormons for denying his 
 belief that polygamy was right, and he explained to them 
 that he had said to the court that he did not believe polyg- 
 amy was right, and that he was justified in so testifying 
 because he knew it was right. He was then arrested 
 for perjury, and upon his trial two Mormons testified that 
 they had asked Brown why he had denied that he believed 
 in polygamy. He replied on both occasions that he had 
 
266 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 so told the court because it was past belief with him, 
 for he knew polygamy was right. He was convicted for 
 this perjury and seut to the penitentiary. 
 
 One of the saddest results of the mendacity which the 
 Mormons are taught to practice in the interests of their 
 system is the readiness with which husbands will falsify 
 to their own wives. These pages have shown that in 
 polygamous matters the word of the husband to the wife 
 is utterly worthless. It will readily be seen how entirely 
 this would break down all confidence or confidential 
 relations between husband and wife. 
 
 " The Mormons are double-faced. They never make a 
 statement regarding their church or political affairs that 
 has not a double meaning, one for Mormons, one for out- 
 siders. In their fight against the laws of the country 
 the} 7 have reduced perjury to an exact science and taught 
 it to their children with infinitely more perseverance than 
 they have the multiplication table." l 
 
 The eloquent ex-United States Attorney, W. H. Dick- 
 son, of Salt Lake City, whom the Mormons attempted 
 to assassinate, says: "There is being reared up here 
 a community of perjurers. That is a strong term to 
 use, but I use it advisedly ; I say just what I mean. 
 It is almost a daily occurrence, when the courts are in 
 session, to witness the truth of this statement." He 
 then goes on to say that he has seen a woman under 
 oath admit that her daughter was married and lived in 
 her household, and had borne children, but that she did 
 not know who her daughter's husband was ; and another 
 woman testified that, although she had been married over 
 two years, she did not know whether she had ever been 
 a wife to her husband. Quite recently a polygamous 
 
 iThe Salt Lake Tribune. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 267 
 
 wife, belonging to one of the prominent families in Salt 
 Lake City, in order to sbield her husband from the charge 
 of polygamy, testified, under oath, that she had lived 
 with her husband but had never been married to him ; 
 and thus, by her husband's command, perjured and 
 debased, she went to California, and soon died, broken- 
 hearted. He then adds: "The crime of polygamy is 
 the prolific mother of crime, and those in authority in 
 the church encourage this hypocrisy and wicked perjury." 
 
 Dr. W. Wyl, who came from Germany and made a 
 most thorough investigation of Mormon history, was so 
 impressed with the veins of falsity which have ever been 
 the life-blood of Mormonism that he writes : — 
 
 "If Mormon history in general, as represented by 
 Mormon sermons, books, and newspapers, has been one 
 continual chain of misrepresentation from 1830 to this 
 day, the history of polygamy has been a solid little group 
 of lies apart, like a cluster of islands in an ocean of 
 falsehood." 1 
 
 Surely Brigham Young was correct when he publicly 
 declared in a sermon in the tabernacle in Salt Lake 
 City: — 
 
 " I have many a time in this stand dared the world to 
 produce as mean devils as we can ; we can beat them at 
 anything. We have the greatest and smoothest liars 
 in the world, the cunningest and most adroit thieves, and 
 any other shade of character you can mention. We can 
 pick out elders in Israel right here who can beat the world 
 at gambling, who can handle the cards, cut and shuffle 
 them with the smoothest rogue on the face of God's foot- 
 stool. I can produce elders here who can shave their 
 smartest shavers and take their money from them. We 
 can beat the world at any game." 
 
 1 Mormon Portraits, p. 86. 
 
268 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 That the reader may have a fair illustration of the 
 frightful perjury daily committed by the Mormons in 
 the United States courts in Salt Lake City, and see 
 something of the difficulties which surround the convic- 
 tion of Mormon violators of the law from the reluctance 
 with which Mormons yield up their testimony, and the 
 general unreliability of Mormon evidence, we copy below 
 from the reports in the daily papers the proceedings in 
 one case in December, 1888 : l 
 
 John Groves appeared before Commissioner Norrell yester- 
 day afternoon for examination on the charge of unlawful 
 cohabitation. The complaint charged the defendant with 
 having lived and cohabited with Mrs. Groves and Miss 
 Stuart between November 27, 1885, and November 27, 1888. 
 To this Groves entered a plea of not guilty, and stated that 
 he would waive examination. Mr. Clark, who conducted the 
 prosecution, insisted upon going on with it, as he thought 
 that something of a more serious nature than the ott'ence 
 charged might be developed. 
 
 Mary Ann Williams, the alleged plural wife, was called, and 
 testified : I am twenty-six years old and reside on the bench in 
 this city. My maiden name was Stuart; was married to Noah 
 Williams some five years ago and have three children by him, 
 but we have not lived together for some time ; we have not 
 been divorced; my youngest child is about nine months old; 
 I support myself by doing such work as I can get, such as 
 sewing, and have received assistance from the church ; don't 
 know whether Mr. Groves ever gave me anything or not ; don't 
 know how long I have been acquainted with him or where he 
 lives. 
 
 Mr. Clark : Mrs. Williams, who is the father of your young- 
 est child? 
 
 The witness hesitated for some time, and Mr. Clark repeated 
 the question, but received no reply. He finally appealed to 
 the Court, who instructed the witness that she must answer. 
 
 1 From The Salt Lake Daily Tribune. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 269 
 
 Witness : Well. I can not tell. 
 
 Mr. Clark : You can't say who is its father? 
 
 Witness : No, not for certain. I am sealed to Mr. Groves, 
 but not married to him. I don't know whether he is the father 
 of the child or not. 
 
 Mr. Clark : Do you profess to be a respectable woman, Mrs. 
 Williams? 
 
 Witness : I do. 
 
 Mr. Clark : And yet you don't know who is the father of 
 your child? 
 
 Witness : AVell, I do know who is its father. 
 
 Mr. Clark : I want to know who its father is, and I am going 
 to have an answer if I wait here all day for it. 
 
 The defendant here spoke up and asked if he might advise 
 the witness to tell the truth, but was denied the privilege. 
 
 Continuing, the witness said : The child's name is Mary 
 Williams. The defendant has not occupied the same bed with 
 me. I can not say who is the father of the child. 
 
 The Court: I want to know, Mrs. Williams, whether you 
 don't know or whether you won't tell, and I want to say to 
 you that you are placing yourself very nearly in contempt 
 of court, and it is in the power of the Court to punish you. 
 Therefore. I want to understand your meaning. If you refuse 
 to answer, I shall commit you to jail. 
 
 Witness : I would like to be excused to consult with Mr. 
 Groves. 
 
 The Court: That will depend upon your answer to my 
 question. 
 
 Witness : Well, I don't know at present ; I would like time 
 to think it over. 
 
 Mr. Clark : Were there so many involved in it that you don't 
 know who was its father? 
 
 The witness stubbornly refused to make any answer, and at 
 the end of about five minutes the commissioner grew impa- 
 tient, and said : " I do not wish to be harsh, but you understand 
 that you came here as a witness. You have been asked ques- 
 tions directly in point and have refused to answer them. In 
 order to sustain the dignity of the Court, I shall have to take 
 some action. I will give you just ten minutes to decide 
 whether you will answer or not." 
 
270 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 The witness again asked permission to consult with the 
 defendant, which was again refused. She then asked per- 
 mission to talk with Royal Barney, when that gentleman 
 quickly arose and protested that he had never seen the woman 
 before. 
 
 The defendant again spoke up, saying that if he could advise 
 the witness she would tell the truth. 
 
 The Court (severely") : She is under oath to do that, an} r how, 
 and I don't propose that she shall have any conversation with 
 any one. 
 
 At the end of ten minutes the rebellious witness showed no 
 signs of weakening, and was taken into custody by Deputy 
 Marshal Sprague, who escorted her to the marshal's office. 
 
 Mary Ann Groves was then called, and testified: I live in 
 Sugar-House ward; am the defendant's wife; I married him 
 twenty-three years ago ; he had a wife living at that time, but 
 she has been dead for twenty years. I have six children living ; 
 the defendant lives with me all the time ; have heard it rumored 
 that he had another wife; heard it said that Mrs. Williams was 
 his wife ; I am not acquainted with her ; called upon her about 
 a year and a half ago with my husband, who introduced her to 
 me, but not as his wife ; don't remember when it was that I 
 first heard she was married to the defendant; do not know 
 when the baby was born; Mr. Groves raises fruit for the 
 market and comes to town about once a week. Mary Ann 
 has four children, but I don't know what names they go by; 
 never heard her say whether she was married or sealed to him. 
 
 Mrs. Martha Carleton, daughter of the defendant, was the 
 next witness. She said : I am living with my mother in 
 Sugar-House ward ; do not know Mary Ann Williams; never 
 saw her before to-day ; heard about a year ago that she was 
 my father's wife, but don't remember who first told me ; have 
 heard that she had a baby and that the defendant was the 
 father ; don't know whether he contributes to her support or 
 not. 
 
 Margaret Groves testified : I am the daughter of the defend- 
 ant ; am fifteen years old ; have seen Mary Ann Williams once 
 before to-day; she was at the meeting-house in Sugar-House 
 ward ; don't know how she got there ; she was never at our 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 271 
 
 house ; have heard her spoken of in the family, but don't know 
 that she is reputed to be father's wife. 
 
 Minnie Groves, another daughter of the defendant, was then 
 called, and testified : I never saw Mary Ann Williams until 
 to-day ; have heard it said in the family that father had a 
 plural wife. 
 
 Deputy Marshal Sprague was then sent out for Mrs. Will- 
 iams, and when she again took the stand, Commissioner Norrell 
 asked if she was ready to answer such questions as the Court 
 thought she ought to answer, to which the witness replied that 
 she did not know whether she could answer or not; she was 
 willing to tell the truth as far as she knew, however. 
 
 Mr. Clark: Have you had intercourse with more than one 
 man since the spring of 1887? 
 
 Witness : No, sir. 
 
 Mr. Clark: Well, who was that man? 
 
 Witness : 1 could n't say. 
 
 The Court : That question is entirely proper, and the Court 
 knows that you can answer it if you choose to do so. 
 
 The witness still persisted in giving evasive answers or no 
 answers at all, and was again escorted from the room by 
 Deputy Marshal Sprague. Mr. Clark then suggested that the 
 defendant be placed under somewhat larger bonds than usual. 
 
 The commissioner fixed the bonds at two thousand dollars. 
 Mis. Williams was also required to furnish bonds in two hun- 
 dred and fifty dollars to secure her appearance as a witness 
 before the grand jury. 
 
 Groves was arrested a short time after this examination on 
 the charge of polygamy, and taken before Commissioner 
 Norrell, where he waived examination, and was placed under 
 two thousand dollar bonds to appear before the grand jury. 
 
 By this time Mrs. Williams had concluded to testify, and 
 was again brought into court. She said: Mr. Groves is the 
 father of my youngest child; he is my husband; we were 
 married at a private house in this city in March preceding the 
 birth of the child; I don't know who performed the ceremony; 
 I don't remember the nature of the ceremony, but I considered 
 that we were married ; the defendant has since supported me. 
 
 Mr. Groves, who was sitting in the background listening, 
 
272 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 here interrupted. The witness had testified that she was his 
 wife, and he objected to her giving any further evidence. 
 
 Mr. Clark stated that he had no further questions to ask. 
 
 The Court stated that he must require Mrs. Williams to 
 furnish two hundred and fifty dollars additional bonds to 
 secure her appearance as a witness on the polygamy charge. 
 
 Nothing so unerringly states the facts about the life 
 of any people as their use of words. From this verdict 
 there is no appeal. It is their own history unconsciously 
 written by themselves. Violence to one's mother-tongue 
 may well be placed in the short catalogue of unpardon- 
 able sins. 
 
 No discussion of the crimes of Mormonism can prop- 
 erly omit its crimes against language by its base degra- 
 dation of many of our noblest and most sacred words. 
 Here the terrible indictment against the Mormons finds 
 full proof. A distinguished characteristic of Mormonism 
 from its beginning has been to use words in other than 
 their true meaning. Consequently there have come into 
 use in the daily speech and writings of the Mormons 
 words and phrases which are used in a sense which is 
 an utter perversion of their correct significance. 
 
 Were all other evidences wiped out, still their misuse 
 of language would stamp their whole system with infamy. 
 When a Mormon is speaking of his religion he has a 
 double meaning for his words : one for the Mormons and 
 one for the rest of the world. His statements to either 
 party are false as understood by the other. It requires 
 no small experience with them to avoid being deceived by 
 this cunning device. Much of their success in winning 
 converts is due to this two-faced vocabulary. 
 
 Some of the words which have suffered at their hands 
 are these : " religion," " wife," " marriage," "celestial," 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 273 
 
 " saint," " spiritual," "revelation," " apostle," " teacher," 
 " angel," and " Zion." 
 
 A good word is the outward label which they place 
 upon beliefs and practices which would put heathenism to 
 blush. The more damnable the doctrine or the deed, the 
 more hoi} 7 the word by which they name it : " choosing 
 the livery of heaven to serve the devil in ; " robing the 
 worst vices in our holiest words to drag them down to 
 hell! 
 
 What is the state of morals among the Mormons in 
 Utah at this time? 
 
 For several years past the public has repeatedly been 
 told, from Mormon sources, that the Saints are aban- 
 doning polygamy, and that the state of morals in Utah, 
 always higher than that in the States, is steadily improv- 
 ing and has now reached a high degree of sobriety and 
 virtue. A widespread effort has been made to create 
 the impression in the public mind that the Mormon 
 problem is almost solved ; that Mormonism is growing 
 better ; that the young Mormons repudiate polygamy ; 
 and that it may now be well to confer upon the Mormons 
 the honor and power of statehood for Utah. 
 
 The first inquiry to be made is, What was the state of 
 morals among the Mormons during the five years, 1884 to 
 1890, in which they claim to have made such great 
 progress toward decency? 
 
 The vulgarity of language among older Mormons is 
 well known, but the young Mormons and children of 
 to-day put to blush even their own parents. What else 
 could be expected when from the pulpit at the Sunday 
 services subscriptions have been taken up to buy a 
 blooded bull amid vulgarities which would put heathenism 
 to shame ? 
 
274 The Mormon .Delusion. 
 
 An estimable lady resident of Utah of long experience 
 writes me: " A noticeable fact is that so few Mormons 
 realize that the} 7 are in a sad condition at all, so low 
 are their ideas of morality and manhood." 
 
 Recently an Englishman who was a teacher became a 
 Mormon and came to Utah to earn money to send back 
 for his wife and daughter. When he did so they were to 
 come in the care of a Mormon elder. But the elder 
 persuaded the wife to become one of his wives, and 
 has since been kept in hiding, and the husband can not 
 find her nor his daughter. 
 
 This is only one of so many similar occurrences that 
 they are scarcely considered in Utah as worthy of note. 
 No woman who is a believer in Mormonism, whether she 
 be of pure intent or not, whether married or single, 
 young or old, is safe when placed in the care of a 
 Mormon elder. 
 
 An entirely reliable lady, who resides in Utah, writes to 
 the author under date of April 25, 1888 : — 
 
 "There is great excitement here now among the poor 
 ignorant foreigners. When they came here they bought 
 their farms from the Mormon bishop. No deeds were 
 given them, the bishop telling them that ' it was all 
 right.' and, having implicit faith in their church and its 
 officials, they paid their money and, as they supposed, 
 owned the land. It now transpires that the bishop has 
 been selling some of the land over again to other parties, 
 while he had never owned part that lie had sold. Some 
 of the farmers have had to pay over again, and some 
 have been able to get title to only a part of what they 
 had paid for. 
 
 " As for punishment of these polygamists by putting 
 them into the penitentiary, it does not seem to do much 
 
TJi e Mormon Delusion. 275 
 
 good here, for when they return "it is to live nearly as 
 they did before, only they are not quite so open about it. 
 The two wives and families of one man who has lately 
 returned from prison for polygamy met together on the 
 evening of his return and gave him a supper. Another, 
 who had three wives, and was about to take a fourth and 
 then go with her ' on a mission,' deserting the others, was 
 informed on by some one in one of the families, and he 
 has just been arrested. 
 
 "Many perjure themselves to escape paying their 
 fines, making oath that they have no property when it 
 is known here that they are well off. Most of the 
 church officials are rich. Some of the poor polygamists 
 would as soon spend the winter in the penitentiary as 
 out of it, for they say they have there plenty to eat and 
 an easy time, while their families are helped by the 
 church, and they themselves are feasted before and after 
 going by their friends, and made much of because they 
 are ' suffering for the gospel's sake.' 
 
 "Notices of dances are given out on Sunday at the 
 church. The drinking, swearing, and fighting at these 
 dances (often four or five in one week) is fearful. Two 
 boys, aged twelve and fifteen years, were lately taken 
 home dead drunk from an evening dance. Mormon 
 missionaries are given a dance on their return. Not 
 long ago we heard a missionary report who had just 
 returned from the Southern States. He said that he 
 ' found ignorance and immorality everywhere except 
 among the Lord's chosen people ' ( !) ; that in one place 
 he had expected to make a good many converts, but got 
 a chance to ' duck' only six there. 
 
 " These poor people have been taxed this winter until 
 some scarcelv know where the next meal is to come from. 
 
276 Tl ie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 One old lad} 7 tells rne that she never knew so much pov- 
 erty among them, for so inany extra gifts have been 
 required to pay the expenses of their lawyers at Wash- 
 ington. They have even tried to get the people here to 
 give up tea and coffee and give the money to the church. 
 
 " A Mormon recently murdered a G-entile in a neigh- 
 boring town, and the Mormon constable, who could 
 neither read nor write, said ' the church ought to get 
 him cleared, for he had brought more people into the 
 church than any other man, and the man who was killed 
 was only an outsider, any way.' 
 
 " The Mormon cooperative store here was closed up a 
 few years ago and everything went into the hands of the 
 church officials, while the people lost all that they had put 
 in. That is the way everything is managed. AVhen the 
 store was in operation it was given out that every one 
 must trade there, but one man had a little store of his 
 own, and some patronized him, as his prices were more 
 reasonable. But he was visited one night after retiring 
 and, as the result, his store was never opened again, and 
 he left town. The Mormon bishop had charge of the 
 cooperative store and was also postmaster. Money was 
 very scarce, and some had none at all. One poor old 
 woman wanted to send a letter, and having no money, 
 took a pound of butter to the store to get a stamp, but 
 the bishop made her give the whole pound of butter for 
 one stamp. The bishop always took such advantages 
 when the times were hard. 
 
 ; ' I see here so much that is painful to me that I can 
 not bear to know more of such incideuts than comes to 
 me necessarily. But I do hope the time will speedily 
 come when these people will learn that the United States 
 government has something to do with all who live within 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 27 7 
 
 her borders, and not, as one old Mormon stoutly declared 
 the other day, that this was a free country and the 
 United States government had nothing to do with the 
 way he lived. And to-day he is living with his two 
 wives as though there was no law to the contrary." 
 
 " One family in Utah stated in 1888 that their children 
 had to grow up without attending school, for the parents 
 withdrew from the Mormon Church, and, as all children 
 were taught to do all the harm they could to "outsiders," 
 these children of an apostate family would have been 
 killed had they continued in school. 
 
 " The same family states that when they lived in 
 Brigham City, another family lived in the other half of 
 the same house with themselves and left the church, and, 
 knowing their danger, they left secretly at midnight two 
 days earlier than they were expected to go. The second 
 night after their departure the family remaining in the 
 other part of the house were awakened by loud knocks, 
 and upon opening the door three men walked in who had 
 their hands and faces blackened, and stated that they had 
 mistaken the door, as they wanted to see the family who 
 were going to move. In former days these men were 
 called the ' Black Teachers for Apostates,' and many 
 were murdered by them. 
 
 " These people have no idea of giving up polygamy. 
 Two Mormons were overheard conversing a few days ago. 
 One said he should take another wife as soon as Utah 
 became a state. The second replied : ' But we have 
 promised to give up polygamy ; ' to which the first an- 
 swered : ' That was only for a short time, and if there is 
 any further trouble about it, we will fight it out.' There 
 is among them here a perfect understanding that anti- 
 polygamy is only a ruse for getting statehood. One Mor- 
 
278 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 mon boldly said the other day : ' What is Mormonism 
 without polygamy? Take that away, and where is our 
 religion ? ' 
 
 " Profanity is universal among the Mormons. Even 
 the children are profane in the ordinary talk, and think 
 nothing of it. There is scarcely a person in this town 
 who does not drink. Parents give whiskey to their little 
 children. The children are generally as willing to tell a 
 lie as the truth. 
 
 " One old Mormon woman loaned her money to a 
 polygamist, and when she needed it he put her off by 
 saying that he could not pay it then, but that it would be 
 all right in the resurrection ; that then she would get 
 double pay. Her daughter replied : ' Well, mother, we 
 have to live while we stay here, and we don't want all our 
 pay to be postponed until the resurrection.' But the 
 mother was evidently satisfied, and had faith in her 
 bishop." 
 
 A reliable person in Utah writes the author under date 
 of February 20, 1888: — 
 
 " Polygamy is very prevalent here. One house of a 
 single room near me contains two wives and their fami- 
 lies, one of the women being black and the other white, 
 with nineteen children of all ages and of all degrees of 
 color from black to white. 
 
 "Recently a man in town (first councillor to the 
 bishop) buried his wife, and on the same day as the 
 funeral, which lasted from ten o'clock a.m. until three 
 o'clock p.m., he was married to another wife, although 
 already being in polygamy ! 
 
 " These are but examples of what this town is like. I 
 never heard nor imagined such things as I can not help 
 but see here every day of my life. Such ignorance, 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 279 
 
 intemperance, and immorality I never saw as exists 
 here. 
 
 " Many openly say they will take more wives as soon 
 as they gain statehood and can control their own affairs. 
 Fear of the penitentiary is the only thing which restrains 
 them now. Tithes are as much required as they ever 
 were. This whole town is ruled by the bishop, and no 
 one would suppose this place to be in the United States. 
 I earnestly wish that our whole country might be aroused 
 to a man over this dreadful stain upon our nation." 
 
 At a funeral in Salt Lake City, in April, 1888, held 
 in the Tenth Ward meeting-house, seven men spoke, one 
 of whom was the bishop of the eleventh ward. Among 
 other things he said he had heard that statehood would 
 not be given to Utah as long as polygamy was practiced, 
 or while the priesthood had the power ; but for his part 
 he had never asked for statehood, and never should, for 
 he "should consider it a disgrace to belong to such a 
 nation as the United States." 
 
 Since the United States courts have been sending 
 Mormons to the penitentiary for violations of the laws 
 against polygamy and unlawful cohabitation, it has been 
 the custom, at the anniversary services in the Mormon 
 Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, to drape the auditorium 
 in mourning for those who are in the penitentiary, leave 
 the pulpit unoccupied, and wreathe the vacant seats with 
 such expressions as: "In prison for conscience' sake," 
 " Suffering for righteousness," etc. 
 
 Do such public manifestations of sympathy with law- 
 breakers indicate that the Mormon people are ready to 
 obey the laws and give up their unholy and unlawful 
 practices ? When such people compose three fourths of 
 the population of Utah, is it sane to entrust them with 
 
280 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 statehood ? Does a mere form of words against polyg- 
 amy, used in order to secure statehood, weigh against 
 the evidently disloyal spirit of that whole people ? 
 
 The Provo (Utah) American (in January, 1888) re- 
 ported a Mormon case where a man is " brother-in-law to 
 his own children, his own wife's stepfather, and grand- 
 father of his own children." When he (James Butler, of 
 Spring Lake) was brought before the United States Court, 
 Mrs. Wimby testified that when she was a widow with 
 two daughters, and Mr. Butler was a widower, she went 
 to keep house for him, and had several children by him, 
 as she said she thought was usual in such cases. She 
 said Mr. Butler stood proxy for her dead husband, or 
 she stood proxy for his dead wife, she hardly knew 
 which, but these children would be handed over to Mr. 
 Wimby in the next world. "When her daughter by Mr. 
 Wimby was fifteen years old, Mr. Butler married the 
 daughter. This daughter was then sworn, and testified 
 that she was the legal wife of Mr. Butler ; she did not 
 know whether her mother and Mr. Butler had been mar- 
 ried or not ; that was a matter that did not concern her, 
 and she had not taken the trouble to inquire into it, but 
 some of her mother's children call him their father, and 
 she herself had two children by him. 
 
 "Brigham Young Academy" is a Mormon Church 
 school for both sexes, located at Provo, Utah. In one 
 year it was reported that sixteen girls were sent home 
 from this institution because they were in a condition 
 improper for unmarried ladies. This was published in 
 The Salt Lake Tribune, and although the Mormon papers 
 made a fuss about it, they dropped the matter without 
 denial. A prominent and reliable citizen of that terri- 
 tory savs : " There is no doubt about the fact," 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 281 
 
 A prominent citizen of Salt Lake City, as entirely 
 reliable as any one who reads these lines, in writing of 
 these things, says: "The other things I can not bring 
 myself to commit to paper. 1 am sorry to write these. 
 I never before in my life placed such things on paper, 
 and I hope you will burn this letter as soon as you have 
 transcribed these facts, for I feel as if this very station- 
 ery were polluted. But in view of these and a thousand 
 other facts patent to us who live here, there can be no 
 question as to the terribly low state of morals among the 
 young people of this territory. I am glad that you have 
 the nerve to let these things be known, if by so doing 
 anything can be done to purify the air of Utah." 
 
 A lady of high character who has resided in Utah for 
 some years writes me : "I can not tell you how I deplore 
 the state of morals wherever I have come in contact with 
 the Mormon people. Even their songs and Sabbath-school 
 hymns are, many of them, low and vulgar. In one town 
 it was found that there was not a pure boy or girl, even 
 among those quite young ; and the conversation of every 
 day is too degrading. I have carefully thought over by 
 name the Mormons with whom I have become acquainted, 
 and I can not name one with whom I would be willing to 
 associate as with eastern friends." The same lady adds : 
 " The tendency among Mormons to intemperance is per- 
 fectly horrible, and daily growing stronger. To my cer- 
 tain knowledge, in some families every child, down to the 
 infant, sits and drinks, and the family laugh to see how 
 the five-year-old boy likes the liquor. In one town there 
 was but one woman in the place who did not drink. At 
 their ' balls,' which are a semi-weekly occurrence, young 
 girls, and mothers with babes in their arms, attend and 
 go outside to drink, and the adjoining fences are after- 
 wards found to be lined with empty bottles." 
 
282 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 The Mormons boast that their system promotes vir- 
 tue( !), and that they have no " brothels." With twelve 
 thousand polygamous families in a population of one hun- 
 dred and forty-five thousand, there would seem to be no 
 occasion for any other kind of brothels. As for the claim 
 that Mormon young people repudiate polygamy, the above 
 facts show that the only basis of truth in that claim is 
 that the young generation of Mormons do not take the 
 trouble to marry before practicing polygamy. A very 
 intelligent and trustworthy gentleman, who has resided in 
 Utah for a score of years, writes in 1888: "The worst 
 is, these young Mormons do not seem to understand that 
 such things are wrong, and have no higher sense of virtue. 
 A broad and marked distinction should be drawn in this 
 regard between the older generation of Mormon women 
 who had been brought up with higher notions and in a 
 different atmosphere, and those who were born here and 
 have never known anything different or better. The 
 Mormon men have far less difficulty in persuading the 
 young Mormon women of to-day to enter into polygamous 
 relations than their mothers and grandmothers, who had 
 seen purer society and known higher standards." 
 
 Startling and shameful as the facts here stated are, yet 
 the more vile doctrines and facts are withheld. They are 
 too indecent for print or speech or thought. The chief 
 difficulty in writing about Utah is to disclose enough, and 
 yet keep within the bounds of propriety. The vulgarity 
 and obscenity of Mormon preaching, in the presence of 
 hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of women and chil- 
 dren, is shocking. No vile sheet outside of Utah would 
 dare publish some of these harangues as they fall from 
 Mormon pulpits ; nor even after they have been revised 
 and published in The Deseret News, the Mormon organ. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 288 
 
 There is an exceedingly pathetic side also to the story of 
 the Mormons. Could there come to the ear of the public 
 the bitter cries from crushed hopes, despairing hearts, 
 hopeless lives, and blind cryings unto God which are 
 hidden in every Mormon household iu Utah, there would 
 be much sympathy aud sorrow. Only rarely has any one 
 who has suffered in Mormonism unveiled to the world a 
 view of those heart miseries. From the pitiful stories of 
 Mrs. Stenhouse and Mary Burton we get some genuine 
 " revelations " out of Mormonism. But Mormon women 
 have the nature of their sex the world over. Their pride 
 and shrinking from the public gaze lead them to conceal 
 their deepest sorrows, especially from Gentile eyes and 
 ears, whom they have been reared to regard with sus- 
 picion, and often with hatred. Sometimes voices are 
 heard from heartaches among the Mormons which seem 
 like cries of woe borne in midnight darkness upon the 
 wings of the wind. A friend relates that he was crossing 
 the Rocky Mountains in 1860 to California, in company 
 with others in a train of ox-teams. They camped a few 
 days near Salt Lake City. When they were about to 
 move on, a woman came to them and asked to be taken 
 with them that she might escape from the Mormons. The 
 company hesitated, and she pleaded with tears that they 
 would rescue her. Brigham Young was then at the 
 height of his remorseless power, and the company, fear- 
 ing that she might be a spy sent out by the Mormons, or 
 that if they yielded to her pathetic appeals, they might 
 be " cut off," as the Mountain Meadows emigrants had 
 been, felt obliged to refuse her request. 
 
 A Mormon and his wife moved to southern Utah from 
 the States many years ago, taking with them a little girl 
 who was the wife's sister. When this girl grew up, he 
 
284 The Mormon Delusion, 
 
 made her his plural wife. He appeared to be a sincere 
 Mormon, and when the Edmunds law was passed, he 
 gave up this second wife. The anxiety and trouble con- 
 nected with these events drove him insane, and he com- 
 mitted suicide. Two of his daughters by his first wife 
 made polygamous marriages. The husband of one of 
 these was recently shot dead by United States officers 
 while he was attempting to escape arrest by them on a 
 charge of being a polygamist. Another daughter of this 
 family somehow found her way to Salt Lake City and into 
 one of the Christian schools there, and became converted 
 and an exemplary follower of Christ. When she returned 
 to her home she was much ridiculed by her mother and 
 sisters because of her Christian profession. At the latest 
 account (January, 1889), she had not been able to return 
 to the Christian school for lack of means to pay her 
 expenses, although she had expressed, with pitiful ear- 
 nestness, her strong desire to get away from her hateful 
 surroundings. 
 
 In July, 1888, Mrs. Elisabeth Trumbull Rutter fell 
 upon the street in Chicago, and when removed to a 
 hospital gave the following account of her sufferings at 
 the hands of the Mormons. 1 
 
 Seven years ago a brace of Mormon elders held meet- 
 ings at North Shields, England, and held out great 
 promises to those who would go to Utah. A Methodist 
 family, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Rutter, son, and 
 daughter, attended the meetings, and the son soon went 
 to Utah, despite his parents' protests. They heard nothing 
 from him for over two years ; then the father set out in 
 search of him. Soon after the mother received a letter 
 from the son saying that the Mormons took all his money 
 
 1 Chicago Inter-Ocean , July 15, 1888. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 285 
 
 from him and that he wrote as soon as he could . Upon 
 reaching Ogden, Avhere the son was, the father, being a 
 Gentile, could get no work among the Mormons. Know- 
 ing that his wife was suffering for the necessaries of life, 
 he joined the Mormons and then had work. From his 
 first savings he enclosed $40 in a letter to his wife, 
 saying that he would return to England as soon as he 
 could save money enough. The letter was given to a 
 Mormon to mail, but it never reached its destination ; but 
 she received from the Mormon missionaries at her home 
 a letter purporting to be from her husband inclosing $40 
 and telling her it was to pay her fare to Utah and that 
 she should sail by first vessel. Mrs. Rutter obeyed the 
 instructions and, in charge of Elder Charles Henry 
 Greenwall, set out with the next consignment of emi- 
 grants. Her treatment on the vessel, she says, was 
 terrible. The Mormon elders, " in the name of God 
 and the Saints," submitted one woman to the grossest 
 indignities. All repulses were met with the argument 
 that the elders were licensed by the church of which all 
 were to become members. Some few of the women 
 resisted the advances, and they were repaid with the 
 most cruel neglect. On arriving at Castle Garden, Mrs. 
 Rutter was ill from the effect of her voyage, and was 
 treated with the utmost indifference, while the women 
 who had been more accommodating to the elders received 
 every attention. It was three days before they started 
 for Ogden, and on her arrival there she was met by her 
 husband, who had been notified of her coming, but was 
 at a loss to understand the reason of it. When he heard 
 of the letter he was more indignant than ever, and the 
 couple resolved that they would leave as soon as circum- 
 stances would permit. Past experience had shown Mr. 
 
28b The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Rutter the futility of going against the wishes of the 
 Mormon Church, and it was resolved to keep their deter- 
 mination a secret, and pretend to join the church. This 
 was done, and Mrs. Rutter announced that she would be 
 endowed as soon as she felt spiritualty pure enough. 
 Mr. Rutter said he would go in with his wife. The 
 pressure was made so strong that they were about to go 
 through the ceremony of joining the church, when a lady 
 who had recently been endowed told Mrs. Rutter about 
 it and she resolved that she would die before submitting 
 to the indecent ordeal. She told her husband of what 
 she had heard and he too resolved to keep away from 
 the Endowment House. By one excuse or another the 
 endowment ceremony was put off from time to time until 
 last August, when the crop on Mr. Rutter's farm was 
 about ready to cut. It was a good season, and the pro- 
 ceeds, with the money which could be realized on the 
 sale of the horse, cow, and agricultural implements, 
 would be more than sufficient to take the couple back 
 to England. Then one day Mr. Rutter told a young 
 Mormon friend of his intention. Two days later he 
 was brought home dead — drowned, the Mormons told 
 his wife, though there was the mark of a terrible blow 
 on the back of his head, and the blood was still oozing 
 from the mouth and nose. 
 
 There was no pretence of an investigation, and when 
 the woman demanded her husband's property she was 
 told that it belonged to the church. She was told that if 
 she would go to the Endowment House at once she would 
 be given a young husband, and would be received into 
 the community. Mrs. Rutter reserved her answer for a 
 night, and during that night she fled to Ogden City, 
 where she found employment in a hotel, and remained 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 287 
 
 there until a week ago, when she thought she had saved 
 enough to pay her passage home. 
 
 On her way she found that she should probably not 
 have enough money to get through, and tried to do 
 without food. Fainting from hunger, while walking on 
 the street in Chicago she fell to the ground in sheer 
 exhaustion and was taken to a hospital. Through the 
 help of the British Consul in Chicago she was soon 
 started on her way homeward. 
 
 Talking of her life among the Mormons, Mrs. Rutter said 
 that Elder G-reenwall, who took her over, had two wives, 
 and his eldest son had also two. All lived in one house 
 and had fully a score of children. Holbert, Mr. Rutter's 
 partner, had two wives, but they would not live together, 
 and one stayed on the farm while another lived in Ogden. 
 There was a bishop named Hart, who caused a great 
 scandal just before she left. The worthy bishop had 
 four wives and fourteen children, but he envied another 
 man his spouse and ran away with her. 
 
 Mrs. Rutter said that they have many converts in 
 Liverpool, where they have a tabernacle, though they do 
 not practice bigamy, it being too dangerous. They are 
 baptized in the Liverpool temple, but are not accepted as 
 full-fledged members until they emigrate and are endowed 
 at the tabernacle at Salt Lake City. 
 
 The reader will not fail to note that the treatment of 
 this Rutter family is an illustration of Mormon methods 
 in 1888. 
 
288 TJie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE MORMONS AND CONGRESS. JUDGE MCKEAN. JUDGE 
 
 ZANE. GEORGE Q. CANNON. 
 
 WHEN Mrs. Ann Eliza Young brought suit against 
 Brigham Young for divorce aud alimony in 
 March, 1875, Brigham acknowledged in his answer that 
 he had married the plaintiff, but that, as he already had 
 a wife, the marriage to Ann Eliza was illegal. Judge 
 McKean ruled that, having admitted a marriage to Ann 
 Eliza, Brigham must prove that it was illegal, and that 
 meantime he must pay a monthly alimony to Ann Eliza. 
 This decision pierced Brigham at two most tender points. 
 To pay money to a wife who had left his harem, and to 
 be required to prove in open court that all polygamous 
 wives were illegal, would be the entering wedge to the 
 rending of his polygamous system. His anger knew no 
 bounds, and he refused to obey the court. Judge McKean 
 ordered him to prison for contempt of court. 
 
 " The Mormons were utterly confounded. Never before 
 had hope so utterly died within them ; their prophet and 
 leader, who had sworn that if the officers of the law 
 tried to arrest him, he would ' send them all to hell 
 across lots,' was in prison. The hand of the law was 
 heavy upon them ; the tide of affairs was against them ; 
 and many who had been supposed strong in the faith 
 were beginning to talk of their coming dissolution as an 
 organized power." l 
 
 The United States marshal took the prophet to the 
 penitentiary four miles from Salt Lake City. "The 
 
 1 The Mormon Problem, 
 
The Mormon Delusion, 289 
 
 G-entiles had at last laid an impious hand upon the 
 Lord's anointed ! The whole city was in an uproar. A 
 procession of a^bout twenty carriages followed the one 
 in which the prophet rode. A little later in the after- 
 noon two wagon-loads of arms and ammunition were 
 brought out to Brigham's factory, about half a mile from 
 the penitentiary, and when darkness began to settle down 
 upon the valley, seven hundred armed men, some on 
 horseback, some on foot, surrounded the prison walls 
 and the warden's house, bent upon rescuing the prophet 
 at any cost. The warden had fourteen prisoners inside 
 the walls, and only two guards to aid him. He had 
 besides, in an upper room, his wife and his little chil- 
 dren, one of them a baby only a few weeks old. The 
 threatening demonstrations outside increased, but fortu- 
 nately neither the prisoner nor his would-be rescuers had 
 any idea of the weakness of the garrison." l 
 
 When the marshal told Brigham that the mob would be 
 fired upon if they came nearer, the prophet was seized 
 with his usual fit of cowardice and tremulously sent 
 word to his friends to fall back. 
 
 Judge McKean's decision was unquestionably correct, 
 as has been repeatedly affirmed by his successors. " He 
 had a grip upon the throat of Mormonism that has never 
 been equaled. But all at ouce the message is flashed 
 across the wires: 'Judge McKean is removed.' 
 
 " The Mormons went wild with joy. Loud and long 
 were their triumphal shouts, and they made Utah ring 
 with the refrain : — 
 
 ' The Lord hath triumphed gloriously ! 
 The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.' 
 
 1 Bate of Madame La Tour, p. 298. 
 
290 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 "The priesthood had caused a false report to be sent 
 abroad, and took good care that it should be so laid 
 before the government and heralded in the press, that 
 Judge McKean in his decision ' had recognized polygamy 
 as valid marriage.' The non-Mormons in Utah burdened 
 the mails and heated the wires with evidence that this 
 was false; but all to no effect." ' 
 
 It was afterward stated confidentially by a trustworthy 
 United States senator that " Judge McKean's decision 
 had nothing whatever to do with his removal. I was with 
 
 the President when he was visited by Senator and 
 
 Senator , and they jointly requested him, as a 
 
 personal and political favor, to remove Judge McKean 
 and appoint his successor. The President, just at this 
 time, is none too strong in the senate. In view of other 
 great public interests he feels that he can not quarrel 
 with two senators over a territorial judgeship. He has 
 removed the judge at their request, and the judicial 
 decision has been falsified to him and to the world as 
 a pretext for the removal." 
 
 "One of the two senators was the same that secured 
 the defeat of the practical features of the Poland bill. 
 The other has been considered in Utah for years as 
 a paid attorney of Brigham Young to look after the 
 interests of Mormonism at Washington." 2 
 
 Many efficient bills have been introduced into Congress 
 respecting Utah, but several influences — some members 
 who have evidently been working in the interests of the 
 Mormons, aided by the Mormon attorneys and the Gen- 
 tile attorneys for the Mormons, and the lobby of Mormon 
 women who are always in Washington during a session of 
 Congress — all these have combined to defeat nearly all 
 
 1 The Mormon Problem. - Ibid. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 291 
 
 such bills, or to so amend them as to reDder them of little 
 value. Brigham Young is reported to have said to his 
 Mormon friends who were anxious lest a certain bill 
 should pass Congress : " Give yourselves no uneasiness, 
 for I have drawn a goodly draft upon the tithing fund. 
 When I put my hand into one pocket, I put Congress 
 into the other pocket." 
 
 The first legislation in Congress directly aimed at the 
 extirpation of polygamy in Utah was what is known as 
 the Cullom law, as the bill was introduced by Senator 
 S. M. Cullom, of Illinois. It defined polygamy as a crime, 
 and provided penalties for it, but did not give sufficient 
 facilities to the United States courts for the execution of 
 the law, and left the juries in the hands of the Mormons, 
 and hence this feature of the law became practically a 
 dead letter. Another provision of this law, however, 
 has proved of great value toward breaking down the 
 civil power of the Mormon Church. This was the enact- 
 ment which made it unlawful for any church in a territory 
 to hold more than fifty thousand dollars' worth of prop- 
 erty. Under this law property of much value unlawfully 
 held by the church of the Latter Day Saints has passed 
 into the hands of a receiver appointed by the United 
 States courts, as set forth in detail elsewhere. 
 
 Next came the Poland law of 1874 (introduced by 
 Senator Poland, of Vermont), which, as originally drawn, 
 was an excellent bill, but the Mormon power in and about 
 Congress succeeded in trimming it of almost every strin- 
 gent and practical feature before it became a law. 
 
 The law which finally reached polygamy and its kindred 
 crimes, and under which the convictions of recent years 
 have been secured, is the Edmunds law (introduced by 
 Senator Edmunds, of Vermont) of 1882, and supple- 
 
292 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 mented by the Edmunds-Tucker law of 1887 (introduced 
 by J. Randolph Tucker, of ■ Virginia) . 
 
 Although more than one fourth of the people of Utah 
 are non-Mormon and loyal, yet the late laws of Congress 
 have accomplished very little comparatively. There are 
 twelve thousand actual polygamists in the territory 
 (besides three thousand more whose wives are all either 
 dead or divorced), and since the passage of the Edmunds 
 law of 1882 down to September 1, 1889, only twenty-four 
 persons had been convicted of polygamy. The constant 
 deceptions and perjury of Mormons have thus made the 
 law against polygamy practically a dead letter, even with 
 the presence of a large loyal population, and under the 
 guns of Fort Douglas and the United States soldiers. 
 This is a foreshadowing of what would be the result if 
 statehood should be given to Utah and the Mormons 
 installed into power and practical independence. 
 
 The officers of the United States courts finally found 
 that they must rely for convictions chiefly on the testi- 
 mony of non-Mormons, as reliable Mormon testimon} 7 
 could not be secured. As non-Mormons do not witness 
 polygamous marriages, it has been found almost impossi- 
 ble to convict any Mormon of polygamy. But when the 
 charge against polygamists was u unlawful cohabitation," 
 competent non-Mormon testimony could often be secured. 
 Hence it will be seen that most all prosecutions in Utah, 
 under the Edmunds law, are for this crime instead of 
 polygamy. 
 
 The total result of the prosecutions since the passage 
 of the Edmunds law of 1882 is as follows : — 
 
 Convictions for polygamy to September 1, 1S89 .... 24 
 Convictions for unlawful cohabitation to Sept. 1, 1889 . .909 
 
 Total 933 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 293 
 
 Thus after seven years of effort on the part of the 
 United States courts, the number of convictions for 
 polygamy is so small that the law against that crime is 
 practically inoperative, while the convictions for unlawful 
 cohabitation have reached only jive per cent of the guilty. 
 
 A prominent Mormon said that at this rate " the 
 brethren will be able to hold out longer than the gov- 
 ernment will be willing to proceed." Supposing there 
 were only three thousand polygamists within reach of 
 the law, the same elder said: "One conviction a day, 
 or three hundred per year, is all the courts can hope to 
 bring about, and it will thus take ten years to get once 
 around ; and I am willing to take my turn in the peniten- 
 tiary for six months once every ten years ; and if we all 
 present a bold front, the government will grow tired of 
 prosecuting." 
 
 The fact should also be stated here that the report of 
 the Utah Commission says: "The names of sixty-seven 
 men have been reported to the commission who have 
 entered into polygamy during the year ending June, 
 1887." But the number of new polygamists is incom- 
 plete, for the commission adds : " The number given- has 
 been reported by non-Mormon registrars, there being no 
 instance in which a name has been reported by a Mormon 
 registrar." 
 
 "The number of persons then (1880) living in polyg- 
 amy was found, after careful inquiry, to be about twelve 
 thousand, and there were at least three thousand *vho had 
 lived in polygamy, but a separation had been effected by 
 death or otherwise, making a total of fifteen thousand, 
 thirty per cent, of the adult Mormon population, or one 
 out of every three and one-third, who had entered into 
 polygamy." 
 
294 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 The United States Court of Utah proceeded, in Novem- 
 ber, 1887, to enforce the Edmunds-Tucker law, pro- 
 viding that a receiver should be appointed to take 
 possession of so much of the property of the Mormon 
 Church and of the Perpetual Emigration Fund Company 
 as was held by them in violation of law. 
 
 As usual in Utah, the Mormon Church trampled this 
 law under its feet, and acquired property valued at some 
 millions of dollars. The Mormon legislature of the 
 territory made the Mormon Church a private corporation, 
 with powers most extraordinary. Among these were : 
 the surrender of the citizens of the territory to the 
 control of the church, to be judged and punished, even 
 capitally, according to church laics, and to covenants 
 entered into in secret ; trials and judgments and their 
 executions all secret and discretionary. No wonder that 
 an indignant Utah citizen writes : " It is the most mon- 
 strous thing in English history, as the act of a body 
 politic." Judge Zane, in rendering the opinion of the 
 Supreme Court that this act of incorporation is uncon- 
 stitutional, says: "This is probably the first time that 
 any legislature committed the regulation of marriage and 
 tithing to a private corporation. It is safe to assume 
 that the right to regulate such matters was never before 
 attempted to be contracted away to a church or any other 
 body of men. Nor are we aware that the right to 
 regulate man's duty to his Maker was ever included in a 
 contract* And finally, this charter provides that such 
 laws and customs shall be founded in the revelations of 
 the Lord. This, too, probably, is the first time that a 
 legislature expressly limited the rules and laws that 
 a corporation might make by the revelations of the Lord, 
 and made a grant thereof to any person, natural or 
 artificial." 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 295 
 
 When it became known to the Mormons that an 
 attempt would be made to carry out this law, the church 
 immediately put most of its property out of its hands. 
 Vast amounts and many varieties of property were trans- 
 ferred from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day 
 Saints to private parties during the three days prior to 
 the day when the law disincorporating the Mormon 
 Church went into effect, namely, March 3, 1887. 
 
 The receiver and the courts have met the most stub- 
 born opposition at every step in their efforts to enforce 
 the law. Many suits in court were brought by the re- 
 ceiver against parties who fradulently held the property 
 of the church. Every device possible, except a resort to 
 arms, was used to defeat the law. Most of the lawsuits 
 were finally compromised by the Mormon officials paying 
 over in cash, by order of the Supreme Court, on July 9, 
 the sum of $157,666.15. In other cases the properties 
 themselves were delivered over. A summary of the 
 properties and values turned over is as follows : — 
 
 By compromise, July 9 $157,666.15 
 
 Church farm 150,000.00 
 
 Coal interests 100,000.00 
 
 Thirty thousand sheep 60,000.00 
 
 Notes for theatre stock 27,000.00 
 
 Deseret Telegraph stock 22,000.00 
 
 Personal property (cattle, etc.) 75,000.00 
 
 Gas stock 75,000.00 
 
 Tithing yard 50,000.00 
 
 Gardo House 50,000.00 
 
 Historical office 20,000.00 
 
 Temple Square (not valued) 
 
 Dividends on gas stock 4,000.00 
 
 Total $790,666.15 
 
296 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 This is certainly a heavy blow at the financial strength 
 of the Mormon Church, but there is much more yet un- 
 lawfully held by them. For the first time in their history 
 the Mormons seem now to be learning that the United 
 States is stronger than their church. This fact is a more 
 powerful blow toward removing the scales from blinded 
 Mormon eyes than most persons can understand. 
 
 What is to become of all this vast property now in the 
 hands of the United States? It is to be sold, and the 
 proceeds to go into the public school fund of Utah Terri- 
 tory. Let it not be forgotten that these schools are, in 
 nearly all cases, taught by Mormons and are wholly sur- 
 rounded by Mormon influences. Unless Congress shall 
 speedily follow this law with another which shall place 
 all the public schools of Utah under the control of the 
 United States, then the enforcement of this law is a 
 farce. It gives the Mormons all the benefits of the cry 
 of "persecution," and yet puts their spiritually unpro- 
 ductive assets just where they will do the most good 
 for the Mormon Church. At the time these lines are 
 written (January, 1890) the question of the constitution- 
 ality of this law is pending before the Supreme Court 
 of the United States. 1 If the law shall be sustained, 
 then all the proceeds of this property will go directly to 
 strengthen and spread the teachings of Mor monism. 
 The present law simply sells the Mormon temples, farms, 
 bank stocks, and street-car company stocks, etc., and 
 turns the proceeds over to the Mormon school fund, that 
 the young Saints may be more fully taught the Mormon 
 faith! While the Saints publicly cry "persecution," in 
 private they laugh in their sleeves, and say, as their 
 delegate in Congress, John T. Caine, did, upon his last 
 return to Salt Lake City from Washington: "Brethren, 
 
 iSee Addenda, p. 350. 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 297 
 
 you can see that this law had most of its fangs pulled 
 before it was passed." Without delay, Congress ought 
 to pass all the laws needed to break the civil power of 
 Mormonism, and place the schools under Gentile control. 
 The missionary, with the gospel of Christ and the higher 
 Christian schools, may then well be trusted to finish the 
 problem. 
 
 When the Edmunds law and its righteous interpretation 
 by United States Judge Charles S. Zane began to send 
 polygamous criminals to the penitentiary, Mr. George Q. 
 Cannon, who had formerly represented Utah Territory in 
 Congress, fled. While being returned to Salt Lake City 
 in the care of a sheriff, he leaped fi am the cars and ran. 
 A foot-race of one mile followed ; the sheriff won, and 
 brought his distinguished prisoner to the bar of the court. 
 Cannon pleaded serious illness from an incurable disease 
 and was released on twenty-five thousand dollars bail. 
 He then again fled into hiding, forfeited his bail, and it 
 was paid. Like most of the Mormon leaders, Cannon 
 had acquired large wealth. 
 
 Judge Zane's firmness and impartiality in dealing out 
 justice to the hoary law-breakers in Utah created great 
 consternation among the Mormons. The leaders scat- 
 tered into "underground" hidings or went on foreign 
 missions for the church. Judge Zane's interpretations of 
 the law and inflexible honesty and fearlessness had given 
 universal satisfaction to the loyal people of Utah and to 
 the country at large. However, when his commission 
 expired, he was not re-appointed by President Cleveland, 
 but Judge Sandford — comparatively a stranger in Utah 
 — was appointed his successor. It soon began to be 
 said that Mormon criminals were henceforth to be more 
 leniently dealt with. 
 
298 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 A few days after the new judge had taken his seat, 
 George Q. Cannon suddenly came forth (September, 
 1888) from the covert of Mormon outlaws, appeared in 
 court, and pleaded "guilty" on two indictments which 
 seemed to have been framed so as to bar other indict- 
 ments. He was sentenced to pay $450 fine and to go to 
 the penitentiary for 175 days. This light penalty to the 
 chief living offender gave great offence and discourage- 
 ment to the loyal citizens of Utah. 
 
 "Just now the Gentiles here are feeling a little blue. 
 They feel that they have been cheated, betrayed, and 
 shamelessly and shamefully wronged. 
 
 " The action of the new Chief Justice yesterday, 
 together with the prior action of finding an indictment 
 against George Q. Cannon only last Saturday ; the move- 
 ment on foot which seems to be to enable the Saints to 
 recover all the ground they have lost, altogether dum- 
 founded the faithful men who have tried here through 
 the years to Americanize this region. It was manifest 
 from the moment Judge Sandford charged the grand jury 
 and began to issue naturalization papers to Mormons, 
 that he either did not understand the situation here or 
 had come here to inaugurate a new policy. His perform- 
 ance yesterday removed the last hope that the friends of 
 Utah had clung to, that he would prove himself a real 
 successor to Judge Zane. 
 
 " Of all men, George Q. Cannon had been most defiant 
 and most influential in advising ignorant men to break 
 the laws. 
 
 ' ' Utah men as they met each other would each say : 
 ' Sold out again.' Progress in Utah has been for twenty 
 years like the ebb and flow of the tide, and the ebb has 
 often seemed to exceed the flow. The true men of Utah 
 
TJie Mormon Delusion. 299 
 
 felt last week Monday as did those who were left alive 
 in Lisbon the day succeeding the great earthquake. The 
 beautiful pier which they had been building for- years had 
 disappeared, and where it had stood sixty fathoms deep 
 of corpse-tainted water with sullen wash laved the shat- 
 tered shore. 
 
 "Is it not pitiable that just about once in so often 
 some one comes here clothed in authority that can not be 
 impeached, and takes it upon himself, before he knows 
 anything of the situation, to slash ahead and undo the 
 work of months or years, throw business into confusion, 
 unsettle men's minds and fill them with apprehensions of 
 future trouble ? This has happened periodically for twenty 
 years past. Some have been corrupt ; some have just 
 been fools, and others have been burned up with an ego- 
 tism which has been worse than either corruption or fool 
 stupidity. And poor Utah has to bear the burden and 
 the shame." l 
 
 The re-appointment of Judge Zane by President Harri- 
 son, in 1889, to the judgeship in the United States courts 
 in Utah is a fitting reward to a fearless officer and a 
 source of much encouragement to the loyal people of 
 Utah. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE UNITED STATES COURT DENIES CITIZENSHIP TO 
 MORMON FOREIGNERS. 
 
 A SEVERE blow against the future political power 
 
 J\ of the Mormons was given on November 30, 
 
 1889, in the Third District Court in Salt Lake City by 
 
 Judge Thomas J. Anderson, Associate Justice of the 
 
 !The Salt Lake Daily Tribune. 
 
300 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Supreme Court. By this decision foreigners who are 
 Mormons can not become naturalized citizens of the 
 United States because their allegiance to their church is 
 inconsistent with loyalty to the United States. Foreign- 
 ers who are Mormons will hereafter not be allowed to 
 vote in Utah unless they were naturalized before this 
 decision was rendered. The next question which is 
 likely to come before the courts is whether Mormons who 
 are already naturalized, or who are natives, may not be 
 disfranchised by reason of their disloyal church attach- 
 ments. By the new Constitution of Idaho Territory, 
 under which she seeks (1890) admission into the Union, 
 all Mormons are disfranchised, but the Supreme Court 
 has yet to say whether the mere fact of a man's being a 
 member of the Church of Latter Day Saints is in itself 
 lawful ground for denying him the right of suffrage. 
 
 The decision of Judge Anderson will only prevent the 
 voting of unnaturalized foreigners, and will weaken the 
 political power of the Mormons only in a small degree. 
 If, however, all Mormons could legally be disfranchised, 
 it would shear off Mormon power from our body politic 
 and hurl Mormonism over the precipice of its final doom. 
 The Mormons were much alarmed at the decision of the 
 court. The Standard, a Mormon daily paper of Ogclen, 
 said, December 1, 1889 : — 
 
 " Until overturned by the action of a higher tribunal 
 the decision will doubtless act as a bar to the admission 
 to citizenship of aliens professing belief in Mormonism. 
 It has a tremendous scope, and the responsibility taken 
 by the court is one so appalling that it can not long 
 remain unquestioned." 
 
 The uniform history of the Mormons is such as to 
 justify the expectation that this decision will be practi- 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 301 
 
 cally nullified by the Mormons hereafter by aliens 
 abstaining from a formal joining of the Mormon Church 
 until after they have been naturalized. It may be ex- 
 pected that they will on one day deny under oath that 
 they believe in the allegiance required by the Mormon 
 Church, and the next day after receiving their natural- 
 ization papers readily take the disloyal oaths of the 
 Endowment House. 
 
 The following are quotations from this important de- 
 cision by Judge Anderson, which does him enduring 
 honor : — 
 
 " Objection was made to the admission of John Moore 
 and William J. Edgar upon the ground that they were 
 members of the Mormon Church, and also because they 
 had gone through the Endowment House of this church, 
 and there had taken an oath or obligation incompatible 
 with the oath of citizenship they would be required to 
 take if admitted. The admission of the other applicants 
 was objected to solely on the ground that by their own 
 statements they were members of the Mormon Church, 
 although they had gone through the Endowment House, 
 and had not taken the oath usually administered there, 
 nor, in fact, any other incompatible with citizenship. 
 
 "The claim is made by those who object to the admis- 
 sion to citizenship of these persons, that the Mormon 
 Church is, and always has been, a treasonable organization 
 in its teachings and its practices, hostile to the govern- 
 ment of the United States, disobedient to its laws and 
 seeking its overthrow, and that the oath administered to 
 its members in the Endowment House binds them, under 
 penalty of death, to implicit obedience in all things, tem- 
 poral as well as spiritual, to the priesthood, and to avenge 
 the death of the prophets Joseph and Hyrum Smith upon 
 
302 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 the government and people of the United States. . . . 
 Those objecting to the right of these applicants to be 
 admitted to citizenship introduced eleven witnesses, 
 who had been members of the Church of Jesus Christ 
 of Latter Day Saints, commonly called the Mormon 
 Church. Several of these witnesses had held the posi- 
 tion of bishop in the church, and all had gone through 
 the Endowment House and participated in its ceremonies. 
 The testimony of these witnesses is to the effect that 
 every member of the church is expected to go through the 
 Endowment House, and that nearly all do so ; that mar- 
 riages are usually solemnized there, and that those who 
 are married elsewhere go through the endowment cere- 
 monies at as early a date thereafter as practicable, in 
 order that the marital relation shall continue throughout 
 eternity. That these ceremonies occupy the greater part 
 of a day, and include the taking of an oath, obliga- 
 tion, or covenant by all who receive their endowments, 
 that they will avenge the blood of the prophets Joseph 
 and Hyrum Smith upon the government of the United 
 States, and will enjoin this obligation upon their children 
 unto the third and fourth generations, and they will obey 
 the priesthood in all things, and will never reveal the 
 secrets of the Endowment House under the penalty of 
 having their throats cut from ear to ear, their bowels 
 torn out, and their hearts cut out of their bodies. The 
 right arm is anointed that it may be strong to avenge 
 the blood of the prophets. An undergarment, a sort 
 of combination of shirt ajid drawers, called the endow- 
 ment robe, is then put on and is to be worn ever after. 
 On this robe, near the throat and over the heart, and in 
 the region of the abdomen are certain marks or designs 
 intended to remind the wearer of the penalties that will 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 303 
 
 be inflicted in case of a violation of the oath, obligation, 
 or covenant he or she has taken or made. . . . The 
 evidence establishes beyond any reasonable doubt that the 
 endowment ceremonies are inconsistent with the oath an 
 applicant for citizenship is required to take, and that the 
 oaths, obligations, or covenants there made or entered into 
 are incompatible with the obligations and duties of citizens 
 of the United States. The application of John Moore 
 and Walter J. Edgar, both of whom were shown on the 
 former examination to be members of the Mormon 
 Church and to have gone through the Endowment House, 
 are therefore denied. 
 
 "As to the objection made to the admission of the 
 other applicants upon the ground solely of their being 
 members of the Mormon Church, a large amount of 
 evidence, mostly documentary, has been introduced. 
 . . . Evidence was also introduced showing that the 
 bishops' courts of the church exercise judicial functions 
 to the extent of rendering judgments and annulling or 
 modifying judgments rendered by the civil courts. . . . 
 I think there can be no question but that the church 
 claims and exercises the right to control its members in 
 temporal as well as spiritual affairs." 
 
 "Among the prophecies of Joseph Smith it is said: 
 'And now I say unto you, as pertaining to my board- 
 ing-house which I have commanded you to build for the 
 boarding of strangers. Let it be built unto my name. 
 And now let the name of that house be called Nauvoo 
 House. And they shall form a constitution whereby 
 they may receive stock for the building of that house. 
 And they shall not receive less than fifty dollars for a 
 share of stock in that house, and they shall not be per- 
 mitted to receive over fifteen thousand dollars stock from 
 
304 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 any one man ; and they shall not be permitted to receive 
 any man as a stockholder in this house, except the same 
 shall pay his stock into their hands at the time he receives 
 stock.' l 
 
 "'And again I say unto you, that my servant Isaac 
 Morley may not be tempted above that which he is able 
 to bear, and counsel wrongfully to your hurt, I gave 
 command that his farm should be sold.' 2 
 
 "'And it is not meet that my servants, Newel K. 
 Whitney and Sidney Gilbert, should sell their stores and 
 their possessions here, for this is not wisdom.'- 3 
 
 " Brigham Young said in the tabernacle : 'You may say 
 it is hard that I should dictate to you in your temporal 
 affairs. Is it not my privilege to dictate to you?' Elder 
 Wilford Woodruff said : ' Our president (Brigham) has 
 frequently told us that we shall not separate the temporal 
 from the spiritual, but they must go hand in hand together. 
 And so it is.' 4 
 
 ' ' Referring to the right of the church to shed the blood 
 of those who apostatized, Brigham Young, in an address 
 delivered in the tabernacle, related a dream in which he 
 met some apostates, and said : — 
 
 " ' With that I took my large bowie-knife, that I used 
 to wear as a bosom-pin at 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 in- 
 stantly sprang at him, seized him by the hair of the head, 
 and, bringing him down, sent him after his comrade. I 
 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 the 
 
 1 Doctrines and Covenants, p. 436. 2 Ibid. p. 241. 3 Ibid. p. 242. 
 
 4 Journals and Discourses, vol. vi, p. 325. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 305 
 
 apostates should flourish here, I will uusheathe my bowie- 
 kuife and conquer or die. [Great commotion in the con- 
 gregation, 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 ! Go 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.' " 1 
 
 Judge Anderson continues : — 
 
 " The evidence also shows that blood atonement is one 
 of the doctrines of the church under which, for certain 
 offences, the offender shall suffer death as the only means 
 of atoning for his transgressions, and that any member 
 of the church has the right to shed his blood. . . . 
 
 " An effort was made to show that the blood atonement, 
 as preached by Brigham Young and Jedediah Grant, is 
 not now the doctrine of the church, and a pamphlet con- 
 taining an address on this subject by Elder Charles W. 
 Penrose, in October, 1884, was offered in evidence ; but 
 in this pamphlet Mr, Penrose sustains the doctrine of 
 blood atonement as preached by Brigham Young and 
 President Grant. He says : ' And yet there are sins 
 which men commit for which they can not receive any 
 benefit through the shedding of Christ's blood. Is that a 
 true doctrine? It is true, if the Bible is true. That is 
 Bible doctrine.' . . . 
 
 " ' Do we need the same language now? I hope not ; 
 but if there was any need for it, it would be just as appli- 
 cable now as then.' 
 
 "And again, on page 43, he uses the following 
 language : ' After baptized persons have made sacred 
 1 Journals and Discourses, vol. i, p. 81. 
 
306 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 covenants with God and then commit deadly sins, the 
 only atonement they can make is the shedding of their 
 blood. At the same time, because of the laws of the land 
 and the prejudice of the nation, and the ignorance of the 
 world, this lam can not be carried out, but when the time 
 comes that the law of God shall be in full force upon the 
 earth, then this penalty will be inflicted for those crimes 
 committed by persons under covenant not to commit 
 them.' . . . 
 
 "As to the feeling of the members of the Mormon 
 Church toward the government of the United States, the 
 evidence discloses a condition of things greatly to be 
 deplored. . . . 
 
 " Whether such language as the above instigated the 
 Mountain Meadows Massacre, or whether that horrible 
 butchery was done by direct command of Brigham Young, 
 will probably never be known. . . . 
 
 "Counsel for applicants, however, contend that the 
 feelings of the people of the Mormon Church towards the 
 government have undergone a change, and that in latter 
 years the former feeling of hostility has disappeared or 
 become greatly modified. The evidence, however, does 
 not sustain this claim. In January, 1877, at the dedica- 
 tion of the St. George Temple, Wilford Woodruff, who is 
 now president of the church, prayed for the destruction 
 of % the government. . . . 
 
 " In May, 1879, one Miles was on trial in this court 
 for polygamy. Daniel H. Wells, one of the presidents of 
 the church, was duly called as a witness, and on refusing 
 to answer a question propounded to him concerning the 
 records of marriages in the Endowment House, was com- 
 mitted to prison for contempt of court. On being 
 released, a procession, variously estimated by the wit- 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 307 
 
 nesses at from two thousand to ten thousand Mormon 
 people, headed by the city council and fire department, 
 escorted him from the prison through the streets of the 
 city to the tabernacle, where a meeting of eight thousand 
 or ten thousand people was held, and speeches were made 
 endorsing his conduct. As the procession moved up 
 Main Street, the American flag was dragged in the dust, 
 and a large banner was carried by little girls on which 
 were inscribed the words, ' We will uphold polygamy.' 
 As the procession passed the building where the district 
 court was being held, the people gave vent to their feel- 
 ings by hooting and jeering and hissing. At the meeting 
 in the tabernacle, banners were numerous, on which were 
 inscribed such sentiments as the following : — 
 
 " ' Better the penitentiary for faithfulness in this world 
 than the " prison-house" for perjury in the next.' ' The 
 women of Utah uphold polygamy.' 
 
 "On the Fourth of July, 1885, the flags were displayed 
 at half-mast by the Mormons in this city at the city hall, 
 at the county court-house, at the office of The Deseret 
 News, at the G-ardo House, at the Mormon cooperative 
 store building, and other places. Counsel for applicants 
 claim that this demonstration was not intended as an 
 insult to the government nor to its flag, but as a sign 
 of mourning because of the unjust laws against polyg- 
 amy, and the acts of the officers of the government in 
 enforcing them. But the evidence fails to show that 
 crape or any other emblem of sorrow was displayed in 
 any manner, and there can be no question but that the 
 half-masting of the flags was intended to be, as it is 
 understood by those who witnessed it, an insult to the 
 national authority. 
 
 " The evidence shows that the church has, in the most 
 
308 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 determined manner and with all the means at its com- 
 mand, opposed the enforcement of the laws of the United 
 States against polygamy and unlawful cohabitation, while 
 polygamy has been constantly preached as a cardinal doc- 
 trine of the church. . . . When men have been convicted 
 for violating these laws, and the Court has offered to 
 suspend sentence or inflict a light penalty if the offenders 
 would promise to obey the laws in the future, they have 
 almost invariably refused to make any promise whatever. 
 It has been a common custom among the Mormon people, 
 ever since the enforcement of these laws began, when 
 one of their number has been convicted and sentenced 
 to imprisonment for violating the law, to give him a 
 reception on his return home and honor him in every 
 way possible, while those who have promised obedience 
 to the laws have been ostracized and held up to the public 
 execration and scorn. To suffer fine and imprisonment 
 for violating the law, or for 'living his religion,' as they 
 usually term it, is deemed by them as worthy of all 
 praise, and will, as their leaders teach, result in the 
 exaltation in the life to come of him who thus proves 
 the sincerity of his faith. 
 
 "It is claimed by counsel for applicants, and some 
 evidence was introduced tending to show that in the 
 Doctrine and Covenants and other church publications 
 obedience to the laws of the land is taught, and also 
 that the Constitution of the United States is an inspired 
 instrument ; but the evidence discloses that the reason 
 the Constitution of the United States is considered an 
 inspired instrument is that it is construed by Mormons 
 to prohibit the passing of any law against polygamy, 
 and all such laws are considered by them as in violation 
 of the Constitution. As to their teaching obedience to 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 309 
 
 the laws of the land, it is only taught in general terms. 
 During the ten days this investigation lasted, not a word 
 of evidence was introduced or offered showing that any 
 preacher or teacher of the church ever, in a single 
 instance, advised obedience to the laws against polyg- 
 amy. On the contrary, the evidence in this case and 
 the whole history of the Mormon Church in Utah shows 
 that it lias persistently refused obedience to at least a 
 portion of the laws of the government, has insulted 
 and driven United States officers from the territory, has 
 denied the authority of the United States to pass laws 
 prohibiting polygamy as an unwarranted interference 
 with their religion, and generally has antagonized and 
 denounced the government in almost every possible way. 
 Undoubtedly there are many members of this church who 
 feel friendly to the government, and would gladly break 
 the shackles that biud them to the Mormon priesthood if 
 they felt that they dare do so ; but with an organization 
 the most thorough that can be imagined, which can be 
 wielded against them, they remain in the church rather 
 than take the risk of financial ruin and social ostracism. 
 
 " The Mormon Church teaches, first, That it is the 
 actual and veritable kingdom of God on earth, not in its 
 fullness, because Christ has not yet come to rule in per- 
 son, but for the present he rules through the priesthood 
 of the church, who are his vicegerents on earth. 
 
 " Second, That this kingdom is both a temporal and 
 spiritual kingdom, and should rightfully control and is 
 entitled to the highest allegiance of men in all their 
 affairs. 
 
 "Third, That this kingdom will overthrow the United 
 States and all other governments, after which Christ will 
 reign in person. 
 
310 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 "Fourth, That the doctrine of 'blood atonement' is 
 of God, and that under it certain sins which the blood 
 of Christ can not atone for may be remitted by shedding 
 the blood of the transgressor. 
 
 " Fifth, That polygamy is a command of God which if 
 a member obeys he will be exalted in the future life 
 above those who do not. 
 
 " Sixth, That the Congress of the United States has 
 no right under the Constitution to pass any law in any 
 manner interfering with the practices of the Mormon 
 religion, and that the Acts of Congress against polygamy 
 and disfranchising those who practice it are unwarrant- 
 able interferences with their religion. 
 
 "Can men be made true and loyal citizens by such 
 teachings, or are the} T likely to remain so, surrounded by 
 such influences ? Will men become attached to the prin- 
 ciples of the Constitution of the United States when they 
 hear the government constantly denounced as tyrannical 
 and oppressive ? It would be as unreasonable to expect 
 such a result as it would be to expect to gather grapes 
 from thorns, or figs from thistles. 
 
 "It has always been, and still is, the policy of this 
 government to encourage aliens who, in good faith, come 
 to reside in this country, to become citizens ; but when a 
 man of foreign birth comes here and joins an organiza- 
 tion, though professedly religious, which requires of him 
 an allegiance paramount to his allegiance to the govern- 
 ment, an organization that impiously and blasphemously 
 claims to be the kingdom of God, to control its members 
 under his immediate direction, and yet teaches and 
 practices a system of morals shocking to Christian 
 people everywhere, and under which the marriage of a 
 man to two or more sisters, or to a mother and daughter, 
 
The Mormon Pelusion. 311 
 
 is sanctioned, an organization that sanctions blood atone- 
 ment as a means of grace, and murder as a penalty for 
 revealing the secrets of its ceremonies, and which, for 
 more than half a century, has refused to acknowledge the 
 supremacy of the United States or render obedience to 
 its laws, it is time for the courts to pause and inquire 
 whether such applicant should be admitted to citizenship. 
 
 "The evidence in this case establishes unquestionably 
 that the teachings, practices, and aims of the Mormon 
 Church are antagonistic to the government of the United 
 States, utterly subversive of good morals and the well- 
 being of society, and that its members are animated by 
 a feeling of hostility towards the government and its 
 laws, and therefore an alien who is a member of said 
 church is not a fit person to be made a citizen of the 
 United States. 
 
 " The applications of Fred W. Miller et aZ., to become 
 citizens, are therefore denied. 
 
 " (Signed) Thomas J. Anderson, 
 
 "Associate Justice Supreme Court and Acting Judge Third Judicial District." 
 
 According to their usual mendacity the Mormons 
 "promptly denied the points made against them in Judge 
 Anderson's decision. 
 
 " Wilfred Woodruff, George Q. Cannon, and Joseph 
 F. Smith, apostles of the Mormon Church, have issued 
 another manifesto unqualifiedly denying all charges made 
 against the church in the recent hearing before Judge 
 Anderson. 
 
 " So far as any doctrine or teaching of the church 
 being hostile to the United States government, members 
 of the church are under divine command to revere 
 the Constitution as a heaven-inspired instrument, and 
 
312 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 obey as supreme all laws made in pursuance of its 
 provisions." l 
 
 The thin veil behind which this denial hides is that the 
 Mormons claim that the Constitution of the United 
 States gives them liberty to practice polygamy, and that 
 laws against it are not "made in pursuance" of the 
 Constitution. 
 
 " These revelations only make more certain what has 
 long been believed, that the Mormon Church, root and 
 branch, would, if left to itself, drain out the very life of 
 the Republic. How much longer shall it have any foot- 
 hold upon American soil ? " 2 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 SHALL UTAH BECOME A STATE? 
 
 SHOULD Utah be admitted into the Union as a state 
 while under the political control of the Mormons ? 
 Never ! Because : — 
 
 1. The Mormons are not loyal to the United States. 
 
 2. Utah's shameful moral condition makes her utterly 
 unfit to be received into the family circle of states. The 
 states already in the Union are not bound to receive such 
 a stream of immorality into intimate relations, nor to 
 share state privileges with a heathenish and disloyal 
 hierarchy. 
 
 3. As a state Utah would be independent of the 
 United States in most state matters, and could go on 
 
 1 Associated Press despatch from Salt Lake City, December 13, 1889. 
 
 2 The Congregatioualist, Boston. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 313 
 
 perpetuating the rule of the Mormon priesthood and con- 
 tinue the prevailing peculiar and vicious social relations, 
 while the other states would be powerless to interfere. 
 
 4. While Utah remains in a territorial condition, the 
 United States can, to some extent, control the legislation 
 for the territory and enforce obedience to the laws. 
 
 Let Utah remain a territory until a clear majority of 
 her citizens are thoroughly loyal and are not upholding a 
 social system which is a disgrace to the human race. 
 
 The Mormon problem is one which is very difficult to 
 deal with in all its phases because of the great power of 
 the Mormon Church. The sources of this power are 
 its organization, its missionary methods, and its financial 
 system. To these may be added, in Utah, its isolation 
 and protection by mountains. Its civil, religious, and 
 military power have constantly been under-estimated. It 
 is church and state, both in one, and the most compact 
 organization in the world. All its power operates as a 
 unit. At this point it has so far been unconquerable. The 
 one hundred and fifty thousand Mormons in Utah are an 
 absolute unit in all matters, civil or religious. They are 
 a unit in belief ; a unit in sustaining polygamy ; a unit in 
 disobeying and obstructing the execution of the laws of 
 Congress ; a unit in obeying the priesthood ; a unit in 
 voting the ticket nominated by the priesthood ; a unit in 
 hating all mankind, and especially the people of the 
 United States ; and a unit in falsifying, fighting, or 
 suffering for their "religion." Among Mormons there 
 are no discussions in religion or politics, no opinions, no 
 variety of view, but only iron-clad obedience. The ballot- 
 box is a farce. 
 
 At the elections in 1889, a very few Mormons — per- 
 haps one hundred and forty — had the courage to vote 
 
314 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 against the desire of the church. There is one ray of 
 hope in this fact. 
 
 It is no easy task to confront and defeat, or even to 
 frustrate, the designs of such a united power, and espe- 
 cially one that is so utterly unscrupulous in its methods. 
 At every period of her history the Mormon Church has 
 not hesitated, in order to accomplish her purposes, to 
 resort to deception, falsehood, perjury, open murder, 
 midnight assassination, treason, or war. 
 
 Five times the Mormons have sought to get Utah 
 admitted as a state. The independence of statehood is 
 a boon they have long sought after. 
 
 The Mormon scheme to secure statehood in 1887-88 
 possessed very peculiar features. Despairing of success 
 in getting Utah into the Union until the people of the 
 United States could be led to believe that they had 
 abandoned polygamy, they adopted, through the aid of 
 eastern attorneys, the following deceptive program : — 
 
 That there should be in Utah a cessation of disloyal 
 speeches and hostility to the execution of the laws while 
 the question of statehood should be pending in Congress. 
 
 That it should be generally published that the Mormons 
 were becoming better people, and that the young Mor- 
 mons were opposed to polygamy. Simultaneously there 
 began to appear in all parts of the country newspaper 
 articles, professedly from Utah, saying that Utah morals 
 were much improved and that the young Mormons had 
 taken control of affairs there, and that a better day had 
 dawned for that territory. 
 
 That a territorial convention should adopt a con- 
 stitution containing a clause professedly prohibiting 
 polygamy. 
 
 That an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 315 
 
 States should be proposed in Congress prohibiting polyg- 
 amy. 
 
 This program the Mormons proceeded to carry out in 
 every detail. Its failure to deceive Congress and the 
 country was probably the most bitter disappointment 
 that has yet overtaken them. 
 
 That all the leading features of this scheme were 
 deceptive will appear from the following facts : — 
 
 They professed to abolish polygamy in their proposed 
 constitution in the following provision: "Section 12. 
 Bigamy and polygamy, being considered incompatible 
 with ' a republican form of government,' each of them 
 is hereby forbidden and declared a misdemeanor." 
 
 The professed abandonment of polygamy was a mere 
 political trick. The Mormons were utterly insincere. 
 Had Utah been admitted into the Union with this clause 
 in her constitution, it would have been wholly inoperative 
 in fact as against polygamy, but would have shielded, 
 strengthened, and perpetuated it. 
 
 So suddenly was this game for admission as a state 
 begun that the call for delegates to a constitutional con- 
 vention was issued June 16, 1887, the delegates chosen 
 June 25, and the convention assembled June 30, all 
 within fourteen days, without the least foregoing sugges- 
 tion or discussion of so important a matter. The non- 
 Mormons saw the trick and abstained from the whole 
 proceeding, and were a unit against the admission of 
 the territory into the Union. The whole scheme was 
 rapidly carried through by the peremptory edict of the 
 Mormon priesthood. 
 
 ' k Up to the close of the day which preceded the 
 adoption of the proposed constitution there had not been 
 given the slightest evidence in the press, the pulpit 
 
316 Tlie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 (which is supreme with the Mormon people), or by any 
 act of the Mormon people, that any one had changed his 
 views or intentions with respect to polygamy and its 
 practice." l 
 
 The Mormons have not shown in any other respect the 
 least disposition to really abandon polygamy. They still 
 hold it as a part of their religion, denounce its punish- 
 ment as persecution, and, as a solid unit, seek by decep- 
 tion and perjury to defeat the execution of the law 
 against it ; they brand as traitors those who promise 
 the court to obey the law in the future ; those who are 
 on trial prefer the penitentiary to even a professed 
 abandonment of polygamy ; and those who come from 
 the penitentiary after serving out their sentences for 
 polygamy are given public receptions as heroes and 
 martyrs. All Mormons, whether polygamists or not, 
 are a unit in thus deceiving, falsifying, or suffering in 
 defence of polygamy. If they are ready to abandon 
 polygamy, why do they not openly say so and do so? 
 
 Notice that in the above-quoted section they do not say 
 that polygamy is ''incompatible with a republican form 
 of government," or with good morals, or with their belief, 
 but "being considered" (that is, by others) "incom- 
 patible," etc. Between the lines it clearly reads thus : 
 " Whereas Utah can not be admitted into the Union 
 without a professed renouncement of polygamy, there- 
 fore we profess to renounce." 
 
 It is evident that if Utah were admitted while under 
 the control of the Mormons with this constitution, polyg- 
 amy would then henceforth exist in Utah "only in fact 
 and not in name." 1 * 
 
 But we are not left to any inference or argument on 
 
 1 Report of the Utah Commission for 1888. 2 Mark Twain. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 317 
 
 this point. The Deseret News, the official Mormon organ 
 at Salt Lake City, a few clays after the adoption of the 
 above section, on August 2, 1887, said : — 
 
 " We wish it to be understood that neither The Deseret 
 JSfeivs nor the constitutional convention has affirmed that 
 ' polygamy is incompatible with a republican or any other 
 form of government.' It is stated in the constitution 
 that is so ' considered. 7 We have never admitted, in all 
 the controversy of years on this question, that polygamy 
 was 'incompatible with a republican form of government.' 
 The conceit was not ours." 
 
 In an address to polygamous Mormons, President John 
 Taylor himself, before his death, said : — 
 
 " We will stand by our covenants, and the Constitution 
 of the United States will bear us out in it. Among other 
 things, that instrument says that ' Congress shall make 
 no law impairing the validity of contracts.' You have 
 contracted to be united with your wives in time and in 
 eternity, and it would not do for us to break a constitu- 
 tional law. Others may do it, but we can not." 
 
 All Mormons were a unit in this matter. "While all 
 Mormons did not enter into polygamy, all believed it 
 right as a divine revelation, and upheld it in those who 
 chose to enter into the relation. . . . The entire mem- 
 bership have been a unit in aiding and abetting the 
 offenders in their obstructive course, and in escaping the 
 penalty of their crimes." 1 
 
 A hint of what the Mormons would do if Utah were 
 a state under their control can be got from their action 
 in Ogden in 1889 after that city elected an anti-Mormon 
 justice of the peace. Three days afterward the Mormon 
 county court abolished that justice's district, created four 
 
 1 Report of the Utah Commission for 1887. 
 
318 Tlte Mormon Delusion. 
 
 new ones, and appointed four Mormon justices. The 
 probate judge of Beaver County, Utah, has always been 
 a Mormon, and had a salary of two hundred dollars a 
 year allowed by the county court. 
 
 " Congress having lately by law provided for the 
 appointment of the probate judges by the President of 
 the United States, and the President having appointed 
 a non-Mormon as probate judge for Beaver County, 
 immediately after his appointment the Mormon county 
 court met and reduced his salary to jive dollars per 
 annum." l 
 
 The abiding conviction and determination of the Mor- 
 mons were expressed at a general conference of their 
 church in 1885, at which they declared: "One of the 
 doctrines so revealed [that is, from God] is plural mar- 
 riage. This is a vital part of our religion, the decision 
 of the courts to the contrary notwithstanding." 
 
 As to any supposed change of mind among the Mor- 
 mons, or any different view among young Mormons, the 
 report of the Utah Commission (October, 1887) says : 
 "The [Mormon] people are very tenacious of what they 
 claim to be their rights, and have never yielded a point. 
 They stand to-day where they stood when they first 
 entered the territory." 
 
 In October, 1887, out of forty-four Mormon jurors 
 summoned into the district court in Salt Lake City, 
 seven were excused, twelve took the oath, and twenty- 
 five refused to take the oath because it made them promise 
 to obey the laivs against polygamy in future. The daily 
 papers then pointed out how clearly this showed their in- 
 sincerity in the proposed constitution abolishing polygamy, 
 and, lest this should damage their prospects for state- 
 
 1 Report of the Utah Commission for 1889. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 319 
 
 hood, the next day every Mormon juror took the oath. The 
 unchanged hostility to that law, the deception, perjury, 
 and servility which these facts show, are almost incred- 
 ible. It is the uniform practice of Judge Zane, before 
 sentencing polygamists, to offer substantial pardon to 
 them if they will promise to obey the law in the future ; 
 but the court records show that out of sixty-one convic- 
 tions recently for unlawful cohabitation, forty-eight refused 
 to promise and preferred to go to the penitentiary. This 
 illustrates clearly what is to be expected in case the Mor- 
 mons should be allowed to rule over themselves by admit- 
 ting Utah as a state. 
 
 An old resident of Utah, who knows whereof he speaks, 
 says : " Were Utah now to be admitted into the Union as 
 a state, it would not be a state as contemplated by the 
 Constitution ; it woidd simply be a gigantic church organi- 
 zation endowed with state powers. Every one who knows 
 anything about the working of this church organization 
 knows that at elections everything is cut and dried for 
 the people beforehand by the priesthood. There are 
 serious objections to a union of church and state, but it 
 is still worse when it is all church and no state, as hereto- 
 fore in Utah. Delegate Caine says in Congress that not 
 more than three per cent of the Mormon people subscribe 
 to or practice polygamy. This is not true ; there are not 
 three per cent of the Mormon Church but who do sub- 
 scribe to it as a divine institution, none of whom, if 
 placed on a jury (and left free to act) , would ever convict 
 for that offence ; for they all aid and abet and encourage 
 it if they do not practice it. It is a church of polyga- 
 mists." 1 
 
 From the mountains of evidence to the contrary, no 
 
 1 The Salt Lake Tribune, January 27, 1888. 
 
320 Tlie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 one can believe that the Mormons would ever, of their 
 own choice, punish polygamists. There can be no doubt 
 whatever but that the provision in their constitution pro- 
 hibiting polygamy tvould be a dead letter in Utah. By an 
 overwhelming majority Utah is under the control of the 
 Mormons. As a state, judges, grand and petit juries, 
 sheriffs and legislators, would all be Mormons ; and who 
 would then indict polygamists ? Who prosecute or con- 
 vict, or sentence or imprison them, whatever the consti- 
 tution might say ? 
 
 Some suppose that an amendment to the Constitution 
 of the United States, prohibiting polygamy, would effect- 
 ually destroy it even under statehood. Even this would 
 have very little effect while the population of Utah is 
 overwhelmingly Mormon ; the people would obstruct the 
 execution of any United States law against polygamy and 
 make such a constitutional provision of no practical effect. 
 
 Some of the women's Christian missionary societies of 
 the country circulated petitions against the admission of 
 Utah into the Union as a state, and in 1888 presented to 
 the United States Senate a petition containing one hun- 
 dred and two thousand names. 
 
 The Mormons labored long and desperately to win 
 statehood under this scheme. They kept a lobby from 
 Utah in Washington, and employed several eastern 
 attorneys. Arguments were made for and against 
 admission, before the Committee on Territories of the 
 United States Senate. 1 They were defeated. On March 
 26, 1888, that committee reported unanimously against 
 the admission of Utah. 
 
 1 United States Senate Documents, 188S: "Admission of Utah;" argu- 
 ments in favor by Franklin S. Richards, of Utah, pp. 1-36. 186-162; by Hon. 
 J. E. McDonald, of Indiana, p. 37; by Hon. J. M. Wilson, of Ohio, p. 58. 
 Arguments against admission by R. X. Buskin, Esq., of Utah, p. 81; by 
 Rev. M. W. Montgomery, of Minneapolis, p. 163. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 321 
 
 The impression is common that if polygamy were 
 abandoned, Mormonism would be destroyed. On the 
 contrary, polygamy is only one of the symptoms of Mor- 
 monism, although often erroneously supposed to be an 
 essential part of the system. Mormonism had grown 
 strong before polygamy was engrafted upon it. The 
 plural-wife system was the base afterthought of its 
 founder. Should polygamy be actually abandoned by 
 the Mormons its chief elements of strength would yet 
 remain. Its heathenish doctrines, its priestly rule, its 
 propagating missionary methods, its grasping financial 
 system, and its unequaled organization would continue to 
 carry it forward. When all other means have failed to 
 secure statehood for Utah, we may not be surprised to 
 hear that the Mormons have received a "revelation" 
 to give up polygamy since " the world is not yet ready 
 for it," etc. But with the history of the Mormons open 
 to the world, such a pretence will not succeed in hood- 
 winking Congress or the people. 
 
 A United States senator has asked : "Is the power of 
 the Mormon Church anything more than the power of 
 the majority?" 1 The answer is that the political power 
 of the Mormon Church in Utah has no majority nor 
 minority parties in it. It is simply a one-man power ; 
 and that one man is the head of the church. He, and 
 two or three others whom he may choose to consult, rule 
 over all Mormons with despotic sway in all things — 
 political, temporal, and religious. 
 
 "In the Mormon polity established and governing the 
 people of this territory since its settlement, the unity of 
 the church and state has been perfect and indissoluble." 2 
 
 1 United States Seriate Documents, Admission of Utah, p. 169. 
 
 2 Report of Governor West, 1888. 
 
322 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Brigham Young said : "Our ecclesiastical governmeut 
 is the government of heaven, and incorporates all govern- 
 ments on earth ; it is the fountain, the main spring, the 
 source of all light and power and government that ever 
 did or can exist ; it circumscribes the governments of 
 this world." 
 
 The Salt Luke Tribune says : "TJiere is not cm instance 
 on record where a Mormon has dared to ' disobey counsel,' 
 that he has not felt the vengeance of the church at once. 
 From Brigham Young down, the claim of the right to 
 absolutely rule the people has been insisted upon, and 
 any rebellion from that rule has meant bankruptcy, 
 ostracism, and often much worse things. 
 
 " There has not been a moment of time since the Mor- 
 mon people first landed in Utah that they have not given 
 their highest allegiance to some other power than the 
 government of the United States. 
 
 "The Mormons are not Americans. Their real alle- 
 giance is not to the government of the United States. 
 They do not believe in self-government. They are the 
 willing subjects of a king, and they make him their 
 Supreme Court by which every law of the United States 
 is construed, and whatever whim he takes, that whim 
 becomes their law. 
 
 "They have not prepared their rank and file to be 
 intelligent citizens of a republic ; rather they have taught 
 them from the cradle up that the government of the 
 Republic was an unlawful one which they or their children 
 must overthrow." 
 
 Brigham Young openly rejoiced at the news of Lincoln's 
 assassination, and publicly said that the Presidents of the 
 United States would be his boot-blacks in the next world. 
 The ill-concealed joy of the Mormon organ, The Deseret 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 323 
 
 News, at the anarchist outbreaks is evident ; and the half- 
 masting of the United States flags on Mormon public 
 buildings on the Fourth of July, 1885, will not soon be 
 forgotten. 
 
 The disgraceful laxity of the United States in dealing 
 with the Mormons during their forty years of growth in 
 a territory wholly under the control of Congress is sharply 
 turned against Congress by George Ticknor Curtis, who 
 is said to have long been an attorney for the Mormons. 
 In an argument in favor of giving statehood to Utah, he 
 says : — 
 
 ' ; Utah was organized into a territory by an act of 
 Congress passed in 1850 ; and then occurred, if not a 
 direct sanction of polygamy, what was, at least, a 
 marked manifestation of public indifference about it. 
 Brigham Young, the civil and religious leader of the 
 Mormons, was made by the government of the United 
 States territorial governor, and he held the office for 
 seven years. He did not seek it ; it was offered to him, 
 and he accepted it. Every well-informed person in the 
 United States knew that he had numerous wives, and 
 numerous families of children by his several wives. The 
 government could just as well have sent a non-Mormon 
 to be governor ; but Brigham Young was selected because 
 it was assumed that his people were to be a community 
 by themselves, and because the people of the United 
 States did not care enough about polygamy to take any 
 public action against it. This torpor and indifference 
 continued for a period of fifteen years, during which 
 plural marriages were greatly multiplied in Utah. . . . 
 
 " I fearlessly assert that the toleration extended to 
 polygamy from 1847 to 1862, and from 1862 to 1882, 
 imposed on the people and government of the United 
 
324 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 States a duty to shape their policy very differently from 
 the mode which has been lately followed." 1 
 
 The argument is this : An old thief who has long 
 escaped punishment by his own cunning and by the 
 inefficiency of the police has therefore a right to continue 
 his crimes unmolested, and also to be admitted into 
 respectable society. 
 
 The Mormons present three arguments why they should 
 be allowed to continue their " wallowing in the mire" : — 
 
 1. We are not guilty of practicing polygamy. 
 
 2. People should be left free in matters of conscience ; 
 polygamy is a part of our religion. 
 
 3. Since we have practiced polygamy for many years 
 in violation of the laws, we should therefore be permitted 
 to continue. 
 
 This argument is equal to that offered in the famous 
 kettle case, wherein a man was sued by a neighbor for 
 having cracked a large iron kettle which he had borrowed. 
 At the trial he defended himself by setting up three pleas, 
 namely : — 
 
 1. That he never had the kettle. 
 
 2. That it was cracked when he got it. 
 
 3. That it was whole when he took it home. 
 
 It may be that the American people and Congress will 
 not hereafter give the Mormon attorneys an opportunity 
 to make a plea so humiliating to our country. 
 
 "Standing face to face with the law, the leaders and 
 their obedient followers have made no concession to its 
 supremacy, and the issue is squarely maintained between 
 assumed revelations and the laws of the land." 2 
 
 In an official letter to the church, dated October 6, 
 
 1 The Forum, November, 188S. 
 
 2 Report of the Utah Commission for 1887. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 325 
 
 1886, and signed by the first presidency, John Taylor, 
 and George Q. Cannon, it was said : — 
 
 " The brethren are now lingering in prison for declin- 
 ing to repudiate their wives. It is well known that every 
 one of them would have escaped the penalties of the law 
 if they would but promise to obey the law in the future 
 as construed by the courts. They would not make a 
 promise which they did not intend to keep." 
 
 In view of the punishments inflicted upon the Mormons 
 for violating the laws against polygamy and unlawful 
 cohabitation, The Deseret News (September 4, 1886) 
 says : — 
 
 " What change has been wrought in the faith of the 
 Latter Day /Saints in regard to the principle of plural 
 marriage, persecuted as they have been of late, ostensibly 
 on this account, but really for political reasons? We 
 answer, None whatever, except to increase their faith 
 therein." 
 
 If Utah were admitted as a state, " how long would 
 affairs remain even in their present condition ? How long 
 before the presidents, apostles, elders, and the priest- 
 hood generally would parade the streets at the heads of 
 their harems ? How long would any Gentile or non-Mor- 
 mon be permitted to hold or exercise the duties of any 
 office or place of trust in the territory? How long, 
 indeed, until a system of boycotting, which the priest- 
 hood knows only too well how to institute and make 
 thoroughly efficient, would be brought into active work- 
 ing order, and the Gentile element, with its advanced 
 civilization, its trade and its traffic, be driven from 
 the territory, and the Mormon theocracy be made 
 supreme ? " l 
 
 One of the best informed men in Utah, who has 
 1 Report of the Utah Commission for 1889. 
 
326 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 resided there for many years, writes under date of Jan- 
 uary 4, 1888 : "I believe that the admission of Utah 
 into the Union as a state at this time would culminate in 
 bloodshed in less than one year after the passage of such 
 a bill. Some of us out here begin to feel like resting on 
 our oars for very weariness in this conflict. But the 
 hardy miners in Utah are beginning to talk of letting the 
 Mormons have their way, if Congress and the Executive 
 shall prove recreant and make Utah a state, and of meet- 
 ing the crisis that will come at the point of the bayonet. 
 My extensive acquaintance with the miners and with the 
 old Union and Confederate soldiers enables me to judge 
 correctly of the growing determination in this direction. 
 Such is the feeling between the loyal and disloyal ele- 
 ments here, that if a conflict comes it will be a most 
 vindictive one." 
 
 In the burning language of one of Utah's loyal citi- 
 zens : "Little as the masses believe it now, there will 
 come a time, if this monster in Utah is left to grow, 
 when there will be another call for volunteers and for 
 money ; and, as before, tens of thousands of brave 
 young men will go away, never to return ; as before, 
 there will be an enormous debt incurred ; as before, the 
 country will be hillocked with graves, and the whole land 
 will be moistened with the rain of women's tears." l 
 
 1 C. C. Goodwin, in Harper's Magazine. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 327 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE OUTLOOK. PAST MIDNIGHT IN UTAH. ATTITUDE OF 
 
 THE MORMONS. SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES. WHAT 
 
 OUGHT CONGRESS TO DO FOR UTAH? WHAT CAN 
 
 CITIZENS DO? 
 
 IN 1880 the population of Utah was 143,962, of whom 
 43,993 were foreign born, and 80,841 were born in 
 Utah. Since 1880 (to October, 1889), the foreign-born 
 population has increased by Mormon immigration 16,094. ] 
 The estimated population in 1889 was 230, 000. 2 The 
 number of votes cast in Utah at the election for members 
 of the legislative assembly in August, 1889, was as 
 follows : 3 
 
 Mormon votes 14,192 
 
 Gentile „ 6,054 
 
 Scattering ,, 66 
 
 Total 20,312 
 
 The number of registered voters in 1889 was, however, 
 31, 201. 4 
 
 There are no free public schools in Utah except in the 
 few places under Gentile control. The Commissioner of 
 Public Schools is a non-Mormon, but Congress has given 
 him so little power that he can not exercise "much influ- 
 ence on the management of the schools. He has no 
 voice in selecting the school-teachers, and hence, out of 
 about four hundred school districts in that territory, about 
 ninety per cent of the teachers are Mormons. 
 
 1 Report of Governor A. L. Thomas, 1889. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 
 
 * Report of the Utah Commission for 1889, 
 
328 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 The total number of children in Utah, July 1, 1888, 
 between the ages of six and eighteen years, was 54,953 ; 
 children of Mormon parents, 47,371 ; children of non- 
 Mormon parents, 7,582. There is a general tax for 
 school purposes and a special tax upon parents who send 
 children to the public schools. Less than two per cent 
 of the children of non-Mormon parents attend the public 
 (that is, Mormon) schools, and only four per cent of the 
 children of Mormon parents attend their own Mormon 
 public schools ; making a total attendance on the public 
 schools of less than six per cent, of the children of 
 school age in that territory. These Mormon schools are 
 of low grade, and are kept open only a small portion of 
 the year. Several religious denominations maintain in 
 many places in Utah free Christian schools of a high 
 grade, and this competition has improved the quality and 
 lengthened the terms of the Mormon schools. 
 
 Some of the Mormons have what may be termed 
 " polygamous schools." There is one such ten miles out 
 from Salt Lake City called " Mr. Sessions' school." Mr. 
 Sessions has had a large number of wives and is said to 
 have above fifty children. This is his private school for 
 his own " select" family circle. Upon a certain clay in 
 November, 1887, there were thirty-four children present 
 who were, the teacher said, the children and grandchildren 
 of Mr. Sessions. This teacher was quite illiterate. 
 
 The irresistible and permanent forces at work in Utah 
 for its renovation are the missionary schools and Chris- 
 tian churches. Under the intolerant rule of Brigham 
 Young the pioneer missionaries took their lives in their 
 hands. The Sunday-school superintendent of the Con- 
 gregational mission was assassinated upon the streets of 
 Salt Lake City ; a Presbyterian missionary was repeatedly 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 329 
 
 threatened with the loss of his life, while the Methodist 
 and Episcopalian and all other early missionaries were 
 necessarily the stuff of which martyrs are made. At first 
 the Mormons could best be reached through free schools 
 for their children. The schools were followed with reli- 
 gious services, and later with preaching. So much pro- 
 gress has thus been made by the teacher and missionary 
 that for several years past the whole territory has been 
 open to the preaching of the gospel. 
 
 There are heroes and heroines in these latter days 
 among the Christian missionary workers in Utah. No 
 foreign missionary service requires a more self-sacrificing 
 spirit. The laborer in Utah has peculiar burdens which 
 are found in no other field : he is isolated from congenial 
 society ; the vulgarities and profanity of Mormons and 
 their children surround families with injurious influences ; 
 and a moral miasma exists in the whole social atmosphere 
 which must be experienced to be understood. The de- 
 lusion and immoralities against which they labor yield 
 slowly to the disintegrating influences of the gospel. 
 One great burden is the strained, unnatural tension in 
 society in the relations between the Mormons and non- 
 Mormons. Mutual suspicion exists. To be fully ap- 
 preciated this must be felt by long residence in Utah. 
 The Mormon people hate Gentile contact at every point. 
 They cordially hate all Gentiles, as a whole and in detail. 
 A Mormon never employs a Gentile, except he be an attor- 
 ney. A Mormon woman stands aloof from and never calls 
 first upon her Gentile neighbor, and makes her return calls 
 brief and few. While there are exceptions to all these 
 statements, yet the rule holds that Mormons " have no 
 dealings with" Gentiles. When a United States marshal 
 visits a village and arrests a polygamist, or the United 
 
ooO The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 States Court sends one such to the penitentiary, the whole 
 Mormon community is embittered with anger, and sullen 
 toward the Gentile missionary, or isolated lady teachers, 
 who are devoting their lives to benefit these same 
 Mormons. This state of society makes the missionary 
 service very difficult and wearing upon the nerves and 
 spirits. 
 
 The missionary societies begin their schools thus : 
 A lady teacher arrives at some Mormon town an entire 
 stranger. After engaging board in a Mormon family and 
 renting such a room as can be found for a school, she 
 gives notice that she will open a free school. 
 
 The school is opened with perhaps only two or three, 
 possibly half a dozen, small children. Not infrequently 
 the opening is much less auspicious. In one case the 
 courageous young lady patiently passed the slow hours of 
 five days in her solitary school-room, and not one pupil 
 had yet appeared. Going to the post-office that evening, 
 the postmaster, a Mormon, asked how her school was 
 prospering. AYith starting tears she told him the truth. 
 Apparently out of pity at first, he began to send his own 
 children, and the school was soon full to overflowing. In 
 other instances, one, two, and sometimes more, days have 
 passed with an empty school-room before any of the 
 Mormons, however poor, would dare to risk their chil- 
 dren in a school taught by a Gentile. For the first few 
 days the children are closely questioned upon reaching 
 home in the evening about what the teacher taught them, 
 and especially whether she said anything about Mormon- 
 ism. Finding that she is not attacking their faith and 
 that she is a very kind and skillful teacher, confidence is 
 soon established, and the school fills up and goes forward 
 peacefully. The Mormon leaders often oppose these 
 
Tlie Mormon Delusion. 
 
 331 
 
 schools, and in some instances have preached against 
 them. 
 
 The different denominations had, in Utah, for the year 
 ending June 30, 1889, the following schools : l 
 
 
 1889. 
 
 1888. 
 
 Denomination. 
 
 o © 
 
 
 No. of 
 Pupils. 
 
 
 to 
 
 ■—> u 
 
 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 21 
 
 32 
 
 6 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 50 
 
 48 
 35 
 62 
 27 
 5 
 
 150 
 
 900 
 
 2,490 
 
 1,396 
 
 2,150 
 
 800 
 
 75 
 
 2 
 
 7 
 
 22 
 
 20 
 
 33 
 
 5 
 
 1 
 
 3 
 
 50 
 38 
 61 
 61 
 22 
 
 3 
 
 140 
 
 
 1,000 
 
 Congregational 
 
 Methodist 
 
 Presbyterian 
 
 Protestant Episcopal . . 
 Swedish Lutheran .... 
 
 1,883 
 
 1,649 
 
 1,925 
 
 800 
 
 45 
 
 Total 
 
 93 
 
 230 
 
 7,961 
 
 90 
 
 238 
 
 7,442 
 
 "Of the 2,490 scholars enrolled in the Congregational 
 schools, 1,035 were the children of Mormon parents; of 
 the 1,396 scholars enrolled in the Methodist schools, 291 
 were the children of Mormon parents." 2 
 
 Twelve or fifteen of these schools are academies, but 
 most of them correspond to the primary public schools in 
 the States. 
 
 The success of these Christian schools, and the fear 
 that Congress may place all the public schools of the 
 territory under the control of anti-Mormons, have led 
 the Mormons to begin private church schools. 
 
 A leading Mormon recently said : — 
 
 " Those who are not of us are becoming numerous and 
 wealthy in our midst, and they are obtaining control of 
 our schools. We must therefore establish schools where 
 
 Report of the Governor of Utah, 1889. 
 
 'Ibid. 
 
332 
 
 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 our youth can be taught by, and made, Latter Day 
 Saints." 
 
 The president of the church also wrote, June 8, 
 1888 : — 
 
 " We should have schools where the Bible, the Book 
 of Mormon, and the Book of Doctrines and Covenants 
 can be used as text-books, and where the principles 
 of our religion may form part of the teachings of the 
 schools." 
 
 The report of Governor A. L. Thomas of Utah, for 
 1889, says : " The Mormon people, with almost entire 
 unanimity, are quietly preparing for denominational 
 schools, in which their children may be taught Mormon 
 theology in addition to the ordinary branches of educa- 
 tion. 
 
 "It is very plain that the church has decided to take 
 its place as an enemy of the public school system and 
 the principles which are its foundation. The remedy for 
 such an evil is obvious. Congress should at once place 
 the control of the public schools in the hands of those 
 who are disposed to be friendly to the public school 
 system." 
 
 The number of Christian ministers and churches in 
 Utah on June 1, 1888, was as follows: 1 
 
 Denomination. 
 
 Number 
 of Ministers. 
 
 Baptist 
 
 Catholic 
 
 Congregational . . . 
 
 Methodist 
 
 Presbyterian .... 
 Protestant Episcopal 
 Swedish Lutheran . 
 
 Total 
 
 Hfeport of the Utah Commission for 1S8S. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 333 
 
 These churches, as the schools, are reaching the people 
 who have been Mormons. Some churches have very few 
 members who have been reared in Mormonism ; others 
 have a membership almost wholly coming from Mormon 
 sources ; and generally a very large per cent have come 
 out from such influences. Some Christian churches have 
 in their membership grandchildren of Brigham Young and 
 of other old-time Mormon leaders. 
 
 These religious denominations are expending about 
 two hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually to carry 
 on these missionary schools and churches in Utah. 
 
 The Christian sentiment of the people of this country 
 has all along been far in advance of Congress in its 
 determination to drive Mormonism from our body politic. 
 Knowing that "the gospel of Christ is the power of 
 God," they have never doubted their ability to supplant 
 the Utah Evil with a Christian society. After waiting 
 twenty years for Congress to take some decisive steps 
 ao-ainst this unlawful monster, the churches bea;an to 
 send missionaries to begin the task which the government 
 had so long neglected. Missionaries began their work in 
 Salt Lake City in 1865, nine years before the Poland bill 
 became a law, and seventeen years before the passage of 
 the Edmunds law. The military and legislative arms of 
 the government should first have made Utah a safe place 
 for Christian men and women to do missionary service 
 in. But Congress moved with amazing slowness toward 
 any effective legislation. 
 
 A very discouraging fact in missionary work in Utah is 
 that nearly all Mormons when the} 7 give up Mormonism 
 become atheists. This is the case to so great an extent 
 as to be practically universal. The} 7 have been taught to 
 regard the "revelations" of Joseph Smith as of higher 
 
334 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 authority than the Bible, and when they give up these 
 they declare that they are " done with all religions." 
 
 "At the Mormon annual conference held in Provo, 
 Utah, April 4-8, 1886, one of the leading speakers con- 
 fessed with a sad heart that one third of all the boys and 
 young men in Utah between fifteen and thirty years of age 
 ivere infidels.'" l 
 
 No braver people or better citizens ever stood in the 
 front ranks of an army in battle than the non-Mormon, 
 or " Gentile," people of Utah. For many years they 
 have borne the brunt of battle in this struggle with 
 Mormonism. To do so requires courage of a higher 
 and more enduring quality than to enlist in an army with 
 banners. 
 
 There are nearly fifty thousand of these citizens ; they 
 are loyal and law-abiding ; they are in Utah as proper, 
 permanent residents ; their homes, families, and business 
 interests are there ; most of them have resided there niany 
 years ; they have done tenfold more to develop the material 
 interests of the territory than the Mormons have ; and 
 they are above the average in intelligence. Take a single 
 example : one academy in Salt Lake City has, among its 
 trustees, fourteen men who are residents of Utah ; of 
 these, eight are members of a Christian church ; eight 
 were born in New England, and five in New York and 
 Michigan ; three are graduates of Amherst College ; nine 
 are literary men ; four have been members of legislatures 
 in the States ; seven have held honorable positions in the 
 United States army or in government service ; their aver- 
 age residence in Utah has been thirteen years. Three 
 hundred and fifty of these residents of Utah are the 
 cultured missionaries and teachers of the several religious 
 denominations. 
 
 !The Mormon Problem, p. 134. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 335 
 
 These non-Moraion citizens are at the focus-point of 
 the contest between Monnonism and the United States. 
 They are doing battle for their country, and for the whole 
 country. And yet it is these citizens whom ex-United 
 States Senator Joseph E. McDonald, of Indiana, an 
 attorney for the Mormons, seeks to stigmatize as "a 
 set of adventurers," in his efforts to break the force of 
 their united opposition to admitting Utah as a state. 
 
 These loyal citizens call upon the people of the United 
 States and upon Congress for aid in this conflict in which 
 all the land is equally interested. 
 
 Ex-United States Attorney W. H. Dickson, of Salt 
 Lake City, in his address to the Grand Army soldiers 
 en route to California, said: "We daily feel that we 
 need the support and assistance of the loyal citizens of 
 the United States everywhere. We hope that on your 
 return you will demand of Congress redress for the 
 mighty evils that curse this territory." 
 
 No sketch of the Gentile forces seeking the renovation 
 of Utah would be complete without noting the work of 
 The Salt Lake City Daily Tribune. For many years it 
 has exerted a wide-reaching influence for the emancipa- 
 tion of that territory from its peculiar curse. It is edited 
 with conspicuous ability by Judge C. C. Goodwin, whose 
 editorial style is remarkably original and beautiful. The 
 country at large owes much to the managers of that 
 newspaper for the signal courage and fidelit}" with which 
 they have, through many dark years, kept alive and afloat 
 in that territory the thoughts which cluster around the 
 American flag, until it is already "past midnight in 
 Utah," and the morning glow shines faintly over the 
 mountains which gather about the Great Salt Lake. 
 
 Judge Charles S. Zane, of the United States Supreme 
 
oob The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 Court in Utah, deserves special honor for his patriotic 
 services on the bench. Coming to the supreme bench in 
 Utah with the new Edmunds law to administer, with no 
 precedents to assist, and with multiplied obstacles sur- 
 rounding the just operation of the courts by means of 
 Mormon jurors and Mormon perjury, his clear vision of 
 the great principles of law and his fearless courage at 
 once lifted the court above its embarrassments and set 
 in motion the first series of court trials in Utah which 
 have shown to the Mormons that the United States 
 government can and will enforce its own laws. A world- 
 wide scattering and hiding of Mormon leaders and over 
 nine hundred convictions of Mormon criminals are some 
 of the results. 
 
 " His coming marked an epoch in the history of Utah. 
 From the first day that he presided over his court here, 
 the men who, up to his coming, had always believed in 
 their ability to defeat certain of their country's laws 
 began to lose faith in their charm. They realized that 
 one was here that could never be coaxed, bribed, or 
 intimidated, one who had no guide but duty, and who 
 would follow the path marked out by duty whether it led 
 upward to fortune and fame or down to defeat and 
 despair. 
 
 l ' He was the Columbus that opened the way to the 
 new Utah which is slowly coming into view, and his 
 fame is secure, no matter what may come. He has 
 humbly, faithfully, and bravely wrought a mighty work 
 here ; through the fiery furnace he walked and no smell 
 of fire attached to his garments, and the light that shone 
 down from his life has made Utah brighter." l 
 
 The facts that during the last two or three years many 
 
 1 The Salt Lake City Daily Tribune. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 337 
 
 Mormons have been punished for their violations of 
 United States laws, and that at the municipal elections 
 in Salt Lake City and Ogden during 1889 the Gentiles 
 came into political control of those cities, have led many 
 to the hasty conclusion that " the Mormon problem is 
 about solved." Some writers have gone so far as to say 
 that " the Mormons are in full retreat." 
 
 Such a conclusion is not warranted by the facts. That 
 desirable goal has not been reached ; but, rather, it is 
 yet many years in the future. Some encouraging pro- 
 gress has been made toward breaking the limbs and 
 uprooting this long-lived Utah Evil, but many slow years 
 will yet be stretched out before the American people can 
 say, " The power of Mormonism is broken and the end of 
 this wickedness is at hand." 
 
 Let us look at the actual facts. The organization of 
 the Mormon Church remains intact. Its enormous in- 
 come from tithing and its world-wide missionary opera- 
 tions move forward the same as in its palmiest days. 
 The Mormons are substantially the unit in all things that 
 the} 7 have always been. 
 
 The collection of the Mormon tithing tax is still pushed 
 as vigorously as during the "Reign of Terror" under 
 Brigham Young. 
 
 " The tithing yard is an institution that facilitates, so 
 far as can be known, a petty jobbery of public plunder- 
 ing. It does an immense business ; it receives as tithing 
 everything produced in the territory, and this is disposed 
 of in a variety of ways. If the city is doing any public 
 work the poor laborer gets his pay in tithing orders. 
 How this is settled for with the city we are not permitted 
 to know. These orders are worth in money about fifty 
 cents on the dollar, but are worth their full value for 
 
338 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 anything they have at the tithing yard. The poor in the 
 different wards of the city are helped from this source on 
 the bishop's order, the head church officials have an 
 account there, and the main office has the appearance 
 and magnitude of a bank. 
 
 "When the clerks at the 'coop' are paid off, an 
 official of the church goes along to get the tenth of the 
 amount paid them, and up to the present year the 
 employees of the Utah Central, Northern and Southern 
 Railroads did the same. In every branch of the city 
 government this tithing is collected, where money is paid, 
 and so intimate are these relations that they confirm the 
 suspicion of being the same institution. The heads of 
 these many. departments are filled with the heads of the 
 church or their sons or their brothers or their uncles, 
 beginning with the Young family in the best offices and 
 going downward in regular order and degree. So born 
 and bred are they to this state of things that they can't 
 think it is possible to change it, but the indications are 
 that the change will come, and what a change! — suffi- 
 cient in Mexico to make a revolution." l 
 
 The Mormon Church has yielded none of its claims to 
 supersede all churches and governments of the earth, 
 and has abandoned not one of its peculiar doctrines. 
 Even polygamy is none the less believed in and advo- 
 cated. The Mormons openly say that if they practice 
 it less it is only because they are compelled to obey laws 
 against w T hich they protest. 
 
 Only a very few transgressors, compared with the whole 
 number, have yet been punished, and most of these con- 
 victed criminals have had punishments so light as to 
 indicate that the laws and courts have been merely aiming 
 
 1 Salt Lake correspondence. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 339 
 
 to frighten the Mormons a little rather than to make 
 them know once for all that this wickedness must stop. 
 By the present laws their crimes are outlawed in three 
 years ; and when there is danger of arrest they go, for 
 a time, to distant states or to foreign lands on a mission 
 to gather new converts. From the beginning of the 
 anti-polygamy laws in 1862 down to September 1, 1889, 
 only twenty-four persons had been convicted of polyg- 
 amy. The whole Mormon community still stands an 
 undivided unit in obstructing the enforcement of the 
 United States laws. 
 
 None of these facts indicates that the Mormons are 
 defeated or changed, much less " in full retreat." 
 
 On the other hand, the Gentile forces in Utah increase 
 by very slow degrees. At the election in 1889 for mem- 
 bers of the legislative assembly of Utah, out of the thirty- 
 six members only eight Gentiles were chosen ; and the 
 Gentiles had been having five members for some years 
 previously. In twenty-one out of the twenty-four coun- 
 ties in Utah the Mormons are in a large majority ; and 
 in 256 of the 278 election precincts the Mormons were 
 in full control in 1889. * 
 
 Almost insuperable obstacles in the way of the Gentiles 
 gaining control of Utah exist in the Mormon ownership 
 of the tillable lands and the water necessary to their 
 irrigation, and their refusal to sell to Gentiles. Thus it 
 comes about that nearly all the Gentiles in Utah reside 
 in the cities and towns or in mining camps. " As a rule 
 they do not own or occupy any of the agricultural lands, 
 and are not engaged in agriculture. Nearly all the land 
 under cultivation, and the water that can be used to 
 irrigate it without great expense, are owned and appro- 
 
 1 Report of Governor A. L. Thomas, 1889. 
 
340 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 priated by the Mormons, and as they hold and own the 
 land and water, they hold and own Utah. The strict 
 Mormons regard the invasion of Utah soil by Gentiles 
 somewhat as the Crusaders regarded the occupancy of 
 the Holy Land by the Saracens, and are advised by their 
 leaders not to sell their lands to Gentiles." l 
 
 A very significant fact showing the undiminished 
 strength and the propagandist spirit of the Mormons is 
 seen in their colonizing in adjacent territories. They 
 not only control Utah by an overwhelming majority, but 
 are vigorous enough to send off large colonies with which 
 to engraft their system upon the virgin territories lying in 
 the Rocky Mountain range. A dying faith struggling 
 at home against enormous odds does not overflow with 
 vigorous young colonies for other territories. So strong 
 have they already become in Idaho, that it is quite 
 doubtful if that territory should yet be admitted into the 
 Union as a state, lest the Mormon population, voting as 
 a unit, be a balance of power sufficient to control and 
 corrupt her. 
 
 "While it can not be denied that progress is being 
 made, and more rapidly, too, than at any previous time 
 in the history of the territory, it will be seen that those 
 who are of the opinion that Utah has passed from under 
 the Mormon power are mistaken. The time may come 
 when the Gentiles will be in a majority, but it will be 
 many years hence." 2 
 
 "As to the general situation there is great progress 
 here, 3 but time is required to see just whither we are 
 tending. The Gentile majorities in Salt Lake Cit}' and 
 Ogden do not mean that the Mormon Church has lost 
 
 1 Report of A. L. Thomas, Governor of Utah, in October, 1889. 2 Ibid, 
 s Rev. J. B. Thrall, of Salt Lake City, October, 1889. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 341 
 
 its grip upon the masses. It means progress, hope, 
 daybreak — and that is all. That church, though sur- 
 prised, dazed, and alarmed, is not in retreat. It never 
 will retreat unless forced to do so by sheer stress of 
 numbers and authority." 
 
 " The greater number still adhere to the old faith with 
 all its teachings and practices. The church and people 
 stand to-day where they stood when the first colony was 
 planted in the Salt Lake Valley." 1 
 
 At the conference of the Mormon Church held in 
 Salt Lake City in October, 1888, Elder John Nicholson 
 preached about the prosecutions, and said : — 
 
 "It is to the glory of the Saints that they have the 
 opportunity to show their faith ; we don't know but in 
 this contest we may be overwhelmed, but we do Jcnoiv that 
 we will not go back one step.'" 
 
 "The Mormon delegate from Utah in Congress, John 
 T. Caine, reports, August, 1888, to the House of Repre- 
 sentatives that ' it has been proven in judicial proceedings 
 that the Mormon Church no longer gives permission for 
 plural marriages.' No one knows better than Mr. Caine 
 that no such thing has been proven. He further knows 
 that plural marriages are still being regularly celebrated ; 
 that the fact is known to hundreds and thousands of 
 people ; and that from the head of the church no sign 
 has been made of any determination to relinquish or even 
 to suspend the operations of that tenet of the Mormon 
 faith which the leaders hold to be one of the sacraments 
 ordained of God." 2 
 
 " In the opinion of the Commission, the influences 
 brought to bear under the act of Congress creating it 
 
 i Hon. A. L. Thomas, Governor of Utah, 1889. 
 2 The Salt Lake Tribune, August 28, 1888. 
 
342 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 and those amendatory thereof, together with the vigorous 
 administration of the criminal law by the courts, have 
 had a marked influence in restraint of polygamy. That 
 which a few years ago was practiced openly, and flaunted 
 in the face of the world as the boast and pride of this 
 peculiar people, has been driven to cover and the secrecy 
 of other crimes. If plural marriages are now celebrated, 
 it is done in the secret chambers of the temples and 
 endowment houses, where the light of the sun never 
 enters, and no eyes but those of priests and neophytes 
 are allowed to witness the ceremonies. 
 
 "If polygamy is practiced, it is with the secrecy with 
 which the burglar guards his house-breaking and the thief 
 his larcenies. Few convictions are had for polygamy. 
 Few polygamous marriages can be proven within three 
 years, the period of limitation. 
 
 "Fear of punishment for their crimes, dread of further 
 and more stringent legislation, and a policy dictated by 
 the hope of statehood at an early period are sufficient 
 motives to account for the prudent submission that is 
 shown at present." l 
 
 ' ' The Mormon question is not growing simpler : it is 
 growing graver as settlement increases in Utah and Idaho 
 and as these territories are taking a place in national 
 affairs." 2 
 
 Concerning the discouraging and remedial features of 
 the work for the renovation of Utah, the governor of 
 that territory, Arthur L. Thomas, than whom no man 
 better knows the real situation there, says : 3 
 
 " I believe it is the intention of the American people 
 
 1 Report of the Utah Commission for 1889. 
 
 2 The New York Tribune, December, 1889, 
 
 3 Report of the Governor of Utah, 1889. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 343 
 
 to extirpate polygamy and its kindred evils from their 
 land, and that Congress is determined to give force and 
 effect to this intention by appropriate legislation. 
 
 " Encouraging Gentile immigration has been suo^ested. 
 The walls are up against it unless a great increase in 
 mining, the establishment of manufacturing on a large 
 scale, or the founding and enlargement of industrial 
 pursuits other than agriculture take place. The found- 
 ing, example, and teaching of Christian churches has 
 been recommended. Several denominations have estab- 
 lished churches, but the converts from Mormonism are 
 none too numerous. Establish schools throughout the 
 territory, others say. This has been done to some extent 
 by various religious denominations, but the progress is 
 slow in producing any marked result. It has been sug- 
 gested that the courts should be increased and offences 
 vigorously prosecuted. The government has been for 
 years well represented by able and efficient officers, and 
 the result has been important, but not decisive. This 
 course has not changed opinion, but has caused greater 
 care in concealing offences. 
 
 ' ' Others suggest the taking of all political power from 
 the church, and call attention to the fact that this power 
 is used by the church to strengthen the position of the 
 leaders socially, politically, and financially. They point 
 with emphasis to the fact that the most lucrative county 
 offices in the territory are continued in certain families, 
 descending, like the priesthood, by inheritance, from 
 father to son, to the exclusion of the ' common people,' 
 and also say that a high position in the priesthood is 
 generally accompanied by an equally high position in the 
 political and business world, secured by church influence, 
 until religion, politics, and business are so intermingled 
 
344 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 that it is difficult to draw the line where the one begins 
 and the other ends ; and this will continue to be so until 
 the strong hand of the federal government is interposed 
 to force an effectual divorce of church and state 
 
 " This suggestion to strip the church of political power 
 is met by the objection that it is an attempt to punish the 
 Mormon people for their religious views, and because of 
 this is unconstitutional. 
 
 " But if a religious sect can adopt and practice some- 
 thing prohibited by law and claim immunity on account 
 of religious belief, it may, or other sects may, extend 
 religious belief and practices to cover the whole domain 
 of criminal law, and crimes and religion would become 
 synonymous terms. The Mormons believe in and prac- 
 tice polygamy, and claim it is justified by revelation, and 
 therefore a part of their religion. The United States 
 punishes the offence and calls it a crime, and what the 
 government calls crime the Mormon Church calls religion 
 — claims immunity for it as a religious belief, and to that 
 extent swallows up the domain of the law. 
 
 " I recognize, however, how serious the situation is, 
 and how much is involved in the duty of changing the 
 attitude of a perfectly disciplined host. I do not care to 
 interpose any suggestions beyond echoing the voice of 
 the loyal people here, which insists that what is unlawful 
 in the Mormon system must be extirpated, that there 
 must be no relaxation ; on the contrary, should the 
 present laws prove inadequate, and the Mormon people 
 continue in their present attitude, then the government 
 should not hesitate to provide some form of government 
 for Utah ivhich will be patriotic and wise enough to do what 
 is right. 
 
 4t In my opinion, expressing to the government my 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 345 
 
 best judgment, I do not hesitate to say that any tempor- 
 izing policy which leaves the church in a position to 
 control the political policy of the territory is only delay- 
 ing the final settlement, and that future legislation should 
 be aimed at the political power of the church, which has 
 been the main pillar of its strength in Utah. 
 
 " The Utah problem is wholly new in America, and not 
 so easily solved as those unacquainted with all the facts 
 might suppose; and its laterals reach to the mooted 
 questions of unrestricted immigration, cheap citizenship, 
 and whether in this country personal rights have not been 
 hedged so closely that at times public danger may ensue." 
 
 What ought Congress to do for Utah ? 
 
 1. Congress should prohibit by law all Mormon immi- 
 grants from landing on American soil, and disfranchise 
 all Mormons in United States territories. 
 
 In view of Judge Anderson's decision that the Mor- 
 mon Church, its teachings and its obligations, are dis- 
 loyal, the way is legally open for such a righteous law. 
 Let the inflow of foreign Mormons into this land be 
 stopped, and let the political power of Mormonism in 
 the territories be crushed by their own disloyalty. 
 
 2. Congress should enact a law which would place the 
 public schools of Utah under the control of the United 
 States. 
 
 For five successive years the Utah Commission has 
 asked that a law embracing eighteen provisions be 
 passed, and of these Congress has yet enacted only five. 
 The Commission also "recommends, as a measure of 
 great importance, the passage of a law conferring upon 
 the governor of the territory the authority to appoint the 
 following county officers : selectmen, clerks, assessors, 
 recorders, and superintendents of district schools." This 
 
346 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 law would place the issue aud record of marriage licenses, 
 recording of deeds, and the "supervision of the public 
 schools, in the hands of persons in sympathy with the 
 efforts of the government to extirpate polygamy." 
 
 The prompt passage of such a law is vitally important. 
 The common-school teachers of the whole territory would 
 theu be non-Mormons ; schools would be free and elevated 
 in grade, and no longer, as they now do, inculcate the 
 degrading tenets of the Mormon Church. This would 
 also relieve the religious denominations of this country 
 of the heavy burden of maintaining free schools in that 
 territory, and the} 7 could concentrate their efforts on the 
 higher schools and on the missionary work. It is time 
 that the various religious bodies protested to Congress 
 vigorously against this burden and injustice, so needless 
 if Congress would enact the laws so evidently required. 
 It is now costing the benevolences of the Christian 
 churches of this country about a quarter of a million 
 dollars annually for missionary work in Utah, most of 
 which is expended in sustaining free schools. These 
 ought manifestly to be maintained all over the territory 
 by enactment of Congress and at public expense. 
 
 " All the managers of these missionary schools express 
 a desire to give up their work in all except academic 
 departments just as soon as the public schools are 
 raised to their proper standard and made in reality free 
 schools." ] 
 
 Bishop Leonard, of the Episcopal Church, says (in 
 1889) : l ' I believe the day is not far distant, especially 
 in the larger towns, when we may feel that our mission 
 in sustaining free schools has passed." 
 
 If the religious societies would turn some of their 
 
 1 The Salt Lake Tribune. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 347 
 
 attention to Congress they could soon secure suitable 
 free public schools for Utah, and could then use their 
 missionary funds for more distinctively Christian work. 
 
 3. Congress ought to so legislate as to give special 
 encouragement to loyal citizens to emigrate to Utah. 
 
 If one hundred thousand loyal people were to settle 
 there, Congress might then safely admit Utah to statehood 
 and leave to her own citizens, to education and Christian 
 missions, the settlement of the Mormon question. 
 
 Although most of the five hundred thousand acres of 
 cultivated lands in Utah and the water to irrigate them 
 are now in the hands of Mormons who are instructed 
 not to sell to G-entiles, yet there still remains in Utah 
 some five hundred thousand acres * of suitable lands for 
 cultivation if Congress would aid their irrigation, and 
 prevent them from being taken up by Mormons. Under 
 Judge Anderson's decision no Mormon should be allowed 
 a patent to any public lands. The cheapest and best 
 way for Congress to solve the Mormon problem is to 
 abundantly irrigate these unoccupied valleys and provide 
 an ample supply of water for the mines, and in every 
 proper way stimulate Gentile emigration to Utah. 
 
 " If the government would expend one hundred thou- 
 sand dollars annually in supplying its lands in Utah with 
 water, the people to settle the lands so supplied would 
 be Gentiles, and a few years of that kind of work would 
 fit the territory for statehood and the trouble of the gen- 
 eral government would be over. Laws to withhold citizen 
 papers and to prevent Mormons from hereafter obtaining 
 title to lands ought to be passed as soon as Congress 
 meets. This plan would do more to arrest the spread of 
 Mormonism than any other one device. Mormon mis- 
 
 1 Report of the Governor of Utah, 1889. 
 
348 The Mormon Delusion. 
 
 sionaries would swiftly lose their power to convert dupes 
 to their cause, for it is a material, oftener than it is a 
 religious, instinct that first draws nine out of every ten 
 Mormon converts this way." 1 
 
 The climate of Utah is most mild and charming ; fruits 
 and vegetables grow there as in a garden in the south ; 
 healing hot springs gush forth from the feet of her hills ; 
 rich metals vein her mountains ; the G-reat Salt Lake is 
 stored upon the summit of her bosom ; her scenery is 
 varied and sublime. With such natural attractions in 
 Utah-, Congress ought to add such other incentives 
 as would pour one hundred thousand loyal citizens into 
 that territory within three years. 
 
 What can the private citizen do for Utah ? 
 
 When Mormon elders come into his vicinity he can see 
 that they are exposed and driven away ; he can circulate 
 anti-Mormon literature ; with his prayers and money he 
 can help to sustain the missionaries at the front who are 
 spending their lives in Utah that this evil may be sup- 
 planted with the gospel of Christ ; he can write to his 
 members of Congress and circulate petitions asking that 
 suitable laws be passed for Utah ; or he can himself 
 emigrate to Utah and join in the direct work. 
 
 If all the facts set forth in these pages were widely 
 known to the people of this country, the very heavens 
 would reverberate with an explosion of indignation from 
 honest men and women which would make the " ever- 
 lasting mountains " of Utah to rock to and fro, and smoke 
 with burning. 
 
 Who can read all the foregoing without a feeling of 
 burning shame for our country, that Congress has not 
 earlier taken action, and does not now adopt more radical 
 
 1 The Salt Lake Tribune. 
 
The Mormon Delusion. 349 
 
 measures ? An old resident of Salt Lake City once said : 
 "It is very difficult for a patriotic citizen to live in Utah 
 and maintain that respect for the government of his coun- 
 try which every citizen ought to feel." 
 
 The author would urge upon Congress and upon the 
 humane citizens of this Republic, and upon Christian 
 people everywhere, that their sympathy and help are due 
 to the common people among the Mormons, and especially 
 to the young and to the children. These are not to blame 
 for the wrongs of Mormonism. Most of them are sincere 
 and are better than their system. In most cases they 
 were originally deceived into it, or have been born into 
 it, and know very little of anything better. They have 
 been kept in ignorance, away from acquaintance with 
 better society, and have been taught to hate Gentiles as 
 enemies and most wicked people. Statesmanship and 
 Christianity alike require that they be henceforward pro- 
 tected with a strong arm from their oppressors, and that 
 the doorways of education and the gospel be opened to 
 them. These deluded people have fallen among thieves, 
 and the neighborly deeds of the Good Samaritan are much 
 needed. 
 
 Let him who thinks that the Mormon Problem is almost 
 solved be undeceived. Even when Congress and the 
 courts shall have done their utmost, it will take half a 
 century yet of the gospel in the hands of missionaries 
 and teachers to dig up the roots of this evil. The public 
 has not yet grasped the proportions of this problem. The 
 present laws and Christian forces at work in Utah still 
 have a problem before them much like that which a single 
 company of sappers and miners would have who should 
 undertake to dig down the Wahsatch Mountain range 
 with pick and spade. 
 
350 Addenda. 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 By the decision of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States (February 3, 1890), the constitutionality of the 
 so-called "Idaho Test Oath Law" was upheld. This 
 law was passed by the Idaho Territorial Legislature in 
 1884, and its object is to disfranchise all persons belong- 
 ing to any organization which inculcates the doctrines of 
 bigamy, polygamy, celestial or plural marriage, or those 
 of any system opposed to the laws of the United States ; 
 in short, to disfranchise all Mormons. The effect of this 
 decision is far-reaching. It indicates that, when a test 
 case is raised, the Supreme Court will probably hold that 
 all Mormons are disfranchised by virtue of their member- 
 ship in the disloyal Mormon Church. AVhen that point 
 shall have been reached, the political power of the Mor- 
 mons will be at an end. 
 
 The decision above referred to also includes an affirma- 
 tion of the constitutionality of the Edmunds-Tucker law 
 against polygamy, and which provides also for the seiz- 
 ing of the property illegally held by the Mormon Church, 
 as shown on pages 294-297. 
 
 The great prominence which the struggle in Utah 
 against Mormonism has gained has prevented the public 
 from following the various steps of a similar and most 
 interesting contest which has been going on in Idaho Ter- 
 ritory during the past ten years. While the principles 
 involved in the struggle have been the same as those in 
 
Addenda. 351 
 
 Utah, yet the conditions have been widely different, and 
 there have been no precedents. 
 
 The Mormons, bound by an oath " to avenge the blood 
 of the Prophet Joseph upon this nation, and to teach this 
 vengeance to our children's children unto the fifth genera- 
 tion," began to settle in Idaho and were soon able, by 
 voting as a unit, to hold the balance of power between 
 the Republican and Democratic parties in that territory. 
 Always ready to affiliate, for the time being, with any 
 party that will help to give them power, they united 
 their forces in Idaho with the Democrats, and were thus 
 able, in 1880, to control the legislature by a large ma- 
 jority. A bill introduced for the suppression of polyg- 
 amy was promptly defeated. Governor Neil, in two 
 messages to the legislature, warned them against the 
 increasing power of the law-defying Mormon element. 
 The Democrats soon learned that the Mormons were 
 only making tools of them, and in 1882 Hon. Fred T. 
 Dubois, a Republican, was chosen delegate to Congress, 
 and has been able and untiring in his efforts to break the 
 Mormon power in Idaho and Utah. In 1884 the Repub- 
 licans and Democrats united their forces against the 
 Mormons and elected an anti-Mormon legislature. It 
 was this legislature that passed the famous anti-Mormon 
 test oath law which the United States Supreme Court has 
 just sustained. This decision prostrates the political 
 power of the Mormons in Idaho, and she will be admitted 
 into the Union with her anti-Mormon constitution. But 
 the loyal citizens of Utah, being in a small minority, 
 must patiently and heroically continue their long-drawn 
 contest until the courts shall disfranchise the Mormons, 
 or until there shall be a great immigration to Utah of 
 respectable citizens. 
 
352 Addenda. 
 
 A municipal election of much importance occurred in 
 Salt Lake City, February 10, 1890. The issue was 
 clearly made as to whether the Mormons or the anti- 
 Mormons should control the city ; the campaign was long 
 and very exciting ; and the anti-Mormon citizens gained 
 a decided victory. The two chief cities of Utah — Salt 
 Lake and Ogclen — are now under the political control 
 of the non-Mormons. The dawn advances apace. 
 
Index. 
 
 353 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Aliens, Mormon, can not become 
 citizens of the United States, 299. 
 
 Anderson, Judge, decision of, 299. 
 
 Anthon, Professor, 20. 
 
 Atonement. See "Blood Atone- 
 ment." 
 
 Bank, the Mormon, 39. 
 
 Bennett, Dr. John C, 49. 
 
 Bible, The, and polygamy, 229. 
 
 Bible, The Golden, "origin of, 18, 27; 
 review of, 246. 
 
 Bible, The Mormon, 18, 27, 246. 
 
 " Blood Atonement," 161, 166, 168, 
 179, 199, 305. 
 
 Book, The, of Mormon, 17, 19, 22, 23, 
 25, 28; review of, 246. 
 
 Buchanan, President, 84. 
 
 Burton, Mary, 109; story of "hand- 
 cart" brigade, 124, 129; in Utah, 
 147. 
 
 Caine, John T., on polygamy, 199. 
 
 Campbell, Alexander, 33. 
 
 Cannon, George Q., on polygamy, 
 230; indicted, 262; flight, 297; in 
 the penitentiary, 298. 
 
 Carthage, 111., 52. 
 
 Catechism, the Mormon, 254. 
 
 Christian missions and missionaries 
 in Utah, 329, 331,332. 
 
 Church, the Mormon, organized, 11, 
 12 27 30. 
 
 Churches, Christian, in Utah, 332. 
 
 Climate of Utah, 348. 
 
 Colfax, Vice-President, in Utah, 191. 
 
 Congress, laws of, concerning 
 r , 291; duty of, toward 
 
 polygamy, 
 Utah, 346. 
 
 Cradlebaugh, Judge, 180-184. 
 
 Cumorah Hill, 17, 27. 
 
 Curtis, George Ticknor, 78; defends 
 
 the Mormons, 323. 
 Danite Band, the, 43, 44, 69, 168, 180. 
 Democratic party, 47. 
 Deseret Daily News, The, 59, 60, 90. 
 Deseret, the State of, 77, 78. 
 Disloyalty of Mormons, 306. 
 Douglas, Stephen A., 63, 65. 
 Edmunds-Tucker law, 291, 294. 
 Emigration Fund Co., 138, 294. 
 Endowment House, 160, 198, 201, 301, 
 
 302. 
 England, Mormons in, 106. 
 
 Female Relief Society, 205, 206. 
 
 Fillmore, President, 78. 
 
 Ford, Governor, 51, 52, 63. 
 
 Gentiles, the, in Nauvoo, 63; in 
 Utah, 334; slow increase of, 339. 
 
 Golden Bible, The, 18, 19, 27, 246. 
 
 Golden Plates, the, 17-19, 22. 
 
 "Hand-cart" scheme, 124, 125, 129, 
 137. 
 
 Harris, Martin, 20, 22, 23. 
 
 Hymns, Mormon, 27, 34, 53, 85, 93, 
 101, 222-224, 257-259. 
 
 Idaho, 26 i, 300,350. 
 
 Illinois, 45, 49, 51, 62, 70. 
 
 Immigrants, Mormon, 76; at Castle 
 Garden, 120; and their officers, 
 12S; sufferings of, on the plains, 
 129, 137; funds for, 138. 
 
 Independence, Mo., 35. 
 
 Indians and Mountain Meadows 
 Massacre, 172, 175. 
 
 Iowa, 65, 66, 68. 
 
 Irrigation in Utah, 339, 347. 
 
 Kirtland, 29, 31, 39. 
 
 Lands in Utah, 347. 
 
 Language, Mormon abuse of, 272. 
 
 Latter Day Saints, 12. 
 
 Laws concerning Utah, 291, 296. 
 
 Lee, John D., 44; at Mountain 
 Meadows, 172, 173, 178; executed, 
 178. 
 
 McKean, Judge, 288. 
 
 Manchester, N. Y., 15. 
 
 Manuscript Found, 24. 
 
 Marriage, Mormon doctrine of, 140, 
 194; polygamous ceremony of, 
 153. 
 
 Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 
 169, 178, 182. 
 
 Mexican War, 73, 75. 
 
 Ministers in Utah, 332. 
 
 Miracles of Joseph Smith, 37, 38. 
 
 Missionaries, Mormon, 34, 39, 50, 
 103-106; in Switzerland, 107; and 
 polygamy, 113, 115; and "hand- 
 cart" scheme, 124; .methods of, 
 216; in Scandinavia, 224; in 
 Alabama, 228; converts of, 228; in 
 foreign lands, 228; Christian, in 
 Utah, 328, 331,332. 
 
 Missions, Christian, in Utah, 328, 
 331, 332. 
 
354 
 
 Index. 
 
 Missouri, 35, 36, 41, 42-44, 70. 
 
 Money, digging for, 14, 16, 21. 
 
 Mormon, The Book of, 17, 19, 23, 25, 
 •28, 246. 
 
 Morrisites, The, 185. 
 
 Nauvoo, 45-47,49, 51-54, 61-67; Ex- 
 positor, 51, 56. 
 
 Ohio, 3H0. 
 
 Omaha, 68. 
 
 Oregon, 65. 
 
 Palmyra, N. Y., 15, 31. 
 
 " Peep-stone," the, 15, 22. 
 
 Perjury of Mormons, 261, 266, 268. 
 
 Pierce,* President, 78. 
 
 Plates, the Golden, 17-19, 27. 
 
 Polk, President, 72. 
 
 Polygamy, 50, 57, 58, 60, 107; 
 " revelation " on, 111 ; why women 
 believe in, 118, 196-215; doctrine of, 
 194 ; fruits of, 194 ; Mormon women 
 defend, 212; and the Bible, 229; 
 laws against, 291; convictions for, 
 292; numbers living in, 293; a 
 symptom of Mormonism, 321; 
 argument for, 321, 324. 
 
 Pratt, Mrs. Sarah M., 210, 211. 
 
 Problem, the Mormon, not solved, 
 337, 342, 343, 349. 
 
 Prophecies, the, of Joseph Smith, 
 38, 252. 
 
 Property of the Mormon Church 
 seized, 295. 
 
 Quincy, 111., 45. 
 
 Reign of Terror, 161, 166-16S, 179, 
 181, 199, 212. 
 
 "Revelations," 32,35, 39, 46, 47, 50, 
 57, 58; on polygamy, 111; on 
 "hand-cart" scheme, 124; on the 
 Rebellion, 252; to build a board- 
 ing-house, 303. 
 
 Rigdon, Sidney, 24-31, 42, 62. 
 
 Rocky Mountains, the, 65, 71, 72, 74. 
 
 Saints, the, 12. 
 
 Salt Lake, the valley of, 71, 84; city 
 of, 84, 86, 96, 97; election of 1890, 
 
 Schools in Utah, 296, 327-331, 345-347. 
 
 Smith, Joseph, born, 12; early train- 
 ing of, 13; reputation of, 13, 14, 17, 
 21; marries, 21; schemes of, 26; 
 moves to Ohio, 31 ; flees to Mis- 
 souri, 35, 40; miracles of, 37, 38; 
 in prison, 45; candidate for Presi- 
 dent, 49; killed, 52; immoralities 
 of, 53, 61. 
 
 Spaulding, Solomon, 24. 
 
 Stenhouse Mr. and Mrs. T. B. H., 
 69, 81, 9S, 99; receive the "revela- 
 tion," 110; teach polygamy, 114, 
 115 ; emigrate to the United States, 
 119; cross the plains, 13S; arrive in 
 Salt Lake, 139; and wife No. 2, 
 151. 
 
 Switzerland, 107. 
 
 Taylor, President, 80. 
 
 Temples, Mormon : at Kirtland, 36; 
 at Nauvoo, 48, 63. 
 
 Tithes, Mormon doctrine of, 260; 
 collection of, 337. 
 
 Tribune, Salt Lake, The, 335. 
 
 Utah Territory, organized, 78; more 
 males than females in, 244; morals 
 of, 261, 273; statehood for, 312; 
 population of, 327; voters in, 327; 
 climate of, 34S. 
 
 Warsaw, 111., 52. 
 
 Water for irrigation in Utah, 339. 
 
 Wells, Daniel H., 90, 91. 
 
 Whig party, 47. 
 
 Wives, spiritual and proxy, 141. 
 
 Women, why, believe in polygamy, 
 118, 196, 199. 
 
 Young, Brigham, 45, 48, 62, 71-73, 77, 
 78,80,84,87,89, 96, 97; on "Blood 
 Atonement," 163; and the massa- 
 cre, 169, 177-179, 182; and United 
 States troops, 186; life of, 1S8; 
 peculations of, 192; in the peniten- 
 tiary, 288. 
 
 Young, Mrs. Ann Eliza, 206, 288. 
 
 Zane, Judge Charles S., 294, 297, 299, 
 335. 
 
3 RINT EC IN J S 
 
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BP845.M78C.2 
 
 The Mormon delusion : its history, 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
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