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rOIlTUAlTS  OF   LKADING   MOUMoNS. 
 
MORMON   TEMPLE   NOW   BEING   J'.UILT  IN  SALT   LAKE   CITY. 
 
;       DEC  10  1917 
 
 LIFE  IN  UTAH;        ' 
 
 OR,    THE 
 
 imRiS  Al  CRIES  OF 
 
 y 
 
 BEING  AN  EXPOSE 
 
 SECRET  RITES  AA'D  CEREMONIES 
 
 OF   THE 
 
 LATTER-DAY  SAINTS, 
 
 FULL  AH)  AUTHE^^TIC  HISTORY  OF  POLYGAMY  AM)  THE  MORMON 
 SECT  FROM  ITS  ORIGIN  TO  THE  PRESENT  TIME. 
 
 BY 
 
 J.     H.     BEADLE, 
 
 EDITOR   OP   THE    SALT    LAKE    REPORTER,    AND    UTAH    CORRESPONDENT 
 OF    THE    CINCINNATI    COMMERCIAL. 
 
 Issued  by  snbscription  only,  and  nnt  for  sale  in  the  book  stores.    Residents  of  any  State  desiring 
 a  copy  should  address  the  publ-ishers,  and  an  agent  will  call  upon  them. — See  page  541. 
 
 NATIONAL    PUBLISHING    COMPANY, 
 
 THILADELPHIA,  Pa.;   CHICAGO.  Tw,.;    CIXCINITATI,  Ohio j    ST.  LOUIS,  Mo.; 
 
 ATLANTA,  Ga. 
 
Entered  according  to  Act  of  Co3<?ress,  in  the  year  1S70,  by 
 
 J.    R.    JONES, 
 
 la   the    Clerk's    Offlce  of  the  District  Court   of  the   Unitpd   States,  In  and  for   the  Eastern 
 District  of  Pennsylvania. 
 
TO 
 
 GENERAL  W.  H.   H.   BEADLE, 
 
 LONG    A  COMPANION   IN    STUDY   AND   HOPE, 
 
 ALWAYS 
 
 A    TRUE    BROTHER    AND    HELPER: 
 
 AS  A 
 
 SLIGHT    TESTIMONIAL    FOR    VALUABLE    SUGGESTIONS 
 
 IN   THE 
 
 INCEPTION   OF    THE   "WORK, 
 
 AND 
 
 SUBSTANTIAL   AID   IN    ITS   EXECUTION; 
 
 THIS    VOLUME 
 IS      AFFECTIONATELY-      DEDICATED 
 
 BY  THE  AUTHOR. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 America  is  the  paradise  of  heterodoxy.  All  sorts  of 
 wild,  strange  and  even  abominable  religions  flourish 
 unchecked,  side  by  side,  and  generally  without  violent 
 collision.  The  wild  dreams  of  the  fervid  Oriental  im- 
 agination ;  the  vague  shadowings  of  Gothic  mysticism ; 
 the  coarse  materialism  of  French  infidelity,  and  the 
 ideal  fancies  of  Greek  and  Asiatic,  all  the  errors  and 
 worn  out  theories  of  the  Old  World,  of  schisms  in  the 
 early  Church,  the  monkish  age  and  the  rationalistic 
 period,  find  here  a  free  air,- a  fertile  soil,' a  more  congenial 
 clime  and  a  second  native  country,  as  it  were,  in  which 
 new  and  more  luxuriant  growths  spring  rapidly  from 
 the  old  and  half  dead  stocks  of  pseudo-theology. 
 
 But  the  inventive  American  mind  is  not  content 
 merely  with  old  errors,  and  the  Yankee  is  nothing  if 
 not  practical;  hence  we  see  that  to  every  new  or  purely 
 American  phase  of  religious  error,  there  is  always  tacked 
 a  feature  of  political  power,  communism  of  property, 
 social  license  or  moral  perversion,  a  general  revolt 
 against  accepted  theories  in  law,  medicine,  marriage. 
 
b  PREFACE. 
 
 government  or  social  relations.  Let  the  extreme  tend 
 which  way  it  will,  it  is  equally  an  extreme ;  whether 
 of  the  anti-marriage  Shakers,  the  celibate  Harmonists, 
 the  wife-communists  of  Oneida,  or  the  polygamous  Mor- 
 mons. All  this  is,  perhaps,  a  necessary  evil — an  inevit- 
 able adjunct  to  a  great  good.  In  the  perfect  liberty  of 
 conscience  guaranteed,  the  perverted  or  diseased  con- 
 science is  equally  free  with  the  pure  or  healthy ;  and 
 where  every  man  is  free  to  choose  as  he  will,  it  is 
 reasonable  to  suppose  that  many  will  choose  but  poorly. 
 Like  all  good  principles  this  liberty  of  conscience  is 
 strangely  liable  to  abuse;  but  a  careful  examination 
 will  show,  I  think,  that  the  present  condition  is  far 
 better,  with  all  its  evil  outgrowths,  than  would  be  any 
 aiming  at  repression.  Repression  is  not  unity.  Sup- 
 pose either  of  the  prominent  sects  to  be  made  the 
 Established  Church — if  indeed  the  mind  can  possibly 
 conceive  of  an  Established  Church  in  America — the 
 Methodist,  for  instance;  then  would  that  church  at 
 once  lose  many  of  its  communicants ;  most  people  would 
 avoid  it  to  the  farthest  extent  allowed  by  law,  not  from 
 any  particular  hostility  to  that  one  church,  but  simply 
 because  it  was  established. 
 
 We  may,  indeed,  congratulate  ourselves,  that  with  such 
 perfect  liberty  of  choice  so  few  have  adopted  beUefs  at 
 all  dangerous  either  to  the  State  or  to  society;  for 
 these  last  are  the  only  questions  with  which  we  have  a 
 
PREFACE.  7 
 
 right  to  deal.  But  certain  forms  of  belief  cannot  pos- 
 sibly confine  themselves  to  speculative  errors ;  the  per- 
 version of  moral  and  ethical  principles  is  too  radical  to 
 be  confined  to  the  heart,  and  the  hideous  moral  gan- 
 grene, starting  from  the  soul  and  center,  works  out- 
 wardly through  the  life  in  all  manner  of  corruption, 
 confusion  and  abomination.  When  the  faith  is  per- 
 fectly inwrought,  it  cannot  but  show  itself  in  acts,  and 
 with  these  the  State  has  a  right  to  deal.  Perfect  tolera- 
 tion is  due  to  all  beliefs,  and  these  gross  forms  of  error 
 only  demand  attention  when  endeavoring,  against  the 
 good  of  the  State,  to  make  a  peculiar  moral  condition 
 the  general  law  for  a  whole  people,  and  still  more  as 
 laboring  to  radically  pervert  the  Christian  idea  of  mar- 
 riage. If  the  experience  of  all  civilized  nations  for 
 three  thousand  years,  and  the  best  judgment  of  the 
 best  minds  in  law  founded  "upon  that  experience,  have 
 proved  any  one  fact  more  than  another,  it  is  that  the 
 marriage  relation  should  be  strictly  regulated  by  law, 
 that  the  State  has  an  absolute  right  to  prescribe  the 
 civil  conditions  accompanying  and  the  civil  rights  re- 
 sulting from  it ;  and  that  the  human  passions,  whether 
 excited  by  mere  lust  or  by  religious  fanaticism,  must  be 
 controlled  by  positive  law.  It  matters  not  if  an  indi- 
 vidual esteem  it  his  natural  right  to  act  contrary  to  ex- 
 press law,  or  if  several  individuals  constituting  a  commu- 
 nity believe  it  to  be  a  religious  right ;  they  are  equally 
 subject  thereto,  and  must  take  the  legal  consequence  of 
 
8  PREFACE. 
 
 disobedience.  It  is  then  a  gratifying  fact,  that  so  few 
 have  adopted  behefs  tending  to  pervert  the  marriage 
 relation.  Of  the  forty  milHons  in  America  less  than 
 half  a  million  are  included  in  all  of  such  sects.  In  this 
 light  liberty  of  conscience  in  America  is  almost  a  per- 
 fect success. 
 
 The  vast  majority  of  our  people  have  founded  their 
 religious  belief  on  theories  not  inimical  to  the  public 
 good ;  and  the  scores  of  varying  sects  which  arise  from 
 year  to  year,  generally  do  so  only  to  run  a  brief  and 
 meteor-like  race,  and  sink  like  dissolved  exhalations  in 
 the  bogs  and  mire  of  ignorance  from  w^hich  they  arose. 
 But  occasionally  we  see  one  of  these  parasitic  growths 
 upon  the  body  of  religious  freedom,  which,  from  peculiar 
 and  special  causes,  extends  its  existence  bej^ond  what 
 we  would  naturally  look  for;  and  a  few,  originally 
 transplanted  from  Europe  where  the  parent  organiza- 
 tion has  long  since  expired,  maintain  a  sort  of  sickly 
 life  through  two  or  three  generations  in  America.  Of 
 such  are  the  Sbakers  from  England,  and  the  Har- 
 monists from  Germany.  But  where  in  contact  with 
 vital  Christianity,  they  must  sooner  or  later  yield ; 
 their  wild  enthusiam  is  sufficient  for  rise  and  growth, 
 but  lacks  the  virtuous  energy  to  direct  and  continue. 
 To  such,  comparatively  innocent  and  harmless,  the 
 puljlic  direct  little  attention.  But  there  are  a  few, 
 which  manage  to  preserve  a  sort  of  isolation  even  in 
 the  midst  of  other  sects,  or  in  extreme  cases,  to  get 
 
PEEFACE.  9 
 
 apart  and  aside,  and  maintain  for  a  long  period  an 
 independent  existence.  Of  these  none  have  attained 
 to  such  prominence  as  the  sect  called  Mormons.  Hav- 
 ing leaders  at  once  sagacious  and  unscrupulous,  they 
 have  long  managed  to  avoid  whatever  contact  would 
 weaken  their  organization.  We  have  seen  them,  from 
 small  and  obscure  beginnings,  rise  to  a  strength  suffi- 
 cient to  create  a  local  rebellion  in  Missouri;  trans- 
 planted thence  to  Illinois,  rise  to  a  threatening  power ; 
 transplanted  again,  flourish  rapidly  for  a  while,  and 
 though  now  evidently  on  the  decline,  yet  strong  enough 
 to  create  a  difficult  and  delicate  political  problem,  and 
 like  the  Bohon  Upas,  overshadow  a  whole  Territory 
 with  a  deadly  influence.  Scattered  through  the  nation 
 Mormonism  would  be  the  weakest  of  all  religions; 
 collected  into  one  Territory,  and  ruling  there  with  al- 
 most absolute  power,  they  present  a  painfully  interest- 
 ing problem.  Comparatively,  their  numbers  are  trifling; 
 locally,  they  are  of  great  importance.  In  the  light  of 
 the  principles  here  enunciated,  and  with  perfect  con- 
 fidence in  their  correctness,  this  work  has  been  prepared; 
 with  a  view  to  the  better  enlightenment  of  the  Ameri- 
 can pubUc  on  this  question  and  if  possible,  to  make  the 
 duty  of  Government  and  people  more  plain,  to  set 
 forth  the  most  salient  points  in  the  progress  of 
 religious  imposture,  and  to  draw  attention  to  a  Territory 
 rich  in  natural  resources.  It  is  believed  that  the 
 work  contains  most  of  the  material  facts  of  interest 
 
10  PREFACE. 
 
 in  regard  to  Utah  and  the  Mormons ;  whether  of  the 
 climate  and  resources  of  the  former,  or  the  history, 
 theology  and  peculiar  social  practices  of  the  latter. 
 The  history  of  the  sect  is  drawn  from  many  sources : 
 from  their  own  works,  from  personal  records  of  several 
 who  have  spent  many  3'ears  among  them,  from  evidence 
 published  by  the  State  of  Missouri,  from  official  docu- 
 ments of  States  or  the  General  Government,  from 
 previous  compilations  and  other  accredited  sources. 
 Of  charges  against  the  ^lormons,  not  fully  proved,  the 
 statements  for  and  against  them  have  been  equally 
 presented.  The  same  rules  of  evidence  have  been  ap- 
 plied in  summing  up  their  history,  as  are  held  applicable 
 in  courts  of  justice.  The  author's  opportunities  for 
 personal  observation  will  be  seen  in  the  course  of  the 
 work.  The  author  is  well  aware  of  the  many  imperfec- 
 tions of  the  work,  but  does  not  seek  to  disarm  criticism 
 by  a  prefaced  apology;  it  is  given  as  a  compilation 
 of  testimony,  on  which  the  reader  has  the  same 
 privilege  of  passing  judgment  as  the  author  has  exer- 
 cised on  those  before  him.  Whatever  may  be  thought 
 of  the  style  in  which  they  are  presented,  I  trust  many 
 of  the  facts  will  be  found  interesting,  and  if  the  work 
 should  excite  an  intelligent  interest  among  the  Ameri- 
 can people,  in  regard  to  the  aflairs  of  Utah,  it  will  have 
 accomplished  the  dearest  wish  of  the  author. 
 
 J.  H.  B. 
 CoRiNNE,  Utah  Territory,  A2»-il  5/7i,»1870. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER  1. 
 HISTORICAL. 
 
 Birth  and  early  life  of  the  Mormon  Prophet — The  original  Smith 
 family — Opinion  of  Brigham  Young — The  "peep-stone" — "  Call- 
 ing "of  Joe  Smith— The  .Golden  Plates— " Eeformed  Egyptian" 
 translated — "Book  of  Mormon"  published — Synopsis  of  its  con- 
 tents— Real  author  of  the  work—"  The  glorious  six  "  first  converts 
 — Emma  Smith,  "Elect  Lady  and  Daughter  of  God" — Sidney  Rig- 
 don  takes  the  field — First  Hegira — "Zion"in  Missouri— Kirtland 
 Bank— Swindhng  and  "persecution" — War  in  Jackson  County — 
 Smith  "marches  on  Missouri" — Failure  of  the  "Lord's  Bank" — 
 FUght  of  the  Prophet— "  Mormon  "War  "—Capture  of  Smith- 
 Flight  into  Illinois 21 
 
 CHAPTER   II. 
 HISTORY   FROM    THE   FOUNDING   OF  NAUYOO   TILL    1843. 
 
 Rapid  growth  of  Nauvoo — Apparent  prosperity — "  The  vultures  gather 
 to  the  carcass" — Crime,  polygamy  and  politics — Subserviency  of 
 the  Politicians — Nauvoo  Charters — A  government  within  a  govern- 
 ment—Joe Smith  twice  arrested— Released  by  S.  A.  Douglas — Sec- 
 ond time  by  Municipal  Court  of  Nauvoo — McKinney's  account — 
 Petty  thieving — Gentiles  driven  out  of  Nauvoo — "  Whittling  Dea- 
 cons"— "Danitcs" — Anti-Mormons  organize  a  Political  Party — 
 Treachery  of  Davis  and  Owens — Defeat  of  Anti-Mormons — Cam- 
 paign of  1843— Cyrus  Walker,  a  great  Criminal  Lawyer— "  Revela- 
 tion" on  voting  —  The  Prophet  cheats  the  lawyer — Astounding 
 perfidy  of  the  Mormon  leaders — Great  increase  of  popular  hatred — 
 Just  anger  against  the  Saints 58 
 
 11 
 
12  CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER  III.  ' 
 
 MORMON    DIFFICULTIES   AND   DEATH   OF   THE    PROPHET. 
 
 Ford's  account — Double  treachery  in  the  Quincy  district — New  and 
 startling  developments  in  Nauvoo — Tyranny  of  Joe  Smith — Revolt 
 of  a  portion  of  his  followers — The  "  Expositor  "-r-It  is  declared  "a 
 UHisaucft  "  and  "abated" — Flight  of  apostates — Warrants  ssued 
 for  Smith  and  other  Mormons — Constables  driven  out  of  Nauvoo— 
 Militia  called  for — Nauvoo  fortified — Mormon  war  imminent — Gov- 
 enor  Ford  takes  the  field  in  person — Flight  of  the  Projjhet  and 
 Patriarch  to  Iowa — Their  return  and  arrest — The  Governor  pledged 
 for  their  safety — In  his  absence  the  jail  is  attacked — Death  of  the 
 Smiths — Character  of  the  Prophet — Comments 89 
 
 CHAPTER  IV. 
 
 TTTO   TEARS   OF    STRIFE EXODUS   FROM   ILLINOIS. 
 
 No  successor  to  the  Prophet — David  Hyrum  Smith,  the  "  Son  of 
 Promise" — Contest  for  the  leadership — Diplomacy  of  Brigham 
 Young — Curious  trials — All  of  Brigham's  opponents  "  cut  ofi"" — 
 Troubles  renewed — Fights,  outrages,  robberies  and  murder — An- 
 other election  and  more  treachery — Singular  "  Wolf  Himt  " — Cap- 
 ture and  trial  of  Smith's  murderers — Of  the  Mormon  rioters — Fail- 
 ure and  defects  of  the  law — Further  outrages  on  Gentiles — Trouble  in 
 Adams  County — The  "  Oneness  " — The  people  of  Adams  drive  out 
 tlie  Mormons — Revenge  by  the  Mormons — ^lurders  of  McBratney, 
 Worrell,  Wilcox  and  Daubeneyer — Retaliation,  and  murder  of 
 Durfee — The  Mormons  ravage  Hancock — Flight  of  the  Gentiles — 
 Militia  called  and  Hancock  put  under  martial  law — The  ^Mormons 
 begin  to  leave  Illinois — Fresh  quarrels — More  Mormon  treachery 
 — Bombardment  of  Nauvoo,  and  final  expulsion  of  the  Mormons. ...  13'^ 
 
 CHAPTER  V. 
 
 FROM  THE  NAUVOO  EXODUS  TO  THE  MORMON  WAR  IN  UTAH. 
 
 The  Via  Dolorosa  of  Mormon  History — Through  Iowa — Great  suffer- 
 ing— "  Stakes  of  Zion " — Settlement  in  Nebraska — "Mormon  Bat- 
 tallion  " — Journey  to  Utah — Founding  of  Salt  Lake  City — Early 
 accounts — Outrages  upon  California  emigrants — Travelers  murdered 
 — Apostates  "missing  " — Dangers  of  rivalry  in  love  with  a  Mormon 
 
CONTENTS.  13 
 
 Bishop  —  Usurpations  of  Mormon  Courts  and  officers  —  Federal 
 Judges  driven  out— Murders  of  Babbitt  and  Williams— Flight  of 
 Judges  Stiles  and  Drummond— The  Army  set  in  motion  for  Utah- 
 New  officers  appointed— Suspicious  delay  of  the  Army— The  "  Mor- 
 mon War  "  begun 155 
 
 CHAPTER  VI. 
 THE    BLOODY   PERIOD. 
 
 Sounds  of  war  in  Utah— Popular  excitement— Fears  of  the  disaffected 
 —Attempted  flight — Murder  of  the  Potter  and  Parrish  families- 
 Massacre  of  the  Aiken  party— Assassination  of  Yates— Killing  of 
 Forbes — Brigham  "Turns  loose  the  Indians"- Mountain  Meadow 
 Massacre — Horrible  barbarity  of  Indians  and  Mormons — Evidence 
 in  the  case— Attempt  of  Judge  Crablebaugh— Progress  of  the  "Mor- 
 mon War  "—Delay  of  the  army— Treachery  or  inefficiency  ?— Mor- 
 mon Legion — Lieutenant-General  Wells — Brigham  "  Commands  " 
 the  National  troops  to  ^vithdraw — Army  trains  destroyed — Lot 
 Smith,  the  Mormon  Guerilla— The  "Army  of  Utah"  in  Winter 
 Quarters — Colonel  Kane  again— Negotiations  with  Brigham— Gov- 
 ernor Gumming  "passed"  through  the  Mormon  hnes — "Peace 
 Commissioners" — Mormon  exodus — Weakness  of  Gumming — End 
 of  the  War— 3Iurders  of  Pike,  the  Jones's,  Bernard,  Drown,  Arnold, 
 McNeil  and  others — A  change  at  last 177 
 
 CHAPTER   VII. 
 GENTILI;S   IN   UTAH. 
 
 A  New  Element— Livingston  and  Kinkead— "  Jack-Mormonism  at 
 Washington  "—Judge  Drummond— M.  Jules  Remy— Gilbert  and 
 Sons — Heavy  trade — Later  Gentile  3Ierchauts — Walker  Brothers — 
 Sales  at  Camp  Floyd — "  Crushing  the  Mormons  " — Ransohoff  «&  Co, 
 — Mormon  outrages  again — Murders  of  Brassfield  and  Dr.  Robinson — 
 Whipping  of  Weston — Evidence  in  case  of  Dr.  Robinson — Outrages 
 on  Lieutenant  Brown  and  Dr.  AVilliamson — Gentiles  driven 'from 
 the  Public  Land — Territorial  Surveyor — Success  of  General  Connor's 
 Administration — The  Government  returns  to  the  old  policy — Mur- 
 ders of  Potter  and  Wilson — Horrible  death  of  "  Negro  Tom  " — The 
 last  witness  "put  out  of  the  way" — "Danites"  again — Murder 
 each  other — Death  of  Hatch — Flight  of  Hickman — Forty-three  mur- 
 ders—  Another  change  of  officials  —  Doty  —  Durkee  —  Shameful 
 neglect  by  the  Government — Flight  of  the  Gentiles — Comparative 
 quiet  again — A  better  day — The  author  arrives  in  Utah 19G 
 
14  CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER  VIII. 
 FIRST   VIEWS   IN   UTAH. 
 
 The  real  "  American  Desert " — No  Myth — Bitter  Creek — Green  River 
 — Lone  Rock — Plains  of  Bridger — Quaking  Asp  Ridge — Bear  River 
 — A  Mormon  autobiography — "Pulling  hair" — "Aristocracy"  on 
 the  Plains— "Mule  Skinners"  and  " BuUwackers "— The  Bull- 
 •wackcrs  Epic" — Cache  Cave — Echo  Cauon — Mormon  "fortifica- 
 tions " — Braggadocio — Storm  in  Weber  Canon — Up  the  "Weber — 
 Parley's  Park — A  -wife-stealing  Apostle — Down  the  Caiion — Majestic 
 scenery — First  view  of  the  valley — The  "City  of  the  Saints." 217 
 
 CHAPTER  IX. 
 TWO   WEEKS   IN    SALT    LAKE    CITY. 
 
 Views  of  the  City — Temple  Block — Brigham's  Block— Theatre — Im- 
 migrants — Mormon  arguments — Reasons  for  polygamy — "Book  of 
 Mormon"  —  First  Mormon  sermon — "Old"  Joe  Young — His 
 ])eauty  (?) — His  sermon — Mormon  style  of  preaching — Order  of 
 services — First  impressions  rather  favorable — Much  to  learn  yet 239 
 
 CHAPTER  X. 
 
 TRIP   TO   BEAR    RIVER   AND   RETURN. 
 
 Northward  afoot — Hot  Springs — "Sessions  Settlement" — Polygamy 
 again — "  Eplie  Roberts'  young  wife" — Farmington — Kaysville — 
 Three  wives,  and  stone  walls  between — "  Let  us  have  Peace  " — Red 
 Sand  Ridge — Ogden — Brigham  City — Into  the  poor  district — Scan- 
 dinavian Porridge — English  cookery — Riu'al  life  in  Utah — Boar 
 River,  North — Cache  Valley  and  the  Canon — "Professor"  Barker, 
 the  "  ^lad  Philosopher" — A  New  Cosmogony — Mormon  science — 
 "Celestial  Masonry" — "Adam  "  r«rfi>?>2<s — A  modern  "Eve" — 
 Folly  and  fanaticism — Mineral  Springs — The  country  ts.  tlie  city 
 Mormon - 260 
 
 CHAPTER  XI. 
 
 TEE   CONFERENCE    AND   ITS    RESULTS. 
 
 A  Mormon  mass-meeting — Faces  and  features — Great  enthusiasm — A 
 living  "  martyr  " — A  Mormon  hymn — The  poetess — A  "  president " 
 
CONTENTS.  lo 
 
 xjQOsen — He  recites  the  Church  history — ^First  view  of  Brigham — 
 He  curses  the  Gentiles — A  "  nasty  sermon  " — Coarseness  and  pro- 
 fanity— Bitterness  of  other  speakers — Swearing  in  the  pulpit — Excit- 
 ing the  people — Their  frenzy  and  fanaticism — Hatred  against  the 
 United  States— Foolish  bravado — The  author  gains  new  light  on 
 Mormonism — A  subject  to  be  studied — English  and  European  Sects 
 of  hke  character — Division  of  the  subject • 278 
 
 ,  CHAPTER   XII. 
 
 ANALYSIS   OF    MORMON    SOCIETY. 
 
 DjflRculty  at  the  outset — Extremes  among  witnesses — Prejudice  on 
 both  sides— First  impressions  favorable—"  "Whited  Sepulchres  " — 
 Classes  of  Mormons — Brigham  Young  ;  impostor  or  fanatic  ? — The 
 dishonest  class  —  The  "earnest  Mormons"  —  Disloyalty— Church 
 and  State— Killing  men  to  save  their  souls — Slavery  of  women — 
 Brigham  the  government — Prophecy  against  the  United  States — 
 "  War  " — "  Seven  women  to  take  hold  of  one  man  " — Another  war 
 expected— Blood  and  thunder  in  store  for  the  Gentiles — "  The  great 
 tribulation"  about  due — Popular  errors — Witchcraft— "  Faith-doc- 
 toring ' ' — Zion,  in  Jackson  County,  Missouri — Comfortable  prospect.  290 
 
 CHAPTER  XIII.  • 
 ANALYSIS   OF   MORMON   THEOLOGY. 
 
 Its  origin — A  theologic  conglomerate — Mythology,  Paganism,  Mo- 
 hammedanism, corrupt  Christianity  and  Philosophy  run  mad — 
 "First  principles  of  the  Gospel" — The  five  points  of  variance — 
 Materialism — No  spirit — A  god  with  "body,  parts  and  passions  " — 
 Matter  eternal — No  "creation" — Intelligent  atoms — Pre  existent 
 souls— High  times  in  the  Spirit  "Worlds — Birth  of  Spirits— They  hunt 
 for  "  Earthly  Tabernacles  "—The  "  Second  Estate  "—Apotheosis— 
 The  "  Third  Estate  "— "  Fourth  Estate  " — Men  become  gods—"'  Di- 
 vine generation" — Earthly  Families  and  Heavenly  Kingdoms — Did 
 Man  come  from  the  Sun  ?— "  Building  up  the  Kingdom  "—One  day 
 as  a  thousand  years — The  time  of  the  Gentiles  about  out — Great 
 events  at  hand—"  Gog  and  Magog,"  et.  rtZ. —Gentiles,  prepare  to 
 make  tracks — Eeturn  to  "Zion,"  in  ^Missouri- Christ's  earthly  empire 
 — Great  destiny  for  Missouri — Tenets  from  Christianity — Baptism  a 
 "Saving  Ordinance" — Baptized  twelve  times — Office  of  the  Holy 
 Ghost— Strange  fanaticism— Eclectic  Theology— A  personal  god — 
 The  liomoousian  and  the  Tiomoiousian — The  Logo»  and  the  Aeon — 
 Grossness  and  Vulgarity - 311 
 
16  CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER  XIV. 
 THEORETICAL   POLYGAMY — ITS   HISTORY. 
 
 Poetry  of  religious  concubinage — Fanaticism  and  Sensualism— Two 
 extremes — Origin  of  Polygamy — The  great  revelation — Its  contra- 
 dictious and  absurdities — ]Mormon  argument — Real  origin — Begin- 
 ning of  Polygamy — A  prostitute  for  religion's  sake — Failures  and 
 scandals — War  in  the  Church — Stealing  a  Brother's  wife — Furore  in 
 consequence — The  Expositor — Its  destruction — Death  of  the  Smiths 
 — Polygamy  practiced  secretly  and  denied  openly — Brigham's  mar- 
 riages— Nine  years  of  concealment — Avowal  at  last — Argument  in 
 its  favor — Demoralization  in  the  English  Church — A  climax  of  un- 
 natural obscenity  —  The  "  Reformation  "  —  Temporary  decline  in 
 Polygamy — Hostility  of  native  Mormon  girls — Outside  influence — 
 DilTerence  of  opinion — It  dies  hard — Spiritual  wives — Mystery  and 
 abomination 332 
 
 CHAPTER  XV. 
 PRACTICAL   POLYGAMY. 
 
 Oijen  evils  and  hidden  sufferings — Miss  S.  E.  Carmichael's  testimony 
 — Alormon  sophistry — The  sexual  principle — Its  objects — Theory 
 and  facts — Monogamist  vs.  Polygamist — Turk,  Persian  and  African 
 vs.  the  Christian  White — The  same  effects  in  Utah — Jealousy  and 
 misery  —  Children  of  different  wives  —  Cultivated  indifference — 
 Hatred  among  children — Brigham's  idea  of  parental  duty — Are  the 
 Mormon  women  happy  ?— Submission  and  silenco— Degradation  of 
 women — Mormon  idea  of  politeness — Heber  C.  Kimball  and  his 
 "  cows  " — "  My  women  "—Slavery  of  sex — Moses  and  Mohammed 
 outdone  —  Incest  —  Marrying  a  whole  family— Robert  Sliarkoy — 
 Remorse  and  suicide — Uncle  and  niece — Bishop  Smith  and  his  nieces 
 — Mixture  of  blood — Horrible  crimes — Half-brother  and  sister — The 
 Prophet  "sold" — The  doctrine  of  incest — "Too  strong  now,  but 
 the  people  will  come  to  it" — Now  openly  avowed — Brothers  and 
 sisters  to  marry  for  a  "pure  priesthood" — Testimony  of  William 
 Ilcpworth  Dixon -Father  and  daughter  7«ay  marry — Effects  upon 
 the  young  —  Infant  mortalit}' — Large  average-mortality  —  Fatal 
 blindness  —  The  growing  youth  —  Demoralization  —  Youthful  de- 
 jtravlty — No  hope  for  young  men  and  women— Sophistry  and  mad- 
 ness—Ancient  sensualism  to  be  revived 854 
 
CONTENTS.  17 
 
 CHAPTER  XVI. 
 THE    MORMON    THEOCRACY. 
 
 Absolutism — An  ancient  model — Three  governments  in  Utah— Church 
 officials— First  President— First  Presidency— "  The  worst  man  in 
 Utah  " — Quorum  of  Apostles — "  The  Twelve  " — A  dozen  men  with 
 fifty-two  wives— President  of  Seventies — Patriarch — "  A  blessing 
 for  a  dollar" — Bishops — Division  of  the  City  and  Territory — Their 
 magisterial  capacity  High  Council — Judge  and  jury — Ward  teachers 
 —  The  confessional — The  priesthood — Aaronic  and  Mclchisedcc — 
 Evangelists — Secret  poUce  or  "  Danites  "—Civil  government  only 
 an  appendage — Excessive  power  of  the  Mormon  Courts — Perver- 
 sions of  law  and  justice — Organic  Act  defective — Federal  Judges — 
 Their  weakness  and  disgrace — Verdict  by  ecclesiastical  "  counsel " — 
 Verdicts  dictated  from  the,  pulpit — Probate  Judges  really  appointed 
 by  Brigham  Young — Voting  system— Marked  ballots — "Protectiug 
 the  ballot" — The  Hooper-McGroarty  race — I'lurality  of  offices  as 
 well  as  wives — Tyranny  of  the  Church — The  Mormon  vs.  the  Ameri- 
 can idea—  The  evils  of  which  Gentiles  complain 381 
 
 CHAPTER  XVII. 
 RECUSANT    SECTS   OF    MORMONS. 
 
 Repression  not  unity— Great  break-up  at  Nauvoo— Sidney  Rigdon's 
 Church— J.  J.  Strang- Cutler,  Brewster  and  Hcddrick :  "The 
 Gatherers  "—The  "  Truth  Teller  "—Lyman  Wight  in  Texas— San 
 Bernardino  INIormons — Apostasy,  Spiritualism  and  insanity— Brig- 
 ham  supreme  in  Utah — First  secession,  the  "  Gladdenitcs  "—Perse- 
 cution and  murders — Blood-atonement  introduced — Second  seces- 
 sion, the  "Morrisites"  —  War  with  the  sect — Massacre  of  the 
 ■•' Morrisites  " — Governor  Harding's  adventure — General  Connor 
 protects  the  recusants  —  Soda  Springs  —  Another  Prophet  —  The 
 "•infant  Christ" — Beginning  of  the  Josephites  Emma  and  her 
 sous — The  " Pkcorganized  Church" — First  :Mission — Mission  of  the 
 "Smith  Boys" — Excitement  at  Salt  Lake — Priestly  lying— The 
 Qod-be  schism— Liberal  principles— Hopeful  indications— After 
 Brigham,  who  ?— Orson    Hyde  V— Daniel    H.  Wells  V— George  A. 
 
 Smith  ?— Probable  future  of  the  Church 402 
 
 2 
 
18  CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER  XVIII. 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL  FEATURES. 
 
 Territorial  limits — "Basins" — "  Sinks" — "Flats" — Rain  and  evapora- 
 tion— Elemental  action  and  reactiou-^Potamology — Jordan — Kay's 
 Creek — Weber — Bear  River  Cache  Valley  Timber — Blue  Creek 
 — Promontory  —  Great  Desert  —  Utah  Lake  —  Spanish  Fork  —  Salt 
 Creek  —  Timpanogos  —  Sevier  River  —  Colorado  System  —  Fish — 
 Thermal  and  Chemical  Springs — Healing  waters — Hotwater  plants 
 — Analysis  by  Dr.  Gale — Mineral  Springs — Salt  beds — Alkali  flats 
 — Native  salts — Great  Salt  Lake — First  accounts — Fremont — 
 Stansbuky — Amount  of  salt — Valleys — Rise  of  the  Lake — Islands 
 — Bear  Lake — "  Ginasticutis  " — Utah  Lake — Climate — Increase  of 
 rain — Singular  phenomena — Fine  air — Relief  for  pulmonary  com- 
 plaints   435 
 
 CHAPTER  XIX. 
 MATERIAL   RESOURCES  OF   UTAH. 
 
 Amount  of  arable  land — Its  nature  and  location — Increased  rainfall — 
 Causes — Probable  greater  increase— Mode  of  irrigation — Aquarian 
 Socialism — No  room  for  competition — Alkali — Some  advantages — 
 Yield  of  various  crops— "Beet-sugar" — Sorghum  syrnp -Mormon 
 Improvements  (  ?  ) — Grossly  exaggerated — True  Wealth  of  Utah — 
 Mining  and  grazing — Bunch-grass — Mountain  pastures — Sheep  and 
 goats — "Fur,  fin  and  feather" — Trapping  and  hunting — Carnivora 
 — Ruminants — Buffalo — None  in  the  Basin — Shoshonee  tradition — • 
 Game,  fowl— Amphibia — "  Sandy  toad  " —  Serpents — Fish— Oysters 
 in  Salt  Lake — Insects — "Mormon  bedbugs" — Advantages  from  the 
 dry  air — Inseclivora — Crickets — Grasshoppers  or  locusts  ? — Indians 
 of  Utah — Rapid  extinction —  "  Diggers  "  —  "  Club-men" — Utes — 
 Shoshonees  — Their  origin— Mormon  theory — Scientific  theory — 
 Chinese  annals — Tartans  in  America — jMormon  settlors — Twenty- 
 three  years  of  "gathering" — Much  work,  slow  progress — Reasons 
 Inheient  weakness  of  the  system — Great  ajiostasy — Tiieir  present 
 number — Exaggeration — Enumeration  of  settlements  and  population 
 — Nationality — Total  military  force — Future  of  tlie  Teirilor}- »  460 
 
CX)NTENTS.  19 
 
 / 
 
 CHAPTER  XX. 
 MORMON   MYSTERIES THEIR   ORIGIN. 
 
 The  Endowment — Actors — Scenery  and  dress — Pre-requisites — Adam 
 and  Eve,  the  Devil  and  Michael,  Jehovah  and  Eloheim — A  new 
 version — Blasphemous  assumptions — Terrible  oaths— Barbarous 
 penalties — Origin  — Scriptures  and  Paradise  Lost — Eleusiuian  my&- 
 teries— "  Morgan's  Free-masonry  " — The  witnesses— Probabilities 
 — Their  reasons —  Changes 486 
 
 CHAPTER  XXI. 
 PRESENT   CONDITION   AND   PROSPECTS. 
 
 Co-operation — The  "bull's  eye"  signs — Inherent  weakness  of  the 
 system — Immediate  eflfects  on  the  Gentiles— Final  result  to  the 
 Saints — Founding  of  Corinne — Its  bright  prospects — Trip  to  Sevier 
 — The  deserted  city — New  Silverado — Mines  and  mining — A  new 
 interest  in  Utah— Rich  discoveries — Hindrances — Grant's  Admin- 
 istration in  Utah — Better  men  in  the  Revenue  Department — 
 Experience  of  Dr.  J.  P.  Taggart — More  "persecution" — The 
 Judges — The  Governor — Congressional  Legislation —  "  Cullom 
 Bill" — Probable  effects — Guesses  at  the  future— Another  exodus 
 — "Zion,"in  Sonora 503 
 
 CHAPTER  XXII. 
 REDEEMING   AGENCIES. 
 
 The  Church — First  attempt — Rev.  Norman  McLeod — Dr.  J.  K.  Rob- 
 inson— ^Second  attempt,  Father  Kelley — Last  attempt — The  Epis- 
 copal Mission,  success  and  progress — Sabbath  School -Grammar 
 School  of  St.  Marks— A  building  needed — Mission  of  Rev.  George 
 W.  Foote — DifBculties  of  the  situation — Number  and  occupation  of 
 Gentiles — Political  prospects — Gentile  newspapers  —The  Valley  Tan 
 — The  Vedette — The  Utah  Reporter — S.  S.  Saul,  the  founder — 
 Messrs.  Aulbach  and  Barrett — The  author's  experience — Principles 
 advocated — Courtesy  of  the  Gentiles — Conclusion 527 
 
LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 1.  Portra  it  of  Brigham  Young Frontispiece. 
 
 2.  Portrfiit  of  Joseph  Smitli   " 
 
 ?>    Portrait  of  I leber  C.  Kimball " 
 
 4.  Portrait  of  Ilyruin  Smith " 
 
 5.  Portrait  of  Orson  Pratt *' 
 
 6.  Portrait  of  Orson  IJyde " 
 
 7.  Portrait  of  John  Taylor '' 
 
 8.  Mormon  Temple  being  built  in  Salt  Lake  City " 
 
 9.  One  of  the  six  Jlnjnze  Platos  found  in  the  State  of  Illinois,  in 
 
 1843  ;   said   by  old   Mormons  to  closely  resemble  the 
 original  Plates  of  the  "  Book  of  ]\Iormon." 25 
 
 10.  Fac-simile,  according  to   Joe  Smith,  of  the  writinii  on   the 
 
 Original  Plates  of  the  "  Book  of  Mormon." . ." 30 
 
 11.  Flight  of  the  Mormons  from  Jackson  County,  Missouri 40 
 
 12.  Tarring  and  Featheriiig  Joe  Smith .^7 
 
 1.3.   "  Lieut.-Gen."  Joseph  Smith  Bevievving  the  Nauvoo  Legion.     77 
 
 14.  Tslormon  Ti'mple  at  Nauvoo,  Illinois 81 
 
 15.  Deatli  of  Josepli  Smith 113 
 
 1(3.  Mormons  driven  out  of  Nauvoo,  crossing  the  Mississippi  on 
 
 tiie  ice 144 
 
 17.  Brigham  Young  Preaching  in  the  Wilderness 154 
 
 18.  Mormon  Cam])  at  Council  Bluff,  Iowa.. 157 
 
 19.  View  of  Salt  Lake  City  in  185U— From  the  Northwest 105 
 
 20.  Mormon  Tai)ernacle  Camp  on  their  arrival  in  Utah 176 
 
 21.  California  P^migrants  Attacked  at  the  Humboldt  Canon,  L^tah  172 
 
 22.  Mountain  Meadow  JSIassacre — 132  Emigrants  killed  by  Mor- 
 
 mons and  Indians 183 
 
 23.  Ceremony  of  Contirmatiou 202 
 
 24.  Scene  in  Kcho  Canon 228 
 
 25.  Four  Wives 2.34 
 
 20.  ^[ormon  Tabernacle — Endowment  House  in  the  Distance. . .   242 
 
 27.  Mormon    Missionary    Preaching    lo    the    Lower   Classes   in 
 
 Ix)ndon  — Proselvting  248 
 
 28.  Hot  Springs  near  Salt  Lake  CUty 259 
 
 29.  Scene  on  the  upper  part  of  Bear  River,  Utah 200 
 
 ,30.  " Let  us  liave  Peace." 200 
 
 31.  Mornum  P>aptism 319 
 
 32.  Massacre  of  the  Morrisites •  •  • 419 
 
 83.   Mormon  wonien  and  children  taking  refuge  at  a  U.  S.  Camp.  420 
 
 34.  Mirage  seen  on  the  Promontory  North  of  Great  Salt  Lake...    442 
 
 35.  Mormon  '■  Improvements" — a  Willow  Corral 407 
 
 30.  Mormon  Alphabet.     Invented  by  O.  Pratt  and  W.  Phelps  to 
 
 be  used  in  Mormon  Literature 470 
 
 37.  Scenes  in  the  Endow nieut  Ceremonies 480 
 
 20  • 
 
LIFE  IN  UTAH ; 
 
 OB,  THE 
 
 MYSTERIES  AND  CRIMES  OF  MORMONISM 
 
 CHAPTER   I. 
 
 HISTORICAL. 
 
 Birth  and  early  life  of  the  Mormon  Prophet— The  original  Smith  family- 
 Opinion  of  Brigliam  Young— The  "peep-stone  "—"Calling"  of  Joe 
 Smith— The  Golden  Plates-"  Reformed  Egyptian"  translated-"  Book 
 of  Mormon"  published— Synopsis  of  its  contents- Real  author  of  the 
 -5Vork— "  The  glorious  six"  first  converts— Emma  Smith,  "Elect  Lady 
 and  Daughter  of  God"— Sidney  Rigdon  takes  the  field— First  Hegira— 
 "Zion"  in  Missouri— Kirtland  Bank— Swindling  and  "persecution"— 
 "War  in  Jackson  County— Smith  "marches  on  Missouri"— Failure  of 
 the  "Lord's  Bank"— Flight  of  the  Prophet— "Mormon  War  "—Cap- 
 ture of  Smith— Flight  into  Illinois. 
 
 Joseph  Smith,  the  founder  of  Morraonism,  was  born 
 December  23d,  1805,  at  Sharon,  Windsor  county,  Ver- 
 mont. His  parents,  Joseph  Smith,  Sen.,  and  Lucy 
 Mack  Smith,  belonged  to  the  lowest  grade  of  society, 
 and,  by  the  testimony  of  all  their  neighbors,  were  illit- 
 erate and  superstitious,  as  well  as  indolent  and  unre- 
 liable. They  could  believe  in  the  supernatural  as 
 easily  as  the  natural ;  for  they  were  as  ignorant  of  the 
 one  as  the  other.  These  qualities  seemed  to  descend 
 upon  the   son  by  '^ordinary  generation;"  but  at  an 
 
22  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR   THE   MASTERIES 
 
 early  age  he  showed  that  he  far  excelled  all  the  rest 
 of  the  family  in  a  peculiar  low  cunning,  and  a  certain 
 faculty  of  invention,  which  enabled  him  to  have  a 
 story  ready  for  any  emergency. 
 
 In  the  year  1815,  the  Smith  family  removed  to  New 
 York,  and  settled  near  Palmyra,  Wayne  county,  where 
 they  resided  ten  years.  Here  young  Joseph  developed 
 a  remarkable  talent  for  living  without  work,  and  at  an 
 early  age  adopted  the  profession  of  "  Water  Witch," 
 in  which  calling  he  wandered  about  the  adjoining 
 country  with  a  forked  stick,  or  hazel  rod,  by  the  de- 
 flections of  which,  when  held  in  a  peculiar  manner, 
 he  claimed  to  determine  the  spot  where  a  vein  of  water 
 lay  nearest  the  surface.  This  had  been  a  part  of  his 
 father's  business ;  but  Joe  was  possessed  of  real  genius, 
 tliough  of  a  peculiar  kind,  and  soon  struck  into  higher 
 paths.  He  began  to  "divine"  the  locality  of  things 
 which  had  been  stolen,  by  means  of  a  "peep-stone" 
 placed  in  his  hat,  and  by  the  same  means  to  point  out 
 where  hidden  treasures  lay.  Almost  innumerable  are 
 the  stories  of  his  youth,  giving  bright  promise  of  future 
 rascality.  But  many  of  them  depend  on  little  more 
 than  popular  report,  and  we  can  only  receive  as  au- 
 thentic those  events  which  rest  upon  the  sworn  testi- 
 mony of  reliable  men  who  were  his  neighbors.  After 
 ten  years'  residence  in  Wayne,  the  family  moved  to 
 the  adjoining  county  of  Ontario,  and  settled  near  the 
 town  of  Manchester.  Here,  from  pointing  out  the 
 place  for  wells,  Joe  went  to  work  digging  them.  While 
 in  this  work  for  Mr.  Willard  Chase,  a  peculiar,  round, 
 white  stonje  was  found  by  him  and  the  other  workmen, 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  23 
 
 which  Joe  took  possession  of  and  carried  away,  much 
 to  the  regret  of  Mr.  Chase's  children,  to  whom  it  had 
 been  given  as  a  curious  plaything.  This  was  after- 
 wards the  noted  "  peep-stone,"  in  which  Joe  saw  such 
 wonders.  Many  of  these  statements  are  not  very  stren- 
 uously denied  by  the  best-informed  Mormons.  They 
 acknowledge,  generally,  that  Joe  Smith  was  of  humble 
 parentage,  very  poor  and  illiterate,  and  that  he  was  for 
 many  years  a  "  wild  boy."  Brigham  Young  is  espe- 
 cially frank  upon  the  subject,  adding,  in  conclusion : 
 "  That  the  Prophet  was  of  mean  birth,  that  he  was 
 wild,  intemperate,  even  dishonest  and  tricky  in  his 
 youth,  is  nothing  against  his  mission.  God  can,  and 
 does,  make  use  of  the  vilest  instruments.  Joseph  has 
 brought  forth  a  religion  which  will  save  us  if  we  abide 
 by  it.  Bring  anything  against  that  if  you  can.  I 
 care  not  if  he  gamble,  lie,  swear,  and  run  horses  every 
 day,  for  I  embrace  no  man  in  my  faith.  The  religion 
 is  all  in  all." 
 
 Brigham  is  correct ;  the  early  character  of  the  Pro- 
 phet has  little  to  do  with  the  religion,  except  as 
 determining  the  character  and  credibility  of  his  evi- 
 dence. Let  us  then  examine  briefly  the  origin  of  this 
 new  theology,  present  the  main  testimony;  and,  as 
 impartial  judges,  hear  the  Prophet's  account  first. 
 Many  years  after,  when  Mormonism  was  an  established 
 fact,  Joseph  gave  the  following  account :  At  the  early 
 age  of  fifteen  he  became  much  concerned  about  the 
 soAvation  of  his  soul,  and  at  the  same  time  a  powerful 
 revival  of  religion  spread  throughout  Western  New 
 York.    Joseph  professed  to  be  converted  and  his  mo- 
 
24  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 ther,  sister  Soplironia  and  his  brothers,  Samuel  and 
 Hyrum  (so  spelled  by  his  father)  joined  the  church. 
 But  when  the  revival  ceased,  a  "great  rush"  took 
 place  among  the  ministers  of  various  denominations  as 
 to  who  should  secure  most  of  the  new  converts ; 
 Joseph's  soul  was  vexed,  and  he  began  to  have  serious 
 doubts.  In  this  frame  of  mind  he  opened  the  Bible, 
 and  his  eye  fell  upon  this  text :  "  If  any  of  you  lack 
 wisdom,  let  him  ask  of  God,  that  giveth  to  all  men 
 liberally,  and  upbraideth  not" — James,  Chap.  I.  v.  5. 
 He,  therefore,  retired  to  a  secluded  thicket  near  his  fa- 
 ther's house,  and  knelt  in  prayer,  supplicating  the 
 Lord  to  know  "  which  of  all  the  sects  was  really  right." 
 While  praying,  the  entire  wood  was  illuminated  "with  a 
 great  light,  he  was  enveloped  in  the  midst  of  it  and 
 caught  away  in  a  heavenly  vision,  he  saw  two  glorious 
 personages  and  was  told  that  his  sins  were  forgiven. 
 He  learned  also  that  none  of  the  sects  was  quite  right, 
 but  that  God  had  chosen  him  to  restore  the  true  j)riest- 
 hood  upon  earth.  Afterwards,  he  began  again  to  doubt, 
 and,  being  quite  young,  fell  into  sin,  and  it  was  not 
 until  September  23d,  1823,  that  God  again  heard  his 
 prayers,  and  sent  heavenly  messengers  to  tell  him  his 
 sins  were  forgiven.  An  angel  visited  him  from  time 
 to  time  afterwards,  instructing  him  in  his  duties,  and 
 finally  informed  him  that  in  "the  hill  Cumorah,"  not 
 far  from  Mancliester,  certain  Golden  Plates  were  buried, 
 containing  an  account  of  the  settlement  of  America,  be- 
 fore Christ.  After  several  preliminary  visits,  on  the 
 22d  of  September,  1826,  the  Golden  Plates  were  taken 
 up  from  the  hill  Cumorah  "  with  a  mighty  display  of 
 
o     - 
 
 -o     E 
 ■(0      o 
 
 oo 
 
 o 
 CQ 
 
 B3 
 
 cin 
 
 CQ 
 
 O 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  25 
 
 celestial  machinery,"  and  delivered  by  the  angel  to  Jo- 
 seph. His  vision  being  cleared,  at  the  same  time,  he  saw 
 a  gTeat  concourse  of  devils  struggling  with  angels  to 
 prevent  the  work.  The  plates  were  "  of  the  thick- 
 ness of  tin,  bound  together  hke  a  book,  fastened  at  one 
 side  by  three  rings  which  run  through  the  whole,  form- 
 ing a  volume  about  six  inches  thick."  The  record  was 
 engraved  on  the  plates  in  "  reformed  Egyptian  "  charac- 
 ters, consisting  of  "the  language  of  the  Jews  and  the 
 writing  of  the  Egyptians,"  Li  the  same  box  with  the 
 plates,  were  found  two  stones,  "  transparent  and  clear  as 
 crystal,  the  Urim  and  Thummim  used  by  seers  in  an- 
 cient times,  the  instriunents  of  revelations  of  things  dis- 
 tant, past  and  future."  When  the  news  of  this  discov- 
 ery spread  abroad,  "  the  Prophet  was  the  sport  of  hes, 
 slanders  and  mobs,  and  vain  attempts  to  rob  him  of  his 
 plates."  He  was  ere  long  suppHed  with  witnesses.  Oli- 
 ver Cowdery,  Da^du  Whitmer,  and  Martin  Harris  make 
 the  following  solemn  certificate  : 
 
 "  We  have  seen  the  plates  which  contain  the  records  ; 
 they  were  translated  by  the  gift  and  power  of  God,  for 
 Hls  voice  hath  declared  it  unto  us,  wherefore  we  loiow 
 of  a  surety  that  the  work  is  true ;  and  we  declare  with 
 words  of  soberness  that  an  angel  of  God  came  down  from 
 heaven,  and  brought  and  laid  before  our  eyes,  that  we 
 beheld  and  saw  the  plates  and  the  engravings  thereon." 
 
 The  testimony  of  these  three  is  prefixed  to  all  printed 
 copies  of  the  "  Book  of  Mormon,"  for  such  is  the  name 
 now  given  to  the  work.  Ohver  Cowdery  was  at  that 
 time  a  sort  of  wandering  schoolmaster,  rather  noted  as 
 8,n  elegant  scribo      He  assisted  in  translatiiig  the   in- 
 
26  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 scriptions  on  the  plates,  continued  an  active  Saint  for 
 many  years,  and  was  finally  expelled  from  the  Church 
 in  Missouri,  "  for  lying,  counterfeiting  and  innnorahty." 
 He  led  a  rambhng  life  for  many  years,  and  died  a  short 
 time  since  a  miserable  drunkard. 
 
 Martin  Harris  was  a  credulous  farmer  who  lived  near 
 the  Smiths.  He  had  imbibed  the  notion,  so  common  in 
 the  religious  excitement  of  that  period,  that  "  the  last 
 days  were  at  hand,"  and  mortgaged  his  fann  for  three 
 thousand  dollars,  to  pay  for  printing  the  first  edition  of 
 the  book.  He  continued  with  the  Mormons  till  his 
 means  were  exhausted,  and,  having  quarrelled  wdth  Joe 
 Smith,  in  Missouri,  returned  to  his  old  residence  in  New 
 York.  Of  David  Whitmer  httle  is  known.  He  dropped 
 out  of  the  Mormon  community,  in  one  of  the  "  drives  " 
 in  Missouri,  and  settled  in  that  State.  But  the  Prophet 
 had  other  witnesses.  Soon  after,  four  of  the  Smiths, 
 three  of  the  Whitmers,  and  another  writness,  eight  in 
 all,  testify  as  follows :  "  Joseph  Smith,  the  translator, 
 has  shown  us  the  plates  of  which  hath  been  spoken, 
 which  had  the  appearance  of  gold ;  and  as  many  of  the 
 plates  as  the  said  Smith  had  translated,  we  did  handle 
 with  our  hands  and  also  saw  the  engravings  thereon,  all 
 of  which  had  the  appearance  of  ancient  work  and  cu- 
 rious workmanship." 
 
 According  to  Smith's  account,  he  first  met  Oliver 
 Cowdcry,  April  16th,  1829,  and  after  convincing  him  of 
 his  divine  mission,  on  the  15th  of  May  following,  John 
 the  Baptist  appeared,  and  ordained  them  both  into  the 
 Aaronic  Priesthood,  after  which  they  baptized  each 
 other.    In  July  following,  the  Golden  Plates  were  shown 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  27 
 
 the  "  three  witnesses,"  and  in  that  year  the  translation 
 was  completed.  It  was  begun  some  time  before,  but 
 suspended  m  July,  1828,  from  the  singular  circumstance 
 that  the  wife  of  Martin  Harris  had  stolen  a  hundred  and 
 eighteen  pages  of  the  manuscript.  As  afterwards  ap- 
 peared, the  translators  thought  she  intended  to  wait 
 until  they  had  supplied  the  stolen  part,  then  reproduce 
 tlie  original,  and  prove  that  they  did  not  literally  cor- 
 respond. But  it  seems  they  had  credited  her  with  more 
 cunning  than  she  possessed.  She  had  bitterly  op- 
 posed her  husband  in  his  venture  upon  the  new 
 speculation,  and  had  burned  that  part  of  the  manuscript 
 he  brought  home,  hoping  thereby  to  put  a  stop  to  the 
 work.  She  afterwards  attempted,  by  legal  proceedings, 
 to  prevent  the  disposal  of  his  farm ;  but,  faihng  m  that, 
 finally  separated  from  him.  The  translation  was  then 
 completed,  Ohver  Cowdery  making  most  of  the  final 
 copy.  The  "  Book  of  Mormon  "  was  first  given  to  the 
 world  early  in  1830,  when  three  thousand  volumes  were 
 pubhshed,  under  contract,  by  Mr.  Pomeroy  Tucker,  then 
 proprietor  of  a  paper  in  the  county.  He  has,  within  a 
 few  years,  given  to  the  world  a  valuable  work  on  the 
 "  Origin  and  Progress  of  Mormonism,"  containing  many 
 interesting  facts  concerning  the  origin  of  the  sect.  The 
 first  proof-sheet  of  the  work  was  given  by  Mr.  Tucker, 
 as  a  sort  of  curiosity,  to  his  cousin  Steve  S.  Harding, 
 whom  he  styles  "  a  fun-loving  youth  of  that  vicinity." 
 Mr.  Harding  soon  after  removed  to  Indiana,  and,  just 
 thirty-two  years  afterwards,  was  appointed  by  President 
 Lincoln  Governor  of  Utah,  whither  he  carried  the  proo^ 
 sheet,  and  presented  it  to  the  Church  Historian. 
 
28  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 The  "  Book  of  Mormon  "  was  rapidly  circulated,  and 
 attracted  some  comment.  And  at  this  point,  a  brief 
 synopsis  of  this  work  is  appropriate.  It  consists  of  a 
 number  of  Books,  named  after  their  reputed  authors — 
 Book  of  Nephi,  Book  of  Alma,  Esther,  Jared,  etc.  They 
 contain  the  following  history  : 
 
 In  the  reign  of  Zedekiah,  six  hundred  years  before 
 Christ,  a  Jewish  family,  with  a  few  friends  and  retain- 
 ers, left  Jerusalem,  being  warned  of  God  that  a  great 
 destruction  and  captivity  were  at  hand,  and  journeyed 
 eastward  m  search  of  a  "  land  of  promise."  After  many 
 wanderings,  and  the  death  of  the  Patriarch,  they  reached 
 the  sea,  when  Nej)hi,  who  had  succeeded  his  father  in 
 the  Patriarchate  and  Priesthood,  was  directed  by  the 
 Lord  to  build  a  boat ;  and,  furnished  "svith  a  "  double 
 ball  and  spindle,"  which  served  the  exact  purpose  of  the 
 modern  mariner's  compass.  They  embarked,  and  in 
 due  time  reached  the  contment  of  America.  Subsequent 
 revelations  have  decided  that  they  landed  in  Central 
 America.  There  they  increased  rapidly ;  but  a  great 
 schism  arose,  and  one  Laman,  A\dth  his  followers,  re- 
 fused to  obey  the  true  priesthood,  for  which  they  were 
 cut  off,  cursed,  and  condemned  "  to  be  a  brutish  and  a 
 savage  people,  liavmg  dark  skins,  compelled  to  dig  in 
 the  ground  for  roots,  and  hunt  their  meat  in  the  forests 
 like  beasts  of  prey."  But  it  was  foretold  that  a  rem- 
 nant of  them  should,  in  time,  "  have  the  curse  removed, 
 and  become  a  fair  and  delightsome  people,"  who  should 
 "  blossom  as  the  rose,  under  the  teachings  of  the  Latter- 
 day  Saints."  These  were  the  Lamanites,  the  present 
 Lidian.s,  while  the  Christian  party  were  laiowii  {is  Ne- 
 
AND   CRIMES    OF   MORMONISM.  29 
 
 phites.  The  latter  spread  over  all  of  North  and  South 
 America,  became  rich  and  powerful,  and  built  the  cities 
 of  Zarahemla,  Jacobbugath,  Manti,  Gidgiddoni,  and 
 scores  of  others,  thus  accounting  for  the  numerous  ruins 
 found  on  this  contment.  They  were  ruled  over  suc- 
 cessively by  Nephi  the  First,  Second,  and  Third,  by 
 Noah,  Alma,  Kish,  Coriantumnr,  and  numerous  other 
 kings,  and  were  successively  instructed  by  a  number  of 
 proj)hets.  But  the  Lamanites  increased  likewise,  and 
 carried  on  almost  perpetual  war  with  the  Nephites,  till 
 a  great  part  of  the  land  was  desolate.  According  to 
 this  history,  there  have  been  no  people  of  the  Old 
 "World  so  warhke  and  blood-thirsty  as  these ;  and  battles 
 in  which  from  twenty  to  fifty  thousand  were  slain  were 
 of  common  occurrence.  The  Nephites  were  troubled, 
 too,  by  "  false  doctrine,  heresy,  and  schism ;"  the  true 
 priesthood  was  reviled;  one  man  arose  and  preached 
 Universalism,  "  that  God  would  save  all  manldnd  at  the 
 last  day,"  and  others  followed  strange  gods.  An  im- 
 mense mass  of  the  nation  turned  back  and  jomed  the 
 Lamanites,  and  a  band  of  robbers,  under  one  Gadianton, 
 desolated  a  large  part  of  the  land.  At  length  prophets 
 appeared  and  announced  the  coming  of  Christ,  who, 
 after  he  was  crucified  at  Jerusalem,  preached  the  Gospel 
 in  America.  At  the  time  of  his  death,  this  country, 
 also,  was  shrouded  in  darkness ;  a  mighty  earthquake 
 threw  down  the  mcked  city  of  Jacobbugath,  opened 
 great  chasms  and  basins  throughout  the  land,  and  the 
 whole  face  of  the  country  was  changed.  The  Nephites 
 accepted  Christ  at  once  ;  but  in  a  few  generations,  fell 
 again  mto  apostasy,  and  the  Lord  delivered  them  into 
 
30  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 the  hand  of  their  enemies.  The  mighty  Chieftain 
 Omandagus,  whose  rule  was  from  the  Rocky  Momitains 
 to  the  Mississippi,  fought  against  the  Nephites,  and  after 
 him  many  others.  Little  by  Uttle,  the  Nepliites  were 
 driven  eastward,  but  made  a  stand  near  the  shores  of 
 Lake  Erie,  and  fought  "  till  the  whole  land  was  covered 
 with  dead  bodies."  They  made  their  final  stand  about 
 430,  A.  D.,  at  the  hill  Cumorah,  in  Ontario  County, 
 New  York,  where  the  Lamanites  came  agamst  them, 
 and  the  battle  raged  till  two  hundred  and  thirty  thou- 
 sand Nephites  were  slain ;  the  little  remnant  was  cap- 
 tured, and  only  Mormon  and  his  son  Moroni  escaped. 
 
 The  various  kings  and  priests  had  kept  a  record  of 
 their  history,  which  Mormon  now  collected  in  one 
 volume,  added  a  book  of  his  ovm,  and  gave  them  to  his 
 son.  The  latter  finished  the  record,  and  buried  the 
 whole  in  the  hill  Cumorah,  being  assured  of  God  that 
 in  fourteen  centuries,  a  great  Prophet  should  restore 
 them  to  man.  Such  is  the  book,  and  Joseph's  account 
 of  it.  On  such  testimony  alone  there  is  sufficient  cause 
 to  reject  it,  the  book  itself  containing  abundant  internal 
 evidence  of  a  fraud. 
 
 Let  us  now  glance  at  the  opposing  accomit.  Jn  the 
 year  1812,  a  written  work,  called  the  "  Manuscript 
 Found,"  was  presented  to  Mr.  Patterson,  a  bookseller  of 
 Pittsburg,  Penna.,  by  the  author.  Rev.  Solomon  Spauld- 
 ing.  This  gentleman  was  bom  m  Pennsylvania,  was  a 
 graduate  of  Dartmouth  College,  and  for  many  years  a 
 Presbyterian  minister ;  he  fell  into  bad  health,  left  the 
 mmistry,  and  finally  died  of  consmnption.  The  "  Man- 
 uscript Found  "  was  written  by  Spaulding  as  a  historical 
 
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AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  31 
 
 romance,  to  account  for  the  settlement  of  America,  and 
 he  proposed  to  Mr.  Patterson  to  publish  it  with  a  pre- 
 face, givmg  an  imaginary  account  of  its  havmg  been 
 taken  from  plates  dug  up  in  Ohio ;  but  the  latter  did  not 
 think  the  enterprise  would  pay.  Sidney  Rigdon  was 
 then  at  work  in  the  office  of  Mr.  Patterson ;  the  latter 
 died  in  1826,  and  what  became  of  that  copy  of  the  man- 
 uscript is  not  known.  Mrs.  Spaulding  had  another  com- 
 plete copy;  but  in  the  year  1825,  while  residing  in 
 Ontario  Co.,  N.  Y.,  next  door  to  a  man  named  Stroude, 
 for  whom  Joe  Smith  was  then  digging  a  well,  that  copy 
 also  was  lost.  She  thinks  it  was  stolen  from  her  trunk. 
 Thus  far  all  is  clear,  and  there  is  no  particular  discrep- 
 ancy between  the  two  accounts ;  but  when  the  "  Book 
 of  Mormon  "  was  pubhshed,  the  widow  and  brother  of 
 Solomon  Spaulding,  and  several  other  persons  who  had 
 heard  him  read  his  work,  forthwith  claimed  that  the 
 new  publication  was  nearly  identical  with  the  "  Manu- 
 script Found,"  varying  only  in  certain  interpolated 
 texts  on  doctrinal  points.  This  claim  was  circulated 
 abroad,  and  caused  Sidney  Rigdon  to  write  a  highly 
 slanderous  and  abusive  letter  to  the  press,  in  regard  to 
 Mrs.  Spaulding.  Mormon  historians  say  that  Spaul- 
 ding's  book  was  a  mere  idolatrous  romance,  and  that  the 
 whole  story  is  the  invention  of  Dr.  Philastus  Hurlbut, 
 who  seceded  from  the  saints  in  Ohio,  and  "  persecuted  " 
 Joe  Smith  in  various  ways.  The  widow's  and  brother's 
 statement  is  supported  by  the  evidence  of  Mr.  Joseph 
 Miller,  Sr.,  now  of  Washington  Co.,  Penna.,  who  had 
 often  heard  Spaulding  read  his  work ;  by  that  of  Mr. 
 Redick  McKee,  who  formerly  boarded  with  the  Spaul- 
 
32  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 ding's,  and  by  others  who  knew  of  the  work.  Space 
 fails  to  set  forth  all  the  evidence  presented  in  support 
 of  this  view.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  while  it  is  of  moral 
 force  sufficient  to  convmce  most  minds,  it  is  yet  not  such 
 proof  as  would  estabUsh  the  fact  beyond  all  doubt,  or 
 convict  Smith  and  Rigdon  of  theft  and  forgery  in  a 
 court  of  justice.  If  the  proof  were  any  less  strong  than 
 it  is,  I  would  decide  against  the  Spaulding  claun,  solely 
 from  the  internal  evidence  of  the  book ;  for  the  style  and 
 matter  are  such  as  to  raise  a  very  strong  presumption 
 that  it  could  not  be  the  work  of  any  man  with  intelli- 
 gence enough  for  a  minister,  or  of  a  graduate  from  Dart- 
 mouth College.  But  the  true  theory  no  doubt  is,  that 
 the  writing  of  Spaulding  was  taken  by  Smith,  Rigdon, 
 Cowdery  and  others,  as  the  suggestion  and  idea  of  their 
 work ;  but  was  greatly  modified  and  interpolated  by 
 them,  leaving  sufficient  characteristics  to  be  recognized 
 by  the  Spaulding  witnesses,  who  were  left  solely  to 
 their  memory  for  a  comparison  with  the  "  Book  of  Mor- 
 mon," recognizing  what  was  in  it,  and  forgetting  much 
 that  was  not  included. 
 
 Of  the  "  three  witnesses  "  it  is  unnecessary  to  treat ; 
 their  subsequent  course  shows  what  weight  is  to  be 
 attached  to  their  testimony.  The  best  evidence  further- 
 more shows,  that  Sidney  Rigdon  was  the  prime  mover 
 in  the  fraud,  and  that  Joe  Smith  was  conveniently  put 
 forward  as  the  Prophet. 
 
 The  year  1830  ranks  as  number  one  of  the  Mormon 
 era.  Early  in  the  spring,  the  "  Book  of  Mormon  "  ap- 
 peared, and  on  the  memorable  6th  of  April  following, 
 the  Mormon  Church  was  organized,  near  Manchester. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  33 
 
 Six  members  were  baptized  and  ordained  elders,  viz.  : 
 Joseph  Smith,  Sr.,  Joseph  Smith,  Jr.,  Hyrum  Smith, 
 Samuel  Smith,  Oliver  Cowdery,  and  Joseph  Knight, 
 all  but  the  last  two  of  the  "  original  Smith  family." 
 The  sacrament  was  forthwith  administered,  and  hands 
 laid  on  "  for  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost."     On  the  11th 
 of  April,  Oliver  Cowdery  preached  the  first  public  dis- 
 course  on   the   new  faith,  and   the  same   month   the 
 "first  miracle"  was  performed  in  Colesville,  Broome  Co., 
 N.  Y.     On  the  first  of  June,  the  Church,  which  had 
 meanwhile    gained   a  few  more  Whitmers   and  some 
 others,  held    its   "First  Conference"   at    Fayette,   in 
 Seneca  Co. ;  and  the  same  month  Joe  Smith  was  twice 
 arrested,  "on  false  charges,"  tried  and  acquitted.   Mean- 
 while, on  the  18th  of  January,  1827,  he  had  married 
 Emma  Hale,  daughter  of  Isaac  Hale,  of  South  Bain- 
 bridge,  Chenango  Co.,  N.  Y. ;  and,  in   1830,  she  was, 
 by   special   revelation,  pronounced  "Elect   Lady  and 
 Daughter  of  God,"  aftenvards  more   learnedly  styled 
 Electa  Gyria.     She   became    thoroughly  disgusted    at 
 her  husband's  religion  while  in  Nauvoo,  and  expressed 
 no  particular  regret  at  his  death ;  she  refused  to  emi- 
 grate to  Utah,  but  apostatized  and  married  a  Gentile, 
 and  is  rather  popular  as  land-lady  of  the  old  Mansion 
 House,  at  Nauvoo.    In  August  of  1830,  Parley  P.  Pratt, 
 a  young  Campbellite  preacher,  came  on  a  visit  especially 
 to  hear  of  the  new  faith,  and  was  at  once  converted, 
 and  soon  after,  Sidney  Rigdon  appeared  as  a  leading 
 Mormon.     Their  own  history  states  that  he  had  never 
 heard  of  Smith  until  this  time.      Soon  after,    Orson 
 Pratt  was  baptized,  and  the  new  Church  now  had  valu- 
 3 
 
34  LIFE  IN   UTAH  J   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 able  material  in  its  composition.  The  wild,  poetical 
 zeal  of  Parley,  and  the  cool  determination  of  Orson 
 Pratt,  the  immense  biblical  knowledge  and  controver- 
 sial skill  of  Sidney  Rigdon,  and  the  shrewd  cunning  of 
 Joe  Smith,  were  united  in  the  work  of  propagandism, 
 and  converts  multiplied.  In  Octoter,  missionaries  were 
 sent  to  the  "  Lamanites,"  and  in  December,  Sidney 
 Rigdon  visited  Joe  Smith,  and  preached  several  times 
 in  the  vicinity.  In  January,  Smith  and  Rigdon  pro- 
 ceeded to  the  latter's  residence,  near  Kirtland,  Ohio, 
 preaching  by  the  way.  Rigdon  had  previously  col- 
 lected a  band  of  nearly  one  hundred  persons,  who  called 
 themselves  Disciples ;  mostly  seceders  from  other  de- 
 nominations, holding  to  a  literal  and  rapid  fulfilment 
 of  the  prophecies,  very  fanatical  and  looking  daily 
 for  "  some  great  event  to  occur."  Many  of  these 
 adopted  the  new  faith  at  once,  and  a  church  of  thirty 
 was  organized.  "  By  revelation "  of  February  9tli, 
 the  elders  were  commanded  "  to  go  forth  in  pairs  and 
 preach,"  and  it  was  ordered  they  should  dwell  particu- 
 larly upon  the  fact  that  "  the  last  days  were  at  hand." 
 This  idea  is  one  that  has  a  great  hold  upon  many 
 minds.  Nor  is  it  confined  to  the  ignorant ;  many  intel- 
 ligent men  in  every  generation  become  impressed  with 
 the  idea  that  "  in  oar  day  the  world  has  become  -so  cor- 
 rupt, that  God  Almighty  is  going  to  make  a  great  change," 
 and  in  spite  of  the  plain  declarations  of  Scripture,  fan- 
 atics will  wrest  the  mild  precepts  of  the  Gospel,  and 
 force  them  to  uidicate  that  hell-fire  and  destruction  are 
 impending  over  everybody  but  their  own  particular  sect. 
 The  Mormons  began  as  Millenai'ians,  and  that  of  the 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  35 
 
 maddest  sort ;  but  they  did  not  preach  that  the  world 
 itself  was  to  be  destroj^ed,  only  that  destruction  was  soou 
 to  fall  upon  all  who  did  not  embrace  the  new  gosix;!. 
 No  particular  time  was  set  for  this  consummation,  but  it 
 was  understood  to  be  immhient.  Early  in  1831,  John 
 Whitmer  was  appointed  Church  recorder  and  historian, 
 and  about  the  same  time,  the  remaining  New  York 
 Saints  came  to  Kirtland,  wliich  is  set  down  m  Mormon 
 annals  as  the  First  Hegira. 
 
 On  the  6th  of  June,  the  Melchisedek,  or  Superior 
 Piiesthood,  was  first  conferred  upon  the  elders,  and  soon 
 after  Joe  Smith  had  a  revelation  that  the  final  gather- 
 ing place  of  the  Saints  was  to  be  in  Missouri.  He  set 
 out  the  same  month  with  a  few  elders,  and  in  the  middle 
 of  July,  reached  Jackson  County,  Missouri,  where  an- 
 other revelation  was  granted  that  this  was  "  Zion  which 
 should  never  be  moved,"  and  the  whole  land  wa^  '-'  sol- 
 emnly dedicated  to  the  Lord  and  His  Saints."  They 
 began  at  once  to  build,  and  laid  the  fii'st  log  in  Kaw 
 ToAvnship,  twelve  miles  west  of  Independence.  Another 
 revelation,  of  August  2d,  fixed  the  site  of  the  Great 
 Temple  "  three  hundred  yards  west  of  the  Court  House 
 in  Independence,"  which  spot  was  accordingly  dedicated 
 by  religious  exercises,  which  were  followed  by  a  great 
 accession  of  "  gifts."  On  the  4th  of  August,  another 
 large  party  arrived  from  Kirtland,  a  "  General  Confer- 
 ence "  was  held  in  the  "  land  of  Zion,"  and  another  rev- 
 elation vouchsafed  to  Joseph,  that  the  whole  land  should 
 be  theirs,  and  should  not  be  obtained  "  hut  hy  purchase 
 or  hy  hlooil." 
 
 Just  what  was   to   be  understood   by  that  strange 
 
36  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 >70rding,  it  is  now  impossible  to  tell.  The  Mormons 
 explain  it  very  innocently,  and  the  Missourians  con- 
 strued it  to  mean  that  the  Saints  would  unite  with  the 
 Indians  and  drive  out  the  old  settlers.  Joe  Smith  re- 
 turned to  Kirtland  the  latter  part  of  August,  and  soon 
 after  established  a  mill,  store,  and  bank.  The  last  was 
 what  was  then  denominated  a  "  wild  cat "  bank,  that  is, 
 it  had  no  charter,  and  deposited  no  State  bonds  for  se- 
 curity ;  but  rested  solely  on  the  individual  credit  of  the 
 proprietors.  As  several  wealthy  men  had  come  into 
 the  new  organization,  the  notes  of  the  bank  circulated 
 at  par.  Joseph  Smith  was  made  President,  and  Sidney 
 Rigdon,  Cashier.  For  the  next  five  months,  Joseph 
 travelled  and  preached  m  the  Northern  and  Eastern 
 States,  making  many  converts,  who  "  gathered  "  either 
 at  Kirtland,  or  in  Missouri,  The  elders  sent  out  in 
 February  previous  had  met  with  tolerable  success,  and 
 Samuel  H.  Smith,  brother  of  the  Prophet,  had  added 
 greatly  to  the  Church  by  converting  Brigham  Young. 
 This  noted  personage  was  born  at  Whittingham,  Wind- 
 ham Co.,  Vermont,  June  1st,  1801.  He  had  four  brothers 
 and  six  sisters,  all  of  whom  became  Mormons.  He  was 
 •aj^tized  m  April,  1832,  by  Eleazer  Millard,  and  soon 
 after  "  gathered  "  at  Kirtland.  He  was  brought  up  on 
 a  farm,  and  learned  the  trade  of  painter  and  glazier, 
 which  he  followed  till  after  his  conversion  to  Mormon- 
 ism.  Li  him  Joe  Smith  recognized  one  "  born  to  rule," 
 and  his  deep  cunning  and  wonderful  knowledge  of  the 
 weak  pomts  in  human  nature,  soon  gave  him  a  leadhig 
 position  in  the  Church.  In  March,  1832,  Joe  Smith 
 and  Sidney  Rigdon,  while  absent  from  home,  were  tarred 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  37 
 
 and  feathered  by  a  mob,  "  for  attempting  to  establish 
 Communism,  for  forgery  and  dishonorable  dealing,"  ac- 
 cording to  their  adversaries  ;  by  their  own  account,  "  for 
 the  truth's  sake,"  and  this  is  set  down  as  "  the  beginning 
 of  2:>ersecutions."  Early  in  April,  Joe  Smith  found  it 
 necessary  to  go  again  to  Independence,  Mo.,  where  a 
 sort  of  "  (Ecumenical  Council "  was  held,  and  a  printing 
 office  set  up.  In  June,  was  issued  the  "  Morning  and 
 Evening  Star,"  the  first  Mormon  periodical,  edited  by 
 W.  W.  Phelps.  Joe  Smith  soon  returned  to  Kirtland, 
 and  the  latter  part  of  the  same  year  Heber  Chase  Kim- 
 ball was  baptized  into  the  Church.  In  February,  1833, 
 Joe  Smith  finished  his  "inspired  re  translation"  of  the 
 New  Testament,  and  soon  after  received  a  "  revelation 
 to  square  things  in  Zion."  A  quorum  of  three  High 
 Priests,  Joseph  Smith,  Sidney  Rigdon,  and  Frederick 
 G.  Williams,  was  organized  as  "  Presidency  of  the 
 Church,"  and  they  were  at  once  favored  with  "  visions  of 
 the  Saviour  and  concourse  of  angels." 
 
 By  the  spring  of  1833,  the  Mormons  numbered  some 
 fifteen  hundred  in  Jackson  County,  Missouri.  They 
 had  taken  virtual  possession  of  Independence,  where 
 their  paper  was  published,  and  were  fast  extending  their 
 settlements  westward.  The  mtense  religious  excitement 
 which  raged  throughout  the  United  States  during  the 
 decade  of  1820-30,  which  led  to  the  wild  phenomena  of 
 "jerks,"  and  so-called  religious  exercises  of  howling, 
 jumping,  barking  and  muttering,  seems  to  have  left  a 
 precipitate  of  its  worst  materials  in  Momionism.  They 
 daily  proclaimed  to  the  older  settlers  that  the  Lord  had 
 given  them  the  whole  land  of  Missouri ;  that  bloody 
 
38  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 wars  would  extirpate  all  other  sects  from  the  country; 
 •  that  "  it  would  be  one  gore  of  blood  from  the  Mississippi 
 to  the  border,"  and  that  the  few  who  survived  would  be 
 servants  to  the  Saints,  who  would  o-vvn  all  the  property 
 in  the  country.  As  their  numbers  increased,  arrogance 
 and  spiritual  pride  took  possession  of  them ;  they  pro- 
 claimed themselves  "  Kings  and  priests  of  the  Most 
 High  God,"  and  regarded  all  others  as  reprobates,  des- 
 tined to  a  speedy  destruction.  In  conversation  with  the 
 Missourians,  they  never  wearied  of  declaring  that  all 
 the  Churches  established  by  the  latter  were  "alike  the 
 creation  of  the  devil,"  that  they  were  under  the  curse 
 of  God  and  all  their  members  doomed,  castaway  Gen- 
 tiles, worse  than  heathen,  and  unworthy  of  longer  Hfe. 
 At  the  same  time  it  does  not  appear  that  there  were  any 
 more  violations  of  law  among  them,  than  would  be 
 among  the  same  number  of  very  poor  and  ignorant  peo- 
 ple anywhere ;  but  their  general  conduct  was  insufferable. 
 In  the  first  flush  of  their  religious  enthusiasm,  they  seem 
 to  have  been  governed  by  no  ideas  of  moderation;  they 
 proclaimed  through  the  country  that  it  was  useless  folly 
 for  Gentiles  to  open  farms,  the  Lord  would  never  allow 
 them  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  labor;  they  notified 
 the  workmen  upon  new  buildings  that  they  could  never 
 hope  to  be  paid  therefor,  and  generally  proclaimed  that 
 in  a  very  few  months  the  Gentiles  would  have  neither 
 name  nor  place  in  Missouri. 
 
 The  simple-minded  Missourians  listened  with  a  vague 
 wonder  to  their  first  predictions,  then  smiled  at  their 
 confident  boastings  of  superior  purity  and  holiness  ;  but 
 soon  their  increasing  numbers  and  arrogance  awakened 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  39 
 
 serious  fears  of  the  future.  The  Missourians,  unaccus- 
 tomed to  the  language  of  hjrperbole  in  prophecy,  inter 
 preted  their  predictions  to  mean  that  the  Saints 
 themselves  would  be  the  ministers  of  God's  vengeance, 
 and  smite  the  unbelievers ;  many  were  incensed  against 
 tliem  for  their  language,  and  the  public  mind  was 
 greatly  inflamed.  In  April,  1833,  a  number  of  Missou- 
 rians came  together  in  Independence,  and  decided  that 
 "  means  of  defence  ought  to  be  taken,"  but  determined 
 upon  nothing.  The  first  June  number  of  the  Morning 
 and  Evening  Star  contained  an  intemperate  article, 
 headed,  "  Free  People  of  Color,"  which  excited  the 
 wrath  of  the  old  citizens  against  the  Mormons,  as 
 "  abolitionists,"  and  was  answered  by  a  small  pamphlet, 
 headed,  "  Beware  of  False  Prophets."  As  summer  ad- 
 vanced, it  appeared  that  the  Mormons  would  be  suffi- 
 ciently numeroiLs  to  carry  the  county  at  the  August 
 election,  and  this  roused  all  the  fears  of  the  old  settlers 
 afresh.  Without  apparent  concert,  an  armed  mob  of 
 tliree  hundred  assembled  at  Independence,  tore  down 
 tlie  newspaper  office,  tarred  and  feathered  several  of  the 
 Saints,  whipped  two  of  them  a  little  and  ordered  all  to 
 leave  the  county.  Oliver  Cowdery  was  started  to  Kirt- 
 land  to  consult  with  Joe  Smith ;  but,  during  his  absence, 
 the  Saints  agreed  with  the  citizens  to  leave  Jackson 
 County.  On  the  8th  of  October,  W.  W.  Pheli^s  and 
 Orson  Hyde  presented  a  memorial  to  Governor  Dunklin, 
 of  Missouri,  praying  for  redress,  to  which  that  officer 
 made  answer,  that  they  "had  a  right  to  the  protection 
 of  the  law,  if  they  chose  to  stay  in  Jackson."  Embold- 
 ened by  this,  they  refused  to  leave  according  to  agree- 
 
40 
 
 LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 FLIGHT  OF  THE  MORMONS  FROM  JACKSON   CO.,  MO. 
 
 ment,  and  the  last  of  the  month  the  mob  again  rose, 
 burnt  ten  Mormons'  houses  and  committed  a  lew  other 
 outrages.  Tlie  Mormons  armed  in  turn,  and  fired  into 
 a  portion  of  the  mob,  kilhng  two ;  the  whole  body  of 
 citizens  then  arose  against  them,  calhng  in  aid  from 
 other  counties,  when  the  Mormons  became  panio- 
 stricken  and  suddenly  evacuated  Jackson,  crossing  the 
 Missouri  River  during  the  nights  of  November  4th  and 
 5th,  into  Clay  County. 
 
 This  first  expulsion  of  the  Mormons  is  a  point  upon 
 which  there  has  been  much  discussion.  That  the  peoyle 
 of  Jackson  County  were  not  justified  in  law  is  plain ; 
 but  that  they  did  exactly  as  the  people  of  nine  counties 
 out  of  ten  would  have  done,  is  equally  plain.  They 
 ;!eem  to  have  been  actuated  much  more  by  a  feai'  of 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  41 
 
 what  the  Mormons  would  do  when  they  had  the  power, 
 tlian  by  what  they  had  done ;  and  that  those  fears  were 
 well  founded,  is  abundantly  shown  by  subsequent  event* 
 The  near  vicinity  of  the  Mormons  was  mtolerable,  and 
 tlie  settlers  were  determined  they  should  leave.  The 
 mob  allowed  the  Saints  to  carry  their  printing  material 
 to  Liberty,  Clay  Co.,  where  they  soon  after  began  to 
 publish  the  Missouri  Enquirer.  They  spread  themselves 
 over  Clay  and  into  Van  Buren  County ;  but  were  "  per- 
 secuted "  and  annoyed  in  the  latter  so  they  made  no 
 great  settlement. 
 
 Meanwhile,  Joe  Smith  and  a  much  more  intelligent 
 class  of  Mormons  were  building  up  Kirtland.  July  2d, 
 1833,  Smith  completed  his  "inspired  translation"  of 
 the  Old  Testament,  and  soon  after  a  printing  press 
 was  set  up  in  Kirtland,  and  the  Latter-Day  Saints 
 Messenger  and  Advocate  established.  "  Old  man  Smith," 
 the  Prophet's  father,  was  made  Patriarch,  and  Bishop 
 Partridge  head  of  that  branch  of  the  Cliurch.  When 
 the  news  of  affairs  in  Jackson  County  reached  him, 
 Joseph  "determined  on  war,  and  began  at  once  to 
 collect  a  small  force."  He  soon  had  two  hundred  men, 
 with  whom  he  started  westward ;  "  marched  on  Mis- 
 souri," according  to  Gentile  history ;  "  hoped  to  redeem 
 Zion,"  according  to  Mormon  annals.  About  this  time, 
 Joseph  had  another  revelation  "  as  to  business,"  which 
 will  be  found  in  the  Doctrine  and  Covenants  with  the 
 rest,  which  contained,  among  other  directions,  this  re- 
 markable passage  : — "  Behold,  it  is  said  or  written  in 
 my  laws :  Thou  shalt  not  get  in  debt  to  thine  enemies. 
 But,  behold,  it  is  not  said  at  any  time  the  Lord  should 
 
42  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MTSTEEIES 
 
 not  take  when  He  pleases,  and  pay  as  seemeth  to  Him 
 good.  Wherefore,  as  ye  are  on  the  Lord's  business, 
 whatsoever  ye  do,"  etc.  We  need  not  be  surprised, 
 therefore,  to  learn,  as  we  do  from  Joseph's  Autobiogra* 
 phy,  that  the  people  along  the  road  were  very  hostile. 
 Two  days  before  starting,  on  May  3d,  the  Conference 
 of  Elders,  in  Kirtland,  repudiated  the  name  of  Mor- 
 mons and  adopted,  for  the  first  time,  that  of  Latter- 
 Day  Saints ;  and  we  notice  in  Joseph's  account  that 
 along  the  road  they  constantly  denied  the  name  of 
 Mormons.  These  being  the  "last  days,"  they  were 
 Latter-day  Saints,  as  well  as  to  distinguish  them  from 
 the  Saints  of  former  days ;  the  term  Mormon,  on  the 
 contrary,  is  supposed  to  be  derived  from  the  Greek 
 Mop^ov  ^MormoLi^,  signifying  a  "horrible  fright"  or  "bug- 
 bear." 
 
 Joe  and  his  "  army  "  reached  Missouri  in  the  latter 
 part  of  June,  but  while  near  the  Mississij^pi,  the  cholera, 
 then  but  just  known  in  America,  broke  out  in  his  camp, 
 and  in  a  few  days  twenty  of  the  company  died.  Joe 
 preached,  prayed  and  prophesied  in  vain  ;  his  followers 
 were  panic-stricken  at  the  horrible  and  unknown  dis- 
 ease, lie  first  attempted  to  cure  it  "  by  laying  on  of 
 hands,"  but  desisted  with  the  remark,  that  "  when  the 
 Lord  would  destroy,  it  was  vain  for  man  to  attempt  to 
 stay  Ilis  hand."  An  armed  force  which  had  meanwhile 
 gathered  in  Jackson  County,  in  anticipation  of  his 
 coming,  was  scattered  by  a  violent  storm,  aud  in  a  few 
 days,  the  cholera  having  spent  its  force,  the  company 
 reached  Liberty.  There  was  nothing  to  be  done,  and 
 in  a  few  days  Smith  returned  to  Kirtland.     A  quorum 
 
AJ^D   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM  43 
 
 of  twelve  apostles  was  then  organized,  among  them, 
 Brigham  Young  and  Heber  C.  Kimball.  The  former 
 received  the  "  gift  of  tongues,"  and  was  sent  on  a  mis- 
 sion to  the  Eastern  States,  and  in  May,  1835,  all  the 
 twelve  left  Kirtland  on  general  missions.  The  ensumg 
 August,  there  was  a  General  Assembly  at  Kirtland,  in 
 which  the  "  Book  of  Doctrine  and  Covenants,"  and 
 the  "  Lectures  on  Faith,"  by  Sidney  Rigdon,  were 
 adopted  as  the  rule  of  faith.  About  this  time,  a  learned 
 Jew,  formerly  Professor  of  Oriental  tongues  in  New 
 York,  was  connected  with  the  Mormons,  and  on  the 
 4th  of  January,  1836,  a  Hebrew  professorship  Avas 
 established  at  Kirtland,  Joseph  Smith  and  several 
 other  leading  Mormons  entering  upon  the  study.  A 
 Temple  had  been  projected  early  in  the  settlement, 
 which  was  completed  and  dedicated  as  the  "  House  of 
 the  Lord,"  March  27th,  1836.  This  was  their  first 
 temple^  and  its  estimated  cost,  $40,000.  Meanwhile, 
 Governor  Dunklin  had  attempted  to  have  the  Mormons 
 again  put  in  possession  of  their  lands,  in  Jackson 
 County,  whereupon  a  committee  of  citizens  from  the 
 latter  met  a  committee  of  the  Mormons,  and  offered  the 
 following  : 
 "^  Pj'oposition  of  the  people  of  Jackson   County    to  the 
 
 Mormons : 
 
 "  The  undersigned  committee,  being  fully  authorized 
 by  the  people  of  Jackson  County,  hereby  propose  to  the 
 Mormons,  that  they  will  buy  all  the  land  that  the  said 
 Mormons  ow^n  in  the  County  of  Jackson,  and  also  all 
 the  improvements  which  the  said  Monnons  had  on  any 
 of  the  pubhc  lands  m  said  County  of  Jackson,  as  they 
 
44  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 existed  before  the  first  disturbance  between  the  people 
 of  Jackson  and  the  Mormons,  and  for  such  as  they  have 
 made  since.  They  further  propose,  that  the  valuation 
 of  said  land  and  improvements  shall  be  ascertained  by 
 three  disinterested  arbitrators,  to  be  chosen  and  agreed 
 to  by  both  parties.  They  further  propose,  that  should 
 the  parties  disagree  in  the  choice  of  arbitrators,  then 
 
 is  to   choose   them.      They  further   propose,  that 
 
 twelve  of  the  Mormons  shall  be  permitted  to  go  along 
 with  the  arbitrators,  to  show  them  their  land  and  im- 
 provements while  valuing  the  same,  and  such  other  of 
 the  Mormons  as  the  arbitrators  shall  wish  to  do  so,  to 
 give  them  information ;  and  the  people  of  Jackson  County 
 hereby  guarantee  their  entire  safety  while  doing  so. 
 They  further  propose,  that  when  the  arbitrators  report 
 the  value  of  the  land  and  improvements,  as  aforesaid, 
 the  people  of  Jackson  will  pay  the  valuation,  with  one 
 hundred  'per  cent.,  added  thereon,  to  the  Mormons  within 
 thirty  days  thereafter. 
 
 "  They  further  propose,  that  the  Mormons  are  not  to 
 make  any  effort,  ever  after,  to  settle  either  collectively; 
 or  individually  within  the  limits  of  Jackson  County 
 The  Mormons  are  to  enter  into  bonds  to  insure  the  con- 
 veyance of  their  land  in  Jackson  County,  according  to 
 the  above  terms,  when  payment  shall  be  made  ;  and  the 
 committee  will  enter  into  a  like  bond,  with  such  security 
 as  may  be  deemed  sufficient  for  the  pajinent  of  the 
 money,  according  to  the  above  proposition,  etc.,  etc." 
 
 The  Mormons  have  alwaj^s  maintained  that  their  latei 
 troubles  were  "  solely  on  account  of  their  roHgion,"  but 
 that  they  were  driven  from  Jackson  County  because 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MOEMONISM.  45 
 
 "  the  mob  desired  to  get  possession  of  their  lands."  The 
 above  document  certainly  tends  to  disprove  that  charge. 
 The  foremost  men  in  the  comity  offered  their  personal 
 security  for  the  payment,  but  the  Mormons  rejected  the 
 proposition,  on  the  ground  that  the  Lord  had  said,  "  Zion 
 should  never  be  moved."  The  citizens  of  Jackson  then 
 became  apprehensive  that  they  would  be  attacked  from 
 Clay  County,  and  stirred  up  those  in  the  latter  county 
 who  considered  they  already  had  cause  to  complain  of 
 the  Mormons ;  so  they  "  requested  "  the  latter,  in  May, 
 1836,  to  remove,  which  they  did,  this  time  settling  in 
 Carroll,  Davis  and  Caldwell  Counties.  In  the  last  named 
 they  founded  the  town  of  Far- West,  and  these  counties 
 being  new  and  unoccupied,  they  prospered  greatly  for  a 
 while. 
 
 In  June,  1837,  the  first  organized  foreign  mission  was 
 sent  to  England,  consisting  of  H.  C.  Kimball,  Orson 
 Hyde  and  W.  Richards.  On  the  30th  of  July  follo^wing, 
 they  baptized  the  first  converts  there,  in  the  river  Kib- 
 ble, and  the  first  confirmation  of  members  was  at  Wal- 
 kerford,  August  4th.  The  first  Conference  of  English 
 Moimons  was  held  in  the  cock-pit  at  Preston,  ihe  25tli 
 of  the  following  December. 
 
 In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year,  the  "  Kirtland  Safety 
 Society  Bank,"  engineered  by  Smith  and  Rigdon,  failed, 
 under  circumstances  which  created  great  scandal,  and 
 tlie  Prophet  had  a  revelation  to  "  depart  for  the  land  of 
 Zion,"  in  Missouri.  Smith  and  Rigdon  left  Kirtland 
 "  between  two  days,"  and  their  creditors  pursued  them 
 for  a  hundred  miles;  but  in  the  language  of  Joseph's 
 Autobiography,  "  the  Lord  dehvered  them  out  of  the 
 
46  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 hands  of  their  persecutors."  They  reached  Far- West  in 
 March,  and  found  a  fearful  schism  raging  in  the  Church. 
 The  authority  of  Joseph  was  unequal  to  the  task  of  re- 
 storing order,  and  Martin  Harris,  Ohver  Cowdery  and 
 one  L.  E.  Johnson  were  "  cut  off  from  the  Church," 
 while  Orson  Hyde,  Thomas  B.  Marsh,  W.  W.  Phelps 
 and  many  others  apostatized  and  brought  many  serious 
 charges  against  Joe  Smith  and  other  leaders.  It  was 
 said  they  were  plotting  treason  against  the  State,  that 
 they  were  conspiring  with  the  Indians,  that  they  were 
 engaged  in  counterfeiting  and  cattle-steaUng,  and  were 
 attempting  to  establish  a  community  of  goods  as  well  as 
 wives.  The  dissenters  stirred  up  the  neighboring  people 
 against  the  Saints,  and  for  purposes  of  defence  and  re- 
 taliation the  "  Danite  Band "  was  organized.  They 
 were  first  commanded  by  D.  W.  Patton,  who  took  the 
 name  of  "  Captain  Feaniot,"  and  styled  themselves 
 "  Daughters  of  Gideon."  Afterwards  they  adopted  their 
 present  name  from  the  suggestion  in  Genesis  xlix.  17 : 
 "  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." 
 
 On  the  4  til  of  July,  Sidney  Rigdon  preached  what  he 
 called,  "  Sidney's  last  sermon ; "  in  which  he  threatened 
 Gentiles  and  apostates  with  violence,  and  declared  that 
 the  "  Saints  were  above  all  law."  Troubles  soon  after 
 arose  in  Davis  County,  at  elections;  the  Mormons  all 
 voting  one  way  secured  control  of  the  County ;  a  gen- 
 eral fight  occurred  at  the  August  election  in  the  to^vn  of 
 G;illatin,  in  which  a  number  were  seriously  wounded  on 
 lx)th  sides.     For  two  months  there  were  occasional  fights 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMOXISM.  47 
 
 all  over  Davis  County,  and  the  Mormons  at  length  de- 
 clared their  "independence  of  all  earthly  rulers  and 
 magistrates."  The  Clerk  of  the  county,  a  Mormon, 
 was  commanded  by  Joe  Smith  to  issue  no  more  writs 
 against  the  Saints  ;  and  the  Justice  of  the  Peace  in  Gal- 
 latin was  mobbed  for  entertaining  suits  against  them. 
 Scattering  parties  of  militia  began  to  assemble  under 
 arms  in  the  neighboring  counties,  one  of  which,  com- 
 manded by  Captain  Bogart,  came  to  battle  with  a  party 
 of  seventy  Mormons  and  defeated  them.  Another  party 
 of  Mormons  attacked  the  militia  near  Richmond,  in  Clay 
 County,  and  killed  two  of  them;  the  latter  returned 
 the  fire,  killing  "  Captain  Fearnot."  The  Mormons  then 
 rose  en  masse  and  drove  out  all  the  officers  of  Davis 
 County  not  of  their  faith,  and  burned  and  plundered 
 the  to\vn  of  Gallatin,  another  small  village,  and  much  of 
 the  surromiding  country,  driving  out  the  inhabitants. 
 
 About  this  time,  Brigham  Young  fled  for  his  life  to 
 Quincy,  Illinois.  The  troubles  grew  so  extensive  and 
 complicated,  that  after  many  attempts  to  learn  something 
 definite  from  "  the  seat  of  war,"  Governor  Lilburn  W. 
 Boggs  called  out  fifteen  thousand  militia  to  restore  order. 
 The  first  detachment  had  a  sort  of  battle  with  the  Mor- 
 mons in  Carroll  County,  after  which,  Governor  Boggs 
 issued  an  order  that  the  Mormons  "  should  be  expelled 
 from  the  State,"  adding,  "  even  if  it  was  necessary  to  ex- 
 terminate them."  This  is  the  celebrated  "  extermina- 
 ting order,"  and  Governor  Boggs  the  "  Nero  "  of  Mor- 
 mon historians.  Another  body  of  militia  were  fired 
 upon  by  the  Mormons  at  Haun's  Mill,  and  in  revenge 
 extermuiated  the  whole  Mormon  party,  variously  esti- 
 
48  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 mated  at  from  sixteen  to  thirty.  Only  two  escaped 
 alive.  The  Mormon  forces  then  began  to  retreat  on 
 every  hand,  and  finally  united  in  the  toAvn  of  Far- 
 West,  where  they  were  surrounded  by  a  large  militia 
 force  under  Generals  Doniphan,  Lucas  and  Clarke,  and 
 compelled  to  surrender  at  discretion.  Most  of  their 
 plunder  was  recaptured  and  delivered  to  the  owners,  and 
 the  great  body  of  the  Mormons  were  released  under  a 
 promise  to  leave  the  State. 
 
 Joe  Smith,  Hyrum  Smith,  and  forty  others  were  held 
 for  trial,  and  the  militia  officers  forthwith  organized  a 
 Court  Martial  and  condemned  several  of  them  to  be 
 shot !  But  General  Doniphan,  a  sound  lawyer  and 
 brave  man,  by  a  firm  use  of  his  authority  and  influence, 
 prevented  this  foolishly  illegal  action.  The  prisoners 
 were  taken  before  the  nearest  Circuit  Judge  and  put 
 upon  trial  "  for  treason,  murder,  robbery,  arson,  larceny, 
 and  breach  of  the  peace."  They  could  not  well  have 
 been  tried  for  more  ;  but  it  seems  by  the  evidence  that 
 many  of  them  were  guilty  on  most  of  the  charges. 
 They  were  committed  to  jail  to  await  their  final  trial. 
 The  evidence  in  the  case  was  printed  by  order  of  the 
 Missouri  Legislature,  and  presents  a  singular  instance  of 
 how  a  few  knaves  may  lead  to  their  destruction  a  whole 
 people,  if  sufficiently  ignorant  and  fanatical.  Comparar 
 tive  peace  was  restored,  but  the  history  of  civil  commo- 
 tions shows  til  at  private  revenge  will  seek  such  a  period 
 for  its  gratification,  and  in  many  neighborhoods  fearful 
 outrages  were  perpetrated  upon  individual  Mormons  by 
 those  who  held  a  personal  animosity  against  them. 
 Their  leaders  had  provoked  a  conflict  for  which  the  in- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  49 
 
 iiocent  suifered ;  and  the  most  quiet  and  unoffending 
 portion  of  the  Mormons  were  hunted  out  and  rudely 
 hurried  from  their  homes  at  the  most  inclement  season 
 of  the  year,  often  without  a  chance  to  supply  themselves 
 or  dispose  of  their  property,  and  much  suffering  was  the 
 result.     They  now  numbered  over  twelve  thousand,  and 
 in  the  month  of  December  this  large  body  began  the 
 journey  mto  Illinois,  which  the  most  of  them  reached 
 in  January,  1839.     They  spread  over  the  western  coun- 
 ties wherever  they  could  find  food  or  employment,  par- 
 ticularly about  the  town  of  Quincy,  in  Adams  county  ; 
 while  many  went  as  far  east  as  Springfield,  and  others 
 to  St.  Louis.     They  were  everywhere  received  as  suf- 
 ferers for  their  religion,  and  to  some  extent  for  their 
 "  free-state  "  sentiments ;  for  IlHnois  was  just  then  be- 
 ginning to  be   agitated  by  the  anti-slavery  excitement, 
 and  the  Mormons  had  been  driven  from  a  slave  State. 
 The  Missouri  border  had  never  been  well  spoken  of,  nor 
 was  it  till  long  afterwards ;  and  the  IlUnoisans  rather 
 seemed  pleased  mth  the  opportunity  of  showing  how 
 superior  they  were  to  the  "  border  ruffians."     They  re- 
 garded but  little  the  Mormon  statement  that  their  reli- 
 gion was  the  only  cause  of  trouble ;  in  fact  the  more  in- 
 telHgent  knew  that  such  could  not  be  the  case  ;  but  ther 
 made  haste  to  assume  that  the  Mormons  were  "  New 
 York  and  New  England  Yankees,  driven  out  as  abolition- 
 ists," because  the  Missourians  would  not  tolerate  such 
 sentiments.     The  people  of  Illinois,  particularly  of  the 
 western  counties,  knew  little  and  cared  less  about  dif- 
 ferences of  speculative  theology.     That  portion  known 
 as  the  "  Military  Tract"  had  but  lately  come  into  mar- 
 
50  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 ket,  and  was  settled  very  rapidly;  the  religious  training 
 of  the  people  had  not  kept  pace  with  the  advance  of 
 their  material  interests,  and  a  sennon  to  them  was  a 
 sermon,  whether  preached  by  Arminian  or  Calvinist, 
 orthodox  Trinitarian  or  heterodox  Unitarian.  Perhaps 
 they  were  not  impious  or  skeptical ;  religion  was  "  at 
 loose  ends,"  but  there  was  always  a  sentiment  in  its 
 favor,  only  sectarianism  was  little  understood,  talked 
 of,  or  cared  for.  In  short*  the  charity  of  these  people 
 was  broad  enough  to  cover  all  sects,  and  no  man  was 
 persecuted  or  called  in  question  for  his  religious  belief. 
 Under  these  circumstances  they  gave  the  Mormon  peo- 
 ple protection,  and  welcomed  them  to  their  homes  and 
 tables;  they  listened  to  the  story  of  their  wrongs  with 
 tears  in  their  eyes ;  they  grasped  the  outcasts  by  the 
 hand,  and  swore  to  stand  by  them  to  the  bitter  end. 
 Subscriptions  were  opened  for  them  in  many  places; 
 even  the  Indians,  yet  upon  a  near  reservation,  con- 
 tributed liberally,  and  several  sections  made  kindly 
 overtures,  and  pressingly  invited  the  fugitives  to  settle 
 among  them.  They  had  not  yet  caught  sight  of  the 
 cloven  foot  of  the  monster,  or  seen  its  miscreated  front. 
 The  Missourians  found,  in  the  meantime,  that  they 
 had  "caught  an  elephant;"  they  had  Joe  Smith,  his 
 brother  Il3Tum,  and  forty  others  in  jail  on  a  multitude 
 of  charges ;  but  many  of  the  witnesses  were  gone,  the 
 trial  would  have  been  long  and  expensive,  and  it  was 
 probably  the  best  policy  to  get  them  all  out  of  the 
 State  in  such  a  way  that  none  would  re-enter  it,  rather 
 than  condemn  a  few  to  the  penitentiary.  Accordingly, 
 they  were  removed  from  place  to  place,  loosely  guarded, 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  51 
 
 and  on  the  15th  of  April,  Joseph  and  a  few  others 
 escaped  from  their  guards,  who  were  either  drunk  or 
 pretended  to  be.  They  hastily  made  their  way  to 
 Quincy,  followed  by  the  small  remnant  of  Mormons 
 which  had  been  left  at  Far- West.  The  remaining 
 prisoners  escaped  and  followed  soon  after,  and  in  the 
 language  of  Governor  Boggs'  next  message,  "  the  young 
 and  growing  State  was  happily  rid  of  the  fanatical 
 sect ;"  but  in  the  language  of  Mormon  poetry, 
 
 Missouri, 
 
 Like  a  whirlwind  in  her  fury, 
 
 Drove  the  Saints  and  spilled  their  blood." 
 
 Early  in  May,  Joe  Smith  went  to  Commerce,  in 
 Hancock  County,  Illinois,  by  invitation  of  Dr.  Isaac 
 Galland,  from  whom  he  obtained  a  large  tract  of  land 
 near  the  head  of  the  Des  Moines  Rapids,  and  shortly 
 had  another  revelation  for  his  people  to  settle  there. 
 To  a  proper  understanding  of  their  future  history  a 
 brief  sketch  of  the  locality  is  necessary,  which  has 
 been  kindly  furnished  me  by  R.  W.  McKinney,  Esq., 
 present  Postmaster  at  Nauvoo,  who  has  resided  in  that 
 vicinity  since  1837 : 
 
 "  Hancock  is  a  river  county,  washed  on  the  west  by 
 the  Mississippi  for  forty  miles,  taking  into  account  the 
 windings  of  the  river.  It  was  originally  nearly  all 
 prairie,  extending  eastward  in  a  direct  line  from 
 Commerce  twentj^-five  miles ;  high  and  rolling,  with  a 
 soil  of  inexhaustible  fertility,  and  with  most  of  the 
 timber  fringing  the  streams  along  the  eastern  border. 
 The  western  jxirt  of  the  county,  bordering  on  the  Des 
 Moines  Rapids ;  was  always  a  favorite  spot  of  beauty  to 
 
52  LIFE   IN    UTAU;    OR,    TUE    MYSTERIES 
 
 the  voyager  on  the  Mississippi;  the  eye  was  here 
 relieved  by  a  most  inviting  prospect,  the  river  was 
 fringed  by  low  wooded  hills,  from  which  gushed 
 clear  and  sparkling  brooks,  passing  with  low  musical 
 murmurs  over  their  rocky  beds  until  they  were  finally 
 lost  in  the  ^Father  of  Waters,' 
 
 "But  the  early  progress  of  Hancock  County  was 
 anything  but  encouraging.  While  other  sections  of 
 the  State,  with  fewer  advantages  and  a  less  hQalthy 
 climate,  rapidly  augmented  in  wealth  and  population, 
 this  remained  almost  a  wilderness,  and  this  by  reason 
 of  uncertain  titles. 
 
 "  Hancock  County,  fair,  healthful,  and  fertile,  'even 
 as  the  Garden  of  the  Lord,'  was  one  of  those  unfor- 
 tunate counties  comprised  in  that  afflicted  section  lying 
 between  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi  rivers,  known  as 
 the  '  Military  Tract.'  It  had  been  set  apart  by  Act  of 
 Congress  as  bounty  land  for  the  soldiers  of  the  War  of 
 1812  ;  but  few  of  them  emigrated  there,  and  nearly  all 
 of  the  patents,  or  '  soldiers'  rights,'  as  they  were  called, 
 were  thrown  upon  the  market  for  sale.  This  furnished, 
 for  a  score  of  years,  a  rich  harvest  for  speculators  and 
 land  jobbers,  and  the  '  Military  Tract '  became  the 
 *  happy  hunting  ground '  of  sharks  and  sharpers  of 
 every  description.  A  race  of  *  bloated  patent  holders ' 
 was  thus  created,  whose  broad  tracts  of  wilderness  land 
 rivalled  in  extent  the  proudest  dukedoms  and  baronies 
 of  the  old  world.  It  was  against  sound  public  policy 
 to  create  such  a  land  monopoly  on  the  public  domain  ; 
 but  much  greater  evils  grew  out  of  this  thing  in  the 
 establishment  of  a  conflict  of  titles,  creating  doubt  and 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  53 
 
 uncertainty,  casting  a  shadow  on  every  man's  home- 
 stead who  dared  to  erect  it  on  the  Tract,  and  drivinix 
 away  honest  and  enterprising  settlers.  A  system  arose 
 in  tlie  East  of  forging  patents  by  having  absent  or  de- 
 ceased soldiers  represented  by  others,  and  even  by 
 making  duplicate  copies  entire  without  affidavit,  or  aid 
 from  the  Land  Ofifice. 
 
 "  In  hundreds  of  instances  there  were  three  patents 
 upon  the  same  section,  with  facilities  to  make  a  thou- 
 sand, in  fact,  the  entire  Tract  was  eventually  strewn 
 with  patents  as  thick  as  autumn  leaves  in  an  un- 
 broken forest.  So  great  grew  the  evils  of  this  system, 
 and  from  the  non-payment  of  taxes  by  non-residents, 
 that  the  Legislature  of  Illinois  went  to  work  to  devise 
 a  remedy.  But  the  Legislators  of  new  States  are  not 
 generally  very  learned  or  capable  statesmen,  and  the 
 sharpers  laughed  at  the  idea  of  illiterate  men  thwarting 
 the  plans  of  men  whose  business  it  was  to  '  pierce  the 
 centre '  of  the  most  explicit  statute.  The  Legislature 
 having  tried  sharp  and  pointed  statutes  on  the  fra- 
 ternity before,  but  without  success,  instead  of  tinkering 
 and  amending  laws  which  ^Jolin  Doe,  et  al.,'  had 
 laughed  at,  tried  the  virtue  of  a  more  sweeping  enact- 
 ment. They  enacted,  in  substance,  that  if  any  one 
 held  possession  of  land  for  seven  years  under  color 
 of  title,  such  possession  should  be  proof  of  title  conclu- 
 sive against  all  the  world,  and  that  'John  Doe  et  al., 
 with  their  pockets  full  of  patents,  should  be  forever 
 barred  and  excluded.  'When  John  Doe  and  his  com- 
 peers took  in  the  force  of  this  statute,  not  a  smile  lit 
 up  their  solemn  countenances.     They  were  caught  at 
 
54  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 last.  But  everybody  was  disajDpointed  by  the  final 
 operation  of  the  statute.  It  only  created  or  attracted 
 another  '  swarm  of  flies,  more  hungry,  voracious,  and 
 pestilent  than  any  that  had  preceded  them ;  the 
 heavens  and  the  earth  were  darkened  by  their  myriads, 
 and  no  friendly  swallow  appeared  to  drive  them  away.' 
 "  No  sooner  was  the  ^  Delinquent  List'  exposed  for 
 sale  for  non-payment  of  taxes,  than  a  crowd  appeared 
 in  and  around  the  Court  House,  hungry  and  haggard, 
 the  like  of  which  had  surely  not  been  seen  since  Pha- 
 raoh's lean  kine  emerged  from  the  river  Nile.  Here 
 were  congregated  broken  down  tradesmen,  tinkers 
 and  vagabonds;  rough,  roaring,  swearing  fellows,  and 
 smooth-faced,  hypocritical,  canting  knaves,  jostled  each 
 other,  and  mingled  and  commingled  in  the  halls  of  jus- 
 tice, each  one  striving  with  the  few  dollars  he  had  con- 
 trived to  save  out  of  the  general  wreck  by  cheating  his 
 creditors,  to  retrieve  his  fortunes,  and  the  result  was  a 
 land-monopoly  more  corrupt  than  any  that  had  pre- 
 ceded it.  The  law  had  been  aimed  at  the  non-resident 
 jobber,  to  compel  the  payment  of  taxes ;  but  this  un- 
 scrupulous crowd  hurled  it  Avithout  mercy  or  discrimi- 
 nation at  the  heads  of  everybody ;  if  it  carried  away  the 
 inheritance  of  the  widow  and  orphan,  it  was  all  the 
 same  to  them.  The  wise  Legislators  stood  aghast  at 
 the  havoc  they  had  innocently  caused.  They  had 
 '  called  spirits  from  the  vasty  deep,'  and  contrary  to  all 
 past  experience  they  had  come.  These  sharpers  in- 
 spired general  terror,  and  no  wonder ;  for  had  the  in- 
 congruous and  villanous  crowd  made  a  descent  mto 
 hell,  the  devil  would  have  fled  howling  to  the  most  re- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  55 
 
 tired  and  gloomy  corner  of  his  domain,  leaving  them  to 
 contend  and  squabble  among  themselves  for  a  '  tax 
 title '  on  his  burning  throne !  It  was  now  an  indis- 
 criminate fight  on  the  '  Military  Tract,'  in  which  all 
 sorts  of  persons,  with  all  sorts  of  papers,  documents, 
 and  titles,  rushed  to  the  conflict  and  couched  thei" 
 lances  for  the  fray.  In  this  hot  contest  the  unsophisti- 
 cated settler,  not  conversant  with  these  matters,  had 
 but  little  show.  He  could  much  more  readily,  with 
 the  slightest  possible  assistance,  '  read  his  title  clear  to 
 mansions  in  the  skies '  than  so  establish  his  claim  to  a 
 single  foot  of  land  covered  by  '  soldiers'  rights,'  forged 
 patents,  and  tax  titles  on  the  whole  Military  Tract. 
 
 "  Fortunately,  Hancock  County  was  not  altogether 
 covered  by  these  titles.  The  Act  granted  the  soldier 
 *  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres  of  land,'  no  less,  no  more. 
 Hence,  those  quarters  called  '  fractional,'  with  less  or 
 more  than  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres,  were  subject  to 
 entry  at  the  Land  Office.  These  skirted  the  banks  of 
 the  river  and  along  the  township  lines  of  the  whole 
 county,  and  were  rapidly  taken  up  and  settled  before 
 the  arrival  of  the  Mormons,  at  which  time  Hancock 
 County  contained  a  sparse  population  of  several  thou- 
 sand. Owing  to  greater  security  of  title,  most  of  them 
 were  settled  along  the  Mississippi.  The  Des  Moines 
 Rapids  excited  much  attention  as  a  favorable  site. 
 Among  the  conspicuous  men  who  visited  this  section 
 was  General  Robert  E.  Lee,  then  a  Lieutenant  of  Topo- 
 graphical Engineers,  in  the  employ  of  the  War  Depart- 
 ment, for  the  purpose  of  making  a  survey  of  the  rapids. 
 His  visit  was  in  1832,  and  he  remained  in  the  county 
 
56  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR.   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 the  whole  season,  and  was  favorably  kno^vn  to  all  the 
 old  settlers,  and  much  respected  for  his  urbfinity  and 
 gentlemanly  bearing.  It  was  then  a  favorite  idea  with 
 some,  that  the  Mississippi  would  in  time  be  bridged  at 
 these  Rapids,  and  that  at  no  other  place  could  a  perma- 
 nent structure  be  erected.  Hancock  was  organized  as 
 a  county  in  1829,  and  the  Capital  permanently  esta]> 
 lished  a  few  years  after  at  Carthage. 
 
 "  Meanwhile  the  courts  traveled  around  the  country 
 after  the  manner  of  a  public  exhibition,  holding  terms 
 at  such  points  as  met  the  views  of  the  lawyers,  or  per- 
 haps where  it  was  considered  that  law  and  justice  were 
 most  needed.  Among  the  lawyers  who  then  practised 
 in  Hancock,  were  Malcolm  McGregor,  Archibald  "Wil- 
 liams and  0.  H.  Browning;  the  former,  a  brilliant 
 genius,  died  young,  and  the  latter  two  have  since  be- 
 come '  known  to  fame.' 
 
 "  First  in  history  was  a  Post  Office  at  the  Rapids, 
 called  Venice,  but  there  was  no  town  of  that  name. 
 In  the  year  1834,  Commerce  was  laid  out  by  Messrs. 
 Alex.  White  and  James  B.  Teas ;  and  shortly  after  a 
 Mr.  Ilotchkiss,  of  New  Haven,  Conn.,  laid  out  Com- 
 merce City,  just  above  the  other  town.  All  proved 
 failures,  but  many  still  had  confidence  that  this  was 
 the  place  for  a  great  city  in  the  future.  Among  the 
 owners  of  the  '  bottom  land '  was  Dr.  Isaac  Galland,  a 
 man  of  some  enterprise,  who,  immediately  after  the  fiiil- 
 ure  of  Ilotchkiss,  opened  a  correspondence  with  Joe 
 Smith,  which  resulted  in  an  agreement  that  the  latter 
 should  settle  all  his  people  near  Commerce." 
 
 To  the  foregoing  graphic  sketch  it  is  only  necessary 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM. 
 
 57 
 
 to  add,  that  the  Prophet  purchased  a  small  tract  and 
 received  gratis  a  larger  one;  a  convenient  revelation 
 was  vouchsafed  for  the  Saints  to  gather  to  this  stake  of 
 Zion ;  they  complied  with  rapidity,  the  plat  of  a  great 
 city  was  laid  out  and  the  Mormon  star  was  once  more 
 in  the  ascendant. 
 
 ^^^EPr"   '  ;_     .      «=>,,-•  tpT^  ^-^ 
 
 TARRING   ^VXD   FEATHEKING   JOE  SMITH. 
 
58  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 CHAPTER   II. 
 
 HISTORY  FROM   TEE   FOUNDING   OF   NAUYOO   TILL   1843. 
 
 Rapid  growth  of  Nauvoo— Apparent  prosperity—"  The  vultures  gather  to 
 the  carcass  "—Crime,  polygamy  and  politics— Subserviency  of  the 
 Politicians — Nauvoo  Charters — A  government  within  a  government- 
 Joe  Smith  twice  arrested — Released  by  S.  A.  Douglas— Second  tinw 
 by  Municipal  Court  of  Nauvoo — McKiuney's  Account — Petty  thieving 
 — Gentiles  driven  out  of  Nauvoo — "  Whittling  Deacons  " — "  Danites"— 
 Anti-Mormons  organize  a  Political  Party — Treachery  of  Davis  and 
 Owens — Defeat  of  Anti-Mormons- Campaign  of  1843 — Cyrus  Walker, 
 a  great  Criminal  Lawyer — "Revelation"  on  Voting — The  Prophet 
 cheats  the  Lawyer— Astounding  perfidy  of  the  Mormon  Leaders— Great 
 increase  of  popular  hatred — Just  anger  against  the  Saints. 
 
 A  CITY  rose  as  if  by  magic.  Temporary  in  character 
 as  most  of  the  buildings  were,  rude  log  houses  or  frame 
 shanties,  they  served  to  shelter  the  rapidly  gathering 
 Saints.  The  first  house  on  the  new  site  was  erected 
 June  lltli,  1839,  and  in  eighteen  months  thereafter 
 there  were  two  thousand  dwellings,  besides  school 
 houses  and  other  public  buildings.  The  new  city  was 
 named  Nauvoo,  a  word  which  has  no  signification  in 
 any  known  language,  but  in  the  "  reformed  Egyptian  ** 
 of  Joe  Smith's  imaginary  history,  is  said  to  mean 
 "  The  Beautiful."  The  site  was  indeed  beautiful,  but 
 not  the  most  feasible  they  could  have  selected.  Insteail 
 of  locating  immediately  at  the  head  of  the  Eapids, 
 where  there  was  a  convenient  landing  at  all  seasons, 
 they  chose  a  spot  one  mile  below,  only  api)roachable 
 by  steamboats  at  high  water.     The  temporary  struc- 
 
AND  CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  59 
 
 tures,  in  no  long  time,  gave  way  to  more  permanent 
 buildings;  improvements  multiplied  on  ewery  hand, 
 ond  Joe  Smith  had  almost  daily  revelations  directing 
 how  every  work  should  be  carried  on.  Here,  it  was 
 foretold,  was  to  be  built  a  great  city  and  temple,  which 
 should  be  the  great  gathering  place  of  "  Zion,"  and 
 central  rendezvous  of  the  sect,  "  until  such  time  as  the 
 Lord  should  open  the  way  for  their  return  to  Zion, 
 mdeed" — Jackson  County,  Missouri;  and  from  here 
 were  to  spread  gigantic  operations  for  the  conversion  of 
 the  world.  One  by  one  most  of  the  Missouri  apostates 
 came  creeping  back  into  the  Church ;  Orson  Hyde  was 
 restored  to  his  place  as  apostle,  and  was  able  to  explain 
 his  apparent  defection.  A  missionary  board  was  organ- 
 ized, and  arrangements  perfected  for  foreign  missions 
 embracing  half  the  world.  On  the  29th  of  August, 
 Orson  Pratt  and  Parley  P.  Pratt  set  out  on  a  mission 
 to  England,  followed,  September  the  20th,  by  Elders 
 Brigham  Young,  H.  C.  Kimball,  George  A.  Smith,  R. 
 Hedlock,  and  T.  Turley.  Brigham  had  been  appointed 
 "President  of  the  Twelve  Apostles"  in  1836,  in  place 
 of  Thomas  B.  Marsh,  the  apostate.  They  landed  at 
 Liverpool  the  6  th  of  April,  1840,  and  entered  with  zeal 
 upon  their  work.  Brigham  assumed  entire  control  of 
 the  enterprise,  established  various  missions,  baptized 
 numerous  converts,  labored  among  the  common  people, 
 preached,  prayed,  wrote  and  argued,  lived  hard,  and 
 travelled  hundreds  of  miles  on  foot.  May  the  29  th, 
 1840,  he  established  and  issued  the  first  number  of  the 
 Latter-Day  Saints  Millennial  Star,  a  periodical  never 
 suspended  since.     He  organized  a  number  of  flourishing 
 
60  LIFE   IN   VTAJl;    OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 churches,  and  early  in  1841  returned  to  Nauvoo,  bring- 
 ing with  him  seven  hundred  and  sixty-nine  converts. 
 Shortly  before  this  time,  Sidney  Rigdon  had  addressed 
 a  memorial  to  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  Pennsyl- 
 vania, praying  for  redress  for  the  alleged  losses  of  the 
 Saints  in  Missouri,  and  calling  upon  the  Congressional 
 delegation  from  that  State  to  move  the  General  Govern- 
 ment in  their  behalf;  and  in  October,  1839,  Joseph 
 Smith,  Sidney  Rigdon,  Elias  Higbee  and  Orrin  Porter 
 Rockwell  set  out  for  Washington,  delegated  to  seek 
 redress.  They  reached  the  Capital,  November  the  28th, 
 and  were  admitted  fortliAvith  to  an  audience  with  Presi- 
 dent Van  Buren,  who  heard  them  through,  and,  accord- 
 ing to  their  report,  replied,  "  Gentlemen,  3^our  cause  is 
 just,  but  I  can  do  nothing  for  you,"  adding,  in  under- 
 tone, "  I  should  lose  the  vote  of  the  State  of  Missouri." 
 By  his  own  account  this  last  remark  was,  "  The  Gene- 
 ral Government  cannot  interfere  in  the  domestic  con- 
 cerns of  Missouri."  Nothing  resulted  from  either 
 application;  but  the  attention  of  the  country  was 
 attracted  to  Nauvoo.  The  rapid  growth  of  the  city 
 excited  the  wonder  of  eastern  people,  and  numerous 
 curiosity  hunters,  correspondents  and  tourists  hastened 
 to  visit  it.  They  were  treated  with  extreme  complais- 
 ance, and  in  their  reports  the  city  lost  nothing  of  its 
 wonders.  In  October,  1840,  a  petition  with  many 
 thousand  names  was  forwarded  for  an  Act  of  Incorpo- 
 ration for  Nauvoo,  and  about  the  same  time  Joe  Smith 
 had  another  revelation  that  the  Temple  must  be  com- 
 menced at  once,  and  ground  was  broken  therefor  Octo- 
 ber the  3d.     The  sudden  and  surprising  prosperity  of 
 
AND   CRIMES    OF   MORMONISM.  61 
 
 the  sect  attracted  to  them  a  number  of  ambitious  and 
 unscrupulous  men,  of  whom  four  deserv^e  particular 
 notice. 
 
 Dr.  Isaac  Galland,  was,  in  the  early  part  of  his  life, 
 a  notorious  horse-thief  and  counterfeiter,  belonging  to 
 the  "Massac  Gang,"  as  it  was  called,  on  the  Ohio 
 river.  He  had  then  nominally  reformed  and  moved 
 into  Hancock  County,  where  he  was  in  1834,  a  candi- 
 date for  the  Legislature,  but  was  defeated  by  a  small 
 majority.  Soon  after,  he  came  into  possession  of  a 
 large  tract  of  land,  and  induced  Joe  Smith  to  settle 
 on  a  part  with  a  view  to  enhancing  the  value  of  the 
 rest. 
 
 Jacob  Backinstos  came  to  Hancock  from  Sangamon 
 County,  where  he  had  got  credit  for  a  stock  of  goods, 
 sold  them,  and  defrauded  his  creditors ;  after  which  be 
 came  over  to  the  Mormons  seeking  his  fortunes.  His 
 brother  married  a  niece  of  Joe  Smith,  but  Backinstos 
 held  off  and  took  rank  -as  a  "  managing  Democrat,"  a 
 sort  of  local  politician.  In  this  capacity  he  rendered 
 some  service  to  Judge  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  who,  in 
 turn,  appointed  him  Clerk  of  the  Hancock  Circuit 
 Court,  this  giving  him  great  political  power  with  the 
 Mormons.  By  them  he  was  at  different  times  elected 
 Sheriff  and  member  of  the  Legislature,  and  continued  a 
 "  Jack  Mormon  "  to  the  end  of  the  chapter. 
 
 "General"  James  Arlington  Bennett  was  an  ad- 
 venturer of  some  talent,  whose  "  range "  was  from 
 Virginia  to  New  York  City,  where  he  had  an  occa- 
 sional connection  with  the  press.  He  early  wrote  to 
 Joe  Smith,  proposing  a  religious  and  political  alliance, 
 
62  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 adding,  with  refreshing  candor,  "You  know  Moham- 
 med had  his  right  hand  manr  Joe  replied  in  a  tone 
 of  good  humored  sarcasm,  adding,  however,  a  sort  of 
 offer  for  Bennett  to  visit  Nauvoo. 
 
 The  latter  came  soon  after,  and  was  baptized  into  the 
 church,  but  not  being  trusted  to  the  extent  he  desired, 
 soon  departed. 
 
 Dr.  John  C.  Bennett  was  usually  considered  "one 
 of  the  greatest  scamps  in  the  Western  country."  He 
 was  a  man  of  real  talent,  some  ambition,  overbearing 
 zeal,  and  all  engrossing  lust ;  at  the  same  time  rather 
 good  looking,  of  smooth  manners  and  easy  address. 
 Besides  being  a  medical  graduate  and  practising  physi- 
 cian, he  had  acquired  considerable  military  and  engi- 
 neering skill,  and  had  been  Adjutant  General  of  the 
 State  of  Illinois.  He  now  brought  his  talents  and 
 rascality  to  an  alliance  with  Joe  Smith ;  for  a  year  and 
 a-half  he  was  his  intimate  friend  and  trusted  coun- 
 selor, when,  as  has  often  happened  before,  a  beautiful 
 woman  set  them  at  outs,  and  forever  put  an  end  to 
 this  touching  friendship.  These,  and  a  score  of  others 
 of  like  character,  attached  themselves  to  the  rising  sect 
 and  became  Joe  Smith's  unscrupulous  tools  and  allies. 
 As  for  the  common  Saints,  the  pliable  mass,  though 
 not  nearly  so  foolish  and  fanatical  as  in  Jackson  County, 
 they  were  quite  as  obsequious  and  worked  steadily  to 
 build  up  the  material  interests  of  "  Zion." 
 
 The  missions  in  England,  Wales  and  Scotland,  pros- 
 pered greatly,  and  many  thousands  of  foreign  Saints 
 arrived  in  Nauvoo ;  some  remained,  but  the  majority 
 were  scattered   in   settlements   through    the  country, 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  63 
 
 which  the  Prophet  called  "  Stakes  of  Zion."  They 
 were  not  to  rival  the  great  city,  but  to  be  its  feeders 
 and  tributaries.  The  swamp  land  adjacent  to  Nauvoo 
 was  drained,  and  the  site  rendered  quite  healthy ;  the 
 rapids  were  surveyed  by  J.  C.  Bennett,  and  a  wing 
 dam  projected  which  was  to  make  a  commodious  har- 
 bor in  front  of  Nauvoo,  and  secure  driving  power  suffi- 
 cient to  turn  all  the  factory  wheels  of  a  vast  commercial 
 city. 
 
 These  were  the  palmy  days  of  Joe  Smith ;  this  was 
 the  "  Golden  age  "  of  Mormonism.  The  former  was  no 
 more  the  wandering  lad,  with  "  peep-stone  "  and  hazel 
 rod,  or  the  fugitive  vagabond  fleeing  from  Missouri 
 rifles ;  he  was  at  the  head  of  a  now  consolidated  and 
 rapidly  augmenting  sect ;  he  was  courted  and  flattered 
 of  politicians ;  he  was  absolute  ruler  and  main  proprie- 
 tor of  a  city  already  populous,  and  destined  to  be  rich 
 and  powerful.  Bright  visions  of  future  aggrandizement 
 and  wealth  floated  through  his  brain,  and  he  confidently 
 looked  forward  to  the  time  when  he  should  be  virtual 
 dictator  of  a  powerful  State.  But  into  the  very  noon 
 of  this  halcyon  day  floated  the  faint  rumbling  of  a  dis- 
 tant earthquake,  and  afar  upon  the  political  and  social 
 horizon  appeared  a  little  cloud,  "no  bigger  than  a  man's 
 hand,"  which  stayed  not  till  it  darkened  the  whole 
 heaven  of  the  future,  and  dashed  this  proud  fabric  to 
 the  ground. 
 
 There  now  devolves  upon  me  the  narration  of  a 
 change  in  public  sentiment,  swift  and  violent,  almost 
 without  parallel  in  America ;  and  the  reader  will  learn 
 with  surprise  that  in  a  brief  period  hatred  took  the  place 
 
C4  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 of  friendship,  and  the  same  people  who  had  received  the 
 Mormons  with  gladness  were  in  hot  haste  to  drive  them 
 out  at  the  bayonet's  point.  The  consideration  of  what 
 caused  this  unprecedented  change  in  public  sentiment, 
 and  the  intense  hatred  against  the  Mormons,  presents 
 some  points  of  pertinent  inquiry  to  politicians,  and  per- 
 haps some  lessons  to  religious  sects.  The  various 
 causes  which  led  to  the  Mormon  troubles  in  Illinois, 
 and  their  final  expulsion,  may  be  grouped  under  three 
 heads : 
 
 I.    Criminal.     II.    Moral  and  Social.     III.  Political. 
 
 I.  In  the  first,  it  may  well  be  said,  the  Mormons 
 were  destined  to  experience,  in  all  its  bitterness,  the 
 force  of  the  homely  adage  in  regard  to  giving  a  dog  a 
 bad  name.  The  Mississippi  Valley,  from  St.  Louis  to 
 Galena,  had  been  for  years  unusually  infested  with 
 reckless  and  blood-stained  men.  The  whole  of  south- 
 eastern Iowa  and  much  of  northeastern  Missouri  was 
 in  a  comparatively  wild  and  lawless  state ;  the  "  half- 
 breed  "  tract  of  the  former,  from  unsettled  land  titles 
 and  other  causes,  was  appropriated  as  a  refuge  for  and 
 overrun  by  coiners,  horse-thieves  and  robbers ;  and  the 
 latter  section,  adjacent,  was  little  if  any  better.  The 
 law  was  enforced  with  slackness,  or  the  combination  of 
 rogues  was  too  great  for  the  ordinary  machinery  of  jus- 
 tice; people  had  but  little  confidence  in  courts  and 
 juries,  and,  in  more  atrocious  cases  than  connnon,  sat- 
 isfied themselves  with  lynch  law. 
 
 The  islands  and  groves  farther  up  the  river,  near 
 Davenport  and  Rock  Island,  were  the  hiding  places  of 
 regularly  organized  bands  of  marauders;  as  also  were 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  65 
 
 the  bayous  and  hollows  west  of  Nauvoo.  The  writer 
 was  but  a  boy,  but  remembers  well  the  thrills  of  horror 
 that  ran  through  the  West  at  the  murder  of  Miller  and 
 Liecy  in  Lee  County,  Iowa,  of  Col.  Davenport  at  Eock 
 Island,  of  an  entire  family  of  five  persons  in  Adams 
 County,  and  others  too  numerous  to  mention.  Long 
 afterwards,  while  the  writer  was  travelling  through 
 Hancock,  Pike,  and  Adams  counties,  no  family  thought 
 of  retiring  at  night  without  barring  and  double-locking 
 every  ingress ;  and  the  names  of  John  Long,  Aaron 
 Long,  Granville  Young,  Robert  Birch,  the  Hodges  and 
 Foxes,  and  dozens  of  other  murderers,  were  as  common 
 as  household  words. 
 
 To  all  that  class  the  bad  name  given  the  Mormons 
 in  Missouri  was  so  much  capital,  and  it  gathered  around 
 them,  mth  the  real  vulture  instinct.  Hundreds  of  li- 
 centious villains,  cut  throats,  and  robbers  made  their  way 
 into  Nauvoo,  were  baptized  into  the  Church  as  a  con- 
 venient cover  for  their  crimes,  and  made  that  their 
 secret  headquarters.  Property  stolen  far  up  the  river, 
 or  east  of  the  city,  was  run  through  and  concealed  in 
 the  western  bayous,  or  hastily  disposed  of  to  innocent 
 purchasers,  so  that  the  owners  generally  found  it  among 
 the  Mormons.  The  criminals  were,  in  many  instances, 
 traced  directly  to  Nauvoo  ;  but  once  within  the  charmed 
 circle,  all  power  to  punish  them  was  gone. 
 
 Their  secret  confederates  were  ready  to  "swear"  them 
 clear,  and. too  often  the  cry  of  "persecution"  was  suf- 
 ficient to  mislead  really  honest  Mormons,  and  cause 
 them  to  defend  one  who,  though  really  guilty,  claimed 
 the  name  of  a  Saint.  Thus,  while  the  Monnons  could 
 6 
 
66  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 truly  say  there  was  less  crime  in  Nauvoo  than  in  most 
 other  cities  of  its  size,  it  was  still  true  that  more  crimi- 
 nals issued  thence  than  from  any  other. 
 
 How  many  of  the  real  Mormons  were  concerned  in 
 these  depredations  it  is  impossible  to  say,  probably  very 
 few ;  but  the  fact  remained  that  the  criminals  had  most 
 of  them  assumed  the  name  of  Mormons,  that  they  were 
 not  thrust  out  and  punished,  and  that  the  really  inno- 
 cent portion  obstinately  refused  to  entertain  any  charge 
 against  the  guilty,  making  the  Church  a  complete  cover 
 and  exemption  for  crime.  An  angry  people  could  not 
 be  expected  to  go  into  their  city  and  discriminate 
 between  them ;  they  struck  blindly  at  the  whole  com- 
 munity, and  thus  while  two-thirds  of  them  were  proba- 
 bly guiltless  of  crime,  all  suffered  alike.  In  the  outer 
 settlements  there  was  actual  cause  to  complain  of  the 
 foreign  Saints ;  thousands  of  them  had  "  gathered  "  in 
 great  haste  and  extreme  poverty  ;  they  had  nothing,  and 
 knew  not  how  to  rapidly  accommodate  themselves  to 
 their  new  pursuits,  and  at  the  same  time  very  naturally 
 refused  to  starve  in  a  plentiful  country. 
 
 Their  doctrines  virtually  invited  them  to  take  what 
 they  needed,  and  they  did. 
 
 As  to  the  heads  of  the  Church  and  their  newly-ao- 
 quired  allies,  enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  much 
 of  their  conduct  was  on  the  very  border-line  of  rascal- 
 ity, if  it  did  not  altogether  step  over  it. 
 
 II.  Of  the  second  class  of  causes,  but  little  need  be 
 added  to  the  history  of  polygamy,  to  be  more  fully  re- 
 cited hereafter.  Of  the  ten  thousand  intrigues  of  Smith, 
 Bennett,  Rigdon  and  other  leaders,  it  is  useless  to  speak, 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  67 
 
 except  to  give  their  public  results.  While  the  estab- 
 lished denominations  of  Illinois  were  threatened,  and 
 her  political  stability  endangered,  her  people  were  also 
 shocked  by  the  introduction  of  new,  and  to  them,  re- 
 volting vices. 
 
 III.  But  the  great  cause  of  popular  hostility,  which 
 finally  led  to  the  worst  result,  was  the  Mormon  system 
 of  voting  solidly,  at  the  dictation  of  a  few  men. 
 
 They  have  always  insisted  on  this  prmciple,  pretend- 
 ing that  there  would  be  no  union  in  their  Church,  if  the 
 members  were  allowed  to  vote  by  individual  will.  Such 
 a  course  must  ever  have  one  effect,  to  cause  the  Church 
 to  be  regarded  as  a  mere  political  entity,  to  be  fought 
 accordingly,  and  in  time,  arouse  the  fiercest  opposition. 
 It  will  hardly  do  to  say  no  church  has  a  right  to  so  di- 
 rect its  vote,  and  yet,  if  persisted  in,  it  must  be  a  con- 
 stant source  of  faction.  Any  such  church  would  con- 
 stitute a  dangerous  power  in  a  republican  government ; 
 and  would  soon  have  arrayed  against  it  all  those  who 
 were  defeated  by  its  vote,  all  who  failed  to  get  its  sup- 
 port, all  who  disdained  to  stoop  to  the  arts  necessary  to 
 obtain  it,  and  all  those  who  clearly  saw  the  evil  tendency 
 of  such  a  system.  In  two  years  after  he  entered  Illi- 
 nois, Joe  Smith  was  absolute  master  of  three  thousand 
 votes ;  practically,  he  might  just  as  well  have  been  al- 
 lowed to  cast  so  many  himself.  The  offices  of  the 
 county  were  m  his  gift ;  no  man  could  hope  to  reach 
 Congress  from  that  district,  without  his  favor,  and  it  was 
 highly  probable,  that  by  the  next  election,  his  simple 
 will  Avoulil  determine  who  should  be  Governor  of  the 
 State. 
 
68  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 Such  power  in  the  hands  of  a  corrupt  man,  used  with 
 a  smgular  perfidy  and  m  the  interests  of  the  worst 
 clique  ever  assembled,  would  alone  be  almost  sufficient 
 to  determine  the  people  upon  the  expulsion  of  him  and 
 his  fanatical  sect.  The  particular  situation,  at  the  time, 
 rendered  this  evil  ten-fold  more  apparent.  For  the  first 
 time  since  its  organization,  the  Whig  Party  had  a  fair 
 prospect  of  carrying  the  State  and  the  nation ;  but 
 Illinois  was  doubtful. 
 
 If  Henry  Clay  should  again  be  the  nominee  of  the 
 Whigs,  Kentucky,  Louisiana  and  other  Southern  States 
 were  considered  certain  for  that  party,  and,  in  certain 
 very  probable  contmgencies,  Illinois  would  turn  the 
 scale  one  way  or  the  other.  It  was  quite  certain  the 
 Mormons  would,  by  1844,  give  the  casting  vote  in  Illi- 
 nois, and  Joe  Smith  had  perfect  control  of  the  Mormon 
 vote.  Such  contingencies  are  liable  to  frequently  occur 
 in  our  politics,  and  henceforth  set  it  down  as  an  Amer- 
 ican axiom,  that  any  church  assuming  to  cast  its  vote 
 as  a  unit,  for  its  own  interests,  under  the  dictation  of  its 
 spiritual  head  or  heads,  is  the  deadly  foe  of  our  hberties, 
 and  justly  an  object  of  distrust  and  dislike  to  every 
 lover  of  his  country.  With  this  digression,  I  resume 
 the  thread  of  history. 
 
 The  "Harrison  Campaign"  of  1840  was  in  full  tide, 
 and  the  politicians  gathered  thick  around  Joe  Smith. 
 His  people  had  been  driven  from  a  Democratic  State 
 by  order  of  a  Democratic  Governor,  and  himself  denied 
 redress  by  a  Democratic  President ;  while  his  "  memo- 
 rial "  against  Missouri  had  been  introduced  and  counte- 
 nanced in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  by  Henry 
 
AND  CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  69 
 
 Clay,   and   in   the   House   by   John   F.    Stuart,  both 
 Whigs. 
 
 He  felt  friendly  to  them,  but  finding  he  had  great 
 power,  determined  to  use  it  well  and  took  good  care 
 not  to  commit  himself  When  wined,  dined,  toasted, 
 and  feasted  by  managers  of  both  parties,  he  stated  in 
 general  terms  that  he  felt  no  particular  interest  in 
 politics ;  he  had  tried  the  Yankees  of  New  York,  and 
 the  "free  soilers"  of  the  Western  Reserve,  and  had 
 met  with  rough  treatment ;  he  had  gone  thence  to  the 
 pro-slavery  Missourians,  and  had  met  with  rougher  treat- 
 ment ;  the  Democrats  had  robbed  him,  and  the  Whigs 
 refused  him  redress,  and  he  had  little  confidence  in  either. 
 
 But  there  were  certain  things  absolutely  necessary 
 for  his  city  to  receive  from  the  Legislature,  to  proteet 
 him  and  his  people  from  mobs,  and  the  party  that 
 could  most  certainly  give  him  these  would  obtain  his 
 support.  This  cheerful  frankness  was  met  by  renewed 
 protestations  of  respect  and  good-will,  and  both  parties 
 were  eager  to  grant  him  favors. 
 
 After  secret  consultation  with  his  counselors  at 
 Nauvoo,  Joe  had  a  revelation  to  support  the  Whig 
 ticket,  which  the  Mormons  did  unanimously  in  1840 
 and  '41.  In  the  Legislature  of  '40-41,  it  became  an 
 object  with  the  Democrats  to  conciliate  them,  and  at 
 that  session  Dr.  J.  C.  Bennett  came  with  a  charter, 
 mainly  drawn  up  by  himself  and  Joe  Smith,  for  the 
 incorporation  of  Nauvoo.  The  charter  was  referred  to 
 the  Judiciary  Committee  who  reported  favorably,  the 
 ayes  and  noes  were  called  in  neither  house,  and  the 
 charter  passed  without  a  dissenting  vote. 
 
70  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 The  annals  of  ancient  and  modern  legislation  miglit 
 be  searched  in  vain  for  a  parallel  to  that  Nauvoo 
 Charter.  It  gave  all  the  powers  ever  granted  to  in- 
 corporated cities,  and  gave  them  power  to  pass  all  laws 
 '•'  not  repugnant  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
 or  of  this  State"  which  was  afterwards  interpreted  to 
 mean  that  they  might  pass  local  ordinances  contrary  to 
 the  laws  of  the  State.  It  provided  for  a  Mayor,  four 
 Aldermen,  and  nine  Councillors,  and  established  a 
 Mayor's  Court  with  exclusive  jurisdiction  of  all  cases 
 arising  under  the  city  ordinances. 
 
 It  also  established  a  Municipal  Court,  to  be  com- 
 posed of  the  Mayor  as  Chief  Justice,  and  four  Alder- 
 men as  associates,  and  gave  this  court  the  power  to 
 issue  writs  of  Habeas  Corpus.  And  this  not  only  to 
 try  the  sufficiency  of  writs  issuing  from  any  other  court, 
 which  is  a  power  rarely  granted  a  Municipal  Court, 
 but  to  go  beyond  that  and  try  the  original  cause  of 
 action.  Hitherto  none  but  Judges  of  the  Supreme  and 
 Circuit  Courts  could  issue  such  writs,  and  there  were 
 just  nine  persons  in  the  State  empowered  to  do  so; 
 but  this  Act  at  one  fell  swoop  conferred  it  upon  the 
 five  judges  of  this  Municipal  Court,  and  those  the  per- 
 sons above  all  others  most  liable  to  abuse  it.  It  also 
 incorporated  the  militia  of  Nauvoo  into  a  body  to  be 
 called  the  "  Nauvoo  Legion,"  independent  of  all  other 
 militia  officers  in  the  State,  except  the  Governor  as 
 Commander-in-Chief.  It  established  a  court-martial  for 
 this  Legion  composed  of  the  commissioned  officers,  en- 
 tirely independent  of  all  other  officers,  and  in  the 
 regulations  not  governed  hij  the  laws  of  the  State  ! 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISSf.  71 
 
 This  Legion  was  to  be  at  the  disposal  of  the  Mayor 
 in  executing  the  ordinances  of  the  city.  Another 
 charter  incorporated  a  great  tavern  to  be  known  ^^  the 
 Nauvoo  House.  "  Thus/'  says  Governor  Ford,  "  it  was 
 proposed  to  re-establish  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. 
 
 "  The  powers  conferred  were  expressed  in  language 
 at  once  ambiguous  and  undefined  ;  as  if  on  purpose  to 
 allow  of  misconstruction.  The  great  law  of  the  sep- 
 aration of  the  powers  of  government  was  wholly  dis- 
 regarded. The  Mayor  was  at  once  the  executive  power, 
 tlie  judiciary,  and  part  of  the  legislature.  The  Com- 
 mon Council,  in  passing '  ordinances,  were  restrained 
 only  by  the  Constitution.  One  would  have  thought 
 that  these  charters  stood  a  poor  chance  of  passing  the 
 Legislature  of  a  republican  j^eople  jealous  of  their  liber- 
 ties. Nevertheless  they  did  pass  unanimously  through 
 both  houses.  Messrs.  Little  and  Douglas  managed  with 
 great  dexterity  with  their  respective  parties.  Each 
 party  was  afraid  to  object  to  them,  for  fear  of  losing 
 the  Mormon  vote,  and  each  believed  that  it  had  secured 
 their  favor.  A  city  government,  under  the  charter,  was 
 organized  in  1841,  and  Joe  Smith  was  elected  Mayor. 
 
 "  In  this  capacity  he  presided  in  the  Common  Council, 
 and  assisted  in  maldng  the  laws  for  the  government  of 
 
72  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 the  city ;  and  as  Mayor,  also,  he  was  to  see  these  laws 
 put  into  force.  He  was  ex-qfficio  judge  of  the  Mayor  s 
 Court,  and  chief  justice  of  the  Municipal  Court,  and  in 
 these  capacities  he  was  to  interpret  the  laws  which  he 
 had  assisted  to  make.  The  Nauvoo  Legion  was  also 
 organized,  with  a  great  multitude  of  high  officers.  It 
 was  divided  into  divisions,  brigades,  cohorts,  regiments, 
 battalions  and  companies.  Each  division,  brigade  and 
 cohort  had  its  General,  and  over  the  whole,  as  Com- 
 mander-in-Chief, Joe  Smith  was  appointed  Lieutenant- 
 General.  These  offices,  and  particularly  the  last,  were 
 created  by  an  ordinance  of  the  Court-martial  composed 
 of  the  commissioned  officers  of  the  Legion. 
 
 "  The  Common  Council  passed  many  ordinances  for 
 the  punishment  of  crime.  The  punishments  were  gen- 
 erally different  from,  and  vastly  more  severe  than  tlie 
 punishments  provided  by  the  laws  of  the  State." 
 
 Elder  Howard  Coray,  who  was  at  that  time  a  confi- 
 dential clerk  of  Joe  Smith's,  states  that  he  was  present 
 at  the  time  Smith  and  Bennett  were  constructing  this 
 Charter;  that  Bennett  objected  to  certain  clauses  as 
 being  "  too  strong,"  to  which  Smith  replied,  "  We  must 
 have  that  power  in  our  courts,  for  this  work  will  gather 
 of  all  mankind ;  the  Turk,  with  his  ten  wives,  will  come 
 to  Nauvoo,  and  we  must  have  laws  to  protect  him  with 
 tliese  wives."  Elder  Coray,  now  a  devoted  Brighamite, 
 at  Salt  Lake,  advanced  this  to  disprove  the  statement 
 of  Joe  Smith's  sons  that  their  father  did  not  establish 
 polygamy.  It  merely  proves,  as  will  hereafter  be 
 shown,  that  he  was  in  that  practice  long  before  tlie 
 date  of  his  pretended  revelation. 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  73 
 
 It  was,  indeed,  necessary  for  him  to  fence  out  the 
 Missourians  with  strong  ordinances,  for  his  old  enemies 
 in  that  State  were  busy  in  schemes  against  him.  In 
 tlie  fall  of  1841,  the  Governor  sent  a  requisition  to 
 Illinois  for  Smith's  arrest,  and  after  some  evasion  it  was 
 executed.  A  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus  was  sued  out  be- 
 fore Judge  S.  A.  Douglas,  whose  circuit  embraced  Han- 
 cock. On  technical  grounds  Douglas  released  Smith, 
 which  the  latter  considered  a  great  favor  from  the 
 Democrats.  Again,  in  1842,  Smith  was  arrested  on  a 
 requisition,  and  this  time  forcibly  rescued  by  his  follow- 
 ers. The  election  of  1842  was  approaching;  th-e 
 Whigs  nominated  Joseph  Duncan  for  Governor,  and  the 
 Democrats  Thos.  i .  Ford.  After  an  unmense  amount 
 of  wire  pulling,  Joe  Smith  issued  a  proclamation  to  his 
 people — there  seems  to  have  been  no  revelation  this 
 time — pronouncmg  "Judge  Douglas  a  master-spirit," 
 and  commanding  the  people  to  vote  the  Democratic 
 ticket.  Ford  was  elected,"  and  assumed  the  duties  of 
 Governor,  late  in  1842.  He  has  embodied  the  official 
 acts  of  his  Administration  in  his  "  History  of  Illinois," 
 and  throughout  this  part  of  my  narrative  the  quotations 
 are  from  that  work,  unless  otherwise  credited. 
 
 The  Democrats  would  almost  certainly  have  carried 
 the  State  without  the  Mormons;  but  in  1843,  there 
 was  to  be  an  election  for  Congressman  in  their  district, 
 and  therein  they  were  absolute.  But  the  great  reaction 
 had  set  in,  and  the  Mormons  were  fast  becoming  odious 
 to  the  body  of  the  people.  After  the  political  account, 
 the  reader  will  be  interested  in  the  anti- Mormon  ac- 
 count, and    I    quote    from    the    narrative  of  R.  W. 
 
74  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 McKinney,  Esq.,  before  alluded  to,  a  witness  of  the 
 facts : 
 
 "  The  preaching  of  Mormonism  was  a  greater  success 
 than  could  have  been  reasonably  expected  in  so  en- 
 lightened an  age,  and  one  to  a  great  extent  inclined  to 
 skepticism.  A  new  spirit  of  emigration  was  excited, 
 and  every  convert  was  urged  to  hasten  to  where  he 
 could  gaze  upon  the  divine  face  of  the  Prophet,  and 
 where  the  wealth  of  the  Gentile  world  would  flow  in 
 upon  them.  Two  years  had  not  elapsed  since  the  first 
 fugitives  arrived  at  Nauvoo  before  the  Mormons  out- 
 numbered the  old  settlers.  The  latter  began  to  think 
 they  had  enough  for  the  present.  None  of  the  prom- 
 ised advantages  had  accrued  from  the  settlement  of  the 
 Mormons  among  them.  They  had  created  but  little 
 trade  or  commerce,  had  made  no  improvement  of  the 
 rapids,  had  established  no  manufactories,  erected  no 
 school-houses,  organized  no  institutions  for  instruction, 
 and  made  no  provision  for  the  support  of  the  poor. 
 They  were  pressed  into  Joe's  service,  and  employed 
 upon  the  erection  of  a  temple  of  an  order  of  architecture 
 such  as  the  world  had  never  seen.  They  now  assumed 
 a  haughty  blearing  and  arrogant  speech  to\vards  their 
 old  friends  and  protectors,  and  the  latter  were  constantly 
 Bneered  at  as  blind  and  erring  Gentiles,  whose  steps 
 were  tending  downward  to  the  deepest  pit  of  hell.  Tlie 
 Saints  were  to  possess  the  earth  and  the  Gentiles  be 
 crushed  beneath  their  footsteps.  This  doctrine  had  a 
 fearful  effect  upon  the  common  Mormon;  he  looked 
 upon  the  old  settler  much  as  the  followers  of  Moses  and 
 Joshua  looked  upon  the  Canaanites.     If  the  earth  was 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISil.  75 
 
 to  be  delivered  to  the  Saints  with  the  fullness  thereof, 
 why  not  take  possession  at  once,  or  so  much  of  it  as  to 
 supply  present  wants  ?  The  old  settlers  began  to  feel 
 that  the  inflated  declarations  of  the  Prophet  meant 
 something  more  than  idle  gasconade.  Their  cattle, 
 which  had  pastured  safely  on  the  broad  prairies,  now 
 failed  to  come  up ;  their  poultry  took  wings  and  flew 
 away  to  some  undiscovered  country,  never  to  return, 
 and  their  barns  and  granaries  were  depleted  with  un- 
 heard of  rapidity.  If  one  visited  Nauvoo  in  search  of 
 estrays,  if  by  accident  he  peeped  into  the  shambles  or 
 slaughter-pens  of  the  Saints,  he  was  rudely  rebuffed  as 
 a  disturber  of  the  peace  of  Zion.  He  was  fortunate  if 
 he  escaped  arrest,  and  did  not  often  escape  annoyance. 
 The  Mormons  prided  themselves  on  their  genius  in  de- 
 vising modes  of  annoyance  by  which  a  suspicious  stran- 
 ger could  be  driven  away  without  resort  to  violence ; 
 the  Prophet  had  systemized  annoyance,  and  reduced  it 
 to  a  science.  He  had  organized  clubs  of  loafers  and 
 boys  into  what  he  called  *  whittling  deacons.' 
 
 "  They  were  composed  of  the  lowest  grade  of  vagor 
 bonds  in  Nauvoo,  and  were  stationed  around  the  streets 
 and  corners,  armed  with  pieces  ot  pine  board  and 
 sharp  dirk-knives,  always  ready  for  instant  service.  If 
 a  stranger  were  seen  on  the  streets,  the  first  thing  was 
 to  find  out  if  he  were  obnoxious.  An  experienced  spy 
 was  placed  upon  his  track,  who  followed  him  'until  it 
 was  ascertained  what  the  stranger  was.  If  he  appeared 
 hostile  to  the  Saints,  if  he  spoke  disparagingly  of  the 
 Prophet  or  his  religion,  Uhe  whittling  deacons'  were 
 put  at  his  heels. 
 
76  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 "  They  would  surround  him  with  pine  sticks  and 
 dirk-knives,  and  whistling  gravely,  keep  up  a  continual 
 whittling,  the  shavings  flying  into  the  face  and  over  the 
 person  of  the  obnoxious  one,  and  the  sharp  knives  being 
 flourished  dangerously  close  to  his  ears.  K  timid  and 
 nervous  he  retreated  soon ;  but  if  he  faced  the  music, 
 the  whittling  was  more  energetic,  the  whistling  louder 
 and  shriller,  the  knives  approached  closer  and  flashed 
 more  brightly,  till  his  retreat  was  a  necessity.  Strange 
 that  a  person  who  claimed  to  be  commissioned  as  a 
 Prophet,  could  have  authorized  such  low  and  disgrace- 
 ful work  ;  but  we  have  the  authority  of  the  Saints  that 
 it  was  Joe  Smith's  own  invention,  and  was  considered 
 a  brilliant  stroke  of  genius.  If  the  suspected  person 
 was  contumacious  and  stood  out  against  the  '  whittling 
 deacons,'  his  case  was  referred  to  a  higher  tribunal,  the 
 ^Danite  Band.'  The  *  whittling  deacons'  were  com- 
 posed of  Saintly  loafers,  this  of  Saintly  ruffians.  Many 
 of  them  were  outlaws,  criminals  who  had  fled  from  jus- 
 tice and  who  sought  and  received  protection  from  Joe. 
 No  man  was  too  deeply  stained  with  crime  to  gain  that 
 protection,  if  the  Prophet  could  use  him.  If  a  fugitive 
 from  justice  proved  a  worthless  and  inefficient  tool,  he 
 was  given  up  with  a  great  flourish  of  trumpets,  and 
 with  glowing  comments  by  the  newspaper  press  as  to 
 what  an  orderly  and  law  abiding  people  the  Mormons 
 were.   • 
 
 "  Who  ever  heard  of  Joe  Smith  giving  up  Porter 
 Rockwell,  or  that  he  ever  lost  any  respect  on  account 
 of  his  crimes  This  lawless  banditti  went  after  the 
 contumacious  stranger  with  bowie-knives  and  Colt's  re- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  77 
 
 volvers.  Their  business  was  to  terrify  and  insult  Aim, 
 to  salute  his  ears  with  strange  oaths  and  blasphemies, 
 to  menace  him  with  threats  of  instant  death  and  to 
 flourish  their  deadly  weapons  in  his  face.  But  were 
 there  no  police  to  appeal  to  ?  These  assailants  were 
 themselves  the  police,  powerful  only  for  evil.  If  the 
 suspected  was  still  fool-hardy  enough  to  refuse  to  leave, 
 his  case  was  reported  to  a  higher  tribunal,  who  gave 
 secret  and  mysterious  warnings,  written  in  m}- stic  char- 
 acters and  stained  with  blood,  which  were  dropped  in 
 the  way  of  the  suspected,  were  found  in  his  bed-room, 
 under  his  pillow  or  about  his  person.  Dire  was  his  fate 
 if  he  disregarded  this  last  solemn  admonition.  He 
 would  never  again  be  heard  from ;  the  mission  of  the 
 *  destroying  angel '  was  sudden,  sure  and  complete. 
 
 "  The  Pro[Dhet's  ambition  and  love  of  display  had  been 
 sated  by  a  shower  of  civic  honors  thrust  upon  him  by 
 the  Corporation  Act.  "  His  love  of  power  and  desire 
 for  vengeance  were  gratified  by  a  review  of  his  solid 
 squares  of  infantry,  his  squadrons  of  cavalry  and 
 parks  of  artillery.  He  was  the  only  man  of  his  age 
 beneath  the  rank  of  Grand  Duke,  that  could  summon 
 a  well-equipped  army  from  his  retainers.  But  he 
 had  other  vices  to  gratify  besides  ambition  and  love  of 
 display. 
 
 "  How  to  gratify  his  licentious  desires  became  with 
 him  a  great  study.  To  overcome  the  virtue  of  his  fe- 
 male followers  and  establish  prostitution  as  a  religious 
 rite,  he  had  a  revelation.  None  of  his  compeers  or  suc- 
 cessors could  compete  with  him  in  revelations.  His  son 
 Joe,  who  claims  to  be  his  legitimate  successor,  has  been 
 
78  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 80  reticent  as  to  receive  from  the  Brighamites,  and  de- 
 serve, the  title  of  the  ^  dumb  Prophet'  The  elder  Joe, 
 had  revelations  on  all  sorts  of  subjects ;  building  houses, 
 plowing  lands  and  selling  merchandise,  and  now  author- 
 izing him  to  seduce  and  degrade  his  female  devotees. 
 His  elders  were  now  instructed  that  the  time  had  arrived 
 when  seven  women  should  take  hold  of  one  man ;  that 
 no  woman  could  be  saved  unless  united  to  a  husband  in 
 a  spiritual  sense ;  that  such  union  was  enjoined  by  di- 
 vine authority,  and  to  resist  it  was  to  resist  the  ordmance 
 of  God.  Here  was  the  dilemma  for  the  female  Saint: 
 she  must  succumb  to  a  Ubidinous  priest,  or  be  sent  to 
 perdition;  she  must  accept  prostitution  or  damnation, 
 and  there  was  no  escape.  It  was  at  first  clxiimed  that 
 this  connection  was  purely  spiritual  and  platonic ;  but 
 the  admissions  of  incautious  Saints,  and  the  testimony 
 of  many  women,  soon  left  no  doubt  in  any  intelligent 
 muid  that  the  system  was  one  of  complete  concubinage. 
 
 "  The  two  young  Smiths,  who  lately  made  a  raid  into 
 Utah,  denying  that  their  father  practiced  polygamy, 
 ought  to  know,  as  every  intelligent  person  does  know, 
 that  the  will  of  Joe  Smith  was  absolute  in  Nauvoo,  and 
 all  the  councils,  sanhedrims  and  priests  in  the  city  could 
 never  have  established  polygamy  there,  if  he  had  but 
 shook  his  little  finger  in  opposition. 
 
 "  The  Mormons  were  not  only  introducing  a  new 
 religion,  but  striving  to  introduce  a  new  civilization ; 
 or  rather  laboring  to  abolish  all  civilization,  and  to  re- 
 estabfish  a  barbarism  old  as  the  infancy  of  the  world. 
 If  an  old  patriarch,  who  lived  immediately  after  the 
 earth   emerged    from   the   deluge,   through   ignorance 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  79 
 
 married  a  sister  or  an  aunt,  the  Mormon  assumed  the 
 same  right.  If  another  patriarch  armed  his  numerous 
 servants,  and  invaded  the  tented  city  of  a  rival,  carried 
 his  wives  and  children  into  captivity,  and  drove  away 
 his  sheep,  cattle  and  oxen,  it  was  a  divine  precedent 
 which  the  Saint  would  do  well  to  follow.  As  in  those 
 remote  ages  the  whole  people  labored  and  toiled  for 
 the  aggrandizement  of  their  chieftain  in  erecting  castles 
 for  his  protection,  or  guarding  the  flocks  and  herds  in 
 which  his  wealth  consisted,  so  the  Mormon  chieftain 
 employed  his  retainers  in  the  erection  of  a  gorgeous 
 temple.  The  anti-Mormons  saw  that  the  Mormons 
 were  industrious,  and.  saw  too  that  much  of  their  labor 
 was  misdirected,  and  that  they  derived  no  benefit  from 
 it,  more  than  the  enslaved  multitudes  who  toiled  on 
 the  Egyptian  pyramids  in  the  traditional  ages  of  the 
 world.  They  saw  that  Hancock  County,  under  the 
 control  of  the  dominant  sect,  was  receding  to  the  re- 
 motest and  most  barbarous  ages  of  the  world.  They 
 farther  understood  that  the  multitudes  who  lived  in 
 shanties,  and  worked  without  pay,  were  not  likely  to 
 starve  as  long  as  they  were  taught  that  the  earth  and 
 all  things  therein  belonged  to  the  Saints  of  the  Lord. 
 It  was  thought  high  time  to  impose  some  barrier  to 
 the  further  increase  of  the  dominant  Mormons.  No  one 
 then  thought  of  violence  or  war ;  there  had  been  no 
 lawless  demonstrations  prior  to  the  Mormons'  arrival, 
 and  in  justice  to  the  old  settlers  it  should  be  noted 
 there  has  been  none  since  their  expulsion.  Every  one 
 considered  that  most  of  the  evils  resulted  from  the 
 power  vested  in  the  Prophet  by  the  Mormon  Charter, 
 
80  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 and  the  creation  of  the  Legion.  It  was,  therefore, 
 thought  best  to  constitute  a  new  political  organization, 
 uniting  all  anti-Mormons  without  regard  to  previous 
 predilections,  having  for  its  object  united  opposition  to 
 the  Mormons,  and  repeal  of  all  the  Mormon  Charters 
 and  disbanding  of  the  Nauvoo  Legion.  A  general 
 mass-meeting  was  called,  and  was  fully  attended. 
 Whigs  and  Democrats  fraternized  and  rivalled  each 
 other  in  their  zeal  to  rid  the  country  of  the  growing 
 incubus.  But  when  it  came  to  county  nominations, 
 unfortunately  there  were  more  aspirants  than  offices. 
 Those  who  received  nominations  were  content;  but 
 the  rejected  ones  affected  to  consider  themselves  badly 
 abused  men.  Among  them  were  two  who  went  right 
 over  with  their  influence  to  Joe  Smith.  The  first  was 
 a  Reverend  Thomas  Owens,  a  renegade  Baptist  preacher, 
 and  the  other  Jacob  C.  Davis,  a  lawyer,  too  indolent 
 to  labor  or  study,  but  the  political  oracle  of  the  red- 
 eyed  loafers  who  congregated  together  in  the  low 
 groggeries  of  the  town  where  he  lived.  This  brace 
 of  worthies  wended  their  way  to  Nauvoo,  and  in- 
 formed the  Mormon  autocrat  of  the  combination 
 against  him;  but  tendered  him  their  sympathy  and 
 support,  offering  to  run  as  the  Mormon  candidates  for 
 the  Legislature.  The  Prophet  chose  Jacob  Davis  as 
 his  candidate  for  the  State  Senate,  and  Bill  Smith,  his 
 own  brother,  and  Thomas  Owens,  his  candidates  for  the 
 Lower  House.  The  rest  of  the  county  ticket  was  filled 
 out  by  the  Prophet  from  his  own  Mormon  tools. 
 
 "  The  issue  was  for  the  first  time  clearly  drawn,  the 
 election  in  due  time  came  off,  and  the   Projihet  was 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF   MORMOXISM. 
 
 81 
 
 MORMON  TEMPLE  AT  NAUVOO,  ILLINOIS. 
 
 triumphant.  He  had  elected  everything  on  the  county 
 ticket.  By  his  combinations  he  had  completely  de- 
 feated the  anti-Mormon  move,  and  had  for  county- 
 officers  his  trust}^  friends,  devoted  to  his  interests.  If 
 his  enemies  chose  to  appeal  from  the  decision  of  the 
 polls,  he  was  ready  for  them.  His  battalions  were 
 models  of  discipline,  devoted  to  his  service,  numbered 
 by  thousands,  and  armed  with  an  efficiency  which  dis- 
 tinguished no  other  troops  in  America,  The  walls  of 
 the  Temple  were  progressing  rapidly.  The  anti-Mor- 
 mons looked  upon  the  structure  with  many  doubts  and 
 apprehensions.   Everything  the  Mormons  did  was  veiled 
 
82  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 in  mystery.  This  structure  resembled  no  church,  its 
 walls  of  massive  limestone  were  impervious  to  the  shot 
 of  the  heaviest  cannon.  It  had  two  tiers  of  circular 
 windows  which  looked  to  the  wondering  Gentiles  very 
 much  as  if  they  were  port^holes  for  the  manning  of 
 cannon.  The  building  was  near  the  center  of  a  square 
 of  four  acres,  to  be  surrounded  by  a  massive  wall  ten 
 feet  in  height  and  six  in  thickness.  This,  the  Mor- 
 mons said,  was  for  a  promenade;  the  anti-Mormons 
 would  have  told  you,  it  could  have  been  constructed  for 
 no  other  purpose  than  a  fortification,  and  one  which 
 would  have  stood  a  heavy  bombardment  without  being 
 breached. 
 
 "Another  charter  provided  for  the  erection  of  'a  large 
 hotel,'  and  it  was  denominated  the  *  Lord's  boarding 
 house,'  to  which  a  revelation  is  added  that  Joe  Smith 
 and  his  heirs  were  to  have  ^a  suite  of  rooms  dedicated 
 to  their  use  forever.' 
 
 "  It  was  the  boast  of  Joe  that  this  would  be  the 
 great  'Mission  House'  of  the  world;  that  in  its  parlor 
 he  would  entertain  princes,  kings  and  emperors  from 
 Europe  and  Asia,  who  would  leave  their  distant  homes 
 to  receive  information  and  instruction  from  him  in  the 
 new  faith.  So  completely  had  Joe's  head  been  turned 
 and  so  wild  and  visionary  had  he  become,  that  it  was 
 not  without  reason  that  his  wife,  only  a  few  years  after 
 liis  death,  puljlished  a  statement  in  the  Qidncy  Whig 
 tliat  she  had  no  belief  in  his  prophetic  character,  and 
 considered  his  pretended  revelations  the  emanations  of 
 a  diseased  mind.  It  may  be  some  gratification  to  know 
 tliat   the   apostolic   dignitaries   did   not   always  agree 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  83 
 
 among  themselves,  after  the  establishment  of  'spiritual 
 wifery/  in  the  distribution  of  female  prizes.  They  had 
 no  disputes  in  polemic  theology.  The  oracle  Joe  settled 
 everything  of  that  sort  by  immediate  revelation.  But 
 when  the  face  of  a  handsome  female  Saint  was  seen 
 peering  from  under  the  curtains  of  an  immigrant  wagon, 
 it  was  like  throwing  the  apple  of  discord  among  the 
 lascivious  priests  of  the  new  religion ;  and  however 
 submissive  the  sacred  college  may  have  been  to  the 
 settlement  of  a  theological  tenet,  when  the  same  oracle 
 pronounced  a  verdict  in  regard  to  a  female  prize  against 
 one  of  them,  his  curses  were  loud  and  deep.  In  fact, 
 this  system  was  soon  the  means  of  destroying  the  Mor- 
 mon unity  right  at  home;  the  entering  wedge  that 
 divided  Nauvoo  into  factions,  and  gave  the  anti-Mor- 
 mons a  clue  to  success. 
 
 "The  name  of  Cyrus  Walker  had  long  been  con- 
 spicuous in  western  Illinois.  He  was  an  eminent 
 lawyer,  who  had  acquired  -a  great  reputation  in  Ken- 
 tucky, where  he  came  into  competition  with  Ben 
 Hardin,  John  Rowan  and  the  Wicklifts.  He  was  past 
 middle  life,  and  had  never  been  a  politician ;  but  in 
 1843  the  Whigs  needed  a  popular  candidate,  in  the 
 Hancock  district,  for  Congress.  There  was  no  hope  of 
 his  election  unless  Joe  Smith  and  his  followers  could 
 be  manipulated,  and  thus  balance  the  Democratic  ma- 
 jority. Mr.  Walker  resided  in  the  adjoining  county  of 
 McDonough,  and  was  thought  to  be  just  the  man,  as 
 in  a  long  criminal  practice  his  mind  had  become  a  per- 
 fect storehouse  of  expedients,  artifices  and  dodges.  He 
 was  nominated,  and  accepted  in  the  full  belief  that  he 
 
84  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 was  a  match  for  the  tricky  Prophet.  His  chances  were 
 rather  doubtful,  as  the  Whigs  had  been  most  active  in 
 the  anti-Mormon  Convention.  Owen  and  Davis,  Demo- 
 crats, had  deserted  to  the  Mormon  camp ;  but  no  Whig 
 had  been  guilty  of  such  defection.  But  it  was  confi- 
 dently anticipated  Walker  could  out-general  the 
 common-place  Mr.  Hoge,  the  Democratic  candidate. 
 Meanwhile  the  peace  of  the  Mormon  Zion  was  dis- 
 turbed. Men  who  had  toiled  without  remuneration 
 began  to  murmur,  and  the  families  of  those  who  went 
 forth  to  preach  the  gospel,  without  *  purse  or  scrip,* 
 often  suffered  greatly  in  their  absence.  Dr.  John  C. 
 Bennett,  to  whose  instructions  the  Legion  owed  its  ad- 
 mirable drill  and  discipline,  had  not  risen  to  that  high 
 rank  in  the  Hierarchy  which  he  fancied  his  talents  en- 
 titled him  to,  and  had  been  slighted  in  the  distribution 
 of  female  prizes.  He  had  seceded,  and  was  a  conspira- 
 tor against  the  Prophet,  denouncing  him  with  a  bitter- 
 ness born  of  imaginarj^  slight  and  wrong.  He  traveled 
 through  the  West,  secured  large  crowds  wherever  be 
 lectured,  of  all  who  were  attracted  by  the  disgusting 
 details  of  Mormon  depravity.  But  at  the  same  time 
 the  Prophet  was  engaged  in  exposing  and  denouncing 
 him ;  while  he  proved  Joe  to  be  immoral  and  licentious, 
 tlie  latter  proved  the  same  thing  against  him,  and  the 
 community  soon  became  satisfied  that  it  was  a  quarrel 
 between  two  great  rascals,  and  they  were  not  called  ujdou" 
 to  decide  which  was  the  greater.  Joe  had  apparently 
 forgotten  all  about  the  indictment  still  pending  against 
 him  in  Missouri ;  but  Bennett  had  not,  and  by  his  in- 
 trigues, a  fresh  requisition  was   issued,  and  Joe  was 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMOXISM.  85 
 
 arrested  in  Henderson  County,  at  one  of  the  *  Stakes  of 
 Zion/  some  twenty-five  miles  from  Nauvoo.  But  the 
 officers  soon  found  themselves  surrounded  by  a  detach- 
 ment of  the  Nauvoo  Legion,  and  the  whole  party  was 
 conducted  in  triumph  to  that  city.  The  Municipal 
 Court  met  to  try  the  legality  of  the  requisition  and  the 
 regularity  of  the  proceedings,  and  Cyrus  Walker  was 
 called  upon  for  his  opinion.  Their  judgment  was  in  no 
 wise  controlled  by  his  arguments ;  but  his  approval  of 
 such  jurisdiction  was  of  great  value  to  Joe  Smith.  He 
 was  profuse  in  his  thanks  to  Walker,  and  promised  ear- 
 nestly to  support  him.  Walker  fully  believed  that  this 
 settled  every  Mormon  vote  in  his  favor,  was  satisfied 
 he  need  do  nothing  more,  and  returned  home  to  study 
 up  the  political  questions  of  the  day,  and  fit  himself  for 
 his  future  duties  in  Congress. 
 
 "  But  there  was  some  ^  wire-pulling  *  going  on  of 
 which  he  little  dreamed;  there  was  a  great  deal  of 
 running  to  and  fro  of  '  managing  Democrats '  between 
 Nauvoo  and  Springfield,  and  suddenly  the  Mormons 
 were  called  in  a  mass  meeting,  the  second  day  before 
 the  election,  when  Hyrum  Smith  arose  and  announced 
 that  he  had  just  received  a  revelation  from  heaven  that 
 the  Mormons  were  to  vote  for  the  Democrat,  Mr.  Hoge  ! 
 They  were  still  in  doubt  till  the  Prophet  arrived  next 
 day,  when  the  whole  voting  population  of  Nauvoo  again 
 assembled  to  hear  from  him.  He  stated  that  he  was 
 not  prepared  to  advise  them  with  regard  to  election 
 matters ;  he  could  only  inform  them  that  he  had  pledged 
 his  own  vote  to  Mr,  Walker,  and  would  keep  his  pledge ; 
 but  he  had  received  no  communication  from  the  Lord 
 
86  LIFE    IX    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 on  the  subject ;  ^  he  had  not  seen  the  Lord,  nor  hud  he 
 gone  to  seek  the  Lord  about  the  matter.  He  was  not 
 disposed  to  call  upon  the  Lord  at  the  request  or  desire 
 of  any  Gentile  politician ;  if  the  Lord  really  wanted  to 
 see  him,  there  was  nothing  to  prevent  His  calling  upon 
 him.  So  far  as  he  was  concerned,  the  people  might 
 vote  for  Walker,  Hoge,  or  the  devil ;  it  was  all  the 
 same  to  him.  But,'  continued  the  Prophet,  '  I  am  in- 
 formed my  brother  Hyrum  has  seen  the  Lord,  and  has 
 something  to  say  to  you.  I  have  knQ-\vn  brother  Hyrum 
 ever  since  he  was  a  boy,  and  never  knew  him  to  lie. 
 When  the  Lord  speaks  let  all  the  earth  keep  silent.' 
 Thereupon  brother  Hj'rum  took  the  stand  and  boldly 
 announced  that  he  had  seen  the  Lord,  who  had  instructed 
 him  to  support  Mr.  Hoge,  ^  and  brethren,  you  are  all 
 commanded  to  vote  for  Mr.  Hoge,  for  thus  saith  the 
 Lord  God  Almighty.'  This  short  address  of  the  Pa- 
 triarch was  no  doubt  the  most  powerful  and  convincing 
 *  stump  speech '  ever  delivered.  When  the  count  was 
 rendered  next  day,  Mr.  Cyrus  Walker  had  one  vote, 
 whilst  Hoge's  counted  by  thousands.  It  is  difficult  to 
 realize  that  in  this  enlightened  age  and  most  enlightened 
 nation,  any  assembly  could  be  found,  so  deplorably  igno- 
 rant as  to  be  controlled  by  two  such  blackguard  impos- 
 tors, yet  so  it  was  ;  they  listened  to  these  blasphemous 
 deceivers  as  though  God  spoke  from  the  heavens.  Mr. 
 Walker  did  not  go  to  Congress.  He  withdrew  forever 
 from  politics,  devoted  himself  to  his  profession  and  grew 
 rich.  He  heard  the  result  of  the  Nauvoo  election  with 
 deep  mortification.  He  had  been  a  match  for  the 
 shrewdest  and  most  cultivated  members  of  his  own  pro- 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  87 
 
 fession ;  he  was  now  tricked  and  sold  by  a  miserable 
 impostor,  beneath  the  notice  of  any  respectable  man. 
 Mr.  Walker  retired  to  his  bed  on  that  night  the  most 
 bitter,  uncompromising  and  persevering  anti-Mormon 
 in  the  State  of  Illinois." 
 
 To  this  interesting  recital  it  is  only  necessary  to 
 add  a  few  facts  from  the  official  record.  Early  in  Ma}-, 
 1843,  Governor  Lilburn  W.  Boggs,  of  Missouri,  while 
 sitting  in  the  evening  near  an  open  window,  was  shot 
 from  without  and  seriously  wounded  in  the  head.  By 
 the  testimony  of  various  apostates  it  appears,  that  Joe 
 Smith  had  frequently  foretold  the  "  sudden  vengeance 
 of  God  on  the  Nero  of  Missouri,"  who  had  used  the 
 State  troops  to  expel  the  Mormons ;  and  that  about  this 
 time,  Orrin  Porter  Rockwell  was  for  some  time  absent 
 from  Nauvoo,  and  when  Joe  Smith  was  asked  his  where- 
 abouts, he  replied  with  a  laugh,  "  0,  just  gone  to  fulfil 
 prophecy."  On  these  and  other  statements  an  indict- 
 ment was  found  in  Missouri  against  Smith  and  Rock- 
 well, and  soon  after  the  officers  of  that  State  secured 
 another  requisition  from  Governor  Ford  for  Joe  Smith. 
 He  was  arrested  and  released  by  his  own  Municipal 
 Court,  with  the  advice  of  Mr.  Walker,  as  already  re- 
 lated. The  agents  of  Missouri  went  forthwith  to  make 
 application  to  Governor  Ford,  for  a  body  of  militia  to 
 enforce  the  writ,  and  Walker  was  sent  by  the  Mormons 
 as  their  attorney  to  resist  the  application.  Governor 
 Ford  declined  either  to  act  at  once,  or  to  say  how  he 
 would  finally  act ;  as  he  afterwards  stated,  because  he 
 was  not  clear  as  to  his  duty,  and  knew  the  politicians 
 only  wanted  his  decision  to  carry  back  to  the  Mormons. 
 
88  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 In  this  state  of  uncertainty  the  Mormon  leaders  sent 
 "Jake"  Backinstos  to  manoeuvre  at  Springfield,  and 
 ascertain  if  possible  what  the  Governor  would  finally 
 do.  Governor  Ford  was  absent  at  St.  Louis,  and  a 
 prominent  Democrat,  in  his  interest  at  Springfield,  gave 
 the  most  solemn  assurances  in  the  Governor's  name, 
 that  the  militia  would  not  be  sent  against  the  Mormons, 
 if  they  voted  the  Democratic  ticket.  Neither  Governor 
 Ford  nor  any  other  responsible  official  knew  aught  of 
 this  promise  in  his  name,  till  after  the  Mormons  left  the 
 State.  With  this  promise,  Backinstos  reached  Nauvoo 
 but  two  days  before  the  election,  with  what  result  has 
 already  been  seen.  Such  damning  political  treachery 
 was  not  without  due  punishment.  The  Whigs  now 
 saw  with  amazement,  that  the  most  solemn  promises 
 meant  nothing  from  Joe  Smith;  the  Democrats  gen- 
 erally felt  that  a  sect  of  such  political  power,  for  sale 
 every  day  and  every  hour  in  the  day,  and  uncertain  till 
 the  last  hour  of  election,  was  no  safe  ally,  and  both 
 parties  awaked  to  the  startling  fact,  that  Joe  Smith 
 w^as  actual  dictator  of  their  politics  and  chose  their 
 rulers.  The  anti-Mormon  excitement  was  accelerated 
 ten-fold,  and  ceased  not  till  their  final  and  complete  ex- 
 pulsion from  the  State.  And  disastrous  as  was  that 
 expulsion,  terrible  as  were  the  sufierings  of  individual 
 Mormons,  it  is  scarcely  too  much  to  say  they  richly  de- 
 served it,  for  this  one  act  of  perfidy  and  folly. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  89 
 
 CHAPTER  III. 
 
 MORMON   DIFFICULTIES   AND    DEATH   OF   THE   PROPHET. 
 
 Ford's  account — Double  treachery  in  the  Quincy  district — New  and  start- 
 ling developments  in  Nauvoo — Tyranny  of  Joe  Smith— Revolt  of  a  por- 
 tion of  his  followers — The  "Expositor" — It  is  declared  "a  nuisance" 
 and  "  abated  "—Flight  of  apostates— Warrants  issued  for  Smith  and 
 other  Mormons— Constables  driven  out  of  Nauvoo— Militia  called  for— 
 Nauvoo  fortified — Mormon  war  imminent — Governor  Ford  takes  the 
 field  in  person— Flight  of  the  Prophet  and  Patriarch  to  Iowa— Their  re- 
 turn and  arrest— The  Governor  pledged  for  their  safety— In  his  absence 
 the  jail  is  attacked— Death  of  the  Smiths— Character  of  the  Prophet- 
 Comments. 
 
 As  from  this  point  nearly  everything  connected  with 
 the  Illinois  history  of  the  Mormons  is  official  and  politi- 
 cal, I  here  take  up  Governor  Ford's  account : — 
 
 "  It  appears  that  the  Mormons  had  been  directed  by 
 their  leaders  to  vote  the  Whig  ticket  in  the  Quincy,  as 
 well  as  the  Hancock  district.  In  the  Quincy  district. 
 Judge  Douglas  was  the  Democratic  candidate,  and  0. 
 H.  Browning  the  candidate  of  the  Whigs.  The  lead- 
 ing Mormons  at  Nauvoo  having  never  determined  in 
 favor  of  the  Democrats  until  a  day  or  two  before  the 
 election,  there  was  not  sufficient  time,  or  it  was  neg- 
 lected, to  send  orders  from  Nauvoo  into  the  Quincy 
 district,  to  effi^ct  a  change  there.  The  Mormons  in  that 
 district  voted  for  Browning.  Douglas  and  his  friends, 
 being  afraid  that  I  might  be  in  his  way  for  the  United 
 States  Seriate  in  1846,  seized  hold  of  this  circumstance 
 
90  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 to  affect  my  party  standing,  and  thereby  gave  counte- 
 nance to  the  clamor  of  the  Whigs,  secretly  whispering 
 it  about  that  I  had  not  only  influenced  the  Mormons  to 
 vote  for  Hoge,  but  for  Browning  also.  This  decided 
 many  of  the  Democrats  in  favor  of  the  expulsion  of  the 
 Mormons. 
 
 "  No  further  demand  for  the  arrest  of  Joe  Smith 
 having  been  made  by  Missouri,  he  became  emboldened 
 by  success.  The  Mormons  became  more  arrogant  and 
 overbearing.  In  the  winter  of  1843-4,  the  Common 
 Council  passed  some  further  ordinances  to  protect  their 
 leaders  from  arrest,  on  demand  from  Missouri.  They 
 enacted  that  no  writ  issued  from  any  other  place  than 
 Nauvoo,  for  the  arrest  of  any  person  in  it,  should  be 
 executed  in  the  city,  without  an  approval  endorsed 
 thereon  by  the  Mayor ;  that  if  any  public  officer,  by 
 virtue  of  any  foreign  writ,  should  attempt  to  make  any 
 arrest  in  the  city,  without  such  approval  of  his  process, 
 he  should  be  subject  to  imprisonment  for  life,  and  that 
 the  Governor  of  the  State  should  not  have  the  power 
 of  pardoning  the  offender  without  the  consent  of  the 
 Mayor.  When  these  ordinances  were  published,  they 
 created  general  astonishment.  Many  people  began  to 
 believe  in  good  earnest  that  the  Mormons  were  about 
 to  set  up  a  separate  government  for  themselves  in  defi- 
 ance of  the  laws  of  the  State.  Owners  of  property 
 stolen  in  other  counties  made  pursuit  into  Nauvoo,  and 
 were  fined  by  the  Mormon  courts  for  daring  to  seek 
 their  property  in  the  holy  city.  To  one  such  I  granted 
 a  pardon.  Several  of  the  Mormons  liad  been  convicted 
 'of  larceny,  and  they  never  failed  in  any  instance  to 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  91 
 
 procure  petitions  signed  by  1,500  or  2,000  of  their 
 friends  for  their  pardon.  But  that  which  made  it  more 
 certain  than  everything  else,  that  the  Mormons  con- 
 templated a  separate  government,  was  that  about  this 
 time  they  petitioned  Congress  to  establish  a  territorial 
 government  for  them  in  Nauvoo ;  as  if  Congress  had 
 any  power  to  establish  such  a  government,  or  any  other, 
 within  the  bounds  of  a  State. 
 
 "To  crown  the  whole  folly  of  the  Mormons,  in  the 
 spring  of  1844,  Joe  Smith  announced  himself  as  a  can- 
 .didate  for  President  of  the  United  States.  His  follow- 
 ers were  confident  that  he  would  be  elected.  Two  or 
 three  thousand  missionaries  were  immediately  sent  out 
 to  preach  their  religion,  and  to  electioneer  in  favor  of 
 their  prophet  for  the  Presidency.  This  folly  at  once 
 covered  that  people  with  ridicule  in  the  minds  of  all 
 sensible  men,  and  brought  them  into  conflict  with  the 
 zealots  and  bigots  of  all  political  parties ;  as  the  arro- 
 gance and  extravagance  of  their  religious  pretensions 
 had  already  aroused  the  opposition  of  all  other  denomi- 
 nations in  religion.  It  seems,  from  the  best  information 
 that  could  be  got  from  the  best  men  who  had  seceded 
 from  the  Mormon  church,  that  Joe  Smith  about  this  time 
 conceived  the  idea  of  making  himself  a  temporal  prince 
 as  well  as  spiritual  leader  of  his  people.  He  instituted 
 a  new  and  select  order  of  the  priesthood,  the  nrembers 
 of  which  Avere  to  be  priests  and  kings  temporally  and 
 spiritually.  These  were  to  be  his  nobility,  who  were 
 to  be  the  upholders  of  his  throne.  He  caused  himself 
 to  be  crowned  and  anointed  king  and  priest,  far  above 
 the  rest  J    and  he  prescribed  the  form  of  an  oath  of 
 
92  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 allegiance  to  himself,  which  he  administered  to  his 
 principal  followers.  To  uphold  his  pretensions  to  roy- 
 alty, he  deduced  his  descent  by  an  unbroken  chain 
 from  Joseph  the  son  of  Jacob,  and  that  of  his  wife 
 from  some  other  renowned  personage  of  Old  Testament 
 history.  The  Mormons  openly  denounced  the  goverment 
 of  the  United  States  as  utterly  corrupt,  and  as  being 
 about  to  pass  away,  and  to  be  replaced  by  the  govern- 
 ment of  God,  to  be  administered  by  his  servant  Joseph. 
 It  is  at  this  day  certain,  also,  that  about  this  time, 
 the  prophet  re-instituted  an  order  in  the  Church  called 
 the  '  Danite  Band.'  These  were  to  be  a  body  of  police 
 and  guards  about  the  person  of  their  sovereign,  who 
 were  sworn  to  obey  his  orders  as  the  orders  of  God 
 himself. 
 
 "  Soon  after  these  institutions  were  established,  Joe 
 Smith  began  to  play  the  tyrant  over  several  of  his  fol- 
 lowers. The  first  act  of  this  sort  which  excited  atten- 
 tion, was  an  attempt  to  take  the  wife  of  William  Law, 
 one  of  his  most  talented  and  principal  disciples,  and 
 make  her  a  spiritual  wife.  By  means  of  his  Common 
 Council,  without  the  authority  of  law,  he  established  a 
 recorder's  office  in  Nauvoo,  in  which  alone  the  titles  of 
 property  could  be  recorded.  In  the  same  manner  and 
 with  the  same  want  of  legal  authority,  he  established 
 an  office  for  issuing  marriage  licenses  to  Mormons,  so 
 as  to  give  him  absolute  control  of  the  marrying  pro- 
 pensities of  his  people.  He  proclaimed  that  none  in 
 the  city  should  purchase  real  estate  to  sell  again,  but 
 himself  He  also  permitted  no  one  but  himself  to 
 have  a  license  in  the  city  for  the  sale  of  spirituous 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  93 
 
 liquors ;  and  in  many  other  ways  he  undertook  to  regu- 
 late and  control  the  business  of  the  Mormons.  This 
 despotism,  administered  by  a  corrupt  and  unprincipled 
 man,  soon  became  intolerable.  William  Law,  one  of 
 the  most  eloquent  preachers  of  the  Mormons,  who 
 appeared  to  me  to  be  a  deluded  but  conscientious  and 
 candid  man,  Wilson  Law,  his  brother,  Major-General 
 of  the  Legion,  and  four  or  five  other  Mormon  leaders, 
 resolved  upon  a  rebellion  against  the  authority  of  the 
 Prophet.  They  designed  to  enlighten  their  brethren 
 and  fellow-citizens  upon  the  new  institutions,  the  new 
 turn  given  to  Mormonism,  and  the  practices  under  the 
 new  system,  by  procimng  a  printing-press  and  estab- 
 lishing a  newspaper  in  the  city,  to  be  the  organ  of  their 
 complaints  and  views.  But  they  never  issued  but  one 
 number ;  before  the  seconcf  could  appear,  the  press  was 
 demolished  by  an  order  of  the  Common  Council,  and 
 the  conspirators  were  ejected  from  the  Mormon 
 Church. 
 
 "  The  Mormons  themselves  published  the  proceedings 
 of  the  Council  in  the  trial  and  destruction  of  the  hereto 
 ical  press ;  from  which  it  does  not  appear  that  any  one 
 was  tried,  or  that  the  editor  or  any  of  the  owners  of  the 
 property  had  notice  of  the  trial,  or  were  permitted  to 
 defend  in  any  particular. 
 
 "  The  proceeding  was  an  exparte  proceeding,  partly 
 civil  and  partly  ecclesiastical,  against  the  press  itself. 
 No  jury  was  called  or  sworn,  nor  were  the  witnesses  re- 
 quired to  give  their  evidence  upon  oath.  The  council- 
 lors stood  up  one  after  another,  and  some  of  them  sev- 
 eral times,  and  related  what  they  pretended  to  laiow. 
 
94  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 In  this  mode  it  was  abundantly  proved  that  the  owners 
 of  the  proscribed  press  were  sinners,  whoremasters, 
 thieves,  swindlers,  counterfeiters  and  robbers ;  the  evi- 
 dence of  which  is  reported  in  the  trial  at  full  length. 
 It  was  altogether  the  most  curious  and  irregular  trial 
 that  ever  was  recorded  in  any  civilized  country ;  and 
 one  finds  difficulty  in  determining  whether  the  proceed- 
 ings of  the  Council  were  more  the  result  of  insanity  or 
 depravity.  The  trial  resulted  in  the  conviction  of  the 
 press  as  a  public  nuisance.  The  Mayor  was  ordered  to 
 see  it  abated  as  such,  and  if  necessary,  to  call  the  Legion 
 to  his  assistance.  The  Mayor  issued  his  warrant  to  the 
 City  Marshal,  who,  aided  by  a  portion  of  the  Legion, 
 proceeded  to  the  obnoxious  printing-office,  and  destroyed 
 the  press  and  scattered  the  types  and  other  materials. 
 
 "  After  this,  it  became  too  hot  for  the  seceding  and 
 rejected  Mormons  to  remain  in  the  holy  city.  They 
 retired  to  Carthage,  the  county-seat  of  Hancock  County, 
 and  took  out  warrants  for  the  Mayor  and  members  of 
 the  Common  Council,  and  others  engaged  in  the  outrage, 
 for  a  riot.  Some  of  those  were  arrested,  but  were  im- 
 mediately taken  before  the  Municipal  Court  of  the  city 
 on  habeas  corpus,  and  discharged  from  custody. 
 
 '^  On  the  seventeenth  day  of  June  following,  a  com- 
 mittee of  a  meeting  of  the  citizens  of  Carthage,  pre- 
 S'.Mited  themselves  to  me  with  a  request  that  the  mihtia 
 might  be  ordered  out  to  assist  in  executing  process  in 
 the  city  of  Nauvoo.  I  determined  to  visit  m  person 
 that  section  of  country,  and  examine  for  myself  the 
 truth  and  nature  of  their  complaints.  No  order  for  the 
 militia  was  made  ;  and  I  arrived  at  Cartilage  on  the 
 morning  of  the  21st  day  of  the. same  pionth. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  95 
 
 "  Upon  my  arrival,  I  found  an  armed  force  assembled 
 and  hourly  increasing,  under  the  summons  and  direction 
 of  the  constables  of  the  county,  to  serve  as  a  posse  com- 
 itates to  assist  in  the  execution  of  process.  The  general 
 of  the  brigade  had  also  called  for  the  militia,  en  masse, 
 of  the  counties  of  McDonough  and  Schuyler,  for  a  sim- 
 ilar purpose.  Another  assemblage  to  a  considerable 
 number  had  been  made  at  Warsaw,  under  military  com- 
 mand of  Col.  Levi  Williams. 
 
 "  The  first  thing  which  I  did  on  my  arrival  was  to 
 place  all  the  militia  then  assembled,  and  which  were 
 expected  to  assemble,  under  military  command  of  their 
 proper  officers.  I  next  dispatched  a  messenger  to 
 Nauvoo,  informing  the  Mayor  and  Common  Council  of 
 tlie  nature  of  the  complaint  made  against  them;  and 
 requested  that  persons  might  be  sent  to  me  to  lay  their 
 side  of  the  question  before  me.  A  Committee  was 
 accordingly  sent,  who  made  such  acknowledgments 
 that  I  had  no  difficulty  in  concluding  what  were  the 
 facts. 
 
 "  It  appeared  clearly,  both  from  the  complaints  of  the 
 citizens  and  the  acknowledgments  of  the  Mormon  Com- 
 mittee, that  the  whole  proceedings  of  the  Mayor,  the 
 Common  Council,  and  the  Municipal  Court,  were 
 irregular  and  illegal,  and  not  to  be  endured  in  a  free 
 country ;  though,  perhaps,  some  apology  might  be  made 
 for  the  Court,  as  it  had  been  repeatedly  assured  by 
 some  of  the  best  lawyers  in  the  State,  who  had  been 
 candidates  for  office  before  that  people,  that  it  had  full 
 and  competent  power  to  issue  writs  of  Jiabeas  corpus  in 
 all  cases  whatever.     The  Common  Council  violated  the 
 
96  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 law  ill  assuming  the  exercise  of  judicial  power;  iii 
 proceeding  exparte  without  notice  to  the  owners  of  the 
 property ;  in  proceeding  against  the  property  in  rem ; 
 in  not  calling  a  jury;  in  not  swearing  all  the  witnesses; 
 in  not  giving  the  owners  of  the  property,  accused  of 
 being  a  nuisance,  in  consequence  of  being  libelous,  an 
 opportunity  of  giving  the  truth  in  evidence ;  and  in 
 fact,  by  not  proceeding  by  civil  suit  or  indictment,  as 
 in  other  cases  of  libel.  The  Mayor  violated  the  law  in 
 ordering  this  erroneous  and  absurd  judgment  of  the 
 Common  Council  to  be  executed.  And  the  Municipal 
 Court  erred  in  discharging  them  from  arrest. 
 
 "As  this  proceeding  touched  the  liberty  of  the  press, 
 which  is  justly  dear  to  any  Republican  people,  it  was 
 well  calculated  to  raise  a  great  flame  of  excitement. 
 And  it  may  well  be  questioned  whether  years  of 
 misrepresentation  by  the  most  profligate  newspaper 
 could  have  engendered  such  a  feeling  as  was  produced 
 by  the  destruction  of  this  one  press.  It  is  apparent 
 that  the  Mormon  leaders  but  little  understood,  and 
 regarded  less  the  true  principles  of  civil  liberty.  A 
 free  press,  well  conducted,  is  a  great  blessing  to  a  free 
 people ;  a  profligate  one  is  likely  soon  to  deprive  itself 
 of  all  credit  and  influence  by  the  multitude  of  false- 
 hoods put  forth  by  it.  In  addition  to  these  causes  of 
 excitement,  there  were  a  great  many  reports  in 
 circulation,  and  generally  believed  by  the  people. 
 
 "  Fortunately  for  the  purposes  of  those  who  were 
 active  in  creating  excitement,  there  were  many  known 
 truths  which  gave  countenance  to  some  of  these  accusa- 
 tions.    It  was  sufliciently  proved  in  a  proceeding  at 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMOXISM  97 
 
 Carthage  whilst  I  was  there,  that  Joe  Smith  had  sent 
 a  baud  of  his  followers  to  Missouri,  to  kidnap  two  men 
 who  were  witnesses  against  a  member  of  his  Church 
 then  in  jail,  about  to  be  tried  on  a  charge  of  larceny. 
 It  was  also  a  notorious  fact,  that  he  had  assaulted  and 
 severely  beaten  an  officer  of  the  county,  for  an  alleged 
 non-performance  of  his  duty,  at  a  time  when  that 
 officer  was  just  recovering  from  a  severe  illness.  It  is 
 a  fact  also,  that  he  stood  indicted  for  the  crime  of 
 perjury,  as  was  alleged,  in  swearing  to  an  accusation 
 for  murder,  in  order  to  drive  a  man  out  of  Nauvoo, 
 who  had  been  engaged  in  buying  and  selling  lots  and 
 land,  and  thus  interfering  with  the  monopoly  of  the 
 Prophet  as  a  speculator.  It  is  a  fact  also,  that  his 
 Municipal  Court,  of  which  he  was  Chief  Justice,  by 
 writ  of  habeas  corpus,  had  frequently  discharged  indi- 
 viduals accused  of  high  crimes  and  offences  against  the 
 laws  of  the  State ;  and  on  one  occasion  had  discharged 
 a  person  accused  of  swindling  the  Government  of  the 
 United  States,  who  had  been  arrested  by  process  of  the 
 Federal  Courts;  thereby  giving  countenance  to  the 
 report,  that  he  obstructed  the  administration  of  justice, 
 and  had  set  up  a  government  at  Nauvoo,  independent 
 of  the  laws  and  Government  of  the  State.  This  idea 
 was  further  corroborated  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  by 
 the  fact  that  the  people  of  Nauvoo  had  petitioned 
 Congress  for  a  Territorial  Government  to  be  established 
 there,  and  to  be  independent  of  the  State  Government. 
 It  was  a  fact  also,  that  some  larcenies  and  robberies 
 had  been  committed,  and  that  Mormons  had  been 
 convicted  of  the  crimes,  and  that  other  larcenies  had 
 7 
 
B8  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 been  committed  by  persons  unknown,  but  suspected  to 
 be  Mormons.  Justice,  however,  requires  rae  here  to 
 say,  that  upon  such  investigation  as  I  then  could  make, 
 the  charge  of  promiscuous  stealing  appeared  to  be 
 exaggerated. 
 
 "  Ano*iier  cause  of  excitement,  was  a  report  industri- 
 ously circulated,  and  generally  believed,  that  Hiram 
 Smith,  another  leader  of  the  Mormon  Church,  had 
 offered  a  reward  for  the  destruction  of  the  press  of  the 
 *  Warsaw  Signal,'  a  newspaper  published  in  the  county, 
 and  the  organ  of  the  opposition  to  the  Mormons.  It 
 was  also  asserted,  that  the  Mormons  scattered  through 
 the  settlements  of  the  county,  had  threatened  all 
 persons  who  turned  out  to  assist  the  constables,  with 
 the  destruction  of  their  property  and  the  murder  of 
 their  families,  in  the  absence  of  their  fathers,  brothers 
 and  husbands.  A  Mormon  woman  in  McDonough 
 County  was  imprisoned  for  threatening  to  poison  the 
 wells  of  the  people  who  turned  out  in  the  posse  ;  and  a 
 Mormon  in  Warsaw  publicly  avowed  that  he  was 
 bound  by  his  religion  to  obey  all  orders  of  the  prophet, 
 even  to  commit  murder,  if  so  commanded. 
 
 ''But  the  great  cause  of  popular  fury  was,  that  the 
 Mormons  at  several  preceding  elections  had  cast  their 
 vote  as  a  unit ;  thereby  making  the  fact  apparent,  that 
 no  one  could  aspire  to  the  honors  or  oflices  of  the 
 country  within  the  sphere  of  their  influence,  without 
 their  approbation  and  votes. 
 
 "  As  my  object  in  visiting  Hancock  was  expressly  to 
 assist  in  the  execution  of  the  laws,  and  not  to  violate 
 them,  or  to  witness  or  permit  their  violation,  as  I  was 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  99 
 
 convinced  that  the  Mormon  leaders  had  committed  a 
 crime  in  the  destruction  of  the  press,  and  had  resisted 
 the  execution  of  process,  I  determined  to  exert  the 
 whole  force  of  the  State,  if  necessary,  to  bring  them 
 to  justice.  But  seeing  the  great  excitement  in  the 
 public  mind,  and  the  manifest  tendency  of  this  excite- 
 ment to  run  into  mobocracy,  I  was  of  opinion,  that 
 before  I  acted,  I  ought  to  obtain  a  pledge  from  the 
 officers  and  men  to  support  me  in  strictly  legal  measr 
 iires,  and  to  protect  the  prisoners  in  case  they  surren- 
 dered. I  was  determined,  if  possible,  the  forms  of  law 
 should  not  be  made  the  catspaw  of  a  mob,  to  seduce 
 these  people  to  a  quiet  surrender,  as  the  convenient 
 victims  of  popular .  fury.  I  therefore  called  together 
 the  whole  force  then  assembled  at  Carthage,  and  made 
 an  address,  explaining  to  them  what  I  could,  and  what 
 I  could  not,  legally  do ;  and  also  adducing  to  them 
 various  reasons  why  they  as  well  as  the  Mormons 
 should  submit  to  the  laws ;  and  why,  if  they  had  re- 
 solved on  revolutionar}''  proceedings,  their  purpose 
 should  be  abandoned.  The  assembled  troops  seemed 
 much  pleased  with  the  address ;  and  upon  its  conclu- 
 sion, the  officers  and  men  unanimously  voted,  with 
 acclamation,  to  sustain  me  in  a  strictly  legal  course, 
 and  that  the  prisoners  should  be  protected  from  vio- 
 lence. Upon  the  arrival  of  additional  forces  from 
 Warsaw,  McDonough,  and  Schuyler,  similar  addresses 
 were  made,  with  the  same  result. 
 
 "  It  seemed  to  me  that  these  votes  fully  authorized 
 me  to  promise  the  accused  Mormons  the  protection  of 
 the  law  in  case  they  surrendered.     They  were  accord- 
 
100  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 ingly  duly  informed  that  if  they  surrendered  they 
 Avould  be  protected,  and  if  they  did  not,  the  whole 
 force  of  the  State  would  be  called  out,  if  necessary,  to 
 eompel  their  submission.  A  force  of  ten  men  was  de- 
 spatched with  the  constable  to  make  the  arrests,  and 
 to  guard  the  prisoners  to  headquarters. 
 
 "  In  the  meantime,  Joe  Smith,  as  Lieuten ant-Gen- 
 eral of  the  Nauvoo  Legion,  had  declared  martial  law  in 
 the  city ;  the  Legion  was  assembled,  and  ordered  under 
 arms ;  the  members  of  it  residing  in  the  country  were 
 ordered  into  town.  The  Mormon  settlements  obeyed 
 the  summons  of  their  leader,  and  marched  to  his  assist- 
 ance. Nauvoo  was  one  great  military  camp,  strictly 
 guarded  and  watched ;  and  no  ingress  or  egress  was 
 allowed  except  upon  the  strictest  examination.  In 
 one  instance,  which  came  to  my  knowledge,  a  citizen 
 of  McDonough,  who  happened  to  be  in  the  city,  was 
 denied  the  privilege  of  returning,  until  he  made  oath 
 that  he  did  not  belong  to  the  party  at  Carthage,  that 
 he  would  return  home  without  calling  at  Carthage, 
 and  that  he  would  give  no  information  of  the  move- 
 ments of  the  Mormons. 
 
 "However,  upon  the  arrival  of  the  constable  and 
 guard,  the  Mayor  and  Common  Council  at  once  signi- 
 fied their  willingness  to  surrender,  and  stated  their 
 readiness  to  proceed  to  Carthage  next  mornuig  at  eight 
 o'clock.  Martial  law  had  previously  been  aboHshed. 
 The  hour  of  eight  o'clock  came,  and  the  accused  failed 
 to  make  their  appearance.  The  constable  and  his  escort 
 returned.  The  constable  made  no  effort  to  arrest  any 
 of  th'^m,  nor  would  he  or  the  guard  delay  their  departure 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  101 
 
 one  minute  beyond  the  time,  to  see  whether  an  arrest 
 could  be  made.  Upon  their  return,  they  reported  that 
 they  had  been  informed  that  the  accused  had  fled,  and 
 could  not  be  found. 
 
 "In  the  meantime,  I  made  a  requisition  upon  the 
 officers  of  the  Nauvoo  Legion  for  the  State  arms  in  their 
 possession.  It  appears  that  there  was  no  evidence  in 
 the  quartermaster-general's  office  of  the  number  and  de- 
 scription of  the  arms  with  which  the  Legion  had  been 
 furnished.  Dr.  Bennett,  after  he  had  been  appointed 
 quartermaster-general,  had  joined  the  Mormons,  and 
 had  disposed  of  the  public  arms  as  he  pleased,  without 
 keeping  or  giving  any  account  of  them.  On  this  subject 
 I  applied  to  General  Wilson  Law  for  information.  He 
 had  lately  been  the  Major-general  of  the  Legion.  He 
 had  seceded  from  the  Mormon  party ;  was  one  of  the 
 owners  of  the  proscribed  press ;  had  left  the  city,  as  he 
 said,  in  fear  of  his  life,  and  was  one  of  the  party  asking 
 for  justice  against  its  constituted  authorities.  He  was 
 interested  to  exaggerate  th^e  number  of  arms  rather  than 
 to  place  it  at  too  low  an  estimate.  From  his  infonna^ 
 tion  I  learned  that  the  Legion  had  received  three  pieces 
 of  cannon,  and  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  stand  of 
 small  anns  and  their  accoutrements.  Of  these,  the 
 three  pieces  of  cannon  and  two  hundred  and  fifty  stand 
 of  small  arms  were  surrendered.  These  arms  were  de- 
 manded because  the  Legion  was  illegally  used  in  the  de- 
 gtruction  of  the  press,  and  in  enforcmg  martial  law  in 
 the  city,  in  open  resistance  to  legal  process,  and  the 
 jpossc  vomitatus. 
 
 "  I  demanded  the  surrender  also,  on  account  of  the 
 
302  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 great  prejudice  and  excitement  which  the  possession  of 
 these  arms  bj  the  Mormons  had  always  kindled  in  the 
 minds  of  the  people.  A  large  portion  of  the  people,  by 
 pure  misrepresentation,  had  been  made  to  believe  that 
 the  Legion  had  received  from  the  State  as  many  as  thirty 
 pieces  of  artillery  and  five  or  six  thousand  stands  of  small 
 arms,  which,  in  all  probability,  would  soon  be  wielded 
 for  the  conquest  of  the  country,  and  for  their  subjection 
 to  Mormon  domination.  I  was  of  opinion  that  the  re- 
 moval of  these  arms  would  tend  much  to  allay  this  ex- 
 citement and  prejudice;  and  in  point  of  fact,  although 
 wearing  a  severe  aspect,  would  be  an  act  of  real  kind- 
 ness to  the  Mormons  themselves. 
 
 "  On  the  23d  or  24th  day  of  June,  Joe  Smith,  the 
 Mayor  of  Nauvoo,  together  with  his  brother  Hyrum 
 and  all  the  members  of  the  Council,  and  all  others  de- 
 manded, came  into  Carthage  and  surrendered  them- 
 selves prisoners  to  the  constable,  on  the  charge  of  riot. 
 They  all  voluntarily  entered  into  a  recognizance  before 
 the  Justice  of  the  Peace,  for  their  appearance  at  court 
 to  answer  the  charge.  And  all  of  them  were  discharged 
 from  custody  except  Joe  and  Ilyrum  Smith,  against 
 whom  the  magistrate  had  issued  a  new  writ,  on  a  com- 
 plaint of  treason.  They  were  immediately  arrested  by 
 the  constable  on  this  charge,  and  i^etained  in  his  custody 
 to  answer  it. 
 
 "  Soon  after  the  surrender  of  the  Smiths,  at  their  re- 
 quest I  dispatched  Captain  Singleton  with  his  company, 
 i'vom  Brown  County  to  Nauvoo,  to  guard  the  town  ;  and 
 1  authorized  him  to  take  command  of  the  Legion.  He 
 re^^orted  to  me  aftei'wards,  that  he  called  out  the  Legion 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  103 
 
 for  inspection;  and  that,  upon  two  hours'  notice,  two 
 tliousand  of  them  assembled,  all  of  them  armed ;  and 
 this  after  the  public  arms  had  been  taken  away  from 
 them.  So  it  appears  that  they  had  a  sufficiency  of 
 private  arms  for  any  reasonable  purpose. 
 
 "  After  the  Smiths  had  been  arrested  on  the  new 
 charge  of  treason,  the  Justice  of  the  Peace  postponed 
 the  examination,  because  neither  of  the  parties  were 
 prepared  with  their  witnesses  for  trial.  Meanwhile  he 
 committed  them  to  the  jail  of  the  county  for  greater 
 security.  The  jail  in  which  they  were  confined,  is  a 
 considerable  stone  building ;  containing  a  residence  for 
 the  jailor,  cells  for  the  close  and  secure  confinement  of 
 prisoners,  and  one  larger  room  not  so  strong,  but  more 
 airy  and  comfortable  than  the  cells.  They  were  put 
 into  the  cells  by  the  jailor ;  but  upon  their  remonstrance 
 and  request,  and  by  my  advice,  they  were  transferred 
 to  the  larger  room ;  and  there  they  remained  until  the 
 final  catastrophe.  Neither  they  nor  I  seriously  appre- 
 hended an  attack  on  the- jail,  through  the  guard  sta- 
 tioned to  protect  it.  Nor  did  I  apprehend  the  least 
 danger  on  their  part  of  an  attempt  to  escape.  For  I 
 was  very  sure  that  any  such  an  attempt  would  have 
 been  the  signal  of  their  immediate  death.  Indeed,  if 
 they  had  escaped,  it  would  have  been  fortunate  for  the 
 purposes  of  those  who  were  anxious  for  the  expulsion 
 of  the  Mormon  population.  For  the  great  body  of 
 til  at  people  would  most  assuredly  have  followed  their 
 Prophet  and  principal  leaders,  as  they  did  in  their  flight 
 from  Missouri.  I  learned  afterwards  that  the  leaders 
 of  the  anti-Mormons  did  much  to  stimulate  their  fol- 
 
104  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 lowers  to  the  murder  of  the  Smiths  in  jail,  by  alleging 
 that  the  Governor  intended  to  favor  their  escape.  If 
 this  had  been  true,  and  could  have  been  well  carried 
 out,  it  would  have  been  the  best  way  of  getting  rid  of 
 the  Mormons.  The  leaders  would  not  have  dared  to 
 return,  and  all  their  church  would  have  followed.  I 
 had  such  a  plan  in  my  mind,  but  I  had  never  breathed 
 it  to  a  living  soul,  and  was  thus  thwarted  in  ridding 
 the  State  of  the  Mormons  two  years  before  they  actu- 
 ally left,  by  the  insane  fury  of  the  anti-Mormons. 
 
 "  The  force  assembled  at  Carthage  amounted  to  about 
 twelve  or  thirteen  hundred  men,  and  it  was  calculated 
 that  four  or  five  hundred  more  Avere  assembled  at  War- 
 saw. Nearly  all  that  portion  resident  in  Hancock  were 
 anxious  to  be  marched  into  Nauvoo.  This  measure  was 
 supposed  to  be  necessary,  to  search  for  counterfeit  money 
 and  the  apparatus  to  make  it,  and  also  to  strike  a  salu- 
 tary terror  into  the  Mormon  people,  by  an  exhibition  of 
 the  force  of  the  State,  and  thereby  prevent  future  out- 
 rages, murders,  robberies,  burnings,  and  the  Uke,  appre- 
 hended as  the  effect  of  Mormon  vengeance  on  those  who 
 had  taken  a  part  against  them.  On  my  part,  at  one  tune, 
 this  arrangement  was  agreed  to.  The  morning  of  the 
 27th  day  of  June  was  appointed  for  the  march;  and  Gold- 
 en's  Point,noar  the  Mississippi  river,  and  about  equidistant 
 from  Nauvoo  and  Warsaw,  was  selected  as  the  place  of 
 rendezvous.  I  had  determined  to  prevail  on  the  Justice 
 to  bring  out  his  prisoners,  and  take  them  along.  A  coun- 
 cil of  officers,  however,  determined  that  this  would  be 
 highly  inexpedient  and  dangerous,  and  ofi^ered  such  sub- 
 stantial reasons  for  their  opinions  as  induced  me  to 
 change  my  resolution. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  105 
 
 "  Two  or  three  days'  preparation  had  been  made  fbr 
 this  expedition.  I  observ^ed  that  some  of  the  people 
 became  more  and  more  excited  and  inflammatory,  the 
 further  the  preparations  were  advanced.  Occasional 
 threats  came  to  my  ears  of  destroying  the  city  and  mur- 
 dering or  expelling  the  inhabitants.  I  had  no  objection 
 to  ease  the  terrors  of  the  people  by  such  a  display  of 
 force,  and  was  most  anxious  also  to  search  for  the  al- 
 leged apparatus  for  making  counterfeit  money;  and,  in 
 fact,  to  inquire  into  all  the  charges  against  that  people, 
 if  I  could  have  been  assured  of  my  command  against 
 mutiny  and  insubordination.  But  I  gradually  learned 
 to  my  entire  satisfaction,  that  there  was  a  plan  to  get 
 the  troops  into  Nauvoo,  and  there  to  begin  the  war,  prob- 
 ably by  some  of  our  own  party,  or  some  of  the  seceding 
 Mormons,  taking  advantage  of  the  night  to  fire  on  our 
 own  force,  and  then  laying  it  to  the  Mormons.  I  was 
 satisfied  there  were  those  amongst  us  fully  capable  of 
 such  an  act,  hoping  that  in  the  alarm,  bustle  and  con- 
 fusion of  a  militia  camp,  .the  truth  could  not  be  dis- 
 covered, and  that  it  might  lead  to  the  desired  collision. 
 
 "All  these  considerations  were  duly  urged  by  me 
 upon  the  attention  of  a  council  of  officers,  convened  on 
 the  morning  of  June  27th.  I  also  urged  upon  the 
 council,  that  such  wanton  and  unprovoked  barbarity 
 on  their  part  would  turn  the  sympathy  of  the  people 
 in  the  surrounding  counties  in  favor  of  the  Mormons, 
 and  therefore  it  would  be  impossible  to  raise  a  volun- 
 teer militia  force  to  protect  such  a  people  against  them. 
 Many  of  the  officers  admitted  that  there  might  be 
 danger  of  colUsion.     But  such  was  the  blind  fury  pro- 
 
106  LIFE    IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 vailing  at  the  time,  though  not  showing  itself  by  much 
 visible  excitement,  that  a  small  majority  of  the  council 
 adhered  to  the  first  resolution  of  marching  into  Nauvoo; 
 most  of  the  officers  of  the  Schuyler  and  McDonough 
 militia  voting  against  it,  and  most  of  those  of  the 
 County  of  Hancock  voting  in  its  favor. 
 
 "A  very  responsible  duty  now  devolved  upon  me  to 
 determine  whether  I  would,  as  Commander-in-Chief,  be 
 governed  hy  the  advice  of  this  majority.  I  had  no 
 hesitation  in  deciding  that  I  would  not ;  but  on  the 
 contrary,  I  ordered  the  troops  to  be  disbanded,  both  at 
 Carthage  and  Warsaw,  with  the  exception  of  three  com- 
 panies, two  of  which  were  retained  as  a  guard  to  the 
 jail,  and  the  other  to  accompany  me  to  Nauvoo. 
 
 "  I  ordered  two  companies  under  the  command  of  Cap- 
 tain R.  F.  Smith,  of  the  Carthage  Grays,  to  guard  the 
 jail.  In  selecting  these  companies,  and  particularly 
 the  company  of  the  Carthage  Grays  for  this  service,  I 
 have  been  subjected  to  some  censure.  It  has  been  said 
 that  this  company  had  already  been  guilty  of  mutiny, 
 and  had  been  ordered  to  be  arrested  whilst  in  the  en- 
 campment at  Carthage ;  and  they  and  their  officers 
 were  the  deadly  enemies  of  the  prisoners.  Indeed  it 
 would  have  been  difficult  to  ihid  friends  of  the  prisoners 
 under  my  command,  unless  I  had  called  in  the  Mor- 
 mons as  a  guard ;  and  this  I  was  satisfied  would  have 
 led  to  immediate  ^var,  and  the  sure  death  of  the 
 prisoners. 
 
 "Although  I  knew  that  this  company  were  the  ene- 
 mies of  the  Smiths,  yet  I  had  confidence  in  their  loyalty 
 and  integrity;  because  their  captain  was  universally 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  107 
 
 spoken  of  as  a  respectable  citizen  and  honorable  man. 
 The  company  itself  was  an  old  independent  company, 
 well  armed,  uniformed  and  drilled ;  and  the  members  of 
 it  were  the  elite  of  the  militia  of  the  county.  I  relied 
 upon  this  company  especially,  because  it  was  an  inde- 
 pendent company,  for  a  long  time  instructed  and  prac- 
 ticed in  military  discipline  and  subordination.  I  also 
 had  their  word  of  honor,  officers  and  men,  that  they 
 would  do  their  duty  according  to  law.  Besides  all  this 
 the  officers  and  most  of  the  men  resided  in  Carthage ; 
 and  in  the  near  vicinity  of  Nauvoo ;  and,  as  I  thought, 
 must  know  that  they  would  make  themselves  and  their 
 property  convenient  and  conspicuous  marks  of  Mor- 
 mon vengeance,  in  case  they  were  guilty  of  treachery. 
 
 "  I  had  at  first  intended  to  select  a  guard  from  the 
 County  of  McDonough,  but  the  militia  of  that  county 
 were  very  much  dissatisfied  to  remain ;  their  crops  were 
 suffering  at  home ;  they  were  in  a  perfect  fever  to  be 
 discharged ;  and  I  was  destitute  of  provisions  to  supply 
 them  for  more  than  a  few  days.  They  were  far  from 
 home,  where  they  could  not  supply  themselves.  Whilst 
 the  Carthage  company  could  board  at  their  own  homes, 
 and  would  be  put  to  little  inconvenience  in  comparison. 
 
 "  It  is  true  also,  that  at  this  time  I  had  not  believed 
 or  suspected  that  an  attack  would  be  made  upon  the 
 prisoners  in  jail.  It  is  true  that  I  was  aware  that  a 
 great  deal  of  hatred  existed  against  them,  and  that 
 there  were  those  who  would  do  them  an  injur}'  if  they 
 could.  I  had  heard  of  some  threats  being  made,  but 
 none  of  an  attack  upon  the  prisoners  while  in  jail. 
 These  threats  seemed  to  be  made  by  individuals  not 
 
108  .LIFE  IN    UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 acting  in  concert.  They  were  no  more  than  the  bluster 
 which  might  have  been  expected,  and  furnished  no  in- 
 dication of  numbers  combining  for  this  or  any  other 
 purpose.  Having  ordered  the  guard  and  left  Gen. 
 Deming  in  command  and  discharged  the  residue  of  the 
 militia,  I  immediately  departed  for  Nauvoo,  eighteen 
 miles  distant,  accompanied  by  Colonel  Buckmaster, 
 Quartermaster  General,  and  Captain  Dunn's  company 
 of  dragoons. 
 
 "After  we  had  proceeded  four  miles,  Col.  Buckmaster 
 intimated  to  me  a  suspicion  that  an  attack  would  be 
 made  upon  the  jail.  He  stated  the  matter  as  a  mere 
 suspicion,  arising  from  having  seen  two  persons  con- 
 verse together  at  Carthage  with  some  air  of  mystery. 
 I  myself  entertained  no  suspicion  of  such  an  attack ; 
 at  any  rate,  none  before  the  next  day  in  the  afternoon ; 
 because  it  was  notorious  that  we  had  departed  from 
 Carthage  with  the  declared  intention  of  being  absent 
 at  least  two  days.  I  could  not  believe  that  any  person 
 would  attack  the  jail  whilst  we  were  in  Nauvoo,  and 
 thereby  expose  my  life  and  the  life  of  my  companions 
 to  the  sudden  vengeance  of  the  Mormons,  upon  hearing 
 of  the  death  of  their  leaders.  Nevertheless,  acting 
 upon  the  principle  of  providing  against  mere  possibili- 
 ties, I  sent  back  one  of  the  company  with  a  special 
 order  to  Captain  Smith  to  guard  the  jail  strictly,  and 
 at  the  peril  of  his  life,  until  my  return. 
 
 "  We  proceeded  on  our  journey  four  miles  further. 
 By  this  time  I  had  convinced  myself  that  no  attack 
 would  be  made  upon  the  jail  that  day  or  night.  I 
 supposed  that  a  regard  for  my  safety  and  the  safety  of 
 
AND  CRIMES  OP   MORMONISM.  109 
 
 my  companions  would  prevent  an  attack  until  those  to 
 be  engaged  in  it  could  be  assured  of  our  departure  from 
 Nauvoo.  I  still  think  that  this  ought  to  have  a}> 
 peared  to  me  to  be  a  reasonable  supposition.  I  there- 
 fore determined  at  this  point  to  omit  making  the 
 search  for  counterfeit  money  at  Nauvoo,  and  defer  an 
 examination  of  all  other  abominations  charged  on  that 
 people,  in  order  to  return  to  Carthage  that  same  night, 
 that  I  might  be  on  the  ground  in  person,  in  time  to 
 prevent  an  attack  upon  the  jail,  if  any  had  been  medi- 
 tated. To  this  end  we  called  a  halt;  the  baggage 
 wagons  were  ordered  to  remain  where  they  were  until 
 towards  evening,  and  then  return  to  Carthage. 
 
 "  Having  made  these  arrangements,  we  proceeded  on 
 our  march,  and  arrived  at  Nauvoo  about  four  o'clock 
 of  the  afternoon  of  the  27th  day  of  June.  As  soon  as 
 notice  could  be  given,  a  crowd  of  the  citizens  assembled 
 to  hear  an  address  which  I  proposed  to  deliver  to  them. 
 The  number  present  has  been  variously  estimated  at 
 from  one  to  five  thousand. 
 
 "  In  this  address  I  stated  to  them  how,  and  in  what, 
 their  functionaries  had  violated  the  laws.  Also,  the 
 many  scandalous  reports  in  circulation  against  them, 
 and  that  these  reports,  whether  true  or  false,  were 
 generally  believed  by  the  people.  I  distinctly  stated 
 to  them  the  amount  of  hatred  and  prejudice  which  pre- 
 vailed everywhere  against  them,  and  the  causes  of  it, 
 at  length. 
 
 "  I  also  told  them  plainly  and  emphatically,  that  if 
 any  vengeance  should  be  attempted,  openly  or  secretly 
 against  the  persons  or  property  of  the  citizens  who  had 
 
110  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 taken  part  against  tlieir  leaders,  that  the  public  hatred 
 and  excitement  were  such,  that  thousands  would  as- 
 semble for  the  total  destruction  of  their  city  and  the 
 extermination  of  their  people ;  and  that  no  power  in 
 the  State  would  be  able  to  prevent  it.  During  this  ad- 
 dress some  impatience  and  resentment  were  manifested 
 by  the  Mormons,  at  the  recital  of  the  various  reports 
 /enumerated  concerning  them,  which  they  strenuously 
 and  indignantly  denied  to  be  true.  They  claimed  to 
 be  a  law-abiding  people,  and  insisted  that  as  they 
 looked  to  the  law  alone  for  their  protection,  so  were 
 thc}^  careful  themselves  to  observe  its  provisions.  Upon 
 the  conclusion  of  this  address,  I  proposed  to  take  a  vote 
 on  the  question  whether  they  would  strictly  observe 
 the  laws,  even  in  opposition  to  their  Prophet  and 
 leaders.  The  vote  was  unanimous  in  favor  of  this 
 proposition. 
 
 "  The  anti-Monnons  contended  that  such  a  vote  from 
 the  Mormons  signified  nothing;  and  truly  the  subse- 
 quent history  of  that  people  showed  clearly  that  they 
 were  loudest  in  their  professions  of  attachment  to  the 
 law,  when  they  were  guilty  of  the  greatest  extrava- 
 gances ;  and  in  fact,  that  they  were  so  ignorant  and 
 stupid  alx)ut  matters  of  law,  that  they  had  no  means  of 
 judging  of  the  legality  of  their  conduct,  only  as  they 
 were  instructed  by  their  spiritual  leaders. 
 
 "  A  short  time  before  sundown  we  departed  on  our 
 return  to  Carthage.  When  we  had  proceeded  two 
 miles,  we  met  two  individuals,  one  of  them  a  Monnon, 
 who  informed  us  that  the  Smiths  had  been  assassinated  in 
 jail,  about  five  or  six  o'clock  of  that  day.    The  intolli- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  Ill 
 
 gence  seemed  to  strike  every  one  with  a  kind  of  dumbness. 
 As  to  myself  it  was  perfectly  astomiding ;  and  I  an- 
 ticipated the  very  worst  consequences  from  it.     The 
 Mormons  had  been   represented  to  me  as  a  lawless, 
 infatuated  and  fanatical  people,  not  governed  by  the 
 ordinary  motives  which  influence  the  rest  of  mankind. 
 If  so,  most  likely  an  exterminating  war  would  ensue, 
 and  the  whole  land  would  be  covered  with  desolation. 
 Acting  upon  this  supposition,  it  was  my  duty  to  pro- 
 vide as  well  as  I  could  for  the  event.     I  therefore  took 
 the  two  messengers  in  custody  back  to  Carthage,  in 
 order  to  gain  time  and  make  such  arrangements  as 
 could  be  made,  to  prevent  any  sudden  explosion  of 
 Mormon  excitement.     I  also  despatched  messengers  to 
 Warsaw,  to  advise  the  citizens  of  the  event.     But  the 
 people  there  knew  all  about  it,  and,  like  myself,  feared 
 a  general  attack.    The  women  and  children  were  moved 
 across  the  river,  and  a  committee  despatched  that  night 
 to  Quincy  for  assistance.     The  next  morning  by  day- 
 light, the  ringing  of  the  bells  in  the  city  of  Quincy  an- 
 nounced a  public  meeting.     The  people  assembled  in 
 great  numbers.     The  Warsaw  committee  stated  to  the 
 meeting,  that  a  party  of  Mormons  had  attempted  to 
 rescue  the  Smiths  out  of  jail ;  that  a  party  of  Missourians 
 and  others  had  killed  the  prisoners  to  prevent  their 
 escape  ;  that  the  Governor  and  his  party  were  at  Nau- 
 voo,  at  the  time  when  intelligence  of  the  fact  was 
 brought  there;  that  they  had  been   attacked  by  the 
 Nauvoo  Legion,  and  had  retreated  to  a  house  where 
 they  were  then  closely  besieged.     That  the  Governor 
 had  sent  out  word  that  he  could  maintain  his  position 
 
112  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 for  two  days,  and  would  be  certain  to  be  massacred  if 
 assistance  did  not  arrive  by  the  end  of  that  time.  It 
 is  unnecessary  to  say  that  this  entire  story  was  a  fabri- 
 cation. The  effect  of  it,  however,  was  that  by  ten  o'clock 
 on  the  28th  of  June,  between  two  and  three  hundred 
 men  from  Quincy,  under  command  of  Major  Flood, 
 embarked  on  board  a  steamboat  for  Nauvoo,  to  assist 
 in  raising  the  siege,  as  they  honestly  believed. 
 
 "  Upon  hearing  of  the  assassination  of  the  Smiths,  I 
 was  sensible  that  my  command  was  at  an  end;  that  my 
 destruction  was  meditated,  as  well  as  that  of  the  Mor- 
 mons ;  and  that  I  could  not  rea-sonably  confide  longer  in 
 one  party  or  the  other.  I  am  convinced  that  it  was  the 
 expectation  that  the  Mormons  would  assassinate  me,  on 
 the  supposition  that  I  had  planned  the  murder  of  the 
 Smiths.  Hence  the  conspirators  committed  their  act 
 while  I  was  at  Nauvoo. 
 
 "It  was  many  days  after  the  assassination  of  the 
 Smiths  before  the  circumstances  of  the  murder  became 
 fully  known.  It  then  appeared  that,  agreeably  to  pre- 
 vious orders,  the  posse  at  Warsaw  had  marched  on  the 
 morning  of  the  27th  of  June  in  the  direction  of  Gold- 
 en's  Point,  with  a  view  to  join  the  force  from  Carthage, 
 the  whole  body  then  to  be  marched  into  Nauvoo. 
 When  they  had  gone  eight  miles,  they  were  met  by  the 
 order  to  disband ;  and  learning,  at  the  same  time,  that 
 the  Governor  was  absent  at  Nauvoo,  about  two  hun- 
 dred of  these  men,  many  of  them  disguised  by  blacking 
 tlieir  faces  with  powder  and  nuid,  hastened  inmiediatoly 
 to  Carthage.  There  they  encamped  at  some  distance 
 from  the  village,  and  soon  learned  that  one  of  the  com- 
 
DEATH    OF   JOSKPH   SMITH. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  113 
 
 panies  left  as  a  guard  had  disbanded  and  returned  to 
 their  homes ;  the  other  company,  the  Carthage  Grays, 
 was  stationed  by  the  Captain  in  the  pubhc  square,  a 
 hundred  and  fifty  yards  from  the  jail,  whilst  eight  men 
 were  detailed  by  him,  under  the  command  of  Sergeant 
 Franklin  A.  Worrell,  to  guard  the  prisoners.  A  com- 
 munication was  soon  established  between  the  conspirat- 
 ors and  the  company ;  and  it  was  arranged  that  the 
 guard  should  have  their  guns  charged  with  blank  car- 
 tridges, and  fire  at  the  assailants  when  they  attempted 
 to  enter  the  jail.  General  Deming,  who  was  left  in 
 command,  being  deserted  by  some  of  his  troops,  and 
 perceiving  the  arrangement  with  the  others,  and  having 
 no  force  upon  which  he  could  rely,  for  fear  of  his  hfe, 
 retired  from  the  village.  The  conspirators  came  up, 
 jumped  the  slight  fence  around  the  jail,  were  fired 
 upon  by  the  gniard,  which,  accordmg  to  arrangement, 
 was  overpowered  immediately,  and  the  assailants  en- 
 tered the  prison,^ to  the  door  of  the  room,  where  the 
 two  prisoners  were  confined,  with  two  of  then'  friends, 
 who  voluntarily  bore  them  company.  An  attempt  was 
 made  to  break  open  the  doorj  but  Joe  Smith  being 
 armed  with  a  six  barrelled  pistol,  furnished  by  his 
 friends,  fired  several  times  as  the  door  was  bursted 
 open,  and  wounded  three  of  the  assailants.  At  the 
 same  time  several  shots  were  fired  into  the  room,  fcv 
 some  of  which  John  Taylor  received  four  wounds  and 
 Hiram  Smith  was  instantly  killed.  Joe  Smith  now 
 attempted  to  escape  by  jumping  out  of  the  second-story 
 wmdow ;  but  the  fall  so  stunned  him  that  he  Avas  un- 
 able to  arise,  and,  being  placed  in  a  sitting  posture  by 
 8 
 
114  LIFE   IN   UTAU  J    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 the  conspirators  below,  they  despatched  him  with  four 
 balls  shot  through  his  body. 
 
 "  Thus  fell  Joe  Smith,  the  most  successful  impostor 
 in  modern  times;  a  man  who,  though  ignorant  and 
 coarse,  had  some  great  natural  parts,  which  fitted  him 
 for  temporary  success,  but  which  were  so  obscured  and 
 counteracted  by  the  inherent  corruption  and  vices  of 
 his  nature,  that  he  never  could  succeed  in  establishing 
 a  system  of  policy  which  looked  to  permanent  success 
 in  the  future.  His  lusts,  his  love  of  money  and  power, 
 always  set  him  to  studying  present  gratification  and 
 convenience,  rather  than  the  remote  consequences  of 
 his  plans.  It  seems  that  no  power  of  intellect  can 
 save  a  corrupt  man  from  this  error.  The  strong 
 cravings  of  the  animal  nature  will  never  give  fair 
 play  to  a  fine  understanding ;  the  judgment  is  never 
 allowed  to  choose  that  good  which  is  far  away,  in  pre- 
 ference to  enticing  evil  near  at  hand.  And  this  may 
 be  considered  a  wise  ordinance  of  Providence,  by  which 
 the  counsels  of  talented  but  corrupt  men  are  defeated 
 in  the  very  act  which  promised  success. 
 
 "  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  pretended  Prophet 
 practiced  the  tricks  of  a  common  impostor ;  that  he 
 wa,s  a  dark  and  gloomy  person,  with  a  long  beard,  a 
 grave,  and  severe  aspect,  and  a  reserved  and  saintly 
 carriage  of  his  person ;  on  the  contrary  he  was  full  of 
 levity,  even  to  boyish  romping;  dressed  like  a  dandy, 
 and  at  times  drank  like  a  sailor  and  swore  like  a 
 pirate.  He  could,  as  occasion  required,  be  exceedingly 
 meek  in  his  deportment,  and  then  again  rough  and 
 boisterous  as  a  highway  robber ;  being  always  able  t« 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  115 
 
 satisfy  his  followers  of  the  propriety  of  his  conduct. 
 He  always  quailed  before  power,  and  was  arrogant  to 
 weakness.  At  times  he  could  put  on  the  air  of  a  peni- 
 tent, as  if  feeling  the  deepest  humiliation  for  his  sins, 
 and  suffering  unutterable  anguish,  and  indulging  in 
 the  most  gloomy  forebodings  of  eternal  woe.  At  such 
 times,  he  would  call  for  the  prayers  of  the  brethren  in 
 his  behalf,  with  a  wild  and  fearful  energy  and  earnest- 
 ness. He  was  full  six  feet  high,  strongly  built,  and 
 uncommonly  well  muscled.  No  doubt  he  was  as  much 
 indebted  for  his  influence  over  an  ignorant  people,  to 
 the  superiority  of  his  physical  vigor,  as  to  his  greater 
 cunning  and  intellect. 
 
 "His  followers  were  divided  into  the  leaders  and 
 the  led ;  the  first  division  embraced  a  numerous  class 
 of  broken-down,  unprincipled  men  of  talents,  to  be 
 found  in  every  country,  who,  bankrupt  in  character 
 and  fortune,  had  nothing  to  lose  by  deserting  the 
 known  religions,  and  carving  out  a  new  one  of  their 
 own.  They  were  mostly  infidels,  who,  holding  all  re- 
 ligions in  derision,  believed  they  had  as  good  a  right 
 as  Christ  or  Mahomet,  or  any  of  the  founders  of  former 
 sj'stems,  to  create  one  for  themselves;  and  if  they 
 could  impose  it  upon  mankind,  to  live  upon  the  labor 
 of  their  dupes.  Those  of  the  second  division  were  the 
 credulous,  wondering  part  of  men,  whose  easy  belief 
 and  admiring  natures  are  always  the  victims  of  novelty 
 in  whatever  shape  it  may  come ;  who  have  a  capacity 
 to  believe  any  strange  and  wonderful  matter,  if  it  only 
 be  new,  whilst  the  wonders  of  former  ages  command 
 neither  faith  nor  reverence ;  they  are  men  of  feeble 
 
 r 
 
116  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 purposes,  readily  subjected  to  the  will  of  the  strong, 
 giving  themselves  up  entirely  to  the  direction  of  their 
 leaders ;  and  this  accounts  for  the  very  great  influence 
 of  those  leaders  in  controling  them.  In  other  respects 
 some  of  the  Mormons  were  abandoned  rogues,  who  had 
 taken  shelter  in  Nauvoo,  as  a  convenient  place  for  the 
 headquarters  of  their  villany ;  and  others  were  good, 
 honest,  industrious  people,  who  were  the  sincere  vic- 
 tims of  artful  delusion.  Such  as  these  were  more  the 
 proper  objects  of  pity  than  persecution.  With  them, 
 their  religious  belief  was  a  kind  of  insanity ;  and  cer- 
 tainly no  greater  calamity  can  befall  a  human  being 
 than  to  have  a  mind  so  constituted  as  to  be  made  the 
 sincere  dupe  of  a  religious  imposture." 
 
 It  were  vain  to  attempt  to  describe  the  mingled 
 feelings  of  grief  and  rage  which  agitated  the  people  of 
 Nauvoo,  when  the  death  of  Joe  Smith  was  announced 
 there.  All  his  errors  and  tyrannies  seemed  to  be 
 obliterated  from  their  minds ;  he  had  "  sealed  the  truth 
 with  his  blood,"  and  stood  henceforth  a  sainted  martyr. 
 The  spiritual  wives  of  the  dead  Prophet  filled  the  city 
 with  their  cries,  but  his  lawful  wife  Emma  was  quiet 
 'and  resigned.  When  Joseph  and  Hyrum  retreated 
 across  the  river  to  avoid  the  constable  first  sent  from 
 Carthage,  she  had  joined  with  the  Apostle  William 
 Marks  in  writing  them  an  indignant  letter,  in  which 
 she  charged  them  as  "cowardly  shepherds,  who  had 
 left  the  sheep  in  danger  and  fled."  This  statement 
 rests  upon  the  testimony  of  Joseph  F.  Smith,  son  of 
 Hyrum,  now  an  Apostle  at  Salt  Lake,  who  adds : 
 "  When  Joseph  saw  that  letter  his  great  heart  almost 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  117 
 
 bursted,  and  he  said,  '  If  that  is  all  my  wife  and  friends 
 care  for  my  life,  then  I  don't  care  for  it,'  and  returned 
 and  gave  himself  up." 
 
 The  whole  people  turned  out,  in  deep  mourning,  and 
 with  every  demonstration  of  grief,  and  the  remains  of 
 Joseph  and  Hyrum  were  honored  with  a  magnificent 
 funeral.  Joseph  was  thirty-nine,  and  Hyrum  forty-four 
 years  old.  In  the  short  space  of  fifteen  years  Joe 
 Smith  and  his  coadjutors  had  brought  forth  a  new 
 Bible,  ordained  a  new  morality,  established  a  new 
 theology,  and  founded  a  Church  with  missions  in  half 
 the  civilized  world.  Organized  in  1830,  the  Church, 
 at  the  time  of  their  death,  numbered  probably  two 
 hundred  thousand  throughout  the  world.  The  Mor- 
 mons themselves  claimed  half  a  million.  But  they 
 have  probably  never  exceeded  the  former  number  since 
 that  time.  Under  the  lead  of  Brigham  Young  they 
 made  tolerable  progress  for  a  few  years,  but  are  certainly 
 losing  in  numbers  at  present.  In  the  very  germ  of  the 
 new  sect  was  planted  a  fatal  principle  of  progress  in 
 evil,  which,  by  its  appeal  to  the  vagaries  and  vices  of 
 men,  gave  a  predisposition  to  rapid  rise  and  the 
 assurance  of  early  decay.  From  a  living  and  erring 
 Prophet  of  personal  prowess  and  prestige,  the  progress 
 was  regular  and  natural  to  intrigue,  grossness  and 
 materialism;  materialism  and  sanctified  lust  necessi- 
 tated polygamy,  and  polygamy  has  in  the  perfect  order 
 of  nature  proved  the  mother  of  incest  and  blood 
 atonement.  From  the  worship  of  a  human  demigod 
 of  passion,  under  a  light  and  false  mantle  of  religion, 
 the  descent  was  easy  to  the  worship  of  only  sensual 
 
lis  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 forms  and  practices.  There  is  nothing  more  surprising 
 in  it  than  in  the  progress  from  the  serpent's  egg  to  the 
 deadly  viper.  Nor  is  it  strange  that  the  sect  increased 
 rapidly;  every  century,  and  almost  every  generation, 
 has  witnessed  the  sudden  rise  of  a  corrupt  and  law- 
 defying  sect;  and  modern  society  still  presents  ample 
 materials.  As  like  produces  like,  and  everj'thing  its 
 kind  in  nature,  so  the  evil-hearted  and  credulous  will 
 be  led  to  worse  evil  by  any  religion  that  does  not 
 convert  and  reform.  The  various  sects,  too,  have  lost 
 much  of  that  burning  and  aggressive  vigor  which 
 distinguished  their  rise ;  and  redemptive  agencies  have 
 not,  in  all  respects,  kept  pace  with  sinful  allurement, 
 and  a  fair  field  has  been  left  for  delusion.  The 
 minister  in  many  cases  still  travels  on  horseback,  while 
 the  devil  goes  by  rail.  With  all  the  power  of  evan- 
 gelical organization  and  gospel  at  work,  Satan  too  often 
 rides  upon  the  whirlwind  of  popular  passion,  and 
 subsidizes  by  trick  and  prejudice  the  very  enthusiasm 
 of  man's  nature. 
 
 The  Methodists,  who  formerly  prided  themselves  on 
 a  hearty  simplicity  and  earnest  work  among  the  masses, 
 have  too  often  attained  to  the  elegant  conservatism  of 
 the  Old  Mother  ;  they  are  in  some  places  fixed  almost  in 
 gilded  formalism,  and  in  ethers  reduced  to  the  preju- 
 diced following  after  traditions  of  religion,  both  lacking 
 much  the  kindling  of  the  "  fire  from  the  altar."  The 
 Baptists,  who  were  also  the  hardy  pioneers,  have  so  en- 
 trenched themselves  about  as  to  be  separated  from  other 
 denominations  in  sympathy,  and  almost  from  the  world, 
 leaving  themselves  open,  at  least,  to  the  charge  of  follow- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  Il9 
 
 ing  "  the  water-god  of  exclusive  errorists."  The  Pres- 
 byterians, whose  universal  suffrage  should  be  peculiarly 
 suited  to  the  genius  of  our  whole  people,  seem  to  have 
 struck  but  a  certain  class  of  quietly  reserved  tastes ;  and 
 they  appear  to  the  world  as  much  interested  in  preserv- 
 ing the  authority  of  an  ancient  Confession  of  Faith  as  in 
 vitalizing  their  republicanism  for  the  conversion  of  the 
 people.  The  Campbellites  have  developed  a  controver- 
 sial spirit  which  may  well  be  suspected  of  having  gone 
 beyond  a  mere  zeal  for  the  truth.  The  Episcopalians, 
 with  an  organization  essentially  monarchical  in  form, 
 looking  to  its  dignitaries  for  authority  and  power,  di- 
 vided even  here  as  to  the  policy  of  carrying  this  princi- 
 ple farther,  cannot  yet  be  said  to  be  fully  naturalized  as 
 an  American  church.  All  have  attained  to  a  more 
 formal,  or  sober  and  intellectual  sort  of  religion.  Nor 
 should  we  quarrel  with  this,  of  itself.  Intellectual  men 
 must  have  an  intellectual  faith  ;  a  mere  emotional  ex- 
 perience is  quite  impossible  to  them,  nor  would  it  con- 
 tent them.  Notwithstanding  this,  the  Unitarians,  a  sect 
 whose  faith  is  more  purely  one  of  philosophy  and  taste, 
 have  shown  little  vitality  in  extending  their  bounds. 
 There  is  still  the  great  mass  of  men  who  will  be  content 
 with  nothing  short  of  a  simple  religion,  warmed  with  a 
 generous  enthusiasm ;  and  this,  in  the  hands  or  under 
 the  direction  of  corrupt  or  craz}'  men,  becomes  a  wild, 
 fierce  fanaticism.  Not  that  religion  should  accommodate 
 the  vices  of  human  nature  ;  but  while  it  reforms  them 
 it  should  give  virtuous  direction  to  that  enthusiasm 
 which  will  otherwise  rend  and  tear  them.  It  is  not  at 
 all  too  late  for  another  suscessful  delusion.     Millions 
 
120  LIFE   IN   UT^UI  ;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 pant  for  novelty,  for  a  personal  god,  for  present  light 
 and  prophecy,  for  something  harmonious  entirely  with 
 our  own  day  and  nation,  more  real,  more  tangible,  not 
 a  mere  matter  of  two  thousand  years  of  church  erudi- 
 tion and  history,  grand  as  they  are  in  the  triumphs  of 
 an  improving  civihzation. 
 
 In  the  midst  of  such  excitement  in  the  West  came 
 the  impostor,  and  to  the  lowest  manifestation  of  this 
 want  Mormonism  was  addressed.  But  Mormonism 
 could  never  be  a  success  in  America,  because  it  contro- 
 verted the  inherent  American  idea ;  it  turned  back  to 
 sensualism  for  its  mspiration,  and  to  despotism  for  its 
 model.  Had  it  been  founded  on  progressive  instead  of 
 retrograde  ideas,  had  it  developed  individuality  and 
 personal  freedom,  had  it  claimed  a  higher  consideration 
 for  the  feminine  in  creation  and  a  more  perfect  inde- 
 pendence for  woman,  had  it  stepped  forward  and  not 
 back,  then  it  might  have  helped  reform  all  America,  and 
 founded  a  permanent,  new  order. 
 
 The  religious  public  may  then  be  re-assured;  Mor- 
 monism is  not  the  religion  or  sect  which  is  to  play  havoc 
 among  existing  systems.  But  the  signs  of  the  times 
 indicate  a  new  or  modified  'phase  of  reUcjion.  We  will 
 have  a  distinctly  American  Church.  The  Roman  Em- 
 pire Christianized  made  Roman  Catholicism,  which  has 
 been  reformed  as  its  people  have  in  the  governments ; 
 Russia  made  the  finished  Greek  system ;  Itidy  is  Ultra- 
 montane Catholic ;  England  has  the  Establislnnent ; 
 Scandinavia  has  the  Lutheran  Church ;  each  nation  has 
 developed  one  central,  theologic  and  ecclesiastical  idea, 
 and  we  are  not  yet  so  fully  completed  and  individual- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  121 
 
 ized,  as  to  be  without  the  same  want  and  yearning.  Per- 
 haps one  of  the  present  sects  will  modify  and  advance 
 to  the  needed  place ;  or  from  the  spirit  of  union  in  many, 
 may  come  the  ascendant  and  satisfying  one.  The  Church 
 of  the  future  must  be  both  intellectual  and  emotional ; 
 it  must  look  to  the  future  for  its  hope,  and  to  our  own 
 land  for  its  governing  polity,  and  not  to  worn  out  sys- 
 tems which  have  proved  too  weak  for  earthly  means ; 
 as  truth  is  immortal  it  must  look  only  for  new  develop- 
 ments of  truth ;  it  must  purify  the  marriage  relation, 
 and  recognize  the  political  and  social  independence  of 
 woman  ;  it  must  believe  in  sanctification,  if  even  it  does 
 not  claim  to  have  obtained  it,  and  it  must  make  un- 
 ceasing war  upon  every  species  of  oppression,  and  every 
 form  of  intemperance.  Such  a  Church  must  have  more 
 truth  than  error  both  in  method  and  creed,  and  for  it, 
 a  broad  field  is  open. 
 
 But  Mormonism  was  a  mushroom  growth  upon  a  rich 
 bed  of  decay,  which  sprang  up  merely  because  some- 
 thing better  was  not  planted,  but  had  no  enduring  root. 
 It  might  flourish  for  half  a  century  or  more,  upon  the 
 scum  of  vice  in  America  and  the  ignorance  of  Europe, 
 but  could  enjoy  at  best  but  a  sort  of  living  death,  and 
 must  soon  wither  and  decay. 
 
122  LIFE   IN   UTAH  '    OR     THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 CHAPTER  IV. 
 
 TWO  TEARS  OF  STRIFE EXODUS  FROM  ILLINOIS. 
 
 No  Successor  to  the  Prophet— David  Hyrum  Smith,  the  "  Son  of  Promise" 
 — Contest  for  the  Leadership— Diplomacy  of  Brigham  Young — Curious 
 Trials— All  of  Brigham's  Opponents  "cut  off" — Troubles  Renewed — 
 Fights,  Outrages,  Kobberies  and  Murder — Another  Election  and  more 
 Treacliery — Singular  "Wolf  Hunt" — Capture  and  Trial  of  Smith's 
 Murderers — Of  the  Mormon  Rioters — Failure  and  Defects  of  the  Law — 
 Further  Outrages  on  Gentiles — Trouble  in  Adams  County— The  "One- 
 ness " — The  People  of  Adams  Drive  out  the  Mormons — Revenge  by  the 
 ^Mormons — Murders  of  ]\[cBratney,  Worrell,  Wilcox  and  Daubeneyer — 
 Retaliation,  and  Murder  of  Durfee — The  Mormons  Ravage  Hancock — 
 Flight  of  the  Gentiles — Militia  Called  and  Hancock  put  under  Martial 
 Law — Tlie  Mormons  Begin  to  Leave  Illinois — Fresh  Quarrels — ilore 
 Mormon  Treachery — Bombardment  of  Nauvoo,  and  Final  Expulsion  of 
 the  Mormons. 
 
 The  hostilit}^  of  the  Gentiles  suddenly  relaxed,  and 
 a  brief  period  of  repose  followed.  But  it  was  necessary 
 to  provide  for  the  government  of  the  Church.  The 
 theocratic  polity  had  been  fully  established  by  Joe 
 Smith,  but  no  provision  made  for  a  successor.  The 
 Prophet  had,  it  is  true,  laid  his  hands  on  the  head  of 
 his  eldest  son  Joseph  and  ordained  him  a  king  and 
 priest  in  his  stead,  and  but  a  short  time  before  his 
 death  he  stated  that,  "the  man  was  not  born  who  -vvas 
 to  lead  this  people,  but  of  Emma  Smith — then  promising 
 him  an  heir — should  be  born  a  son  who  would  succeed 
 in  the  Presidency  after  a  season  of  disturbance."  This 
 Bon,  named  from  his  father's  direction  David  Hyrum, 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   HORMONISM.  123 
 
 was  born  at  the  Mansion  House,  on  the  17th  of  No- 
 vember following.  This  is  the  "son  of  promise"  whom 
 thousands  of  the  Mormons  still  regard  as  the  predes- 
 tined leader  who  is  finally  to  bring  them  back  to 
 Jackson  County. 
 
 But  an  immediate  leader  was  needed.  '  Many  had 
 revelations  that  Joseph  would,  like  the  Saviour,  rise 
 from  the  dead,  and  some  reported  that  they  had  seen 
 him  coursing  the  air  on  a  great  white  horse.  But  all 
 these  were  finally  condemned  by  the  priesthood  as 
 "lying  revelations."  William  Smith,  the  Prophet's 
 only  surviving  brother,  claimed  the  succession  on  that 
 account.  Sidney  Rigdon,  who  was  one  of  the  First 
 Presidency,  from  his  peculiar  relations  to  the  Church, 
 asserted  the  strongest  claim.  James  Strang  had  an 
 immediate  revelation  that  he  was  to  lead  the  people 
 into  Wisconsin.  Lyman  Wight  received  a  divine 
 order  to  go  to  Texas,  and  Gladden  Bishop,  John  E. 
 Page,  Cutler,  Hedrick,  Brewster  and  others  laid  in 
 their  claims. 
 
 On  the  15th  of  August,  the  Twelve  Apostles,  headed 
 by  Brigham  Young,  addressed  an  "  Encyclical  letter  to 
 all  the  Saints  in  the  world,"  and  the  7th  of  October,  the 
 Saints  of  Nauvoo  and  vicinity  met  in  council  to  deter- 
 mine who  should  take  control.  Brigham  had  been 
 absent  in  Boston,  and  Rigdon,  very  busy  among  the 
 people,  had  succeeded  in  getting  a  special  convention 
 called ;  but  Brigham  arrived  the  very  day  of  the  meet- 
 ing, and  signally  defeated  Rigdon.  The  people  voted 
 that  the  government  should  for  the  present  be  in  the 
 *<  College  of  Twelve  Apostles,"  which   was    in  effect 
 
124  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 making  Brigliam  chief  ruler.  The  next  day  Brigham 
 made  a  savage  address  against  Sidney  Rigdon,  who, 
 meanwhile,  had  a  revelation  that  all  the  wealthy  mem- 
 bers were  to  follow  him  to  western  Pennsylvania,  and 
 establish  a  new  "  stake  "  for  the  others  to  gather  to  ! 
 Brigham  then  denounced  Rigdon  and  all  his  revelations 
 as  from  the  devil,  and  moved  that  he  be  ''.  cut  off." 
 Nearly  a  hundred  voted  in  the  negative,  when  it  was 
 immediately  resolved  they  were  "  in  a  spirit  of  apos- 
 tasy," and  they  were  "  cut  off."  It  was  then  proposed 
 and  unanimously  carried,  that "  all  who  should  hereafter 
 defend  Rigdon  should  be  cut  off,"  which  ended  the  so- 
 called  election.  Rigdon  took  a  small  band  to  PennsA'l- 
 vania,  and  most  of  the  other  aspirants  also  took  off 
 various  sects,  known  in  the  Brighamite  church  as  "  GLad- 
 denites,"  "  Strangites,"  "  Brewsterites,"  "  Cutlerites," 
 "  Gatherers,"  etc.  Most  of  these  sects  have  fillen  to 
 pieces.  The  Times  and  jSeaso?is,  a  weekly  periodical, 
 had  been  established  at  Nauvoo  soon  after  its  settlement, 
 and  in  the  fifth  volume  may  be  found  a  full  account  of 
 these  curious  trials. 
 
 Brigham  Young  now  took  entire  control,  hastened  the 
 completion  of  the  upper  rooms  of  the  Temple,  and 
 hurried  the  people  through  their  "  endo^vments."  These 
 consist  of  a  mystical  ceremony  representing  the  various 
 stages  in  man's  progress,  during  which  the  candidates 
 are  initiated  and  passed  to  the  various  degrees  of  the 
 priesthood,  and  sworn  to  obey  all  orders  of  their  supe- 
 riors. The  penalties  for  violation  of  these  oaths  are, 
 according  to  the  uniform  testimony  of  various  apostates, 
 "  havmg  the  throat  cut,"  the  "  bowels  slit  across,"  the 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  125 
 
 "  heart  plucked  out,"  or  the  "  blood  spilt  upon  the 
 ground,"  according  to  the  several  degrees.  Brigham 
 consohdated  his  power  rapidly,  but  by  the  opening  of 
 1845,  outside  hostihty  again  began  to  be  felt,  and  the 
 leaders  secretly  resolved  to  abandon  Nauvoo. 
 
 The  malcontents  from  the  city,  and  those  who  had 
 suffered,  would  run  away  to  anti-Monnon  neighbor- 
 hoods, and  stir  up  hatred  against  the  Saints.  Gentiles, 
 who  owned  property  near  Nauvoo,  found  it  practically 
 worthless,  for  they  could  sell  it  to  no  other  Gentiles ; 
 and  in  the  county  at  large,  where  the  Mormons  settled 
 around  an  old  resident,  his  society  was  gone ;  he  could 
 have  no  church  nor  school  privileges;  he  could  not 
 affiliate  or  be  neighborly  with  the  new  comers,  and 
 often  suspected  them  of  trespass  and  constant  annoyance 
 His  land  lost  half  its  value,  and  the  near  presence  of 
 foreigners  of  the  fanatic  sect  caused  him  to  be  forevei 
 on  his  guard.  It  became  a  settled  conviction  in  the 
 minds  of  the  people  that  they  could  have  no  peacefu] 
 enjoyment  of  their  property  while  the  Saints  remained 
 Gentiles  combined  in  groups  for  society  and  protection, 
 and  Mormons  did  the  same  at  command  of  the  Church, 
 to  which  they  were  bound  by  such  absolute  oaths ;  and 
 this,  of  course,  led  to  local  and  sectional  hatred,  which, 
 among  people  who  habitually  wore  arms,  soon  culmi- 
 nated in  blood.  Men  became  afraid  to  stir  abroad,  ex- 
 cept in  squads;  riots  and  regular  skirmishes,  amounting 
 almost  to  pitched  battles,  took  place ;  blood  was  shed, 
 lives  were  lost,  and  the  exasperation  of  both  parties  was 
 raised  to  the  highest  pitch.  The  Western  press  teemed 
 with  accounts  of  the  enormities  of  Nauvoo,  no  doubt, 
 
126  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 greatly  exaggerated,  but  still  with  considerable  basis  of 
 truth.  A  horrible  murder  was  committed  in  Lee 
 County,  Iowa,  and  the  perpetrators  were  traced  directly 
 to  Nauvoo.  At  least  a  dozen  Mormons  swore  positively 
 that  the  accused  were  m  that  city  at  the  time  of  the 
 murder ;  and  yet  so  contradictory  was  their  testimony, 
 and  so  plain  the  rest  of  the  evidence,  that  the  mur- 
 derers, two  brothers  named  Hodges,  were  cmivicted  and 
 hanged  at  Montrose,  Iowa.  It  was  whispered  about 
 that  they  would  be  rescued  by  a  Mormon  force,  and 
 nearly  every  man  in  southern  Iowa,  then  but  eighty 
 miles  wide,  the  rest  to  the  Missouri  being  Indian  coun- 
 try, attended  the  execution.  This  case  excited  all 
 of  Iowa  as  well  as  Illinois  afresh  against  Nauvoo. 
 Conspicuous  among  the  journals  of  that  period,  in 
 advocating  the  expulsion  or  extermination  of  the  Mor- 
 mons, were  the  Sangamo  Journal,  Burlington  Haiuh-eye, 
 Quincy  Whig  and  Warsaw  Signal.  At  the  same  time, 
 the  executive  of  the  State  was  accused  openly  of  favoring 
 the  Mormons.  Perhaps  no  fact  in  Mormon  history  so 
 fully  illustrates  the  blind  unreason  of  the  laity,  or  the 
 corruption  and  treachery  of  their  leaders,  as  their  treat- 
 ment of  the  Governor,  Thomas  L,  Ford.  He  had  been 
 elected  with  the  aid  of  their  votes,  and  had  always 
 maintained  that  the  crusade  against  them  was  only  for 
 political  effect ;  he  had  been  their  friend  in  most  diffi- 
 cult situations,  and  had  even  strained  the  facts  to  make 
 a  sort  of  excuse  for  them ;  he  had  done  all  that  was 
 supposed  necessary  to  save  the  Smiths,  and  had  risked 
 his  popularity  and  life  to  bring  their  murderers  to  pun- 
 ishment.    And  yet  they  are  never  weary  of  heaping 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  1l'7 
 
 abuse  upon  him,  because  he  did  not  accede  to  other 
 demands  on  their  part ;  they  generally  accuse  liim  of 
 conniving  at  the  murder  of  the  Smiths,  and  heap  exe- 
 crations upon  his  memory.  It  must  be  remembered, 
 that  Governor  Ford  wrote  his  history  the  year  after 
 the  Mormons  left,  that  it  is  not  so  much  a  history  of 
 the  State  as  a  defence  of  his  administration,  that,  pol- 
 litically,  he  was  more  of  an  enemy  to  the  anti-Mormons 
 of  western  Illinois  than  to  the  Mormons,  and  con- 
 sequently inclined  to  make  as  favorable  a  showing  as 
 possible  for  the  latter.  With  this  comment,  or  caution 
 rather,  I  return  to  his  account : 
 
 "About  one  year  after  the  apostles  were  installed  in 
 power,  they  abandoned  for  the  present  the  project  of 
 converting  the  world  to  the  new  religion.  All  the 
 missionaries  and  members  abroad  were  ordered  home ; 
 it  was  announced  that  the  world  had  rejected  the 
 gospel  by  the  murder  of  the  Prophet  and  Patriarch, 
 and  was  to  be  left  to  perish  in  its  sins.  In  the 
 meantime,  both  before  and  after  this,  the  elders  at 
 Nauvoo  quit  preaching  about  religion.  The  Mormons 
 came  from  every  part  pouring  into  the  city ;  the  con- 
 gregations were  regularly  called  together  for  worship, 
 but  instead  of  expounding  the  new  gospel,  the  zealous 
 and  infuriated  preachers  now  indulged  only  in  curses 
 and  strains  of  abuse  of  the  Gentiles,  and  it  seemed  to 
 be  their  design  to  fill  their  followers  with  the  greatest 
 amount  of  hatred  to  all  mankind  excepting  the  '  Saints.' 
 A  sermon  was  no  more  than  an  inflammatory  stump 
 speech,  relating  to  their  quarrels  with  their  enemies, 
 and    ornamented   with    an   abundance    of   profanity. 
 
128  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 From  my  own  personal  knowledge  of  this  people,  1 
 can  say,  with  truth,  that  I  have  never  known  much  of 
 any  of  their  leaders  who  was  not  addicted  to  profane 
 swearing.  No  other  kind  of  discourses  than  these  were 
 heard  in  the  city.  Curses  upon  their  enemies,  upon 
 the  country,  upon  Government,  upon  all  public  officers, 
 were  now  the  lessons  taught  by  the  elders,  to  inflame 
 their  people  with  the  highest  degree  of  spite  and  malice 
 against  all  who  were  not  of  the  Mormon  Church,  or  its 
 obsequious  tools.  The  reader  can  readily  imagine  how 
 a  city  of  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants  could  be  wrought 
 up  and  kept  in  a  continual  rage  by  the  inflammatory 
 harangues  of  its  leaders. 
 
 "  In  the  meantime,  the  anti-Mormons  were  not  idle ; 
 they  were  more  than  ever  determined  to  expel  tlie 
 Mormons;  and,  being  passionately  inflamed  against 
 them,  they  made  many  applications  for  executive 
 assistance.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Mormons  invoked 
 the  assistance  of  Government  to  take  vengeance  upon 
 the  murderers  of  the  Smiths.  The  anti-Mormons 
 asked  the  Governor  to  violate  the  Constitution,  which 
 he  was  sworn  to  support,  by  erecting  himself  into  a 
 military  despot  and  exiling  the  Mormons.  The  Mor- 
 mons on  their  part,  in  their  newspapers,  invited  the 
 Governor  to  assume  absolute  power,  by  taking  a 
 summary  vengeance  upon  their  enemies,  by  shooting 
 fifty  or  a  hundred  of  them,  without  judge  or  jury. 
 Both  parties  were  thoroughly  disgusted  with  Consti- 
 tutional provisions,  restraining  them  from  summary 
 vengeance;  each  was  ready  to  submit  to  arbitrary 
 power,  to  the  fiat  of  a  dictator,  to  make  me  a  king  for 
 
AND  CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  129 
 
 the  time  being,  or  at  least  that  I  might  exercise  the 
 power  of  a  king,  to  abolish  both  the  forms  and  spirit 
 of  free  government,  if  the  despotism  to  be  erected  upon 
 its  ruins  could  only  be  wielded  for  their  benefit,  and  to 
 take  vengeance  on  their  enemies. 
 
 "Another  election  was  to  come  off  in  Augus\  1844, 
 for  members  of  Congress  and  for  the  Legislature ;  and 
 an  election  was  pending  throughout  the  nation  for  a 
 President  of  the  United  States.  The  war  of  party  was 
 never  more  fierce  and  terrible  than  during  the  pen- 
 dency of  these  elections.  As  a  means  of  allaying  the 
 excitement,  and  making  the  question  more  managea- 
 ble, I  was  most  anxious  that  the  Mormons  should  not 
 vote  at  this  election,  and  strongly  advised  them  against 
 doing  so.  But  Col.  E.  D.  Taylor  went  to  their  city  a 
 few  days  before  the  election,  and  the  Mormons  being 
 ever  disposed  to  follow  the  worst  advice  they  could  get, 
 were  induced  by  him  and  others  to  vote  for  all  the 
 democratic  candidates.  Col.  Taylor  found  them  very 
 hostile  to  the  Governor,  and  on  that  account  much  dis- 
 posed not  to  vote  at  this  election.  The  leading  Whig 
 anti-Mormons  believing  that  I  had  an  influence  over 
 the  Mormons,  for  the  purpose  of  destroying  it,  had  as- 
 sured them  that  the  Governor  had  planned  and  been 
 favorable  to  the  murder  of  their  Prophet  and  Patriarch. 
 The  Mormons  pretended  to  suspect  that  the  Governor 
 had  given  some  countenance  to  the  murder,  or  at  least 
 had  neglected  to  take  the  proper  precautions  to  pre- 
 vent it. 
 
 "In  the  course  of  the  fall  of  1844,  the  anti-Mormon 
 leaders  sent  printed  invitations  to  all  the  militia  cap- 
 
130  LIFE    IX    UTAH;    OR,    TUE    MYSTERIES 
 
 tains  ill  Hancock,  and  to  the  captains  of  militia  in  all 
 tiie  neighboring  counties  in  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Mis- 
 souri, to  be  present  with  their  companies  at  a  great 
 wolf  hunt  in  Hancock ;  and  it  was  privately  announced 
 that  the  wolves  to  be  hunted  were  the  Mormons,  and 
 Jack  Mormons.*  Preparations  were  made  for  assem- 
 bling several  thousand  men,  with  provisions  for  six 
 days ;  and  the  anti-Mormon  newspapers,  in  aid  of  the 
 movement,  commenced  anew  the  most  aAvful  accounts 
 of  thefts  and  robberies,  and  meditated  outrages  by  the 
 Mormons.  The  Whig  press  in  every  part  of  the  United 
 States  came  to  their  assistance.  The  Democratic  news- 
 papers and  the  leading  Democrats,  who  had  received  the 
 benefit  of  the  Mormon  votes  to  their  party,  quailed 
 under  the  tempest,  leaving  no  organ  for  the  correction 
 of  public  opinion,  either  at  home  or  abroad,  except  the 
 discredited  Mormon  newspaper  at  Nauvoo.  But  very 
 few  of  my  prominent  Democratic  friends  w^ould  dare  to 
 come  up  to  the  assistance  of  their  Governor,  and  but  few 
 of  them  dared  openly  to  vindicate  his  motives  in  en- 
 deavoring to  keep  the  peace.  They  were  willing  and 
 anxious  for  Mormon  votes  at  elections,  but  they  were 
 unwilling  to  risk  their  popularity  with  the  people,  by 
 taking  a  part  in  their  favor,  even  when  law^  and  justice 
 and  the  Constitution  were  all  on  their  side.  Such 
 being  the  odious  character  of  the  Mormons,  the  hatred 
 of  the  common  people  against  them,  and  such  being 
 the  pusillanimity  of  leading  men,  in  fearing  to  encoun- 
 ter it. 
 
 "  In  this  state  of  the  case  I  applied  to  Brigadier-Gen- 
 *  A  slang  name  applied  to  Gentiles  who  favor  the  Monuons. 
 
AND    (!RIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  131 
 
 era!  J.  J.  Hardin  of  the  State  militia,  and  to  Colonels 
 Baker  and  Merriman,  all  Whigs,  but  all  of  them  men  of 
 military  ambition,  and  they  together  with  Colonel  Wil- 
 liam Weatherford,  a  Democrat,  with  my  own  exertions, 
 succeeded  in  raising  about  five  hundred  volunteers ;  and 
 thus  did  these  Whigs,  that  which  my  own  political 
 friends  with  two  or  three  exceptions,  were  slow  to  do, 
 from  a  sense  of  duty  and  gratitude. 
 
 "  With  this  little  force  under  the  command  of  General 
 Hardin,  I  arrived  in  Hancock  County  on  the  25th  of 
 October.  The  malcontents  abandoned  their  design,  and 
 all  the  leaders  of  it  fled  to  Missouri.  The  Carthage 
 Grays  fled  almost  in  a  body,  carrying  their  arms  along 
 with  them.  During  our  stay  in  the  county  the  anti- 
 Mormons  thronged  into  the  camp,  and  conversed  freely 
 with  the  men,  who  were  fast  infected  with  their  preju- 
 dices, and  it  was  impossible  to  get  any  of  the  officers 
 to  aid  in  expelling  them.  Colonels  Baker,  Merriman 
 and  Weatherford  volunteered  their  services  if  I  would 
 go  with  them,  to  cross  with  a  force  into  Missouri,  to 
 capture  three  of  the  anti-Mormon  leaders,  for  whose 
 arrest  writs  had  been  issued  for  the  murder  of  the 
 Smiths.  To  this  I  assented,  and  procured  a  boat  which 
 was  sent  do\vn  in  the  night,  and  secretly  landed  a  mile 
 above  Warsaw.  Our  little  force  arrived  at  that  place 
 about  noon ;  that  night  we  Avere  to  cross  the  Missouri 
 at  Churchville,  and  seize  the  accused  there  encamped 
 with  a  number  of  their  friends;  but  that  afternoon 
 Colonel  Baker  visited  the  hostile  camp,  and  on  his 
 return  refused  to  partcipate  in  the  expedition,  and  so 
 advised  his  friends.     There  was  no  authority  for  com- 
 
132  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE  MYSTERIES 
 
 pelling  men  to  invade  a  neighboring  State,  and  for  this 
 cause,  much  to  the  vexation  of  myself  and  others,  the 
 matter  fell  through.  It  seems  that  Colonel  Baker  had 
 already  partly  arranged  the  terms  for  the  accused  to 
 surrender.  They  were  to  be  taken  to  Quincy  for  ex- 
 amination under  a  military  guard;  the  attorney  for 
 the  people  was  to  be  advised  to  admit  them  to  bail, 
 and  they  were  to  be  entitled  to  a  continuance  of  their 
 trial  at  the  next  Court  at  Carthage ;  upon  this,  two 
 of  the  accused  came  over  and  surrendered  themselves 
 prisoners. 
 
 "  I  employed  able  lawyers  to  hunt  up  the  testimony, 
 procure  indictments  and  prosecute  the  offenders.  A 
 trial  was  had  before  Judge  Young  in  the  summer  of 
 1845.  The  Sheriff  and  panel  of  jurors  selected  by  the 
 Mormon  Court  were  set  aside  for  prejudice,  a  new  panel 
 was  ordered  and  elisors  were  appointed  for  this  purpose ; 
 but  as  more  than  a  thousand  men  had  assembled  under 
 arms  at  the  court,  to  keep  away  the  Mormons  and  their 
 friends,  the  jury  was  made  up  of  these  military  followers 
 of  the  court,  who  all  swore  that  they  had  never  formed 
 or  expressed  an  opinion  as  to  the  guilt  or  innocence  of 
 the  accused.  The  Mormons  had  one  principal  witness, 
 who  was  with  the  troops  at  Warsaw,  had  marched  with 
 them  until  they  were  disbanded,  heard  their  consulta- 
 tions, went  before  them  to  Carthage  and  saw  them  mur- 
 der the  Smiths.  But  before  the  trial  came  on  they  had 
 induced  him  to  become  a  Mormon;  and  being  much  more 
 anxious  for  the  glorification  of  the  Prophet  than  to 
 avenge  his  death,  the  leading  Mormons  made  him  pub- 
 lish a  pamphlet  giving  an  account  of  the  murder,  in 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  133 
 
 which  he  professed  to  have  seen  a  bright  and  shining 
 light  descend  upon  the  head  of  Joe  Smith,  to  strike  some 
 of  the  conspirators  with  bhndness,  and  that  he  heard 
 supernatural  voices  in  the  air  confirming  his  mission  as 
 a  Prophet !  Having  published  this  in  a  book,  he  was 
 compelled  to  swear  to  it  in  court,  which  of  course  de- 
 stroyed the  credit  of  his  evidence.  This  witness  was 
 afterwards  expelled  from  the  Mormons,  but  no  doubt 
 they  will  cling  to  his  evidence  in  favor  of  the  divine 
 mission  of  the  Prophet.  Many  other  witnesses  were 
 examined  who  knew  the  facts,  but,  under  the  influence 
 of  the  demoralization  of  faction,  denied  all  knowledge 
 of  them.  It  has  been  said,  that  faction  may  find  men 
 honest,  but  it  scarcely  ever  leaves  them  so.  This  was 
 verified  to  the  letter,  in  the  history  of  the  Mormon 
 quarrel.     The  accused  were  all  acquitted. 
 
 "  At  the  next  term,  the  leading  Mormons  were  tried 
 and  acquitted  for  the  destruction  of  the  heretical  press. 
 It  appears  that,  not  being  interested  in  objecting  to  the 
 Sheriff  or  jury  selected  by  a  court  elected  by  them- 
 selves, they,  in  their  turn,  got  a  fisivorable  jury  deter- 
 mined upon  acquittal ;  and  yet  the  Mormon  jurors  all 
 swore  that  they  had  formed  no  opinion  as  to  the  guilt 
 or  innocence  of  their  accused  friends.  It  appeared  that 
 the  laws  furnished  the  means  of  suiting  each  party  with 
 a  jury.  The  Mormons  could  have  a  Mormon  jury  to 
 be  tried  by,  selected  by  themselves ;  and  the  anti-Mor 
 mons,  by  objecting  to  the  Sheriff  and  regular  i3anel, 
 could  have  one  from  the  anti-Mormons.  Henceforth  na 
 leading  man  on  either  side  could  be  arrested  without  the 
 aid  of  an  army,  as  the  men  of  one  party  could  not 
 
134  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 safely  surrender  to  the  other  for  fear  of  being  murdered ; 
 when  arrested  by  a  miUtary  force,  the  Constitution  pro- 
 hibited a  trial  in  any  other  county  without  the  consent 
 of  the  accused.  No  one  would  be  convicted  of  any 
 ci'ime  in  Hancock ;  and  this  put  an  end  to  the  adminis- 
 tration of  the  criminal  law  in  that  distracted  county. 
 Government  was  at  an  end  there,  and  the  whole  com- 
 munity was  delivered  up  to  the  dominion  of  a  frightful 
 anarchy.  If  the  whole  State  had  been  in  the  same 
 condition,  then  indeed  would  have  been  verified  to  tlu 
 letter  what  was  said  by  a  wit,  when  he  expressed  an 
 opinion  that  the  people  were  neither  capable  of  gov- 
 erning themselves,  nor  of  being  governed  by  others." 
 
 Late  in  1845,  the  Mormon  Charters  were  revoked  by 
 the  Legislature,  which  act  that  body  evidently  considered 
 a  cure  for  all  the  evils  of  Monnonism. 
 
 "  Nauvoo  was  now  a  city  of  about  15,000  inhabitants 
 and  was  fast  increasing,  as  the  followers  of  the  Prophet 
 were  pouring  uito  it  from  all  parts  of  the  world ;  and 
 there  were  several  other  settlements  and  villages  of  Mor- 
 mons in  Hancock  County.  Nauvoo  was  scattered  over 
 about  six  square  miles,  a  part  of  it  being  built  upon  the 
 flat,  skirting  and  fronting  on  the  Mississippi  River,  but 
 the  greater  portion  of  it  upon  the  bluffs  back,  east  of 
 the  river.  The  great  Temple,  which  is  said  to  have 
 cost  a  million  of  dollars  in  money  and  labor,  occupied  a 
 commanding  position  on  the  brow  of  this  blufl',  and 
 overlooked  the  country  around  for  twenty  miles  in  IIU- 
 nois  and  Iowa. 
 
 "  The  anti-Mormons  complained  of  a  large  number  of 
 larcenies  and  robberies.     The  Mormon  press  at  Nauvoo 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF    MORMOXISM.         •  135 
 
 and  the  tanti-Mormon  p.apers  at  Warsaw,  Quincy,  Spring- 
 field, Alton,  and  St.  Louis,  kept  up  a  constant  fire  at 
 each  other  ;  the  anti-Mormons  all  the  time  calling  upon 
 the  people  to  rise  and  expel,  or  extermmate  the  Mormons. 
 The  great  fires  in  Pittsburg  and  in  other  cities  about 
 this  time,  were  seized  upon  by  the  Mormon  press  to 
 countenance  the  assertion  that  the  Lord  had  sent  them 
 to  manifest  his  displeasure  against  the  Gentiles ;  and  to 
 hint  that  all  other  places  which  should  countenance 
 the  enemies  of  the  Mormons,  might  expect  to  be 
 visited  by  '  hot  drops  '  of  the  same  description.  This 
 was  interpreted  by  the  anti-Mormons  to  be  a  threat  by 
 Mormon  incendiaries,  to  bum  down  all  cities  and  places 
 not  friendly  to  their  religion.  About  this  time  also,  a 
 suit  had  been  commenced  in  the  circuit  court  of  the 
 United  States  against  some  of  the  Twelve  Apostles,  on 
 a  note  given  in  Ohio.  The  deputy  marshal  went  to 
 summon  the  defendants.  They  were  determined  not  to 
 be  served  with  process,  and  a  great  meeting  of  their 
 people  being  called,  outrageously  inflammatory  speeches 
 were  made  by  the  leaders ;  the  marshal  was  threatened 
 and  abused  for  intending  to  serve  a  lawful  process,  and 
 here  it  was  publicly  declared  and  agreed  to  by  the 
 Mormons,  that  no  more  process  should  be  served  in 
 Nauvoo.  Also,  about  this  time,  a  leading  anti-Mormon 
 by  the  name  of  Dr.  Marshall  made  an  assault  upon 
 Gen.  Deming,  the  Sherifi"  of  the  County,  and  was  killed 
 by  the  Sheriff*  in  repelling  the  assault.  The  Sherift'  was 
 arrested  and .  held  to  bail  by  Judge  Young,  for  man- 
 alau2;hter:  thou";h,  as  he  had  acted  stiictlv  in  self- 
 defence,  no   one  seriously   believed   him   to  be  guilty 
 
136  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 of  any  crime  whatever.  But  Dr.  Marshall  had  many 
 friends  disposed  to  revenge  his  death,  and  the  rage  of  the 
 people  ran  very  high,  for  which  reason  it  was  thought 
 best  by  the  judge  to  hold  the  Sheriff  to  bail  for  some- 
 thing, to  save  him  from  being  sacrificed  to  the  public 
 fury. 
 
 "  Not  long  after  the  trials  of  the  supposed  murderers 
 of  the  Smiths,  it  was  discovered  on  the  trial  of  a  right 
 of  property  near  Lima,  in  Adams  county,  by  Mormon 
 testimony,  that  that  people  had  an  institution  in  their 
 Church  called  a  "  Oneness,"  which  was  composed  of  an 
 association  of  five  persons,  over  whom  one  was  appointed 
 as  a  kind  of  guardian.  This  one  was  trustee  for  the  rest, 
 was  to  own  all  the  property  of  the  association ;  so  that 
 if  it  were  levied  upon  by  an  execution  for  debt,  the 
 Mormons  could  prove  that  the  property  belonged  to  one 
 or  the  other  of  the  parties,  as  might  be  required  to  defeat 
 the  execution.  And  not  long  after  this  discovery,  in  the 
 fall  of  1845,  the  anti-Mormons  of  Lima  and  Green 
 Plains  held  a  meeting  to  devise  means  for  the  expulsion 
 of  the  Mormons  from  their  neighborhood.  They  ap- 
 pointed some  persons  of  their  own  number  to  fire  a  few 
 shots  at  the  house  where  they  were  assembled ;  but  to 
 do  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  hurt  none  who  attended  the 
 meeting.  The  meeting  was  held,  the  house  was  fired  at, 
 but  so  as  to  hurt  no  one  ;  and  the  anti-Mormons  sud- 
 denly breaking  up  their  meeting,  rode  all  over  the  coun- 
 try, spreading  the  dire  alarm  that  the  Momions  had 
 commenced  the  work  of  massacre  and  death. 
 
 "  This  startling  intelligence  soon  asseml)led  a  mob, 
 which  proceeded  to  warn  the  Mormons  to  leave  the 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  137 
 
 neighborhood,  and  threatened  them  with  fire  and  sword 
 if  they  remained.  A  very  poor  class  of  Mormons 
 resided  there,  and  it  is  very  likely  that  the  other 
 inhabitants  were  annoyed  beyond  further  endurance 
 by  their  little  larcenies  and  rogueries.  The  Mormons 
 refused  to  remove ;  and  about  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
 five  houses  and  hovels  were  burnt,  the  inmates  being 
 obliged  to  flee  for  their  lives.  They  fled  to  Nauvoo  in 
 a  state  of  utter  destitution,  carrying  their  women  and 
 children,  aged  and  sick,  along  with  them  as  best  they 
 could.  The  sight  of  these  miserable  creatures  aroused 
 the  wrath  of  the  Mormons  of  Nauvoo.  As  soon  as 
 authentic  intelligence  of  these  events  reached  Spring- 
 field, I  ordered  General  Hardin  to  raise  a  force  and 
 restore  the  rule  of  law.  But  whilst  this  force  was 
 gathering,  the  Sheriff  of  the  County  had  taken  the 
 matter  in  hand.  General  Deming  had  died  not  long 
 after  the  death  of  Dr.  Marshall,  and  the  Mormons  had 
 elected  Jacob  B.  Backinstos  to  be  Sheriff"  in  his  place. 
 Being  just  now  regarded  as  the  political  leader  of  the 
 Mormons,  Backinstos  was  hated  with  a  sincere  and 
 thorough  hatred  by  the  opposite  party. 
 
 "  When  the  burning  of  houses  commenced,  the  great 
 bod}^  of  the  anti-Mormons  expressed  themselves  strongly 
 against  it,  giving  hopes  thereby  that  a  posse  of  anti- 
 Mormons  could  be  raised  to  put  a  stop  to  such  incen- 
 diary and  riotous  conduct.  But  when  they  were  called 
 on  by  the  new  Sheriff",  not  a  man  of  them  turned  out 
 to  his  assistance,  many  of  them  no  doubt  being 
 influenced  by  their  hatred  of  the  Sheriff.  Backinstos 
 then  went    to    Nauvoo,  where   he  raised  a  posse  of 
 
138  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 several  hundred  armed  Mormons,  with  which  he  swept 
 over  the  country,  took  possession  of  Carthage,  and 
 established  a  permanent  guard  there.  The  anti-Mor- 
 mons everywhere  fled  from  their  houses  before  the 
 Sheriff,  some  of  them  to  Iowa  and  Missouri,  and  others 
 to  the  neighboring  counties  in  Illinois.  The  Sheriff 
 was  unable  or  unwilling  to  bring  any  portion  of  the 
 rioters  to  battle,  or  to  arrest  any  of  them  for  their 
 crimes.  The  posse  came  near  surprising  one  small 
 squad,  but  they  made  their  escape,  all  but  one,  before 
 they  could  be  attacked.  This  one,  named  McBratney, 
 was  shot  down  by  some  of  the  posse  in  advance,  by 
 whom  he  was  hacked  and  mutilated  as  though  he  had 
 been  murdered  by  the  Indians. 
 
 "  The  Sheriff  was  also  in  continual  peril  of  his  life 
 from  the  anti-Mormons,  who  daily  threatened  him  with 
 death  the  flrst  opportunity.  As  he  was  going  in  a 
 buggy  from  Warsaw  in  the  direction  of  Nauvoo,  he 
 was  pursued  by  three  or  four  men  to  a  place  in  the 
 road  where  some  Mormon  teams  were  standing.  Back- 
 instos  passed  the  teams  a  few  rods,  and  then  stopping, 
 the  pursuers  came  up  within  one  hiuidred  and  fifty 
 yards,  when  they  were  fired  upon,  with  an  unerring 
 aim,  by  some  one  concealed  not  far  to  one  side  of  them. 
 By  this  fire='=  Franklin  A.  Worrell  was  killed.  He 
 was  the  same  man  who  had  commanded  the  guard  at 
 the  jail  at  the  time  the  Smiths  were  assassinated;  and 
 there  made  himself  conspicuous  in  betraying  his  trust, 
 
 *  It  has  since  transpired  that  "Port"  Rockwell  fired  the  fatal 
 shot ;  and  the  gun  he  used  is  still  preserved  as  a  triumphant  relic,  in 
 Salt  liake  City. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  139 
 
 by  consenting  to  the  assassination.  It  is  believed  that 
 Backinstos  exi3ected  to  be  pursued  and  attacked,  and 
 had  previousl}'  stationed  some  men  in  ambush,  to  fire 
 upon  his  pursuers.  He  was  afterwards  indicted  for  the 
 supposed  murder,  and  procured  a  cliange  of  venue  to 
 Peoria  County,  where  he  was  acquitted  of  the  charge. 
 About  this  time  also,  the  Mormons  murdered  a  man  by 
 the  name  of  Daubeneyer,  without  any  apparent  pro- 
 vocation; and  another  anti-Mormon,  named  Wilcox, 
 was  murdered  in  Nauvoo,  as  it  was  believed,  by  order 
 of  the  twelve  apostles.  The  anti-Mormons  also  com- 
 mitted one  murder.  Some  of  them,  under  Backman, 
 set  fire  to  some  straw  near  a  barn  belonging  to  Durfee, 
 an  old  Mormon  of  seventy  years;  and  then  lay  in 
 ambush  until  the  old  man  came  out  to  extinguish  the 
 fire,  when  they  shot  him  dead  from  their  place  of 
 concealment.  The  perpetrators  of  this  murder  w^ere 
 arrested  and  brought  before  an  anti-Mormon  justice  of 
 the  peace,  and  were  acquitted,  though  their  guilt  was 
 sufficiently  apparent. 
 
 "During  the  ascendancy  of  the  Sheriff  and  the  absence 
 of  the  anti-Mormons  from  their  homes,  the  peojole  who 
 had  been  burnt  out  of  their  homes  assembled  at  Nau- 
 voo, from  whence,  with  many  others,  they  sallied  forth 
 and  ravaged  the  country,  stealing  and  plundering  Avhat- 
 ever  was  convenient  to  carry  or  drive  away.  When 
 informed  of  these  proceedings  I  hastened  to  Jackson- 
 ville, where,  in  a  conference  with  General  Hardin, 
 Major  Warren,  Judge  Douglas,  and  the  Attorney 
 General,  Mr.  McDougall,  it  was  agreed  that  these 
 gentlemen  should  proceed  to  Hancock  in  all  haste,  with 
 
140  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 whatever  forces  had  been  raised,  few  or  many,  and  put 
 an  end  to  these  disorders.  It  was  now  apparent  that 
 neither  party  in  Hancock  could  be  trusted  with  the 
 power  to  keep  the  peace.  It  was  also  agreed  that  all 
 these  gentlemen  should  unite  their  influence  with  mine 
 to  induce  the  Mormons  to  leave  the  State.  General 
 Hardin  lost  no  time  in  raising  three  or  four  hundred 
 volunteers,  and  when  he  got  to  Carthage  he  found  a 
 Mormon  guard  in  possession  of  the  Court  House.  This 
 force  he  ordered  to  disband  and  disperse  in  fifteen 
 minutes.  The  plundering  parties  of  Mormons  were 
 stopped  in  their  ravages.  The  fugitive  anti-Mormons 
 were  recalled  to  their  homes,  and  all  parties  above  four 
 in  number  on  either  side  were  prohibited  from  assem- 
 bling and  marching  over  the  country. 
 
 "  Whilst  General  Hardin  was  at  Carthage,  a  conven- 
 tion previously  appointed  assembled  at  that  place, 
 composed  of  delegates  ft^om  the  eight  neighboring 
 counties.  The  people  of  the  neighboring  counties 
 were  alarmed  lest  the  anti-Mormons  should  entu-ely 
 desert  Hancock,  and  by  that  means  leave  one  of  the 
 largest  counties  in  the  State  to  be  possessed  entirely 
 by  Mormons.  This  they  feared  would  bring  the  sur- 
 rounding counties  into  immediate  collision  with  them. 
 They  had,  therefore,  appointed  this  convention  to  con- 
 sider measures  for  the  expulsion  of  the  Mormons.  The 
 twelve  apostles  had  now  become  satisfied  that  the  Mor- 
 mons could  not  remain,  or  if  they  did  the  leaders  would 
 be  compelled  to  abandon  the  sway  and  dominion  they 
 exercised  over  them.  They  had  now  become  con- 
 vinced that  the    kind   of  Mahometanism  which  tho^ 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  141 
 
 sought  to  establish  could  never  be  maintained  in 
 the  near  vicinity  of  a  people  whose  morals  and  preju- 
 dices were  all  outraged  and  shocked  by  it,  unless  in- 
 deed they  were  prepared  to  establish  it  by  force  of 
 arms.  Through  the  intervention  of  General  Hardin, 
 acting  under  instructions  from  me,  an  agreement  was 
 made  between  the  hostile  parties  for  the  voluntary 
 removal  of  the  greater  part  of  the  Mormons  in  the 
 spring  of  1846. 
 
 *'The  two  parties  agreed  that,  in  the  meantime,  they 
 would  seek  to  make  no  arrests  for  crimes  previously 
 committed ;  and  on  my  part,  I  agreed  that  an  armed 
 force  should  be  stationed  in  the  county  to  keep  the 
 peace.  The  presence  of  such  a  force,  and  amnesty 
 from  prosecutions  on  all  sides,  were  insisted  on  by  the 
 Mormons  that  they  might  devote  their  time  and  energies 
 to  prepare  for  their  removal.  General  Hardin  first 
 dimuiished  his  force  to  one  hundred  men,  leaving  Major 
 William  B,  Warren  in  command.  And  this  force  being 
 further  reduced  during  the  winter  to  fifty,  and  then  to 
 ten  men,  was  kept  up  until  the  last  of  May,  1846. 
 This  force  was  commanded  with  great  prudence  and 
 efficiency  during  all  this  winter  and  spring  by  Major 
 Warren ;  and  with  it  he  was  enabled  to  keep  the  tur- 
 bulent spirit  of  faction  in  check,  the  Mormons  well 
 knowing  that  it  would  be  supported  by  a  much  larger 
 force  whenever  the  Governor  saw  proper  to  call  for  it. 
 In  the  meantime,  they  somewhat  repented  of  their 
 bargain,  and  desired  Major  Warren  to  be  withdrawn. 
 Backinstos  was  anxious  to  be  again  at  the  head  of  his 
 posse,  to  goster  over  the  county  and  to  take  vengeance 
 
142  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 on  his  enemies.  The  anti-Mormons  were  also  dissatis- 
 fied, because  the  State  force  preserv^ed  a  threatening 
 aspect  toward  them  as  well  as  the  Moraions.  He  was 
 always  ready  to  enforce  arrests  of  criminals  for  new 
 offences  on  either  side ;  and  this  pleased  neither  party. 
 Civil  war  was  upon  the  point  of  breaking  out  more  than 
 a  dozen  times  during  the  ^vinter.  Both  parties  com- 
 plained of  Major  Warren ;  but  I,  well  knowing  that  he 
 was  manfully  doing  his  duty,  in  one  of  the  most  difficult 
 and  vexatious  services,  steadily  sustamed  him  against 
 the  complaints  on  both  sides.  Great  credit  is  due 
 General  Hardin  and  Major  Warren  for  their  services, 
 which  had  the  happiest  results,  and  prevented  a  ci^dl 
 war  in  the  winter  time,  when  much  misery  would  have 
 followed  it. 
 
 "  During  the  winter  of  1845-46,  the  Mormons  made 
 the  most  prodigious  preparations  for  removal.  All  the 
 houses  in  Nauvoo,  and  even  the  Temple,  were  converted 
 into  workshops ;  and  before  spring  more  than  twelve 
 thousand  wagons  were  in  readiness.  The  people  from 
 all  parts  of  the  country  flocked  to  Nauvoo  to  purchase 
 houses  and  farms,  which  were  sold  extremely  low,  lower 
 than  the  prices  at  a  sheriff's  sale,  for  money,  wagons, 
 horses,  oxen,  cattle,  and  other  articles  of  personal  prop- 
 erty, which  might  be  needed  by  the  Mormons  during 
 their  exodus  into  the  wilderness.  By  the  middle  of 
 May  it  was  estimated,  that  sixteen  thousand  Mormons 
 had  crossed  the  Mississippi  and  taken  up  their  line  of 
 march  westward ;  leaving  behind  them  in  Nauvoo  a 
 small  remnant  of  a  thousand  souls,  being  those  who 
 were  unable  to  sell  their  property,  or  having  none  to 
 sell,  were  unable  to  get  away. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  143 
 
 "The  twelve  Apostles  weut  first  Avith  about  two 
 thousand  of  their  followers.  Indictments  had  been 
 found  against  nine  of  them  in  the  Circuit  Court  of  the 
 United  States  for  the  district  of  Illinois,  at  its  Decem- 
 hir  term,  1845,  for  counterfeiting  the  current  coin  of 
 the  United  States.  The  United  States  Marshal  had 
 applied  to  me  for  a  militia  force  to  arrest  them ;  but  in 
 pursuance  of  the  amnesty  agreed  on,  and  consequent 
 considerations,  I  declined  the  application  unless  regu- 
 larly called  on  by  the  President  according  to  law. 
 The  arrest  of  the  leaders  would  end  the  preparations 
 for  removal,  and  it  was  notorious  that  none  of  them 
 could  be  convicted ;  for  they  always  commanded  evi- 
 dence and  witnesses  enough  to  render  conviction  im- 
 possible. But  with  a  view  to  hasten  their  removal 
 they  were  made  to  believe  that  the  President  would 
 order  the  regular  army  to  Nauvoo  as  soon  as  naviga- 
 tion opened  in  the  spring.  This  had  its  intended 
 effect;  the  twelve  with  about  two  thousand  followers 
 immediately  crossed  the  Mississippi  before  the  breaking 
 up  of  the  ice.  But  before  this,  the  deputy  marshal 
 had  sought  to  arrest  the  accused  without  success. 
 
 "  Notwithstanding  but  few  of  the  Mormons  remained 
 behind,  after  June,  1846,  the  anti-Mormons  were  no 
 less  anxious  for  their  expulsion  by  force  of  arms ;  being 
 another  instance  of  a  party  not  being  satisfied  with 
 success  not  brought  about  by  themselves,  and  by 
 measures  of  their  own.  It  was  feared  that  the  Mor- 
 mons might  vote  at  the  August  election  of  that  year ; 
 and  that  enough  of  them  yet  remained  to  control  the 
 elections  in  the  county,  and  perhaps  in  the  district  for 
 
144 
 
 LIFE    IX    UTAH:    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  145 
 
 Congress.  They,  therefore,  took  measures  to  get  up  a 
 new  quarrel  with  the  remaining  Mormons.  And  for 
 this  purpose  they  attacked  and  severely  whipped  a 
 party  of  eight  or  ten  Mormons,  which  had  been  sent 
 out  in  the  country  to  harvest  some  wheat  in  the  neigh- 
 borhood of  Pontoosuc,  and  who  had  provoked  the 
 wrath  of  the  settlement  by  hallooing,  yelling,  and 
 other  arrogant  behavior.  Writs  were  sworn  out  in 
 Nauvoo  against  the  men  of  Pontoosuc,  who  were  kept 
 for  several  days  under  strict  guard  until  they  gave  bail. 
 Then,  in  their  turn,  they  swore  out  writs  for  the 
 arrest  of  the  constable  and  his  posse  who  had  made 
 the  first  arrest,  for  false  imprisonment.  The  Mormon 
 posse  were  no  doubt  really  afraid  to  be  arrested,  be- 
 lieving that  instead  of  being  tried  they  would  be  nmr- 
 dered.  This  made  an  excuse  for  an  anti-Mormon 
 posse  of  several  hundred  men;  but  the  matter  was 
 finally  adjusted  without  any  one  being  taken.  A  com- 
 mittee of  anti-Mormons  was  sent  into  Nauvoo,  who 
 reported  that  the  Mormons  were  making  every  possi- 
 ble preparation  for  removal ;  and  the  leading  Mormons 
 on  their  part  agreed  that  their  people  should  not  vote 
 at  the  next  election. 
 
 "  The  August  election  soon  came,  and  the  Mormons 
 all  voted  the  whole  Democratic  ticket.  I  have  since 
 been  informed  by  Babbitt,  the  Mormon  elder  and  agent 
 for  the  sale  of  Church  property,  that  they  were  induced 
 to  vote  this  time  from  the  following  considerations : 
 
 "  The  President  of  the  United  States  had  permitted 
 the  Mormons  to  settle  on  the  Indian  lands  on  the  Mis- 
 souri River,  and  had  taken  live  hundred  of  them  into 
 10 
 
146  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 the  service  as  soldiers  in  the  war  with  Mexico ;  and,  in 
 consequence  of  these  favors,  the  Mormons  felt  under 
 obUgations  to  vote  for  Democrats  in  support  of  the  Ad- 
 ministration ;  and  so  determined  were  they  that  their 
 support  of  the  President  should  be  efficient,  that  they 
 all  voted  three  or  four  times  each  for  a  member  of  Con- 
 gress. 
 
 "  This  vote  of  the  Mormons  enraged  the  Whigs  anew 
 against  them ;  the  probability  that  they  might  attempt 
 to  remain  permanently  in  the  country,  and  the  certainty 
 that  many  designing  persons  for  selfish  purposes  were 
 endeavoring  to  keep  them  there,  revived  all  the  excite- 
 ment which  had  ever  existed  against  that  people.  In 
 pursuance  of  the  advice  and  under  the  direction  of 
 Archibald  Williams,  a  distinguished  lawyer  and  a  Whig 
 politician  of  Quincy,  writs  were  again  sworn  out  for 
 the  arrest  of  persons  in  Nauvoo,  on  various  charges. 
 But  to  create  a  necessity  for  a  great  force  to  make  the 
 arrests,  it  was  freely  admitted  by  John  Carlin,  the  con- 
 stable sent  in  with  the  writs,  that  the  prisoners  would 
 be  murdered  if  arrested  and  taken  out  of  the  city.  And 
 now  having  failed  to  make  the  arrests,  the  constable 
 began  to  call  out  the  ^>06'.5e  comitatus.  This  was  about 
 the  1st  of  September,  1846.  The  posse  soon  amounted 
 to  several  hundred  men.  The  Mormons,  in  their  turn, 
 swore  out  several  writs  for  the  arrest  of  leading  anti- 
 Mormons.  Here  was  writ  against  writ;  constable 
 against  constable ;  law  against  law,  and  posse  against 
 posse. 
 
 "  Whilst  the  parties  were  assembling  their  forces,  the 
 trustees  of  Nauvoo  being  new  citizens,  not  Mormons, 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  147 
 
 applied  to  the  Governor  for  a  militia  officer  to  be  sent 
 over  with  ten  men,  they  supposing  that  this  small  force 
 would  dispense  with  the  services  of  the  civil  posse  on 
 either  side.  There  was  such  a  want  of  confidence  on 
 all  sides,  that  no  one  would  submit  to  be  arrested  by  an 
 adversary,  for  fear  of  assassination. 
 
 "  In  looking  around  over  the  State  for  a  suitable  officer, 
 those  upon  whom  I  had  relied  in  all  pre\dous  emergen- 
 cies having  gone  to  the  ^lexican  war,  the  choice  fell 
 upon  Major  Parker,  of  Fulton  County.  He  was  a 
 Whig,  and  was  selected  partly  for  that  reason,  believ- 
 ing that  now,  as  in  previous  cases,  a  Whig  would  have 
 more  influence  in  restraining  the  anti-Mormons  than  a 
 Democrat. 
 
 "  The  posse  continued  to  increase  until  it  numbered 
 about  eight  hundred  men ;  and  whilst  it  was  getting 
 ready  to  march  into  the  city,  it  was  represented  to  me 
 by  another  committee,  that  the  new  citizens  of  Nauvoo 
 were  themselves  divided  into  two  parties,  the  one  siding 
 with  the  Mormons,  the  other  with  their  enemies.  The 
 Mormons  threatened  the  disaffected  with  death,  if  they 
 did  not  join  in  defence  of  the  city.  For  this  reason,  I 
 sent  over  M.  Brayman,  Esq.,  a  judicious  citizen  of 
 Springfield,  with  suitable  orders  restraining  all  com- 
 pulsion, in  forcing  the  citizens  to  join  the  Mormons 
 against  their  will,  and  generally  to  inquire  into  and  re- 
 port all  the  circumstances  of  the  quarrel.  Soon  after 
 Mr.  Brayman  arrived  there,  he  persuaded  the  leaders 
 on  each  side  into  an  adjustment  of  the  quarrel.  It  was 
 agreed  that  the  Mormons  should  immediately  surrender 
 their  arms  to  some  person  to  be  appointed  to  receive 
 
148  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 them,  and  to  be  re-delivered  when  they  left  the  State, 
 and  that  they  would  remove  from  the  State  in  two 
 months.  This  treaty  was  agreed  to  by  General  Single- 
 ton, Colonel  Chittenden  and  others  on  the  side  of  the 
 Anties,  and  by  Major  Parker  and  some  leading  Mor- 
 mons on  the  other  side.  But  when  the  treaty  was  sub- 
 mitted to  the  anti-Mormon  forces  for  ratification,  it  was 
 rejected  by  a  small  majority.  General  Singleton  and 
 Colonel  Chittenden,  with  a  proper  self  respect,  immedi- 
 ately withdrew  from  command ;  they  not  being  the  first 
 great  men  placed  at  the  head  of  affairs  at  the  beginning 
 of  violence,  who  have  been  hurled  from  their  places  be- 
 fore the  popular  frenzy  had  run  its  course.  And  with 
 them  also  great  Archibald  Williams,  the  prime  mover 
 of  the  enterprise,  he  not  being  the  first  man  who  has 
 got  up  a  popular  commotion  and  failed  to  govern  it 
 afterwards.  Indeed,  the  whole  history  of  revolutions 
 and  popular  excitements  leading  to  violence,  is  full  of 
 instances  like  these.  Mr.  Brayman,  the  same  day  of 
 the  rejection  of  the  treaty,  reported  to  me  that  nearly 
 one-half  of  the  anti-Mormons  would  abandon  the  en- 
 terprise and  retire  with  their  late  commanders,  *  leav- 
 ing a  set  of  hair-brained  fools  to  be  flogged  or  to  disperse 
 at  their  leisure.'  It  turned  out,  however,  that  the  cal- 
 culations of  Mr.  Brayman  were  not  realized  ;  for  when 
 Singleton  and  Chittenden  retired,  Thomas  S.  Brockman 
 was  put  in  command  of  the  posse.  This  Brockman 
 was  a  Campbellite  preacher,  nominally  belonging  to  tlie 
 Democratic  party.  He  was  a  large,  awkward,  uncouth, 
 ignorant,  semi-barbarian ;  ambitious  of  oflicc,  and  bent 
 upon  acquiring  notoriety.     After  the 'appointment  o£ 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  149 
 
 Brockman,  I  was  not  enabled  to  hear  in  any  authentic 
 shape  of  the"  movements  on  either  side,  until  the  anti- 
 Mormon  forces  had  arrived  near  the  suburbs  of  the 
 city,  and  were  about  ready  to  commence  an  attack. 
 The  information  which  was  received,  was  by  mere 
 rumor  of  travelers,  or  by  the  newspapers  from  St. 
 Louis.  And  I  will  remark  that  during  none  of  these 
 difficulties,  have  I  been  able  to  get  letters  and  dispatches 
 from  Nauvoo  by  the  United  States  mail,  coming  as  it 
 was  obliged  to  do,  through  anti-Mormon  settlements 
 and  Post  Offices." 
 
 The  Governor's  account  proceeds  to  state  the  efforts 
 and  failure  to  raise  an  additional  force  of  militia  to  quell 
 the    disturbance ;    that,    if    any   had    been    raised,  it 
 would    have    only    operated    to    increase    the    excite- 
 ment and   the    anti-Mormon  force;    that,  it  was   his 
 solemn  conviction,  no  sufficient  force  could  have  been 
 raised,  to  fight  in  flivor  of  the  Mormons ;  that,  no  force 
 could    have    more    than    temporarily   suppressed    the 
 difficulties,  and  such  was  the  public  prejudice  against 
 the  Mormons,  that,  ten  chances  to  one,  any  large  force 
 of  militia  which  might  have  been  ordered  there  would 
 have  joined  the  rioters,  rather  than  fought  in  favor  of 
 the  Mormons. 
 
 "  The  forces  under  Brockman  numbered  about  SOO 
 men ;  they  were  armed  with  the  State  arms,  which 
 had  been  given  up  to  them  by  independent  militia 
 companies  in  the  adjacent  counties.  They  also  had 
 five  six-pounder  iron  cannon,  belonging  to  the  State, 
 which  they  had  obtained  in  the  same  way.  The  Mor- 
 mon party  and  their   allies,  being  some  of  the  new 
 
150  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 citizens  under  the  command  of  Major  Clifford,  num- 
 bered at  first  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  men,  but 
 were  diminished  by  desertions  and  removals,  before  any 
 decisive  fighting  took  place,  to  about  one  hundred  and 
 fifty.  Some  of  them  were  armed  with  sixteen  shooting 
 rifles,  which  experience  proved  ineffective  in  their 
 hands,  and  a  few  of  them  with  muskets.  They  had  four 
 or  five  cannon,  rudely  and  hastily  made  by  themselves 
 out  of  the  shaft  of  a  steamboat.  The  Monnons  and 
 their  allies  took  position  in  the  suburbs,  about  one 
 mile  east  of  the  temple,  wlfere  they  threw  up  some 
 breastworks  for  the  protection  of  their  artillery.  The 
 attacking  force  was  strong  enough  to  have  been  divided 
 and  marched  into  the  city,  on  each  side  of  this  battery, 
 and  entirely  out  of  the  range  of  its  shot ;  and  thus  the 
 place  might  have  been  taken  without  the  firing  of  a 
 gun.  But  Brockman,  although  he  professed  a  desire 
 to  save  the  lives  of  his  men,  planted  his  force  directly 
 in  front  of  the  enemy's  battery,  but  distant  more  than 
 half  a  mile ;  and  now  both  parties  commenced  a  fire 
 from  their  cannon,  and  some  few  persons  on  each  side 
 approached  near  enough  to  open  a  fire  with  their  rifles 
 and  muskets,  but  not  near  enough  to  do  each  other  ma- 
 terial injury. 
 
 "  In  this  manner  they  continued  to  fire  at  each  other, 
 at  such  a  distance,  and  with  such  want  of  skill, 
 that  there  was  but  little  prospect  of  injury,  until  the 
 anti-Mormons  had  exhausted  their  amnnmition,  when 
 they  retreated  in  some  disorder  to  their  camp.  They 
 were  not  pureued,  and  here  the  Mognons  committed 
 an  error,  for   all  experience   of  irregular   forces   has 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  151 
 
 shown,  that  however  brave  they  may  be,  a  charge  on 
 them  when  they  have  once  commenced  a  retreat,  is 
 sure  to  be  successful.  Having  waited  a  few  days  to 
 supply  themselves  with  ammunition  from  Quincy,  the 
 Anties  again  advanced  to  the  attack,  but  without  conv 
 ing  nearer  to  the  enemy  than  before,  and  that  which 
 at  the  time  was  called  a  battle,  was  kept  up  three  or 
 four  days,  during  all  which  time  the  Mormons  admit  a 
 loss  of  two  men  and  a  boy  killed,  and  three  or  four 
 wounded.  The  Anties  admit  a  loss  on  their  side  of  one 
 man  mortally,  and  nine  or  ten  others  not  so  danger- 
 ously wounded.  The  Mormons  claimed  that  they  had 
 killed  thirty  or  forty  of  the  Anties.  The  Anties 
 claimed  that  they  had  killed  thirty  or  forty  of  the 
 Mormons;  and  both  parties  could  have  proved  their 
 claim  by  incontestable  evidence,  if  their  witnesses  had 
 been  credible.  But  the-  account  which  each  party 
 renders  of  its  own  loss  should  be  taken  as  the  true  one, 
 unless  such  account  can  be  successfully  controverted. 
 During  all  the  skirmishing  and  firing  of  cannon,  it  is 
 estimated  that  from  seven  to  nine  hundred  cannon 
 balls,  and  an  infinite  number  of  bullets,  Avere  fired  on 
 each  side,  from  which  it  appears  that  the  remarkable 
 fact  of  so  few  being  killed  and  wounded,  can  be  ac- 
 counted for  only  by  supposing  great  unskilfulness  in 
 the  use  of .  arms,  and  by  the  very  safe  distance  which 
 the  parties  kept  from  each  other. 
 
 "  At  last  through  the  intervention  of  an  anti-Mormon 
 committee  of  one  hundred  from  Quinc}^,  the  Mormons 
 and  their  allies  were  induced  to  submit  to  such  terms 
 as  the  posse  chose  to  dictate,  which  were  that  the  Mor- 
 
152  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 nions  should  immediately  give  up  their  arms  to  the 
 Quincy  committee,  and  remove  from  the  State.  The 
 trustees  of  the  Church  and  five  of  their  clerks  were  per- 
 mitted to  remain  for  the  sale  of  Mormon  property,  and 
 the  posse  were  to  march  in  unmolested,  and  to  leave  a 
 sufficient  force  to  guarantee  the  performance  of  these 
 stipulations. 
 
 "  Accordingly  the  constable's  posse  marched  in  with 
 Brockman  at  their  head,  consisting  of  about  eight  hun- 
 dred armed  men,  and  six  or  seven  hundred  unarmed, 
 who  had  assembled,  from  all  the  country  around,  from 
 motives  of  curiosity,  to  see  the  once  proud  city  of  Nau- 
 voo  humbled,  and  delivered  up  to  its  enemies,  and  to 
 the  domination  of  a  self-constituted  and  irresponsible 
 power.  They  proceeded  into  the  city  slowly  and  care- 
 fully, examining  the  way  from  fear  of  the  explosion  of 
 a  mine,  many  of  which  had  been  made  by  the  Mormons, 
 by  burying  kegs  of  powder  in  the  ground  with  a  man 
 stationed  at  a  distance  to  pull  a  string  communicating 
 with  the  trigger  of  a  percussion  lock  affixed  to  the  keg. 
 This  kind  of  contrivance  was  called  by  the  Mormons  a 
 '  hell's  half-acre.'  When  the  posse  arrived  in  the  city, 
 the  leaders  of  it  erected  themselves  into  a  tribunal  to 
 decide  who  should  be  forced  away  and  who  re^ 
 main.  Parties  were  dispatched  to  hunt  for  Mormon 
 arms  and  for  Mormons,  and  to  bring  them  to  the  judg- 
 ment, where  they  received  their  doom  from  the  mouth 
 of  Brockman,  who  then  sat  a  grim  and  unawed  tyrant 
 for  the  time.  As  a  general  rule,  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. 
 
AXD    CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  153 
 
 "  The  treaty  specified  that  the  Mormons  only  should 
 be  driven  into  exile.  Nothing  was  said  in  it  concern- 
 ing the  new  citizens,  who  had,  with  the  Mormons, 
 defended  the  city.  But  the  posse  no  sooner  obtained 
 possession,  than  they  commenced  expelling  the  new 
 citizens.  Some  of  them  were  ducked  in  the  river, 
 being  in  one  or  two  instances  actually  baptized  in  the 
 name  of  the  leaders  of  the  mob ;  others  were  forcibly 
 driven  into  the  ferry  boats,  to  be  taken  over  the  river, 
 before  the  bayonets  of  armed  ruffians  ;  and  it  is  asserted 
 that  the  houses  of  most  of  them  were  broken  open  and 
 their  property  stolen  during  their  absence. 
 
 "Although  the  mob  leaders,  in  the  exercise  of  un- 
 bridled power,  were  guilty  of  many  enormities  to  the 
 persons  of  individuals,  and  though  much  personal 
 property  was  stolen,  yet  they  abstained  from  materially 
 injuring  houses  and  buildmgs.  The  most  that  was 
 done  in  this  way  was  the  stealing  of  the  doors  and  sash 
 of  the  windows  from  a  few  houses  by  somebody ;  each 
 party  equally  alleging  that  it  was  done  by  the  other. 
 
 "  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  get- 
 ting them,  or  to  get  away  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 
 
154 
 
 LIFE    IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 perishing  by  hunger,  or  by  prevailing  sickness.  Li  this 
 condition  tlie  sick,  without  shelter,  food,  nourishment 
 or  medicines,  died  by  scores.  The  mother  watched  her 
 sick  babe,  without  hope,  until  it  died,  and  when  she  sunk 
 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. 
 Their  distressed  condition  was  no  sooner  known,  than 
 all  parties  contributed  to  their  relief;  the  anti-MormoJi3 
 as  much  as  others." 
 
 BIIIGIIAM   YOUNG   rilEACUlNG   IN   TUE  WILDERNESS. 
 
AND   CRIMES    OF   MORMONISM.  155 
 
 CHAPTER    V. 
 
 FROM  THE  NAUVOO  EXODUS  TO  THE  MORMON  WAR  IN 
 
 UTAH. 
 
 The  Via  Dolorosa  of  Mormon  History —Through  Iowa— Great  suffering— 
 "Stakes  of  Zion "—Settlement  in  Nebraska— " Mormon  Battalion"— 
 Journey  to  Utah— Founding  of  Salt  Lake  City— Early  accounts— Out- 
 rages upon  California  emigrants— Travelers  murdered— Apostates 
 "  missing  "—Dangers  of  rivalry  in  love  with  a  Mormon  Bishop— Usurpa- 
 tions of  Mormon  Courts  and  officers- Federal  Judges  driven  out- 
 Murders  of  Babbitt  and  Williams— Flight  of  Judges  Stiles  and  Drum- 
 mond— The  Army  set  in  motion  for  Utah— New  officers  appointed— Sus- 
 picious delay  of  the  army— The  "Mormon  War"  begun. 
 
 The  last  of  the  Mormons  was  exiled  from  the  State 
 which  had  gladly  received  them  seven  years  before, 
 and  we  turn  to  their  march  through  Iowa — the  Via 
 Dolorosa  of  Mormon  history.  A  band  of  pioneers 
 through  Iowa  left  Nauvoo  the  20th  day  of  January, 
 1846,  and  the  same  day  the  High  Council  issued  a  cir- 
 cular announcing  the  general  intention  to  leave.  Early 
 in  February  several  thousand  Mormons  crossed  the 
 Mississippi,  many  of  them  on  the  ice,  and  started 
 directly  west,  along  a  line  near  the  northern  boundary 
 of  Missouri.  They  were  divided  into  companies  of  ten 
 wagons  each,  under  control  of  captains,  and  this  semi- 
 military  order  was  maintained  throughout.  As  the 
 spring  advanced,  many  of  the  able-bodied  men  scattered 
 to  various  places  in  Missouri  and  Iowa,  seeking  em- 
 ployment of  every  kind,  and  the  remaining  men,  with 
 
J  56  LIFE    IN   UTAH  ;    OR,   THE   MTSTEEIES 
 
 a  great  band  of  women  and  children,  pursued  their  way. 
 In  that  climate  and  at  that  season,  their  sufferings  were 
 necessarily  great.  The  high  waters,  wet  prairie,  damp 
 winds  and  muddy  roads  of  spring  troubled  them  worse 
 than  the  frosts  of  winter,  and  sickness  and  death  in- 
 creased. "  All  night/'  says  a  woman  who  made  the 
 journey,  "  the  wagons  came  trundling  into  camp  with 
 half-frozen  children  screaming  with  cold,  or  crying  for 
 bread,  and  the  same  the  next  day,  and  the  next,  the 
 whole  line  of  march. 
 
 "  The  open  sky  and  bare  ground  for  women  and 
 children  in  February  is  a  thing  only  to  be  endured 
 when  human  nature  is  put  to  the  rack  of  necessity, 
 and  many  a  mother  hastily  buried  her  dead  child  by 
 the  wayside,  only  regretting  she  could  not  lie  down 
 with  it  herself  and  be  at  peace." 
 
 On  their  way  they  established  ^'  Stakes,"  and  when 
 the  weather  had  sufficiently  advanced,  enclosed  large 
 fields  and  planted  them  with  grain  for  those  who  were 
 to  follow  after.  The  most  noted  of  these  "stakes'* 
 were  Garden  Grove  and  Mt.  Pisgah.  They  bridged 
 the  Nishnabatona,  Nodaway  and  Grand  Rivers,  besides 
 many  smaller  streams,  and  later,  Avhen  the  grass  was 
 grown,  turned  northward. 
 
 But  the  advance  of  the  season  seemed  to  increase  the 
 amount  of  disease ;  hundreds  who  had  been  frost-bitten 
 and  chilled  during  the  winter  died  along  the  way,  and 
 the  route  was  lined  with  graves.  Still  the  zeal  of  the 
 survivors  sustained  them,  and  the  cruel  ambition  of 
 their  leader  forced  them  on ;  and  though  many  de- 
 serted and  turned  away  to  various  Gentile  settlements. 
 
AXD   CRLAfES   OF    MORMOXIS.M. 
 
 157 
 
 3IORMOX  CAMP  AT  COUTS'CIL  BLUFFS,  IOWA. 
 
 a  majority  remained.  As  successive  f)arties  left  Nau- 
 voo,  the  trains  were  spread  over  a  line  of  a  hundred 
 miles;  but  during  the  latter  part  of  the  season  they 
 concentrated  in  the  Pottawattomie  country,  extending 
 up  and  down  the  Missouri  from  Council  Bluffs.  Here 
 they  built  ferry  boats,  and  a  part  crossed  the  river. 
 Preparations  for  the  winter  were  made  on  both  sides ; 
 cabins  were  built,  rude  tents  erected,  and  "  dugouts," 
 dwellings  half  underground,  constructed.  Many  young 
 men  went  back  to  the  States,  and  hired  out  to 
 work  for  provisions,  which  were  forwarded  to  the 
 camp.  According  to  other  witnesses,  a  band  of  horse 
 and  cattle  thieves  was  organized  under  the  control  of 
 Orson  Hyde,  and  a  gang  of  counterfeiters  sent  into 
 Missouri.  In  the  July  previous  they  had  been  visited 
 by  Captain  James  G.  Allen,  of  the  United  States 
 Dragoons,  with  whom    Brigham   Young  entered  into 
 
158  LIFE   IN   UTAH;     OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 negotiations  to  furnish  a  battalion  for  the  Mexican 
 War.  The  Mormons  were  the  more  ready  to  enter 
 this  service,  as  they  expected  to  be  discharged  in  Cali- 
 fornia, where  the  Church  then  intended  to  settle. 
 Five  hundred  men  were  enrolled  in  a  few  days,  and 
 proceeded  to  Leavenworth,  where  they  were  mustered 
 into  the  service  of  the  United  States.  An  agent  of 
 Brigham  Young  accompanied  them  thus  far  and  re- 
 ceived twenty  thousand  dollars  of  their  advanced 
 bounty,  which  was  understood  to  be  for  the  support  of 
 their  families  during  their  absence.  Several  of  them, 
 since  apostatized,  testify  that  none  of  it  was  ever  so 
 appropriated.  The  battalion  was  placed  under  the 
 command  of  Colonel  Philip  Saint  George  Cooke,  and 
 started  forthwith  on  the  noted  overland  march  of 
 General  Kearny. 
 
 They  marched  two  thousand  and  fifty  miles  to  San 
 Diego,  California,  passing  through  the  mountains  of 
 southern  Colorado  and  New  Mexico,  and  across  the 
 "  desert  of  death."  One  company  of  them  re-enlisted 
 for  a  short  time  in  California,  many  apostatized  and  the 
 rest  made  their  way  to  Salt  Lake  City.  The  main 
 body  of  the  Saints  meanwhile  concentrated  at  what  is 
 now  Florence,  six  miles  north  of  Omaha,  which  they 
 called  Winter  Quarters.  There  they  built  five  hundred 
 log  houses,  one  grist-mill,  and  several  "  horse  mills ; " 
 there  the  Church  was  completely  reorganized;  the  ''Quo- 
 rum of  Three  "  re-established,  and  it  was  unanimously 
 resolved  that  "  the  mantle  of  the  Prophet  Joseph  had 
 lallen  on  the  Seer  and  Revelator,  Brigham  Young ;  "  who 
 was  accordingly  chosen  to  all  the  offices  and  titles  of 
 the  dead  Prophet. 
 
AND  CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  159 
 
 On  the  eastern  side  of  the  Missouri,  were  still  some 
 two  thousand  wagons  scattered  in  various  camps,  each 
 bearing  the  name  of  its  leader.  Many  of  these  names 
 remain  in  the  local  nomenclature  of  that  country,  as  Cut- 
 lers, Perkins,  Millers,  etc.  At  this  time  they  were  visited 
 by  Colonel  (since  General)  Thos.  L.  Kane,  of  Philadel- 
 phia, who  continued  with  them  some  time,  crossed  a 
 portion  of  the  plains  with  them,  and  figured  extensively 
 in  an  important  period  of  Mormon  history.  Elder 
 John  Hyde,  the  noted  apostate,  says  that  Kane  there 
 embraced  Mormonism,  but  this  seems  quite  improbable. 
 During  the  winter,  Orson  Pratt,  Parley  P.  Pratt  and 
 John  Taylor  went  on  a  mission  to  England,  giving  gen- 
 eral notice  to  the  Saints  abroad,  that  the  next  "  gath- 
 ering place  would  be  in  Upper  California."  At  a  con- 
 ference held  before  they  left  Nauvoo,  to  determine  their 
 destination,  Lyman  Wight  had  strongly  urged  Texas, 
 John  Taylor  proposed  Vancouver's  Island,  many  were 
 in  favor  of  Oregon  and  Brigham  Young  insisted  upon 
 California.  They  finally  fixed  indefinitely  upon  "some 
 valley  in  the  Ex3cky  Mountains." 
 
 In  accordance  with  this  conclusion,  the  "  Pioneer 
 Band,"  a  hundred  and  forty-three  men,  driving  seventy 
 wagons,  under  the  command  of  Brigham  Young,  left 
 Winter  Quarters,  April  14th,  1817,  and  followed  Fre- 
 mont's Trail  westward  up  the  Platte  River.  West  of 
 the  Black  Hills,  they  diverged  and  followed  a  "  trapper's 
 trail "  for  four  hundred  miles,  and  from  Bear  River  west- 
 ward, laid  out  a  new  route  through  Emigration  Canon 
 to  Jordan  Valley. 
 
 The  company  entered  the  valley  July  24th,  now 
 
160 
 
 LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 '        -^:3g" 
 
 MORMONS  EMIGRATING  TO  UTAH  IN  1847. 
 
 celebrated  as  "Anniversary  Day."  They  found  Avillows 
 and  other  scant  vegetation  about  a  rod  wide  along  City 
 Creek,  and  this  stream  they  dammed,  and  dug  an  irri- 
 gating ditch.  They  planted  a  few  potatoes,  from  which 
 they  raised  enough  that  year  to  serve  for  seed  for  a 
 large  plat,  though  no  bigger  than  chestnuts.  Tliey  pro- 
 ceeded also  to  lay  out  a  city,  and  in  October  Brigham 
 Young  and  a  few  others  went  back  to  Winter  Quarters. 
 The  people  had  suffered  greatly  with  cholera,  fever 
 and  inflammatory  diseases,  and  the  "Old  Mormon 
 Graveyard"  at  Florence  contaius  seven  hundred  graves 
 of  that  winter,  of  which  two  hundred  are  of  children. 
 Vast  numbers  liad  '-fallen  into  apostasy,"  or  turned 
 away  and  joined  tlieniselves  to  recusant  sects;  and  all 
 their  fair-weatlier  friends  had  forsaken  them.  But  the 
 little  remnant  were  at  least  consolidated  in  sentiment, 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  161 
 
 strengthened  and  confirmed  together  by  mutual  suffer 
 ing,  firm  and  self-reliant;  and  something  over  four  thou- 
 sand made  the  journey  to  Salt  Lake  the  following  season. 
 But  the  small  party  left  in  the  valley  had  raised  but 
 a  scant  crop,  and  though  the  new  comers  had  trans- 
 ported all  the  provisions  they  could,  there  was  great 
 scarcity.  Every  head  of  a  family  issued  rations  to 
 those  dependent  upon  him,  and  many  children  received, 
 for  months,  "each  one  buiscuit  a  day  and  all  the  sego 
 roots  they  could  dig."  Wolves,  raw  hides,  rabbits, 
 thistle  roots,  segos,  and  everything  that  would  support 
 life  was  resorted  to.  In  1849,  a  plentiful  crop  was 
 raised,  furnishing  enough  for  food  and  a  small  surplus. 
 February  20th,  1848,  emigration  from  Great  Britain 
 was  re-commenced  after  a  suspension  of  two  years.  On 
 the  10th  of  November  of  that  year  the  inhabitants  of 
 Nauvoo  were  awakened  at.  an  early  hour  by  a  fire  in 
 the  Mormon  Temple,  which  was  soon  beyond  their 
 control  and  in  a  short  time  everything  was  destroyed 
 but  the  bare  walls.  The  city  was  largely  occupied  by 
 a  colony  of  Icarians,  French  Communists,  under  the 
 lead  of  M.  Cabet,  and  they  had  begun  to  refurnish  the 
 building  for  a  social  hall  and  schoolroom.  The  Hancock 
 Patriot  of  that  date  gives  a  full  account  of  the  mis- 
 fortune, showing  conclusively  that  the  building  had 
 been  fired  by  an  incendiary.  "  But  it  is,"  says  the 
 Ptifriot,  "  impossible  to  assign  a  probable  motive.  The 
 destroyer  certainly  had  less  worthy  feelings  than  the 
 man  who  fired  the  'Ephesian  Dome.'  Admit  that  it 
 was  a  monument  of  folly  and  evil,  it  was  at  leaat  a 
 splendid,  and  harmless  one." 
 11 
 
162  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 Many  have  since  supposed  that  it  was  fired  by  an 
 emissary  from  a  rival  city.  The  walls  still  stood  in  such 
 perfect  preservation,  that  nearly  two  years  after  the 
 citizens  determined  to  roof  and  finish  it  for  an  Academy ; 
 but  on  May  27th  1850,  a  violent  hurricane  swept  over 
 Io\^ta  and  Illinois  and  prostrated  the  structure,  leaving 
 only  a  portion  of  the  western  wall,  and  now  naught  but 
 a  shapeless  pile  of  stones  marks  the  spot.  Mormon 
 annals  give  many  interesting  incidents  of  their  first  three 
 years  in  Utah,  but  this  record  can  deal  particularly 
 only  with  that  portion  of  their  history  where  they  came 
 in  immediate  contact  with  the  Gentiles.  For  two  years 
 they  seem  to  have  had  it  all  their  own  way ;  if  there 
 were  Gentiles  resident  in  Salt  Lake  City  before  1849, 
 they  were  "  braves  before  Agamemnon,"  history  makes 
 no  mention  of  them.  Of  course  there  were  trappers 
 and  mountaineers  who  occasionally  visited  the  city,  and 
 a  few  parties  of  emigrants  passed  that  way  even  before 
 the  great  rush  of  '49.  Lieutenant  Ruxton's  "  Life  in 
 the  Far  West "  gives  an  account  of  a  visit  to  the  new 
 city,  wiiich  is  both  amusing  and  romantic,  and  M.  Violet, 
 the  French  chief  among  the  Shoshonees,  visited  the 
 Mormon  settlements  soon  after  their  establishment. 
 For  three  years  the  Mormons  devoted  all  their  ener- 
 gies to  developing  the  country  and  getting  ready  to  live ; 
 their  extreme  poverty  prevented  their  being  either  very 
 enterprising  in  reaching  out  towards  their  neighbors,  or 
 particuLarly  anxious  to  encroach  on  any  one.  Quite  a 
 number  of  Gentiles  had  met  with  them  in  various  places 
 on  the  plains  and  accompanied  them  some  distance; 
 but  Colonel  Thomas  L.  Kane,  who  made  most  of  the 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  163 
 
 journey  with  them,  and  witnessed  their  early  efforts, 
 has  left  the  only  account  approaching  to  exactness  of 
 these  early  years.  The  great  rush  of  gold  hunters  in 
 1849,  was  coeval  with  a  season  of  plenty,  and  the  asso- 
 ciation seems  to  have  been  mutually  beneficial  to  Mor- 
 mi-)ns  and  pioneers,  but  none  of  the  latter  appear  to 
 have  halted  in  "  Zion."  They  were  in  too  eager  haste 
 to  gain  the  new  Eldorado.  As  early  as  1846  a  few 
 emigrants  passed  this  way  to  the  Pacific  coast,  and  the 
 latter  part  of  that  year  one  Hastings  led  a  party  by  a 
 new  route  south  of  the  Lake,  since  known  as  "  Hastings 
 Cut-off." 
 
 It  is  estimated  by  those  living  at  various  military 
 posts  on  the  overland  route,  that  from  five  to  ten  thou- 
 sand emigrants  from  the  United  States  had  crossed  to 
 the  Pacific  coast  before  the  discovery  of  gold.  Fort 
 Bridger  had  been  occupied  several  years  by  Colonel 
 James  Bridger,  the  oldest  mountaineer  in  that  region, 
 who  had  been  engaged  in  the  Indian  trade  there,  and 
 upon  the  head  waters  of  the  Missouri  and  Columbia  since 
 1819.  Early  in  1849  General  Wilson,  newly  appointed 
 Indian  Agent  for  California,  passed  through  Salt  Lake 
 City,  making  a  short  stay,  and  late  the  same  year  Cap- 
 tain Howard  Stansbury,  of  the  United  States  Topo- 
 graphical Engineers,  reached  the  city  and  remained  till 
 tlie  next  May.  This  officer  with  his  assistant.  Lieuten- 
 ant Gunnison,  set  out  from  Leavenworth,  Kansas,  on 
 the  31st  of  May,  1849  ;  traveling  up  the  Blue  River  to 
 its  head,  he  crossed  over  to  the  Platte  and  followed  the 
 main  emigrant  route  as  far  as  Fort  Bridger. 
 
 Thence  he  endeavored  to  find  a  more  direct  route  to 
 
164  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   TOE   MYSTERIES 
 
 the  head  of  the  lake  than  the  one  usually  followed  by 
 Fort  Hall,  in  Idaho,  which  required  a  "  northing  "  of 
 nearly  two  degrees.  In  pursuance  of  this  intention  he 
 followed  the  "  Mormon  Road "  west  to  Bear  River, 
 thence  followed  down  that  stream  northward,  six 
 miles  to  Medicine  Butte,  from  which  he  sought  a 
 route  due  west,  but  was  obliged  to  turn  again  to  the 
 south  and  struck  upon  the  head  of  Pumbars  Creek,  a 
 tributary  of  the  Weber. 
 
 From  this  hollow  he  passed  over  another  ridge  to 
 Ogden  Hole,  long  the  rendezvous  of  the  Northwest  Fur 
 Company,  on  account  of  its  fine  range  for  stock  in 
 winter.  From  this  place  he  passed  out  into  the  main 
 valley,  and  from  the  "  bench  "  northwest  of  Ogden,  on 
 the  27th  of  August,  caught  his  first  view  of  Great 
 Salt  Lake.  Thinking,  as  he  stated,  that  his  success 
 depended  somewhat  upon  the  good-will  of  the  Mor- 
 mons, he  visited  Salt  Lake  City  at  once,  and  seems  to 
 have  formed  a  very  favorable  opinion.  He  acknowl- 
 edges the  courtesy  and  assistance  of  the  Mormons,  "  as 
 soon  as  the  true  object  of  the  expedition  was  under- 
 stood." His  party  were  probably  the  first  Gentiles 
 who  ever  spent  more  than  a  month  or  two  in  Salt 
 Lake  City.  Late  in  1849,  or  early  in  1850,  Messrs. 
 Livingston  and  Kinkead,  pioneer  merchants,  opened  a 
 store  in  Salt  Lake  City,  and  from  the  extent  of  their 
 trade,  the  Saints  seemed  to  have  realized  handsomely 
 on  their  sales  to  the  California  emigrants. 
 
 Captain  Stansbury  completed  his  survery  of  the 
 Great  Salt  Lake,  and  set  out  on  his  return  to  the 
 States  in  August,  1850;  and  soon  after  an  immense 
 
AXD    rniMES   OF    MORMONTSM. 
 
 165 
 
 VIEW   OF   SALT    J.Alvi'.    LliV    IN    ibOU— FUOM   THE  NORTH-WEST. 
 
 emigration  appeared  on  their  way  to  California.  The 
 association  of  the  preceding  year  seems  to  have  crea- 
 ted great  confidence  and  nearly  all  these  emigrants 
 made  a  lengthy  stay  in  the  Mormon  settlements.  For 
 three  years  the  Mormons  had  been  almost  unheard  of 
 in  the  States,  most  of  the  prejudice  against  them  hail 
 died  out  and  had  the  policy  of  the  first  year  been  pur- 
 sued, mutual  good-will  would  have  been  established 
 on  a  firm  basis  and  the  settlement  in  Utah  considered 
 a  real  blessing. 
 
166  LIFE   IN   UTA.H;    OR,    THE   lO'STERIES 
 
 But  renewed  prosperity,  plenty  and  increasing 
 numbers  had  produced  their  usual  efifects,  arrogance, 
 spiritual  pride,  and  a  desire  to  dominate  over  "  the 
 unbelievers,"  and  numerous  difficulties  arose.  Late  in 
 the  season  a  large  number  of  emigrants  were  persuaded 
 that  it  was  unsafe  to  continue  the  westward  route  at 
 that  season,  and  concluded  to  remain  all  winter  among 
 the  Mormons.  They  represent  that  all  was  pleasant 
 until  autumn  was  too  far  advanced  for  them  to  leave 
 even  by  the  southern  route,  after  which  a  series  of  mer- 
 ciless exactions  began,  and  never  ceased  as  long  as  the 
 Mormon  civil  authorities  could  find  pretences  for  bogus 
 legal  actions,  or  the  emigi'ants  had  anything  of  which 
 they  could  be  stripped.  Those  who  had  hired  out  to 
 work  for  Mormons  were  refused  their  pay,  and  denied 
 redress  in  the  courts ;  if  difficulties  arose,  fines  of  from 
 one  to  five  hundred  dollars  were  imposed  for  the 
 slightest  misdemeanors ;  in  all  suits  between  Mormon 
 and  Gentile,  the  latter  invariably  paid  the  costs ;  they 
 were  openly  reviled  in  court  by  the  Mormon  Judges, 
 and  in  one  peculiarly  aggravating  instance  Justice 
 Willard  Snow  boasted  to  Gentiles  in  his  court  that  "  the 
 time  was  near  at  hand,  when  he  would  judge  Gentiles 
 for  life  and  death,  and  tJien  he  would  snatch  their  heads 
 off  like  chickens  in  the  door  yard." 
 
 In  one  case  an  emigrant  died  near  the  Hot  Springs, 
 and  his  three  companions  buried  him  and  proceeded  on 
 their  way  without  notifying  the  city  authorities.  Com- 
 plaint was  made  that  some  city  ordinance  had  been 
 violated ;  they  were  pursue<l,  taken  back  to  the  city, 
 and  every  dollar  they  had,  as  well  as  "their  wagon  and 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MOEMONISM.  167 
 
 all  their  stock,  were  taken  to  pay  their  fine  and  costs. 
 Another  Gentile  was  struck  over  the  head  with  a  board 
 by  Bill  Hiclonan,  and  returned  the  blow,  for  which  he 
 was  arrested  and  fined  eighty  dollars ;  the  costs  made 
 up  the  amount  to  more  than  two  hundred  dollars,  but 
 as  he  had  but  little  over  half  the  sum,  they  kindly  con- 
 tented themselves  with  taking  all  he  had,  and  let  him 
 depart.  Many  who  had  come  in  with  a  complete 
 "outfit,"  finished  their  journey  on  foot.  When  these 
 emigrants  reached  the  general  rendezvous  on  the  Sacra- 
 mento, they  began  to  compare  notes.  And  as  each  new 
 comer  added  to  the  evidence,  it  was  thought  best  to 
 compile  their  statements  to  send  to  their  eastern  friends. 
 Accordingly  the  affidavits  of  five  hundred  of  them  were 
 selected,  reduced  to  form,  and,  with  their  names  ap- 
 pended, published  and  circulated  generally  in  the  East. 
 
 This  book,  of  which  a  copy  may  be  found  in  the 
 State  library  at  Sacramento,  contains  statements  of  facts 
 which  seem  almost  incredible,  even  with  our  present 
 knowledge  of  Mormon  law  and  its  administration ;  but 
 they  rest  on  the  sworn  testimony  of  reliable  men,  who 
 now  reside  in  Tuolumne,  Amador,  Placer,  Nevada,  Si- 
 erra, and  other  mining  counties  of  California. 
 
 This  publication  roused  all  the  old  bitterness  of  feel- 
 ing against  the  Mormons,  which  was  not  a  little 
 heightened  soon  after  by  the  shameless  avowal  on  their 
 part  of  polygamy  and  incest  as  features  of  their  religion. 
 Meanwhile,  by  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo,  in 
 1848,  all  that  section  had  passed  from  the  dominion  of 
 Mexico  to  that  of  the  United  States,  and  early  in  1849, 
 the  Mormon  authorities  called  a  convention  "  of  all  the 
 
168  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 citizens  of  that  portion  of  upper  California  lying  east 
 of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  to  take  into  considerar 
 tion  the  propriety  of  organizing  a  Territorial  or  State 
 Grovernment."  This  convention  met  at  Salt  Lake 
 City  on  the  5th  of  March,  1849,  and  in  a  short  session 
 "ordained  and  established  a  free  and  independent 
 Government,  by  the  name  of  the  State  of  Deseret," 
 fixed  the  boundaries  of  the  new  State,  and  provided 
 for  the  election  of  a  Governor  and  all  State  officers. 
 On  the  2d  of  July  following,  the  Legislature  of  the 
 new  State  met,  elected  a  delegate  to  Congress,  adopted 
 a  memorial  also  to  that  body,  in  which  they  set  forth 
 their  loyalty,  patriotism  and  material  progress,  popula- 
 tion and  other  qualifications  and  asked  for  admission. 
 
 Congress,  however,  failed  to  see  it  precisely  in  that 
 light,  and  on  the  9th  of  September,  1850,  passed  an 
 act  to  organize  the  Territory  of  Utah,  of  which  Presi- 
 dent Fillmore  appointed  Brigham  Young  Governor. 
 In  return  for  this  courtesy,  Brigham  soon  after  preached 
 one  of  his  "live  sermons,"  in  which  he  said;  "  Wli}-, 
 when  that  time  comes  (the  earthly  reign  of  the  Saints) 
 the  Gentiles  will  come  begging  to  us  to  be  our  ser- 
 vants. I  know  several  men,  high  in  office  in  the  Na- 
 tion, who  would  make  good  servants.  I  expect  the 
 President  of  the  United  States  to  Uach  wy  hoots'* 
 This  was,  to  say  the  least,  unkind  of  Brigham.  At 
 the  same  time,  Lemuel  C.  Brandenburg  was  appointed 
 Chief  Justice  ;  Perry  E.  Brochus,  and  Zerubbabel  Snow, 
 (Mormon)  Associate  Justices;  Setli  M.  Blair,  (Mor- 
 mon) Attorney  General,  and  B.  D.  Harris,  Secretary. 
 Thus   the    President    had   divided   the*   offices  pretty 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  169 
 
 equally  between  Saint  and  Gentile.  The  officers  did 
 not  reach  Utah  till  July,  1851,  at  which  time  there 
 were  a  few  Gentiles  resident  in  Salt  Lake  City,  mostlj'' 
 carpenters  and  other  artisans  whose  labor  was  just 
 then  in  special  demand,  emigrants  who  had  failed  at 
 that  point  on  their  way  to  the  Pacific,  and  perhaps 
 half  a  dozen  California  traders  or  cattle  dealers.  The 
 new  Gentile  officers  soon  found  themselves  involved  in 
 difficulty ;  Judge  Brochus  rashly  attempted  to  preach 
 against  polygamy,  and  having  his  life  threatened  soon 
 after  left  the  Territory,  followed  in  1852,  by  Secretary 
 Harris,  leaving  the  government  once  more  in  the  hands 
 of  the  Mormons.  Brigham  Young  appointed  his  second 
 counsellor,  Willard  Richards,  to  fill  the  vacant  Secre- 
 taryship, the  sole  remaining  Judge,  Z.  Snow,  and  the 
 District  Attorney  being  "  good  Mormons." 
 
 A  few  Spaniards  who  had  come  into  Utah  from  the 
 South  were  tried  before  Snow,  and  convicted  "  of  buy- 
 ing Indian  children  for  slaves,"  whether  justly  or  not, 
 cannot  now  be  determined.  The  Indians  were  taken 
 from  the  Gentiles,  and  turned  over  to  the  "  brethren," 
 to  make  them,  accordmg  to  prophecy,  "a  fair  and 
 delightsome  people."  An  Indian  war  soon  after  broke 
 out,  and  occasional  difficulties  continued  through  1852, 
 '53,  and  '54.  In  place  of  the  judges  who  had  resigned. 
 President  Pierce  appointed  Judges  Leonidas  Shaver 
 and  Lazarus  H.  Reed ;  the  former  arrived  in  the  fall 
 of  '52,  the  latter  in  June,  '53.  Judge  Shaver  was  a 
 "  hail  fellow,  well  met,"  and  lived  on  the  best  of  terms 
 with  the  Mormons  for  some  time,  but  at  length  a 
 sudden  quarrel  occurred   between  him  and    Brigham 
 
170  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 Young.  He  occupied  a  room  in  a  house  belonging  to 
 Elder  Howard  Coray,  but  rented  by  a  Mr.  Dotson. 
 One  night  he  retired  in  his  usual  health,  and  the  next 
 morning  was  found  dead  in  his  bed.  The  Church 
 authorities  ordered  a  thorough  investigation,  and  the 
 Coroner's  jury  of  Mormons  decided  that  he  died  of 
 "  some  disease  of  the  head."  One  physician  gave  it  as 
 his  opinion,  that  the  Judge  had  been  greatly  addicted 
 to  the  use  of  opium,  and  died  in  consequence  of  being 
 suddenly  deprived  of  it ;  and  this  is  the  popular  belief 
 among  the  Mormons.  Only  one  witness  on  this  matter 
 was  ever  examined  in  the  States,  and  she  gave  it  as 
 her  opinion  that  he  had  been  poisoned,  adding  that  she 
 had  heard  Brigham  Young  say:  "Judge  Shaver  knew 
 too  much,  and  he  dare  not  allow  him  to  leave  the 
 Territory."  Being  an  apostate  Mormon,  her  evidence 
 may  be  true  or  untrue.  The  Mormons  treated  Judge 
 Reed  with  marked  courtesy,  and  after  a  stay  of  one 
 year  he  left  with  an  exalted  opinion  of  them.  Ho 
 w^ent  to  his  home  in  New  York,  intending  to  return, 
 but  died  very  suddenly  while  there. 
 
 About  this  time,  a  young  man  named  Wallace  A. 
 C.  Bowman,  a  native  of  New  York,  arrived  at  Salt 
 Lake  from  New  Mexico,  with  a  company  of  Spanish 
 traders.  He  met  Brigham  Young  and  his  "  body 
 guard "  at  Utah  Lake,  and,  according  to  his  com- 
 panion's account,  had  some  difficulty  with  the  latter. 
 On  his  arrival  in  the  city,  he  was  arrested  by  Robert 
 T.  Burton  on  several  charges.  He  was  kept  in 
 confinement  several  weeks,  but  no  evidence  appearing 
 agains't  him  was  released.     He  started  eayt  at  once, 
 
AND  CRIMES  OF  MORJIONISM.  171 
 
 but  was  shot  and  instantly  killed  in  a  caiion  but  a  few 
 miles  from  the  city,  "by  Indians,"  according  to  the 
 Mormon  account ;  by  Norton  and  Ferguson,  "  Danites," 
 according  to  the  same  witness  above  mentioned.  As 
 in  that  case,  it  is  now  impossible  to  tell  which  story  is 
 true.  John  F.  Kinney,  of  Iowa,  was  appointed  Chief 
 Justice  to  succeed  Reed,  and  George  P.  Stiles  Associate 
 Justice ;  Joseph  Holman,  of  Iowa,  Attorney  General, 
 and  Almon  W.  Babbitt  Secretary.  In  the  spring  of 
 1855,  W.  W.  Drummond,  of  Illinois,  was  also  appointed 
 Associate  Justice. 
 
 In  the  fall  of  1854,  Colonel  Steptoe,  with  about  three 
 hundred  men  of  the  United  States  Army,  reached  Salt 
 Lake  and  spent  the  winter.  At  the  same  time  quite  a 
 number  of  Gentiles,  on  their  way  to  or  returning  from 
 California  wintered  in  the  city.  It  is  now  known  that 
 Colonel  Steptoe  had  been  secretly  commissioned  Gov- 
 ernor of  Utah  by  President  Pierce,  but,  being  of  an  un- 
 cautious  disposition,  he  attempted  to  practice  polygamy 
 on  a  free  and  easy  plan  not  approved  by  the  Saints, 
 the  result  of  which  was  that  he  was  ingeniously  trapped 
 by  two  of  Brigham's  "  decoy  women,"  and  to  avoid  ex- 
 posure resigned  his  commission  and  recommended 
 Young's  continuance  in  that  office.  Utah  now  began 
 to  be  regarded  as  the  "  Botany  Bay  of  worn-out  politi- 
 cians ;"  if  a  man  was  fit  for  nothing  else,  and  yet  had 
 to  l)e  rewarded  for  political  services,  he  was  sent  to 
 Utah. 
 
 During  all  the  period  from  1852  to  1856  numerous 
 "Gladdenites"  and  other  apostate  and  recusant  Mor- 
 mons were  frequently  slipping  away   and  crossing  to 
 
172 
 
 LIFE    IX    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 California  and  Ore- 
 gon; and  many  of 
 these  parties,  as  well 
 as  trains  of  Gentile 
 emigrants,  were  har- 
 assed in  various 
 ways  which  could 
 hardly  be  accounted 
 for  by  Indian  hos- 
 tility. Almon  W. 
 Babbitt,  having  quar- 
 relled with  Brigham, 
 started  across  the 
 plains  in  1855  and 
 was  murdered  "  by 
 Indians  who  spoke 
 good  English ;"  and 
 of  this  case  Brigham 
 said.    "lie    lived    a 
 
 CALlfOKMA    I.HIGUANTS    ATTACKED    AT    THE    HUMBOLDT 
 CANON,    UTAH. 
 
AND   CRIiTES  OF   MORMONISM.  173 
 
 fool  and  died  like  a  fool.  When  officers  undertake  to 
 interfere  with  affairs  that  do  not  concern  them,  I  will 
 not  he  far  off.  He  undertook  to  quarrel  with  me  and 
 soon  after  was  hilled  hy  the  Indians." 
 
 In  1852  Lieutenant  Gunnison,  M.  Creuzfeldt,  the 
 botanist,  and  eight  of  their  party  were  massacred 
 near  Sevier  Lake,  by  Indians,  as  then  reported;  but 
 soon  after  escaped  apostates  stated  that  it  was  done  by 
 "  painted  Mormons."  In  1851  a  Mr.  Tobin  came  to 
 Salt  Lake  with  a  party  and  while  there  was  quite  inti- 
 mate with  Brigham's  family.  It  is  reported  also  that 
 he  was  engaged  to  Brigham's  daughter  Alice  Young. 
 He  retu-rncd  in  1856,  but  had  some  difficulty  and  left 
 His  party  was  attacked  at  night  on  the  Santa  Clara, 
 three  hundred  and  seventy  miles  south,  many  of  them 
 wounded  and  six  of  their  horses  killed ;  but  they  es- 
 caped by  abandoning  their  baggage. 
 
 Not  an  arrow  icas  shot  at  them,  their  clothing  was 
 pierced  by  bullets,  the  wounds  were  evidently  from  the 
 best  make  of  rifles  and  they  all  testify  that  the  attack- 
 ing party  spoke  English.  Other  parties  of  recusant 
 Marinonswere  missed  in  Nevada;  several  emigrants 
 from  Missouri  were  last  heard  of  near  Salt  Lake,  and 
 others  had  their  stock  run  off  where  it  was  reasonably 
 certain  there  were  no  hostile  Indians. 
 
 A  recusant  testifies  that  "one  of  the  Missourians  had 
 boasted  of  helping  to  drive  the  Saints  from  Jackson 
 County,  and  that  he  was  kidnapped  and  murdered 
 under  the  old  mint  by  John  Kay  and  other  ^Danites.'" 
 A  young  man  in  Cache  Valley  had  a  difficulty  with 
 the  bishop  in  regard  to  a  girl  whom  the  bishop  wanted 
 
174  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 for  a  '^  plural  wife."  The  young  man  was  seized  in  a 
 canon  by  two  men  with  blackened  faces  and  by  them 
 mutilated  in  an  unspeakable  manner.  He  aftenvards 
 went  to  San  Bernardino,  California,  and  died  insane.  A 
 similar  difficulty  arose  in  a  settlemeiit  on  the  Weber, 
 and  the  young  man  was  found  dead,  having  received 
 two  shots  in  the  back.  One  general  difficulty  exists  in 
 all  these  cases.  The  witnesses  were  all  apostate  Mor- 
 mons. While  the  writer  would  not  stigmatize  a  whole 
 class,  among  whom  he  has  many  pleasant  acquaintances, 
 and  which  contains  some  thoroughly  honest  and  reli- 
 able men,  yet  it  must  be  confessed  that,  of  those  who 
 have  lived  Mormons  for  a  term  of  years  the  outside 
 world  must  always  remain  in  doubt. 
 
 There  were  very  few  Gentiles  in  Salt  Lake,  their  in- 
 terest required  that  they  should  know  nothing  outside 
 their  business,  and  they  generally  took  care  to  make  no 
 inquiry.  Hence  little  definite  and  positive  proof  of  the 
 affairs  of  that  period  was  laid  before  the  Government ; 
 but  these  reports  spread  through  the  West  and  con- 
 stantly inci'eased  the  bitterness  against  the  Mormons. 
 Had  the  latter  shown  any  willingness  to  throw  liglit 
 upon  disputed  points,  their  case  would  have  a  much 
 better  appearance.  But  their  preaching  constantly  ex- 
 cited the  people  to  greater  hostility  against  the  Gov- 
 ernment, and  their  courts  and  officers  regularly  thwart- 
 ed every  attempt  of  the  Federal  officials  to  inquire 
 into  rejwrted  crimes  or  bring  offenders  to  justice.  In 
 the  fall  of  1S5G,  it  became  no  longer  possible  for  the 
 Federal  Judges  to  maintain  the  independence  of  their 
 courts.     The   Mormons  claimed   that   tJie    Territorial 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  175 
 
 Marshal  should  select  the  jurors  for  Federal  courts 
 when  doing  Territorial  business,  instead  of  the  United 
 States  Marshal. 
 
 Pending  the  decision  of  this  question,  James  Fergu- 
 son, Hosea  Stout,  and  other  Mormon  lawyers  and 
 officials,  entered  the  court-room  with  an  armed  mob, 
 and  compelled  Judge  Stiles  to  adjourn  his  court. 
 Thomas  Williams,  a  Mormon  lawyer,  who  had  an 
 office  widi  Judge  Stiles,  protested  against  this  action, 
 for  which  his  life  was  threatened.  He  soon  after  tried 
 to  escape  to  California,  but  was  murdered  on  the  way. 
 
 The  records  of  the  District  Courts  were  soon  after 
 stolen  from  Judge  Stiles's  office  and,  as  he  supposed  at 
 the  time,  destroyed.  Both  the  Gentile  Judges  soon  after 
 left  the  Territory,  reaching  the  States  in  the  spring 
 of  1857.  The  Mormons  were  now  in  open  rebellion. 
 Congress  was  not  in  session,  but  President  Buchanan 
 and  War  Secretary  Floyd  determined  to  send  an  armed 
 force  with  new  officials.  Accordingly,  a  force  of  nearly 
 three  thousand  men  was  sent  forward  from  Leaven- 
 worth, under  the  command  of  Gen.  W.  S.  Harney, 
 who  was,  while  on  the  plains,  superseded  by  Col. 
 Albert  Sidney  Johnston.  At  the  same  time  new  men 
 were  appointed  to  all  the  civil  offices,  as  follows : 
 Governor,  Alexander  Gumming ;  Chief  Justice,  D.  R. 
 Eckles;  Associate  Justices,  John  Cradlebaugh  and 
 Charles  E.  Sinclair,  and  Secretary,  John  Hartnet. 
 
 The  march  of  the  column  was  delayed  for  various 
 reasons,  and  it  was  late  in  September  before  the  arm^^ 
 accompanied  by  the  officials,  crossed  Green  River  and 
 entered  the  Territory.     Meanwhile  Captain  Van  Vliet, 
 
178 
 
 UFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 an  active  and  discreet  officer,  had  been  sent  forward 
 to  purchase  provisions  for  the  army  and  assure  the 
 people  of  Salt  Lake  of  the  peaceful  intentions  of  the 
 Government.  On  his  arrival  there,  he  was  amazed  to 
 find  them  preparing  for  war. 
 
 MORMON   TAliERNACLE  CAMP   ON   THEIU   ARRIVAL   IN   UTAH. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  177 
 
 CHAPTER   VI. 
 
 THE    BLOODY    PERIOD. 
 
 Sounds  of  war  in  Utah — Popular  excitement — Fears  of  the  disaffected — 
 Attempted  flight — Murder  of  the  Potter  and  Parrish  familes — Massacre 
 of  the  Aiken  party — Assassination  of  Yates — Killing  of  Forbes — Brig- 
 ham  "Turns  loose  the  Indians" — Mountain  Meadow  Massacre — 
 Horrible  barbarity  of  Indians  and  Mormons — Evidence  in  the  case — 
 Attempt  of  Judge  Cradlebaugh — Progress  of  the  "Mormon  War"— 
 Delay  of  the  army — Treachery  or  inefficiency  ? — Mormon  Legion — Lieu- 
 tenant-General  Wells — Brigham  "Commands"  the  National  troops  to 
 withdraw — Array  trains  destroyed — Lot  Smith,  the  Mormon  Guerilla — 
 The  "Army  of  Utah"  in  Winter  Quarters — Colonel  Kane  again — Ne- 
 gotiations with  Brigham — Governor  Cummiug  "passed"  through  the 
 Monnon  lines — "Peace  Commissioners  " — Mormon  exodus — Weakness 
 of  Gumming — End  of  the  War — Murders  of  Pike,  the  Jones's,  Bernard, 
 Drown,  Arnold,  McNeil  and  others — A  change  at  last. 
 
 We  enter  now  upon  the  black  chapter  in  the  annals 
 of  Utah — a  period  replete  with  crime  and  stained  with 
 innocent  blood.  Occasional  rumors  of  the  march  of  the 
 army  had  reached  Salt  Lake  early  in  the  season,  and 
 on  the  24th  of  July,  when  the  entire  population  were 
 collected  in  Cottonwood  Park  to  celebrate  "  Anniversary 
 Day,"  "  Port "  Rockwell  and  John  Kimball  appeared 
 among  them  just  from  the  plains,  and  announced  that 
 the  column  was  certainly  destined  for  Utah.  Brigham 
 turned  to  those  nearest  him  and  with  a  savage  scowl 
 remarked,  "  I  said  when  we  reached  here  that  if  the 
 devils  would  only  give  us  ten  years  I'd  be  ready  for 
 them.     They've  taken  me  at  my  word,  and  now  they 
 
 12 
 
178  LIFE   IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 will  see  that  I  am  ready."  The  news  spread  rapidly 
 throughout  the  settlements,  producing  everywhere  fierce 
 anger  or  a  mixture  of  hope  and  dread,  according  as  the 
 hearer  was  firm  in  the  Mormon  faith  or  secretly  dissatr 
 isfied.  The  Tabernacle  and  Ward  Assembly  Rooms 
 resounded  with  harangues  in  fierce  denunciation  of  the 
 Government,  and  Brigham  Young  and  Heber  C.  Kim- 
 ball vied  with  each  other  in  vile  language  and  inflam- 
 matory appeals. 
 
 Brigham  repeatedly  stated  that  "if  any  proved  traitor, 
 or  attempted  to  shield  his  own  when  the  day  came  to 
 burn  and  lay  waste,  he  should  be  sheared  down ;  for 
 judgment  should  be  laid  to  the  line  and  righteousness 
 to  the  plummet."  The  effect  of  such  teaching  upon  a 
 fanatical  people  may  well  be  imagined.  A  perfect 
 reign  of  terror  ensued.  Of  those  devoted  to  Brigham, 
 every  one  was  a  spy  upon  his  neighbors,  while  the  dis- 
 affected trembled  at  the  storm,  and  made  efforts  to 
 escape.  Two  men  by  the  name  of  Parrish  at  Spring- 
 ville,  just  south  of  Utah  Lake,  had  declared  their 
 intention  to  start  for  California.  The  night  before 
 their  intended  departure  their  stock  was  run  off",  and 
 going  to  search  for  it  they  were  murdered  but  a  few 
 hundred  yards  from  their  dwelling,  and  after  death 
 tlieir  bodies  mutilated  in  a  shocking  manner.  Two  of 
 their  neighbors,  by  the  name  of  Potter,  were  killed  at 
 the  same  time.  One  Yates,  a  mountaineer,  passing 
 westward  was  assassinated  in  Echo  Canon,  and  a  party 
 of  six  from  California,  under  the  connnand  of  a  Mr. 
 Aikin,  were  attacked  west  of  Salt  Lake,  and  four  of 
 them  instantly  killed.     The  other  two  were  promised 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MOKMONISM.  179 
 
 they  "should  be  sent  out  of  the  Territory  by  the 
 southern  route,"  and,  in  pursuance  of  that  promise, 
 started  south  under  guard.  They  were  never  again 
 heard  of,  and  by  the  testimony  of  an  apostate  woman, 
 AHce  Lamb,  they  were  killed  and  their  bodies  thrown 
 into  a  large  spring  near  the  road.  She  adds  that  one 
 was  only  stunned  by  the  first  shot,  when  Porter  Rock- 
 well stepped  up,  placed  a  pistol  to  his  ear,  and,  adding, 
 "  This  never  misses,"  literally  blew  out  his  brains.  The 
 Mormons  aver  that  this  was  a  party  of  gamblers,  that 
 they  carried  with  them  "powders  to  drug  Mormon  wo- 
 men," and  that  they  deserved  death  anyhow ;"  and  in 
 all  such  cases  they  have  established  the  principle  of 
 assassination.  In  this  time  of  excitement,  suspicion 
 was  proof.  About  the  same  time  Brigham  Young, 
 preaching  in  the  Tabernacle,  stated  that  hitherto  as 
 Governor  and  Indian  Agent  he  "had  protected  emi- 
 grants passing  through  the  territory,  but  now  he  would 
 turn  the  Indians  loose  upon  them."  This  hint  was  as 
 good  as  a  letter  of  marque  to  the  land  pirates  of  soivth- 
 ern  Utah,  and  was  not  long  in  being  acted  upon.  Early 
 in  August,  and  before  the  excitement  had  reached  its 
 greatest  height,  a  large  train  on  its  way  to  California 
 reached  Salt  Lake  City.  Doctor  Brewer,  of  the  United 
 States  Army,  who  saw  this  train  last  at  O'Fallon's 
 Bluff  on  the  Platte,  the  11th  of  June  preceding,  de- 
 scribes it  as  "probably  the  finest  train  that  had  ever 
 crossed  the  plains.  There  seemed  to  be  forty  heads 
 of  families,  many  women,  some  unmarried,  and  many 
 children.  They  had  three  carriages;  one  very  fine, 
 in  which  ladies  rode  and  to  which  he  made  several 
 
180  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 visits  as  he  journeyed  with  them.  There  was  some- 
 thing peculiar  in  the  construction  of  the  carriage,  its 
 ornaments,  the  blazoned  stag's  head  upon  the  panels, 
 etc. "  This  carriage  was  many  years  afterwards  in  the 
 possession  of  the  Mormons. 
 
 In  Salt  Lake  City  several  disaffected  Mormons  joined 
 the  train,  and  all  proceeded  by  the  southern  route.  The 
 train  was  last  seen  entire  by  Jacob  Hamlin,  Indian  sub- 
 agent  for  the  Pah-Utes,  who  lived  at  the  upper  end  of 
 the  Mountain  Meadow.  He  met  them  at  Corn  Creek, 
 eight  miles  south  of  Fillmore,  while  on  his  way  to  Salt 
 Lake  City.  Thenceforward  no  more  was  heard  of  the 
 train ;  it  was  "  lost,"  and  a  whole  year  had  passed  be- 
 fore any  news  of  its  fate  reached  the  officials. 
 
 Nor  was  it  till  many  years  afterwards,  that  all  the 
 damning  facts  in  regard  to  its  destruction  were  brought 
 to  light.  But  when  revealed,  it  stands  forth  pre-emi- 
 nent in  shocking  barbarity  above  all  that  has  occurred 
 in  American  history,  scarcely  equalled  by  aught  in  the 
 old  world,  and  certainly  not  by  anything  in  the  history 
 of  our  English  race.  The  massacre  of  Glencoe  pales 
 :n  comparison. 
 
 Without  going  into  detail  of  the  witnesses  examined, 
 or  the  evidence  of  each,  suffice  it  to  give  events  as  they 
 occurred,  and  as  they  were  fully  proved  in  various  ex- 
 aminations since  made.  Mountahi  Meadow  is  three 
 hundred  miles  from  Salt  Lake,  on  the  road  to  Los  An- 
 gelos,  California.  The  meadows  are  al^out  five  miles  in 
 length  and  one  in  width,  on  the  "  divide  "  between  the 
 waters  of  the  Great  Basin  and  the  C(?lorado.  A  very 
 large  spring  rises  near  the  south  end,  by  which  the  em- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  181 
 
 igraiits  camped  for  a  few  days,  having  been  told  by 
 Hamlin  that  this  was  the  best  place  to  rest  and  recruit 
 their  stock  before  entering  upon  the  Great  Desert 
 Thirty-four  miles  below  the  Meadow  is  a  Mormon  setr 
 tlement  on  the  Santa  Clara ;  thirty  miles  north  is  Cedar 
 City,  and  eighteen  miles  east  of  that  is  the  town  of 
 Harmony.  From  the  "  divide  "  down  to  the  Colorado, 
 are  a  few  Pah-Ute  Indians,  and  north  to  Fillmore,  a 
 small  tribe  of  Pah- Vents.  The  day  after  the  emigrants 
 passed  Cedar  City,  a  grand  council  was  called  there  by 
 Bishop  Higbee  and  President  J.  C.  Haight  of  that  town, 
 and  Bishop  John  D.  Lee  of  Harmony.  They  stated 
 that  they  had  received  a  command  from  Salt  Lake  City 
 "  to  follow  and  attack  those  accursed  Gentiles  and  let 
 the  arrows  of  the  Almighty  drink  their  blood." 
 
 A  force  of  sixty  men  was  soon  raised,  and  joined 
 with  a  much  larger  force"  of  Indians,  encircled  the 
 emigrants'  camp  before  daylight.  The  white  men  had 
 meanwhile  painted  and  disguised  themselves  as  Indians. 
 A  portion  crept  down  a  ravine  near  the  camp,  and  fired 
 upon  the  emigrants  while  at  breakfast,  killing  ten  or 
 twelve. 
 
 The  latter  were  completely  taken  by  surprise,  but 
 seized  their  arms,  shoved  the  wagons  together,  sunk 
 the  wheels  in  the  earth,  and  got  in  condition  for 
 defence.  The  idea  that  enough  of  the  Utes  of  that 
 district  could  be  got  together  to  attack  a  train  with 
 fifty  armed  men,  is  too  absurd  to  be  entertained  for  a 
 moment,  and  the  emigrants  had  rested  in  the  ease  of 
 fancied  security. 
 
 But  their  resistance  was  far  greater  than  the  Mor- 
 
182  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 mons  had  expected;  and  there  for  an  entire  week, 
 with  their  women  and  children  lying  in  the  trenches 
 they  had  dug,  they  maintained  the  siege  and  kept  the 
 savages,  as  they  supposed,  at  bay.  And  all  of  this 
 time,  as  testified  by  Mrs.  Hamlin,  wife  of  the  Agent, 
 the  shots  were  constantly  heard  at  Hamlin's  ranche, 
 and  parties  of  Mormons,  bishops,  elders  and  laymen, 
 were  coming  and  going  to  and  from  the  ranche,  eating 
 and  drinking  there,  and  "pitchiiig  quoits  and  amiising 
 themselves  in  various  ways"  They  had  the  emigrants 
 effectually  secured,  and  could  afford  to  divide  time  and 
 slaughter  the  Gentiles  at  their  leisure.  But  at  the  end 
 of  a  week  they  grew  tired  and  resolved  upon  strategy. 
 The  firing  ceased,  and  while  the  weary  and  heart-sick 
 emigrants  looked  for  relief,  and  hoped  that  their  savage 
 foes  had  given  up  the  attack,  they  saw,  at  the  upper 
 end  of  the  little  hollow  in  which  they  were,  a  wagon 
 full  of  men.  The  latter  raised  a  white  flag,  and  it  was 
 perceived  they  were  white  men.  A  glad  shout  of  joy 
 rang  through  the  corral  at  the  sight  of  men  of  their 
 own  color,  their  protectors,  as  they  had  every  reason  to 
 believe.  They  held  up  a  little  girl  dressed  in  white  to 
 answer  the  signal,  and  the  party  entered.  The  wagon 
 contained  J.  C.  Haight,  John  D.  Lee  and  other  dignita- 
 ries. They  accused  the  emigrants  of  having  poisoned 
 a  spring  on  the  road  used  by  the  Indians,  which  was 
 denied.  It  afterwards  appeared  in  evidence  that  the 
 spring  ran  so  strong  that  "  a  barrel  of  arsenic  would 
 not  have  poisoned  it."  The  Mormons  said  they  were 
 on  good  terms  with  the  Indians,  bu^  the  latter  were 
 very  angry,  and  would  not  let  the  emigrants  escape. 
 
/ 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  183 
 
 The  Mormons  would,  however,  intercede  for  the  latter, 
 if  desired.  This  offer  was  gladly  accepted,  and  after  a 
 few  hours'  absence  the  Mormons  returned  and  stated 
 that  the  Indians  gave  as  an  ultimatum,  that  the 
 emigrants  should  give  up  all  their  property,  joarticvr 
 larly  their  guiis,  and  go  back  the  way  they  came. 
 The  Mormons  promised  in  this  case  to  guard  them 
 back  to  the  settlements.  These  hard  tenns  were 
 acceded  to,  and  the  emigrants  left  their  wagons  and 
 started  northward  on  foot. 
 
 The  women  and  children  were  in  front,  the  men  be- 
 hind them,  and  a  Mormon  guard  of  forty  men  in  the 
 rear.  A  mile  or  so  from  the  spring,  the  road  runs 
 through  a  thicket  of  scrub  oaks,  where  are  also  many 
 large  rocks,  and  here  a  force  of  Indians  lay  in  ambush. 
 At  an  agreed  signal,  a  sudden  fire  was  poured  into  the 
 body  of  emigrants,  and  then  Mormons  and  Lidians 
 together  rushed  upon  them,  shooting,  cutting  their 
 throats,  beating  them  to  death  with  stones  and  clubs 
 and  in  a  very  few  minutes  a  hundred  and  twenty  men 
 women  and  children,  Americans,  Christians,  Gentiles, 
 lay  dead  upon  the  ground,  the  miserable,  hapless  vic- 
 tims of  Mormonism.  The  Mormons  and  Indians  fell 
 upon  the  women,  bit  and  tore  the  rings  from  their  fin- 
 gers and  ears,  and  trampled  in  the  faces  of  the  djing. 
 One  young  girl  was  dragged  aside  by  President  Ilaighi, 
 and  kneeling  implored  him  for  life.  He  violated  her 
 with  shameful  barbarity,  then  beat  out  her  brains  witli 
 a  club.  Another  young  woman  was  taken  out  of  the 
 throng  by  John  D.  Lee.  He  afterwards  stated  he  in- 
 tended to  save  her  Ufe  and  take  her  to  his  harem ;  but 
 
184  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 that  she  struck  at  hiin  with  a  large  knife,  when  he  im- 
 mediately shot  her  through  the  head.  Three  men  es- 
 caped. One  starved  to  death  upon  the  desert,  another 
 was  murdered  by  the  Indians  ninety  miles  south,  and 
 the  third  was  killed  upon  the  Colorado,  by  whom  is  not 
 known.  Seventeen  children  were  saved  alive,  who 
 were  supposed  to  be  too  young  to  remember  anything 
 about  the  circumstance.  But  two  of  them  did,  and  af- 
 terwards gave  important  evidence. 
 
 The  children  were  first  taken  to  Mrs.  Hamlin's,  and 
 afterwards  distributed  among  Mormon  families  in  the 
 neighborhood ;  one  was  shot  through  the  arm  and  lost 
 the  use  of  it.  They  were  all  recovered  two  years  after 
 and  returned  to  their  friends  in  the  States.  The  prop- 
 erty was  divided,  the  Indians  getting  most  of  the  flour 
 and  ammunition;  but  they  claim  that  the  Mormons 
 kept  more  than  their  share.  Much  of  it  was  sold  in 
 Cedar  City  at  public  auction  ;  it  was  there  facetiously 
 styled,  "  Property  taken  at  the  siege  of  Sebastopol ; " 
 and  there  is  legal  proof  that  the  clothing  stripped  from 
 the  corpses,  spotted  with  blood  and  flesh  and  shredded 
 by  bullets,  was  placed  in  the  cellar  of  the  tithing  office 
 and  privately  sold.  As  late  as  18G2,  jewelry  taken  at 
 Mountain  Meadow,  was  worn  in  Salt  Lake  City,  and 
 the  source  it  came  from  not  denied. 
 
 Such  was  the  Mountain  Meadow  Massacre;  and  to 
 the  eternal  disgrace  of  American  justice,  not  one  of  tht^ 
 perpetrators  has  ever  been  punished  according  to  law. 
 But  the  vengeance  of  heaven  has  not  spared  them. 
 Some  of  the  young  men  in  the  Mormon  party  have 
 since  removed  to  California,  and  others  apostatized. 
 They  earnestly  insist  that  they  were  never  informed 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  185 
 
 that  any  killing  was  intended ;  that  they  were  told  the 
 only  object  was  to  turn  back  the  emigrants  and  pre- 
 vent their  carrying  information  to  California ;  that  no 
 more  than  a  dozen  white  men,  besides  the  bishops  and 
 President,  were  in  the  secret,  and  that  these  with  the 
 Indians  did  all  the  killing.  This  is  the  present  belief 
 of  most  of  the  Mormons,  and  they  add  that  Haight 
 and  Lee  forged  the  order  from  Brigham  Young,  which 
 was  produced  in  extenuation  of  the  crime.  Two  of  the 
 principal  perpetrators  are  now  insane.  John  D.  Le© 
 still  resides  in  Harmony,  no  longer  a  bishop,  and  one 
 can  scarcely  restrain  a  feeling  of  satisfaction  at  know- 
 ing that  his  life  is  one  of  misery.  He  is  shunned  and 
 hated  even  by  his  Mormon  neighbors,  he  seldom  ven- 
 tures beyond  the  square  upon  which  he  lives,  his  mind 
 is  distracted  by  an  unceasing  dread  of  vengeance,  and 
 his  intellect  disordered. 
 
 Though  a  too  lenient  government  has  failed  of  its  duty, 
 yet,  in  the  sufferings  of  a  fearful  mind,  he  anticipates 
 the  hell  his  crimes  deserve.  Some  months  passed 
 away  before  it  was  even  whispered  in  the  northern 
 district  that  white  men  were  concerned  in  this  affair ; 
 and  to  the  credit  of  the  Mormon  people  be  it  said,  a 
 great  horror  spread  among  them  at  the  report.  A 
 lady,  then  resident  at  Springville,  told  me  that  the 
 people  of  that  place  first  learned  of  the  massacre  the 
 next  spring,  and  flie  complicity  of  white  men  was  put 
 beyond  doubt,  in  her  mind,  by  the  confession  of  her 
 cousin,  who  was  in  the  party  but  claimed  he  did  not 
 assist  at  the  killing.  "  For  weeks,"  she  added :  *'  I 
 and  the  other  women  could  not  sleep  for  hearing  the 
 screams  and  groans  of  the  poor  creatures  in  our  ears. 
 
ISO  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 We  thought  we  saw  signs  in  the  sky.  We  trembled 
 in  dread.  We  wanted  to  run  away  from  the  land,  for 
 we  thought  it  was  cursed — that  the  vengeance  of  God 
 would  destroy  everybody  in  the  southern  district." 
 The  lady  escaped  to  Fort  Bridger,  and  afterwards 
 married  a  Gentile.  The  superstitious  fears,  of  which 
 she  speaks,  still  rest  in  many  minds  ;  nor  is  it  difficult 
 to  believe  that,  in  the  mysterious  decrees  of  the  moral 
 order,  the  fearful  stain  must  be  washed  out  in  blood. 
 The  guilty  have  escaped  earthly  justice;  but  to  the 
 eye  of  faith  an  avenging  Nemesis  is  poised  upon  the 
 mountains  of  southern  Utah,  and  pointing  to  the  plains 
 below  demands  "  blood  for  blood." 
 
 One  question  remains :  Did  Brigham  Young  know 
 aught  of,  or  give  command  for  this  massacre  ?  The 
 strong  probability  of  course,  is,  that  he  did  not.  The 
 majority  of  the  Mormons,  while  they  admit  that  church 
 officials  were  concerned,  yet  claim  that  they  acted  Avith- 
 out  Brigham's  knowledge,  and  his  own  family  add,  tliat 
 when  news  of  the  affiiir  was  brought  him,  he  burst  into 
 tears  and  said,  "  If  anything  could  break  up  and  destroy 
 this  people,  that  one  act  would  do  it."  Against  these 
 opinions  there  are  many  strong  proofs  :  the  evidence  of 
 the  Mormons  and  Indians  engaged  in  the  ailair;  the 
 failure  of  Brigham  to  give  any  account  of  it,  whatever, 
 in  his  next  report  as  Indian  Superintendent ;  the  com- 
 plete silence  of  his  organ,  the  Church  paper,  on  the 
 subject;  his  sermon  "  turning  loose  the  Indians  on  emi- 
 grants ;  "  the  fact  that  John  D.  Lee  is  his  son  hy  Mormon 
 "  adoption"  and  has  never  been  jnuiishcd  ;  the  testimony 
 of  the  young  Mormons  who  escaped  *from  Harmony  to 
 California,  and  more  than  all  else,  the  overwhelming 
 
AND  CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  187 
 
 certainty  that  no  fact  of  great  importance  is  ever  en- 
 tered upon  without  the  advice  and  consent  of  Brigham 
 Young.  An  attempt  was  made  by  Judge  Cradlebaugh, 
 in  the  autumn  of  1859,  to  bring  the  murderers  to  justice, 
 which  failed  from  causes  to  be  hereafter  fully  explained — 
 Mormon  courts  and  juries. 
 
 I  resume  the  regular  history.  On  the  15th  of  Sep- 
 tember, 1857,  Brigham  issued  a  proclamation  putting 
 the  Territory  under  martial  law ;  all  the  militia  and 
 able-bodied  men  were  ordered  "  to  hold  themselves  in 
 readiness  to  march  at  a  moment's  notice  to  repel  inva- 
 sion," and  Lieutenant-General  Daniel  H.  Wells  was 
 ordered  with  two  thousand  men  to  "  occupy  the  passes 
 of  the  Wasatch  mountains,  to  defend  their  hearths  and 
 homes  against  the  violence  of  the  army."  Echo  Canon 
 was  fortified,  and  orders  issued  to  harass  the  Federal 
 Army  in  every  way,  by  driving  off  stock,  burning 
 wagons  and  blocking  up  the  roads,  but  to  take  no  lives 
 till  further  ordered.  Besides  several  other  papers, 
 Brigham  sent  to  the  commander  of  the  United  States 
 forces  the  following  remarkable  document : 
 
 "Governor's  Office,  Utah  Territory,  ) 
 Great  Salt  Lake  City,  September  29,  1857.  i 
 
 "  Sir  :  By  reference  to  the  Act  of  Congress,  passed 
 September  9,  1850,  organizing  the  Territory  of  Utah, 
 published  in  a  copy  of  the  Laws  of  Utah,  herewith,  p. 
 146,  Chap.  7,  you  will  find  the  following : 
 
 " '  Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted,  That  the  ex- 
 ecutive power  in  and  over  said  Territory  of  Utah  shall 
 be  vested  in  a  Governor,  who  shall  hold  his  ofiice  for 
 four  years,  and  until  his  sitccessor  shall  be  appointed  and 
 
188  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 qualified,  unless  sooner  removed  by  the  President  of  the 
 United  States.  The  Governor  shall  reside  within  said 
 Territory,  shall  be  Commander-in-Chief  of  the  militia 
 thereof,'  etc.,  etc. 
 
 "  I  am  still  the  Governor  and  Superintendent  of 
 Indian  Affairs  for  this  Territory,  no  successor  having 
 been  appointed  and  qualified,  as  provided  by  law,  nor 
 have  I  been  removed  by  the  President  of  the  United 
 States. 
 
 "  By  virtue  of  the  authority  thus  vested  in  me,  I 
 have  issued  and  forwarded  you  a  copy  of  my  proclama- 
 tion, forbidding  the  entrance  of  armed  forces  into  this 
 Territory.  This  you  have  disregarded.  I  now  further 
 direct  that  you  retire  forthwith  from  the  Territory  by 
 the  same  route  you  entered.  Should  you  deem  this 
 impracticable,  and  prefer  to  remain  until  spring  in  the 
 vicinity  of  your  present  encampment,  Black's  Fork,  or 
 Green  River,  you  can  do  so  in  peace,  and  unmolested, 
 on  condition  that  you  deposit  your  arms  and  ammuni- 
 tion with  Lewis  Robinson,  Quartermaster-General  of 
 the  Territory,  and  leave  in  the  spring,  as  soon  as  the 
 condition  of  the  roads  will  permit  you  to  march.  And 
 should  you  fall  short  of  provisions,  they  can  be  fur- 
 nished you  by  making  the  proper  applications  therefor. 
 
 "  General  D,  H.  "Wells  will  forward  this,  and  receive 
 any  communications  you  may  have  to  make. 
 "Very  respectfully, 
 
 "  Brigham  Young, 
 
 "Governor  and  Sup&i'mtendent  of  IMian  Aj^'airs,  Utah 
 Territory. 
 
 "  To  the  Officer  commanding  thfe  Forces  How  in- 
 vading Utah  Territory." 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  189 
 
 It  is  difficult  to  believe  that  the  Federal  forces  were 
 handled  with  any  skill  whatever,  the  official  report  in- 
 dicating that  troops  and  supplies  were  scattered  without 
 order  all  the  way  from  Green  River  to  the  head  of  Echo 
 Canon ;  and  the  following  extract  from  the  official  re- 
 port will  show  that  the  Mormon  forces  were  "  obeying 
 orders :" 
 
 "  Forts  Bridger  and  Supply  were  vacated  and  burned 
 do^vn.  Orders  were  issued  by  Daniel  H.  Wells  (Lieut.- 
 General  Nauvoo  Legion)  to  stampede  the  animals  of  the 
 United  States  troops  on  their  march,  to  set  fire  to  their 
 trains,  to  burn  the  grass  and  the  whole  country  before 
 them  and  on  their  flanks,  to  keep  them  from  sleeping  by 
 night  surprises,  and  to  block  the  roads  by  felling  trees 
 and  destroying  the  fords  of  rivers. 
 
 "  On  the  4th  of  October,  1857,  the  Mormons,  under 
 Captain  Lot  Smith,  captured  and  burned  on  Green 
 River,  three  of  our  supply  trains,  consisting  of  seventy- 
 five  wagons  loaded  with  provisions  and  tents  for  the 
 army,  and  carried  away  several  hundred  animals." 
 
 Late  in  the  fall  the  army  halted  at  Fort  Bridger,  and 
 wintered  at  a  place  which  was  called  Camp  Scott.  No- 
 vember 21st,  the  newly-appointed  Governor,  Cumming, 
 issued  a  proclamation,  which  might  be  summed  up  in  a 
 little  advice  to  the  Mormons  "  to  go  home  and  obey  the 
 laws,  and  they  would  not  be  molested." 
 
 While  matters  were  in  statu  quo,  in  January,  1858, 
 Colonel  Kane,  the  old  friend  of  the  Mormons,  proceeded 
 to  California  by  sea,  thence  into  Utah  by  the  southern 
 route,  and  reaching  Salt  Lake  City,  opened  negotiations 
 with  Brigham  Young.     Soon  after  he  was  escorted  by 
 
190  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 Porter  Rockwell  and  Daniel  Kimball  through  the 
 Mormon  army,  and  thence  found  his  way  to  Fort 
 Bridger,  and  had  a  lengthy  interview  with  the  Federal 
 officials.  The  result  was  that  Governor  Gumming  ac- 
 companied him  on  his  return,  and  was  permitted  to  pass 
 through  the  Mormon  forces  to  Salt  Lake  City.  He  was 
 much  jQiattered  with  his  reception,  particularly  by  an 
 illumination  in  his  honor,  of  Echo  Canon,  which  they 
 passed  in  the  night.  They  were  escorted  by  Kimball 
 and  Rockwell,  and  reached  the  city  early  m  the  spring ; 
 the  Mormons  hastened  to  a'ssure  him  that  "  the  rebel- 
 lion in  Utah  was  a  pure  invention,"  and  the  records 
 which  were  supposed  to  have  been  destroyed,  were  pro- 
 duced entire  !     They  had  only  been  concealed. 
 
 Such  flattery  and  attention  were  bestowed  upon  the 
 Governor  that  he  was  completely  captivated,  and  such 
 earnest  representations  made  that  he  was  soon  con- 
 vinced the  Mormons  were  an  innocent  and  much 
 abused  people,  and  was  anxious  to  spare  them  all 
 humiliation  possible.  But  he  could  not  control  the 
 army  which  had  orders  from  the  Secretary  of  War. 
 He  reported  a  "  respectful  reception "  to  Washington, 
 and  on  the  12th  of  April,  Mr.  Buchanan  appointed 
 L.  W.  Powell,  of  Kentucky,  and  Ben  McCuUoch,  of 
 Texas,  as  "  Peace  Commissioners,"  and  by  them  sent  a 
 proclamation  of  pardon  !  But  Brigham  Young  had 
 given  orders  for  a  move,  and  early  in  April,  20,000 
 people  from  the  city  and  north  of  it  started  south,  they 
 knew  not  where,  but  many  supposed  it  was  to  Mexico. 
 Governor  Gumming  in  vain  implored  them  to  remain. 
 Old  Mormons  have  often  described  to  me  how  he  stood 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  191 
 
 upon  the  street  as  the  long  trains  rolled  southward, 
 with  the  tears  streaming  from  his  eyes,  and  protested, 
 "  if  he  followed  his  feelings  he  would  rather  go  with 
 them  than  remain  with  the  apostates."  Late  that 
 month  he  issued  a  proclamation  offering  "protection 
 to  all  illegally  restrained  of  their  liberty  in  Utah,"  but 
 few  availed  themselves  of  it.  The  latter  part  of  May, 
 the  Peace  Commissioners  arrived,  and  had  an  interview 
 with  the  leading  Mormons.  The  latter  stipulated  that 
 the  army  should  not  be  stationed  within  forty  miles  of 
 the  city ;  that  they  should  protect  private  property ; 
 should  march  through  the  city  without  halting,  and 
 must  not  encamp  till  they  passed  the  Jordan.  They 
 promised  on  their  part  everything  that  was  asked  and 
 "accepted  the  President's  pardon." 
 
 June  26th  the  Federal  army  marched  through  the 
 deserted  city,  led  by  Lieutenant-Colonel  Cooke,  who, 
 according  to  Mormon  account,  "rode  with  his  head 
 uncovered."  Their  permanent  camp  was  at  a  point 
 west  of  Utah  Lake,  and  forty  miles  south  of  the  cit}^, 
 which  was  named  Camp  Floyd.  Late  in  the  season 
 the  absent  Mormons  returned  to  their  homes  in  great 
 poverty  and  destitution,  and  the  "Mormon  war"  was 
 ended.  The  Federal  officials  entered  again  upon  their 
 duties;  courts  were  reopened  and  attempts  made  to 
 administer  justice ;  but  no  grand  jury  would  indict 
 and  no  petty  jury  convict,  and  criminals  went  "scot 
 free."     The  following  cases  appear  upon  the  record : 
 
 "  During  the  sitting  of  Judge  Sinclair's  Court,  the 
 Mormon  Grand  Jury  promptly  found  a  bill  of  indict- 
 ment agamst  one  Ralph  Pike,  a  Sergeant  in  Company 
 
192  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 I,  of  the  10th  Infantry,  United  States  Anny,  for  an 
 assault  with  intent  to  kill,  committed  upon  one  How- 
 ard Spencer,  the  son  of  a  Mormon  bishop,  at  the  mili- 
 tary reserve  in  Rush  Valley.  Upon  capias  issued.  Pike 
 was  arrested  and  brought  to  Great  Salt  Lake  City. 
 The  day  following,  August  11,  1858,  about  12  o'clock, 
 M.,  as  Pike  was  entering  the  Salt  Lake  House,  on  Main 
 street,  Spencer  stepped  up  to  him  from  behind,  saying, 
 *  Are  you  the  man  that  struck  me  in  Rush  Valley  ? '  at 
 the  same  time  drawing  his  pistol,  and  shot  him  through 
 the  side,  inflicting  a  mortal  wound.  Spencer  ran  across 
 the  street,  mounted  his  horse  and  rode  off  accompanied 
 by  several  noted  '  Danites.'  Pike  lingered  in  dreadful 
 agony  two  days  before  he  died.  The  '  Deseret  News,' 
 in  its  next  issue,  lauded  young  Spencer  for  his  courage 
 and  bravery, 
 
 "  A  man  by  the  name  of  Drown  brought  suit  upon  a 
 promissory  note  for  $480,  against  the  '  Danite'  captain. 
 Bill  Hickman.  The  case  being  submitted  to  the  court, 
 Drown  obtained  a  judgment.  A  few  days  afterwards 
 Drown  and  a  companion  named  Arnold  were  stopping 
 at  the  house  of  a  friend  in  Salt  Lake  City,  when  Hick- 
 man with  some  seven  or  eight  of  his  band  rode  up  to 
 the  house  and  called  for  Drown  to  come  out.  Dro^vn 
 suspecting  foul  play  refused  to  do  so  and  locked  the 
 doors.  The  Danites  thereupon  dismounted  from  their 
 horses,  broke  down  the  doors  and  shot  down  both  Drown 
 and  Arnold.  Drown  died  of  his  wounds  next  morning, 
 and  Arnold  a  few  days  afterwards.  Hickman  and  his 
 band  rode  off  unmolested. 
 
 "  Thus,  during  a  single  term  of  tlie  court  held  in  a 
 Mormon  community,  the  warm  life-blood  of  three  human 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  193 
 
 victims  is  shed  upon  the  very  threshhold  of  the  court: 
 and  although  the  Grand  Jury  is  in  session  no  prosecu- 
 tion is  attempted,  and  not  one  of  the  offenders  brought 
 to  justice." 
 
 Soon  after,  a  deaf  and  dumb  boy  named  Andrew 
 Bernard  was  killed  in  Weber  Canon,  as  was  pretty 
 clearly  proved  by  "  Ephe  "  Hanks,  a  noted  "  Danite ; " 
 and  an  apostate  named  Forbes  was  found  dead.  The 
 same  year  one  Henry  Jones  and  his  mother  living  near 
 Pondtown,  south  of  Utah  Lake,  Avere  accused  of  horse- 
 stealing by  their  neighbors.  They  were  attacked  at 
 night  and  the  woman,  instantly  killed ;  the  young  man 
 escaped  and  ran  some  two  miles  pursued  by  the  "  Dan- 
 ites."  He  was  finally  captured  and  a  pistol  placed  to 
 his  ear  and  discharged,  blowing  his  head  to  pieces. 
 Both  the  bodies  were  placed  in  their  dwelling,  a  "  dug- 
 out "  half  under  the  ground ;  the  roof  was  then  thrown 
 down  upon  them  and  covered  with  dirt,  making  that 
 their  only  grave.  The  next  winter  a  Mormon  bishop 
 of  that  locality  killed  one  of  his  wives  for  alleged  in- 
 fidelity, and  one  Franklin  McNeil,  who  had  sued  Brig- 
 ham  Young  for  false  unprisonment,  was  shot  dead  in 
 his  own  door. 
 
 Another  abomination  of  that  bloody  period  was  not 
 brought  to  light  till  long  after. 
 
 Early  in  1858,  while  the  army  was  yet  at  Fort 
 Bridger,  eighty  discharged  teamsters  started  through 
 the  city  to  California.  An  officer  of  the  Nauvoo  Le- 
 gion was  informed  that  he  would  find  a  "  trusty  force,'* 
 at  a  certain  place,  with  which  to  guard  them  through, 
 and  received  the  following  order : 
 
 13 
 
194  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 ♦  Salt  Lake  City,  April  Qth,  1858. 
 "  The  officer  in  command  of  escort  is  hereby  ordered 
 to  see  that  every  man  is  well  prepared  with  ammunition 
 and  have  it  ready  at  the  time  you  see  those  teamsters 
 a    hundred    miles    from   the    settlements.     President 
 Young  advises  that  they  should  be  all  killed  to  pre- 
 vent them  from  returning  to  Bridger  to  join  our  ene- 
 mies.    Every  precaution  should  be  taken,  and  see  that 
 not  one  escapes.     Secrecy  is  required. 
 "  By  order  of  General  Daniel  H.  "Wells. 
 "James  Ferguson, 
 
 "  Assistant  Adjutant  General.^* 
 
 The  officer  refused  to  execute  the  order,  for  which 
 his  life  was  threatened.  He  took  refuge  at  the  Federal 
 camp  and  was  sent  out  of  the  Territory.  The  signa- 
 ture of  Ferguson  is  authenticated  by  two  Mormons, 
 formerly  merchants  in  Salt  Lake  City.  Several  years 
 after,  the  widow  of  Ferguson  called  upon  a  Federal 
 Judge  who  had  the  writing  in  his  possession.  She 
 stated  that  she  had  heard  the  rumor  that  there  was 
 such  a  paper  and  desired  to  see  it. 
 
 It  was  not  given  to  her  but  spread  upon  the  desk 
 for  her  inspection.  She  read  it  through,  turned  deadly 
 pale,  and  rushed  out  of  the  room  without  saving  a 
 word.  Through  1858  and  '59  various  difficulties  oc- 
 curred; Governor  Gumming  did  not  sustain  the  judi- 
 ciary in  their  effijrts,  and  finally  an  order  was  received 
 from  Washington  that  the  troops  were  not  to  be  used 
 as  a  posse  to  aid  the  United  States  Marshal  in  making 
 arrests.     This,  of  course,  completely,  put  an  end  even 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  195 
 
 to  the  attempt  to  administer  justice.  But  the  en- 
 trance of  the  army  had  done  good  in  a  variety  of  ways  ; 
 stage  and  mail  Hues  had  been  established ;  means  of 
 intelligence  had  been  multiplied,  and  a  considerable 
 Gentile  influence  established,  and  we  gladly  turn  away 
 from  the  dark  period  of  crime  and  degradation,  and 
 enter  upon  the  era  in  which  outside  influence  began  to 
 produce  good  effects  even  in  Utah. 
 
196  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 CHAPTER  VII. 
 
 GENTILES     IN     UTAH. 
 
 A  New  Element — Livingston  and  Kinkead — "  Jack-Monnonism  at  Wash, 
 ington" — Judge  Drummond — M.  Jules  Remy — Gilbert  and  Sons — 
 Heavy  Trade — Later  Gentile  Merchants — Walker  Brothers — Sales  at 
 Camp  Floyd — "Crushing  the  Mormons" — Ransohoff  &  Co.— Mormon 
 Outrages  again — Murders  of  Brassfield  and  Dr.  Robinson — Whipping  of 
 Weston— Evidence  in  case  of  Robinson — Outrages  on  Lieut.  Brown  and 
 Dr.  Williamson — Gentiles  Driven  from  the  Public  Laud — Territorial 
 Surveyor — Success  of  General  Connor's  Administration — The  Govern- 
 ment Returns  to  the  Old  Policy — Murders  of  Potter  and  Wilson — Horri- 
 ble Death  of  "Negro  Tom"— The  Last  Witness  "put  out  of  the  Way  " 
 — "Danites"  again — Murder  each  Other — Death  of  Hatch  — Flight  of 
 Hickman — Forty-three  Murders — Another  Change  of  Officials — Doty — 
 Durkee— Shameful  Neglect  by  the  Government — Flight  of  the  Gentiles 
 — Comparative  Quiet  Again — A  better  Day — The  Author  Arrives  in 
 Utah. 
 
 A  NEW  element  now  enters  into  Utah  affairs,  and  de- 
 mands attention.  There  had  previously  been  Gentiles 
 resident  in  Salt  Lake,  but  before  1858,  they  seem 
 to  have  created  no  special  interest.  The  history  of 
 Gentile  merchants  from  the  earliest  times  to  the  present 
 exhibits  a  singular  record  of  "  pluck "  and  enterprise, 
 contending  against  the  ever-varying  complications  of 
 political  and  religious  fanaticism.  The  first  Gentile 
 merchants  to  make  a  permanent  establishment  in  Salt 
 Lake,  were  Messrs.  Livingston  and  Kinkead,  who 
 began  business  there  in  1850,  and  taking  the  tide 
 of  Mormon  prosperity  at  its  height,  when  the  young 
 colony  had  just  realized  on  the  California  trade,  their 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  197 
 
 profits  were  immense.  At  the  date  they  reached  the 
 city  there  were  no  Eastern  goods  in  the  Valley,  and 
 the  first  day  their  store  was  open  they  took  in  $10, 
 000  in  gold  !  Other  merchants  passed  through  doing 
 some  trade,  but  none  had  done  so  well.  The  custom 
 of  these  early  merchants  was  to  start  from  the  Missouri 
 with  large  stocks,  which  they  opened  at  Salt  Lake, 
 remaining  only  one  autumn  and  winter,  trading  for 
 cattle,  grain  and  flour,  which  they  took  on  to  California 
 the  next  season. 
 
 From  1850  till  1862,  "jack-Mormonism"  ruled  at 
 Washington  to  a  considerable  extent,  and  the  Geiitiles 
 of  Utah  had  but  little  help,  either  by  protection  or 
 moral  influence,  from  Federal  appointees.  Judge  Kin- 
 ney, who  was  appointed  Chief  Justice  in  1854,  came 
 that  year  to  the  valley  with  his  family  and  a  large 
 stock  of  goods.  He  kept  a  hotel,  sold  goods,  speculated 
 in  various  ways,  and  spared  no  pains  to  keep  on  good 
 terms  with  his  Mormon  customers;  afterwards  he 
 joined  the  Mormons,  was  baptized  in  the  holy  Jordan 
 — it  is  reported  that  he  paid  the  officiating  priest  $10 
 to  have  the  job  done  in  the  night — and  represented  the 
 Territory  one  term  in  Congress. 
 
 For  a  short  time  he  was  the  colleague  of  Judge  Drum- 
 mond,  the  Government  thus,  by  immorality  on  one  side 
 and  "  jack-Mormonism"  on  the  other,  j)laying  into  the 
 hands  of  the  Saints  most  effectually.  Kinney  had  a 
 difficulty  with  Brigham  Young  early  in  1855,  as  re- 
 ported by  M.  Jules  Remy,  who  \asitcd  Salt  Lake  thai 
 summer,  and  Brigham  declined  the  invitation  of  the 
 Frenchman  to  dine  with  him  at  Kinney's  hotel,  on  that 
 
198  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 account.  It  is  a  subject  of  curious  conjecture  what  aurt 
 of  an  impression  this  state  of  aflfairs  made  on  the  courtly 
 Frenchman,  accustomed  to  see  the  representative  of  the 
 supreme  power  treated  with  the  utmost  deference. 
 Kinney  left  the  next  year,  retaining,  however,  the  office 
 and  its  emoluments  till  1857,  and  in  1860  was  reap- 
 pointed. 
 
 The  entrance  of  Johnston's  army,  with  the  government 
 contracts  thereby  rendered  necessary,  and  the  more 
 complete  establishment  of  the  Overland  Stages,  mark 
 the  beginning  of  a  new  era  in  Gentile  history  ;  here  is 
 a  point  of  departure,  so  to  speak,  between  the  old  and 
 the  new,  separating  ancient  and  modern  history.  Nearly 
 all  the  late  merchants  came  in  with  that  army,  or  fol- 
 lowing soon  after. 
 
 During  the  interval  from  1858  to  1858,  the  Mormons 
 had  fallen  behind,  and  great  destitutution  often  pre- 
 vailed, particularly  in  the  southern  settlements.  One 
 year  the  crops  Avere  short  from  drouth,  and  another  tliey 
 were  entirely  destroyed  by  grasshoppers;  during  two 
 seasons  there  was  no  surplus  except  a  little  Avheat  which 
 could  only  be  sold  in  barter  for  fifty  cents  per  bushel; 
 one  winter  thousands  of  the  people  subsisted  largely 
 upon  sego  roots,  and  another,  of  unusual  severity,  a  third 
 of  the  cattle  throughout  Utah  died  from  exposure.  In 
 the  period  known  in  Mormon  chronicles  as  "  The  Re- 
 formation," the  Ward  Teachers  visited  every  family  in 
 their  jurisdiction,  and  made  a  thorough  examination  of 
 their  flour  barrels  and  meat  chests,  taking  away  the 
 surplus,  where  there  was  any,  to  divide  it  among  those 
 who  had  none.    In  the  summer  of  18o5,  M.  Jules  Remy, 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  199 
 
 French  traveler  and  savan,  and  Mr.  A.  M.  Brenchley, 
 his  EngHsh  companion  and  botanist,  journeyed  from 
 Sacramento  to  Salt  Lake  City,  by  the  Central  Nevada 
 route  and  south  of  the  lake,  and  spent  several  weeks 
 studying  Mormon  institutions.  Their  publication,  a 
 copy  of  which  may  be  found  in  the  State  Library  at 
 Sacramento,  describes  a  condition  of  extreme  poverty  in 
 Utah  ;  provisions. of  all  sorts  were  at  premium  prices, 
 and  their  tour  of  two  months,  with  the  poorest  accom- 
 modations, cost  them  more  in  gold  than  a  first-class  tour 
 of  Europe  would  have  done.  Wheat  and  a  few  other 
 bare  necessaries  alone  were  tolerably  cheap.  The  season 
 of  1856-57  might  be  justly  denominated  the  "Winter 
 of  Mormon  discontent."  And  it  is  remarkable  that 
 during  those  two  years  were  committed  most  of  those 
 crimes  which  form  so  black  a  chapter  in  the  annals  of 
 Utah. 
 
 The  entrance  of  Johnston's  army  proved  a  real  god- 
 send  to  many,  and  being  followed  by  a  season  of 
 unusual  fruitfulness,  the  Moraions  were  again  rendered 
 prosperous.  The  firm  of  Gilbert  &  Sons  was  established 
 in  Salt  Lake  City  about  that  time,  though  one  of  the 
 firm  had  done  business  there  before.  This  firm  made 
 large  profits  during  the  five  succeeding  years,  their 
 sales  on  one  particular  day  amounting  to  $17,000  in 
 gold.  Coin  was  the  only  currenc}^,  all  large  payments 
 being  made  in  the  Mormon  five-dollar  piece,  a  coin 
 struck  by  the  Church,  wdiich,  however,  contained  but 
 $4.30  in  gold.  Another  prominent  firm  of  that  period 
 was  Ransohoff"  &  Co.,  long  the  leading  Jewish  firm, 
 who  built  the  best  stone  store-house  in  the  city.     They 
 
200  LIFE    IN"    UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 had  extensive  dealings  with  Brigham  Young,  who  was 
 for  a  while  on  the  best  of  terras  with  Gentile  merchants, 
 and  when  Johnston's  army  left  and  the  camp  property 
 was  sold,  Brigham  borrowed  $30,000  of  Ransohoff  to 
 invest  in  army  pork.  Following  the  entrance  of  the 
 army  came  a  heavy  trade  with  Nevada,  and  not  long 
 afterwards  considerable  with  Colorado;  and  at  this 
 period  was  the  rise  of  the  firm  of  Walker  Brothei^, 
 now  par  excellence,  the  Gentile  merchant  princes  of 
 Utah,  The  Walkers,  four  young  and  middle  aged 
 gentlemen,  were  of  Mormon  parentage  and  reared 
 among  the  Saints;  having,  by  great  industry  and 
 enterprise,  secured  a  small  stock  in  trade  before  the 
 entrance  of  the  army.  The  stores  at  Camp  Floyd  were 
 sold  early  in  1861,  with  immense  profits  to  the  Saints ; 
 iron  which  had  retailed  at  a  dollar  per  pound,  became 
 as  plentiful  as  in  the  East,  and  Brigham  Young, 
 Wall^er  Brothers  and  other  firms  bought  immense 
 quantities  of  pork  at  one  cent  per  pound,  which  they 
 afterwards  retailed  at  sixty.  Thus  did  Buchanan 
 "crush  the  Mormons."  The  Overland  Mail  service 
 grew  into  greatness,  furnishing  another  source  of  profit, 
 and  the  Gentile  merchants  shared  largely  in  the  gen- 
 eral prosperity.  During  1859  and  '60,  though  there 
 was  hostility  between  Camp  Floyd  and  the  Mormon 
 hierarchy,  money  was  plenty;  sufficient  supplies  had 
 been  forwarded  to  last  the  army  ten  years,  and  great 
 quantities  of  leather,  gearing,  cavalry  equipments, 
 clothing,  blankets  and  gnmll  stores  were  sold  for  one 
 tenth  their  value ;  Brigham  was  on  the  best  of  terms 
 with  the   Gentile  merchants;    gifts  And  donations  on 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONTSM.  201 
 
 both  sides  were  common ;  there  Wcas  for  a  time  little  or 
 no  social  distinction  between  Mormon  and  Gentile,  and 
 an  era  of  general  good  feeling  prevailed. 
 
 The  General  Government  soon  returned  to  the  old 
 policy,  and  with  the  return  of  Kinney,  Judges  Flenni- 
 ken  and  Crosby  were  appointed  to  succeed  Sinclair  and 
 Cradlebaugh,  removed.  In  1861  Governor  Gumming 
 left  Utah,  and  was  succeeded  by  John  W.  Dawson,  of 
 Indiana,  who  was  soon  entrapped  into  "  a  base  attempt 
 on  the  virtue  of  a  Mormon  woman,"  and  in  consequence 
 of  many  threats  precipitately  fled  the  Territory.  He 
 was  waylaid,  however,  in  Weber  Can^'on,  and  received 
 a  terrible  beating,  which  he  richly  deserved  for  his 
 cowardice,  and,  if  the  charge  above  be  true,  for  his 
 detestably  bad  taste.  Notwithstanding  these  differ- 
 ences with  the  officials  the  Mormons  continued  on  good 
 terms  with  the  merchants,  trade  was  free,  and  the 
 people  rather  prosperous.  The  opening  of  the  war 
 signaled  a  sudden  change ;  the  disloyalty  of  the  Mor- 
 mons was  only  equalled  by  the  disgust  of  the  Gentiles, 
 and  the  whole  gist  of  Mormon  sermons  for  a  year  or 
 two  might  have  been  compressed  into  that  aggravating 
 after-prophecy,  "  Didn't  we  tell  you  so  ?"  With  them 
 it  was  only  the  realization  of  what  Joe  Smith  had 
 prophesied  in  1832,  and  Sunday  after  Sunday  the 
 Tabernacle  resounded  with  the  harangues  of  Brigham 
 Young  and  Heber  Kimball,  in  fiendish  exultation  over 
 the  prospect  that  "  the  war  would  go  on  till  nearly  all 
 the  men.  North  and  South,  would  be  killed,  the  rest 
 would  become  servants  to  the  Saints,  the  women  of  the 
 United  States  would  come  be^jrins:  for  the  Mormon 
 
202  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 elders  to  marry  them,  and  a  general  cry  would  go  up, 
 ^  come  and  help  us  preserve  the  race  of  man  in  this 
 land.' " 
 
 Such  was  the  stuff  then  preached  by  men  who  are 
 now  prating  loudly  of  their  loyalty.  It  was  hard  for 
 an  American  to  listen  to  it  quietly,  and  but  little  else 
 was  heard  in  Salt  Lake  for  the  first  two  years  of  the 
 war.  Early  in  1862  Judges  Flenniken  and  Crosby  left 
 Salt  Lake  City.  If  they  did  anything  while  there  to 
 forward  the  cause  of  truth,  to  add  to  the  dignity  of  the 
 Government,  to  increase  the  moral  force  of  the  Gentiles 
 or  protect  the  victims  of  Brighamism,  it  appears  not  on 
 the  record.  President  Lincoln  was  advised  by  tele- 
 graph of  their  departure,  and  on  the  3d  of  February, 
 1862,  appointed  Thomas  J.  Drake,  of  Michigan,  and 
 Chas.  y.  Waite,  of  Illinois,  to  succeed  them.  On  the 
 olst  of  March  following,  Stephen  S.  Harding,  an  "  origi- 
 nal abolitionist,"  of  southern  Indiana,  was  appointed 
 Governor,  and  the  new  officials  reached  Salt  Lake  in 
 July  of  the  same  year.  In  October  following  Colonel 
 (now  General)  P.  Edward  Connor  arrived  with  fifteen 
 hundred  men  and  established  Camp  Douglas.  This 
 administration  may  well  be  styled  the  "  golden  age  "  of 
 Gentiles  in  Utah.  For  nearly  four  years  General  Con- 
 nor maintained  the  rights  of  American  citizens,  and 
 protected  and  assisted  many  hundred  dissenting  Mor- 
 mons in  their  escape  from  Utah.  Their  prompt  action 
 in  protecting  American  citizens  and  recusant  Mormons 
 from  injury,  together  with  the  anti-polygamy  features 
 of  Governor  Harding's  first  message,  and  the  action  of 
 the  Judges  in  asking  Congress  for  an  amendment  to 
 
CEREJrONY  OF  CONFIRMATION. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  203 
 
 the  Organic  Act  of  the  Territory,  excited  the  Brigham- 
 ites  to  great  anger  for  a  time ;  the  hostility  increased, 
 and  when  an  unusually  large  number  of  miners  came 
 to  winter  in  Salt  Lake,  Brigham  assumed  entire  control 
 of  Mormon  trade  and  flour  was  put  up  at  once  from  $3 
 to  $6  per  hundred  in  gold,  then  equal  to  twice  that 
 amount  in  currency.  Great  was  the  indignation  at 
 this  move,  but  the  miners  could  not  help  themselves  at 
 that  season  and  submitted,  though  their  curses  were 
 both  loud  and  deep.  The  opening  of  spring  relieved 
 this  embargo,  and  the  Mormons  soon  discovered  that 
 though  Camp  Douglas  was  something  of  an  eye-sore, 
 yet  the  presence  of  two  regiments  added  materially  to 
 their  trade.  The  triumph  of  the  Union  arms  through 
 1864,  the  prompt  payment  of  claims  against  the  Gov- 
 ernment, and  the  appointment  of  rather  more  accept- 
 able officials,  convinced  the  Mormons  that  "  loyalty 
 would  pay "  for  awhile,  and  another  era  of  free  trade 
 and  tolerably  good  feeling  followed.  The  years  1864-65 
 were  seasons  of  prosperity  to  the  Gentiles ;  Ransohoff 
 &  Co.  cleared  large  sums  dealing  in  general  supplies, 
 and  \yalker  Brothers,  who  had  meanwhile  apostatized 
 from  Mormonism,  took  rank  as  millionaires. 
 
 The  era  of  free  trade  and  good  feeling  was  short  and 
 the  change  sudden.  In  1865  and  1866  all  the  California 
 and  Nevada  volunteers  and  most  of  the  other  troops 
 were  withdrawn,  and  the  hostility  of  the  Church  was 
 manifested  with  tenfold  more  fierceness.  All  the  Gen- 
 tiles, who  had  pre-empted  land  west  of  the  city,  were 
 whipped,  ducked  in  the  Jordan,  or  tarred  and  feathered, 
 and  their  improvements  destroyed ;  many  were  threat' 
 
204  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 ened  and  ordered  out  of  the  country ;  Weston,  of  the 
 Union  Vedette,  was  seized  at  night,  taken  to  Temple 
 Block  and  cruelly  beaten;  Brassfield  was  shot;  Dr. 
 Robinson  assassinated,  and  general  consternation  seized 
 upon  the  Gentile  residents.  Some  of  these  events  de- 
 mand a  more  particular  account. 
 
 Squire  Newton  Brassfield,  formerly  a  citizen  of  Cali- 
 fornia, and  more  lately  of  Nevada,  while  sojourning 
 temporarily  in  Salt  Lake  City,  formed  the  acquaintance 
 of  a  woman  who  had  been  the  polygamous  wife  of  a 
 Mormon,  named  Hill,  but  had  left  him,  repudiated  this 
 so-called  marriage  and  claimed  that  she  was  entitled 
 at  common  law  to  the  possession  of  her  children  by  this 
 Hill,  as  the  offspring  of  an  illegal  marriage,  or  rather 
 of  no  marriage  at  all.  She  and  Brassfield  were  married 
 in  legal  form  by  the  U.  S.  Judge,  H.  P.  McCurdy,  on 
 the  28th  of  March,  1866 ;  a  writ  of  liaheas  corpus 
 was  issued  from  the  United  States  Court  for  the  pos- 
 session of  her  children,  and  the  trial  set  for  the  night 
 of  April  the  3d,  but  adjourned  till  the  6th.  Meanwhile 
 Brassfield  had  taken  a  trunk  containing  her  clothing 
 from  her  former  residence,  and  was  arrested  by  the 
 Mormon  authorities  on  a  charge  of  grand  larceny ! 
 The  ground  assumed  for  this  action  was  that  tlie  cloth- 
 ing taken  was  the  property  of  her  husband.  It  was  also 
 charged  that  he  had  resisted  the  ofiicer  attempting  to 
 make  the  arrest — an  ofience  universally  considered 
 worthy  of  death  by  the  Mormons.  In  this  case  also  an 
 appeal  was  had  to  the  United  States  Court.  On  the 
 evening  of  April  6tli,  about  8  o'clock,  while  Brassfield 
 was  passing  along  Second  South  street,  in  the  custodv 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  205 
 
 of,  or  in  company  with  United  States  Marshal,  J.  K. 
 Hosmer,  he  was  sliot  in  tlie  hack  by  a  concealed  assassin ; 
 as  near  as  could  be  determined,  from  an  alley  on  the 
 opposite  side  of  the  street.  The  assassin  escaped,  and 
 no  especial  effort  was  made  to  arrest  him.  The  Gen- 
 tiles offered  a  reward  of  $4,500  for  his  apprehension ; 
 the  Mormon  press  and  speakers  were  either  non-com- 
 mittal on  the  subject,  or  mildly  sustained  the  assassin, 
 and  dared  the  Gentiles  to  publish  their  names  to  the 
 offered  reward.  The  possession  of  her  two  children 
 was  afterwards  confirmed  to  Mrs.  Brassfield  by  the 
 United  States  Court,  and  she  left  the  Territory  with 
 them.  The  following  telegram  was  at  once  forwarded 
 to  General  Connor,  still  in  command  of  the  district,  but 
 temporarily  absent  in  New  York : 
 
 Great  Salt  Lake  City,  April  8,  1866. 
 Brigadier- General  P.  E.  Connor,  Metropolitan  Hotel, 
 New  York : — I  married  S.  N.  Brassfield  to  a  Mormon 
 woman,  on  the  28th  ultimo.  Brassfield  was  assassinated 
 on  the  night  of  the  6th  instant.  I  have  been  denounced 
 and  threatened  publicly.  Government  officials  here  have 
 telegraphed  to  the  Secretary  of  War  to  retain  troops 
 here  until  others  are  sent  to  relieve  them.  Call  on 
 Secretary  of  War,  learn  his  conclusions  and  answer ; 
 I  feel  unsafe  in  person  and  property  without  protection. 
 
 H.  P.   MCCURDY, 
 Associate  Justice  Supreme  Court,  U.  T. 
 
 A  similar  dispatch  was  forwarded  by  Colonel  C.  A. 
 Potter,  who  was  ordered  to  retain  trooj)s  until  the 
 regulars  arrived. 
 
206  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 Dr.  Robinson  was  assassinated  on  the  night  of  the 
 22d  of  October.  The  following  biography  is  taken 
 from  the  Union  Vedette  of  October  25th,  1866. 
 
 "  The  late  Dr.  J.  K.  Rohinson,  whose  assassination 
 last  Monday  has  sent  a  thrill  of  horror  to  the  heart  of 
 every  law  abiding  citizens  of  this  Territory,  was  a 
 native  of  Calais,  Maine,  and  was  in  his  thirty-first 
 year.  He  came  to  Utah  from  California  in  the  spring 
 of  1864,  as  an  Assistant  Surgeon  of  the  United  States 
 volunteers,  and  reporting  to  General  Connor,  was  sent 
 to  Camp  Connor  at  Soda  Springs,  Idaho ;  but  during 
 the  following  winter  was  ordered  to  Salt  Lake,  and 
 took  charge  of  the  hospital  at  Camp  Douglas,  and  re- 
 mained on  duty  there  and  in  this  city  until  last  winter, 
 when  he  was  mustered  out  of  the  service,  leaving  a 
 record  in  the  army  which  stands  without  a  blemish. 
 After  leaving  the  service  of  his  country,  Dr.  Robinson 
 settled  down  in  this  city  and  engaged  in  the  practice 
 of  his  profession,  in  which  he  had  taken  the  lead 
 among  the  practicing  physicians  of  Salt  Lake,  and  has 
 occupied  an  equally  prominent  position  in  the  advance- 
 ment of  all  religious  and  educational  schemes  of  the 
 city.  He  was  one  of  the  most  intimate  friends  and 
 the  room-mate  of  the  Rev.  Norman  McLeod,  and  co- 
 operated with  him  in  all  his  measures  for  the  advance- 
 ment of  the  social  condition  of  the  people  of  Utah. 
 In  this  capacity  he  had,  up  to  the  time  of  his  death, 
 filled  with  great  credit  the  position  of  superintendent 
 in  the  Gentile  Sunday  School.  On  the  afternoon  of 
 Mr.  McLeod's  departure  for  the  East,  in  Marcii  last, 
 he  united   Dr.   Robinson  in   the   bonds  of  matrimony 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  207 
 
 with  Miss  Nellie  Kay,  the  accomplished  daughter  of 
 the  late  Dr.  Kay.  No  citizen  of  Salt  Lake  stood 
 higher,  morally  or  socially,  than  Dr.  Robinson  ;  we 
 have  never  heard  of  his  having  a  personal  enemy,  or 
 that  he  ever  infringed  upon  the  legal  or  moral  rights 
 of  any  man  living,  and  the  only  conceivable  cause  for 
 his  assassination  is  the  fact  that  he  saw  fit  to  contest 
 the  title  of  a  piece  of  land  with  the  city  in  the  Supreme 
 Court.  No  other  cause  can  be  assigned,  for  had  the 
 object  of  the  assassins  been  plunder,  they  could  have 
 obtained  it,  as  the  Doctor  had  upon  his  person  a  large 
 sum  of  money  and  a  valuable  gold  watch,  which  had 
 been  untouched  when  the  body  was  found." 
 
 In  common  with  many  others,  Dr.  Robinson  had  held 
 that  the  Territorial  Legislature  had  no  right  to  make 
 grants  of  public  land,  and  the  city  no  right  to  pre-empt. 
 He,  accordingly,  filed  a  claim  upon  the  land  surrounding 
 the  Warm  Springs  near  the  city,  and  erected  some  im- 
 provements which  were  torn  down  at  mid-day  by  an 
 armed  force  of  police.  He  appealed  his  case  to  the  U. 
 S.  Court,  bringing  an  action  of  ejectment ;  in  the  course 
 of  the  trial,  his  counsel  raised  the  question  that  the 
 city,  because  of  the  non-performance  of  certain  acts, 
 had  no  legal  existence  \  which  was  argued  before  Chief 
 Justice  Titus,  and  by  him  decided  in  favor  of  the  city. 
 Dr.  Robinson  then  gave  notice  of  his  intention  to  appeal. 
 On  the  11th  of  October,  a  bowling  alley  belonging  to 
 the  Doctor  was  destroyed  by  a  party  of  some  twenty 
 men  with  blackened  faces.  For  this  a  number  of  per- 
 sons were  arrested,  Chief  of  Police  Burt  and  two  sub- 
 ordinates identified  and  bound  over  by  the  Chief  Ju*- 
 
20S  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 tice.  Soon  after,  Dr.  Robinson  called  on  Mayor  Wells, 
 in  regard  to  the  matter,  was  denied  any  answer  and  or- 
 dered to  leave  the  house.  This  affair  was  thus  chron- 
 icled the  next  morning  by  the  Telegixiph,  then  edited  by 
 the  late  renegade  Mormon,  T.  B.  H.  Stenhouse : 
 
 "  As  "Well  Trained — The  admiration  for  Zebra,  Na- 
 poleon and  Leopard,  on  Friday  night,  was  snuffed  out 
 by  the  greater  admiration  for  Dr.  Ball-alley  as  he  cleared 
 irom  the  Mayor's  house  yesterday  afternoon.  His  honor 
 had  only  to  open  the  door,  direct  his  finger  and  the  man 
 of  pills  and  bluster  vamosed  wdth  a  grace  that  fairly 
 eclipsed  little  Leopard  under  the  admirable  direction  of 
 Bartholomew." 
 
 For  several  Sundays  Brigham  and  other  leaders  had 
 preached  the  most  intlammatory  harangues  in  the 
 Tabernacle,  advising  the  people  "  if  any  man  attempted 
 to  pre-empt  their  land  to  '  send  him  to  hell  across 
 lots ' "  and  the  like.  In  more  than  one  instance  assas- 
 sination was  openly  counseled  and  threatened,  and  the 
 people  were  ripe  for  any  desperate  outrage.  The 
 second  night  after  the  above  publication,  between  the 
 hours  of  eleven  and  twelve,  a  man  called  at  the  house 
 of  Dr.  Robinson,  stated  that  "  his  brother,  John  Jones, 
 had  had  his  leg  broken  and  required  the  Doctor's  as.sis- 
 tance ;"  the  Doctor  started  with  the  man,  they  were 
 joined  by  others,  and  a  few  steps  away,  at  the  corner 
 of  Main  and  Third  South  Street,  he  was  struck  two 
 })lows  on  the  head,  and  immediately  shot  through  the 
 brain.  One  witness  saw  one  of  the  assassins  running 
 down  the  street  westward  j  two  others  saw  three  of 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  209 
 
 them  running  eastward,  and  three  were  seen  running 
 southward,  making  seven  persons  engaged  in  the  mur- 
 der. On  the  investigation  Mayor  Wells  swore  that  he 
 was  not  informed  of  the  murder  "  till  ten  o'clock  the 
 day  after ;"  the  policemen  swore  there  were  but  eight 
 of  them  on  duty  that  night,  of  whom  three  were  at  the 
 circus  and  "  all  the  rest  at  the  City  Hall ;"  the  Mor- 
 mons examined  swore  there  had  been  no  threats  made, 
 and  Stenhouse  and  one  or  two  others  refused  to  answer 
 most  of  the  questions  asked.  The  investigation  utterly 
 failed  to  show  that  Dr.  Kobinson  had  a  personal  enemy 
 in  the  world  and  showed  that  he  had  had  difficulty 
 with  none  but  the  city  authorities.  Evidence  subse- 
 quently developed  has  fixed  the  guilt  of  this  murder 
 immistakably  upon  the  Mormon  authorities. 
 
 The  case  of  those  Gentiles  who  were  driven  from 
 tlie  public  land  presents  a  flagrant  violation  of  law. 
 The  Legislature  of  Utah  has  passed  an  Act  appointmg 
 a  Territorial  Surveyor ;  under  its  provisions  any  man 
 can  get  the  Surveyor  to  run  a  line  around  a  piece  of 
 the  public  land,  then  stick  up  stakes  at  the  four  cor- 
 ners and  he  has  a  claim  upon  the  land.  It  has  been 
 the  custom  to  pay  no  regard  whatever  to  the  National 
 laws  in  regard  to  the  public  land.  But  should  a 
 Gentile  attempt  under  these  laws  to  take  up  a  piece  of 
 land  thus  surveyed,  he  would  be  driven  off.  A  number^ 
 of  the  discharged  volunteers,  among  them  a  Surgeon 
 Williamson  and  Lieutenant  Brown,  entered  upon  some 
 unoccupied  land  west  of  the  Jordan,  without  a  sign  of 
 an  improvement  upon  it.  While  erecting  their  cabins 
 some  Mormons  came  out  and  claimed  the  land.     They 
 
 14 
 
210  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 informed  the  Mormons  that  they  did  not  wish  to  intrude 
 on  any  other  man's  land,  and  if  the  latter  would  show 
 they  had  taken  up  this  land  or  made  any  improvements 
 upon  it,  they  would  leave  it.  To  this  reasonable  re- 
 quest no  reply  was  made,  but  that  night  some  twenty 
 men  with  blackened  faces  came  to  their  shanties  and 
 captured  both  Brown  and  Williamson.  They  rolled 
 them  both  up  in  an  old  tent  and  carried  them  towards 
 the  Jordan.  Lieutenant  Brown,  a  cool  and  brave  man, 
 simply  said :  "  Well,  gentlemen,  all  I  have  to  say  is,  if 
 you  intend  to  take  my  life,  kill  me  like  a  man,  and  don't 
 drown  me  like  a  dog."  Upon  this  one  of  the  crowd 
 stepped  up  and  remarked  :  "  You  shan't  put  that  man 
 in  there.  I  know  his  voice ;  it's  Lieutenant  Brown,  and 
 once  when  he  commanded  the  provost  guard  1  had 
 trouble  with  the  soldiers,  and  he  took  my  part  and  got 
 me  off     I  didn't  know  this  was  the  man  till  he  spoke." 
 
 After  consultation  the  mob  tore  down  their  shanties 
 and  released  the  men  on  their  promise  to  leave  the 
 country.  The  other  settlers  were  ducked  in  the  Jor- 
 dan, and  one  of  them  shot  through  the  leg  while  swim- 
 ming the  river. 
 
 The  administration  of  General  Connor  had  been 
 almost  a  perfect  success,  and  the  American  name  was 
 then  respected  and  Gentile  safety  secured  in  the  most 
 remote  valleys  of  Utah ;  outside  influences  of  all  kinds 
 had  rapidly  augmented,  and  a  flourishing  Gentile 
 clmrch,  school  and  paper  had  been  established.  But 
 Brigham  and  his  tools  had  never  ceased  to  work  and 
 intrigue  at  Washington  for  a  change,  and  Johnson's 
 itdministration  proved  disastrous  to  Utah.     In  a  few 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  211 
 
 months  after  General  Connor  was  removed  and  the 
 troops  withdrawn,  there  were  three  atrocious  murders 
 and  numerous  outrages  upon  Gentiles. 
 
 Soon  after,  three  apostates  named  Potter,  Wilson  and 
 Walker,  were  arrested  at  Coalville  in  Weber  Valley,  on 
 a  trumped  up  charge  of  stealing  a  cow.  This  Potter  was 
 a  brother  of  those  murdered  at  Springville  in  1857, 
 and  had  been  pursued  with  unrelenting  hatred.  Several 
 times  he  had  been  arrested  on  various  charges  and  as 
 often  acquitted.  His  death  was  now  determined  upon, 
 and  one  "  Art "  Hinckley,  a  "  Danite  "  and  Salt  Lake 
 policeman  was  sent  for.  Evidence  afterwards  obtained, 
 shows  that  he  was  accompanied  by  another  policeman, 
 and  joined  by  parties  at  different  points  on  his  way. 
 They  proceeded  to  the  school-house  where  the  three  men 
 were  confined,  and  took  them  out.  Walker  suspecting 
 foul  play,  saw  two  of  his  guards  level  their  guns  at 
 him,  when  he  dodged  down  and  the  shots  only  slightly 
 wounded  him  in  the  neck.  At  the  same  instant  the 
 contents  of  a  heavily  loaded  shot-gun  were  fired  into 
 Potter's  body.  Walker  being  an  agile  man  escaped  by 
 jumping  a  near  fence,  receiving  another  slight  wound 
 in  so  doing,  and  made  his  way  through  canons  and 
 ravines  to  Camp  Douglas.  Wilson  also  ran  a  little 
 way,  but  was  shot  dead.  On  the  evidence  of  Walker  the 
 assassins  were  arrested,  but  by  the  connivance  of  Mor- 
 mon officers  escaped  from  the  Territorial  Marshal,  who 
 had  them  in  charge.  The  Mormon  papers  labored  to 
 explain  the  affair,  stating  that  the  prisoners  were  shot 
 in  attempting  to  escape  from  custody;  but  it  is  the 
 testimony  of  all  who  saw  the  corpse  of  Potter,  that  the 
 
212  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 gun  must  have  been  almost  touching  his  body  when 
 fired,  and  that  his  throat  was  cut  after  death.  This 
 was  no  doubt  in  fulfilment  of  the  penalty  in  the  En- 
 dowment oath.  Walker  remained  about  Camp  Doug- 
 las for  some  time,  then  suddenly  disappeared,  and  has 
 since  never  been  heard  of.  Shortly  after,  a  colored  man 
 generally  known  as  "  Negro  Tom,"  who  had  been 
 brought  to  the  Territory  by  the  Mormons  as  a  slave, 
 and  lived  many  years  in  the  family  of  Brigham  Young 
 and  other  dignitaries,  called  upon  some  Federal  officials 
 and  stated  that  he  could  give  important  evidence  in 
 regard  to  some  of  these  murders.  A  few  days  after,  his 
 body  was  found  upon  the  "bench"  two  miles  east  of 
 the  city,  horribly  mangled,  his  throat  cut  from  ear  to 
 ear,  and  on  his  breast  a  large  placard  marked  : 
 
 "Let  White  Women  Alone." 
 In  all  such  cases  of  assassination  the  Monnons  can 
 command  abundant  evidence  that  the  victim  has  "  in- 
 sulted a  Mormon  woman."  Thus  the  last  witness  of 
 these  crimes  was  removed,  and  the  proof  put  beyond 
 the  reach  of  earthly  courts. 
 
 In  the  long  list  of  murders  and  outrages,  I  have  thus 
 far  particularly  noted  only  those  upon  Gentiles,  or  in 
 which  Gentiles  were  specially  interested.  But  it  must 
 be  said  of  the  Mormons,  that  they  have  always  treated 
 their  own  people  worse  than  outsiders ;  and  while  they 
 only  molested  those  Gentiles  who  were  particularly  ol> 
 noxious,  or  had  property  to  reward  their  assassins,  they 
 have  visited  apostates  and  dissenters  with  extreme 
 vengeance.  It  were  a  wearisome  and  disgusting  task 
 to  recount  all  the  memoirs  of  those  who  fled  or  attempted 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  213 
 
 to  flee  from  the  Territory,  and  the  bloody  fate  which 
 has  overtaken  many,  even  of  the  tools  of  the  Church, 
 when  suspected.  One  incident,  however,  is  so  notorious 
 in  the  early  annals  of  Utah,  that,  as  an  instance  of  the 
 course  often  pursued,  it  deserves  to  be  noted.  Chief 
 among  the  cut>-throats  of  the  earlier  period,  were  three 
 who  merit  an  immortality  of  infamy,  viz. :  "  Port " 
 Rockwell,  "Ephe"  Hanks,  and  "Bill"  Hickman. 
 Closely  associated  with  the  last  for  many  years  was  one 
 "  Ike  "  Hatch ;  but  at  length  he  grew  weary  of  his  mode 
 of  life,  and,  confiding  in  Hickman,  announced  his  inten- 
 tion to  escape  from  the  Territory.  Soon  after  Hickman 
 and  Hatch  started  from  Salt  Lake  City  on  horseback 
 for  Provo.  While  crossing  a  small  stream  on  the  road, 
 lined  with  a  thick  growth  of  willows.  Hatch,  who  was 
 in  advance,  was  shot  from  behind,  and  fell  from  his 
 horse.  Hickman  at  once  galloped  back  to  the  city  and 
 reported  that  they  had  been  attacked  by  Indians,  and 
 Hatch  killed.  The  latter,-  however,  had  strength  to 
 climb  upon  his  horse  and  reach  the  city  before  he  died, 
 and  informed  his  father  that  he  had  been  shot  bv  Hick- 
 man.  The  latter  had  the  hardihood  to  attend  the 
 funeral  of  Hatch,  and  actually  assisted  in  shoveling  the 
 dirt  into  the  grave.  While  in  this  work,  the  father  of 
 Hatch,  overcome  by  sudden  anger,  aimed  a  blow  at  the 
 murderer  with  a  spade,  which  would  certainly  have 
 ended  his  career  had  not  the  blow  been  warded  off  by  a 
 friend  of  Hickman,  who  was  on  the  watch.  This 
 murder,  as  well  as  several  others  by  Hickman,  is  not 
 even  questioned  among  the  Mormons  ;  and  yet  this  man 
 was  for  years  on  friendly  and  even  intimate  terms  with 
 
4 14  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 Brigham  Young!  Hickman  also  fell  under  suspicion 
 soon  after  the  "  Morrisite  war,"  of  which  an  account 
 will  hereafter  be  given,  and  fled  to  Nevada.  While 
 there,  he  was  taken  violently  ill,  and  sent  for  a 
 "  Josephite  "  Mormon  preacher  to  administer  absolution. 
 It  is  reported  that  he  then  confessed  participation  in  no 
 less  than  forty-three  deliberate  murders  !  He  recovered, 
 and  is  still  seen  occasionally  in  Utah. 
 
 The  vigilant  administration  of  General  Connor,  and 
 the  firm  position  assumed  by  the  Governor  did  not  meet 
 the  approval  of  the  authorities  at  Washington.  In 
 1863  Harding  was  removed  and  appointed  Chief  Justice 
 of  Colorado,  being  succeeded  as  Governor  by  Hon. 
 James  Duane  Doty,  who  had  fo-r  some  time  been  Indian 
 Superintendent  for  Utah.  About  the  same  time  Judge 
 Kinney  went  to  represent  the  Territory  in  Congress 
 and  was  succeeded  as  Chief  Justice  by  Hon.  John  Titus, 
 of  Philadelphia.  He  was  an  able  and  impartial  Judge; 
 but  seemed  too  often  bound  by  precedents,  and  unwill- 
 ini'  to  disturb  the  order  of  administration  which  had 
 existed  from  the  first  in  the  Territorial  Courts,  even 
 when  it  was  clearly  proved  to  be  contrary  to  a  just 
 rendering  of  the  Organic  Act.  Dr.  Frank  Fuller,  who 
 had  been  Secretary  of  the  Territory,  from  '61  to  '63. 
 was  succeeded  in  the  autumn  of  the  latter  year  by  Mr. 
 Amos  Reed.  Judge  Waite,  after  several  inefiectual  at- 
 tempts to  administer  the  Itvw,  resigned  in  disgust  in 
 1864,  and  was  succeeded  by  Judge  McCurdy,  who  gave 
 i:)lace  in  1867  for  a  Mormon  lawyer,  named  Hoge,  ap- 
 pointed by  President  Johnson.  Governor  Doty  filled 
 the  office  with  all  the  dignity  and  efficiency  possible  to 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  215 
 
 a  man  in  such  circumstances,  almost  without  command 
 and  entirely  without  the  moral  support  of  the  Govern- 
 ment. He  died  in  1865  and  was  succeeded  by  Hon. 
 Charles  Durkee,  also  of  Wisconsin,  who  retained  the 
 office  till  late  in  1869,  and  a  few  weeks  after  his  re- 
 moval died  at  Omaha,  Nebraska.  He  was  quite  old, 
 very  feeble,  without  the  power  or  energy  to  command, 
 and  was  expressly  instructed  from  Washington  to  pur- 
 sue a  conciliatory  policy;  as  he  once  informed  the 
 writer,  he  "  was  sent  out  to  do  nothing,"  and  it  need 
 only  be  added  that  he  succeeded  admirably  in  doing  it. 
 
 The  Secretary,  Reed,  was  succeeded  in  the  autumn 
 of  1866  by  Edward  P.  Higgins,  of  Michigan,  who  filled 
 that  office  with  marked  ability  till  the  spring  of  1869. 
 The  first  half  of  that  year  he  acted  as  Governor,  in  the 
 absence  of  Durkee,  and  won  golden  opinions  for  the 
 able  manner  in  which  he  performed  the  duties  of  that 
 office.  His  message  to  tlie  Territorial  Legislature  i.* 
 noted  as  among  the  most  Able  ever  presented  in  Utah 
 
 Soon  after  being  relieved  of  his  command,  General 
 Connor  took  up  his  residence  in  Stockton,  Rush  Valley, 
 forty  miles  west  of  the  cit}',  where  he  has  since  been 
 extensively  engaged  in  mining. 
 
 A  general  stampede  of  Gentiles  from  Utah  seemed 
 likely  to  follow  the  withdrawal  of  all  protection  by  the 
 Government;  and  soon  after  Robinson's  death,  the 
 Gentile  merchants,  with  two  or  three  exceptions,  joined 
 in  a  written  proposal  to  Brigham,  that  they  would  all 
 leave  the  Territory,  if  he  or  the  Church  would  pay  a 
 nominal  price  for  their  property.  To  this  Brigham 
 complacently  made  reply  that  he  "  had  not  asked  them 
 
216  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 to  come,  and  did  not  ask  them  to  go ;  they  could  stay 
 as  long  as  they  pleased."  This  excitement  subsided 
 like  the  rest,  and  a  whole  year  passed  away  without 
 any  serious  outrages,  or  unusual  threats.  The  influ- 
 ence of  the  approaching  railroad  began  to  be  felt, 
 resulting  in  another  era  of  good  feeling. 
 
 The  amount  of  travel  increased,  and  with  it  the 
 amount  of  money ;  trade  was  free,  with  no  distinction 
 between  Mormon  and  Gentiles ;  contracts  on  the  rail- 
 road were  taken  by  both,  and  little  distinction  made 
 in  giving  employment,  and  in  July,  1868,  at  a  great 
 railroad  meeting.  Mormon,  Jew  and  Christian  frater- 
 nized in  the  Tabernacle,  and  seemed  to  feel  they  had  a 
 common  interest  in  the  country's  prosperity. 
 
 And  thus  stood  affairs  in  the  earl}^  autumn  of  1868, 
 when  the  author  first  entered  the  Territory. 
 
AND   CRIMES  OP  MORMONISM.  217 
 
 CHAPTER  YIII. 
 
 FIRST   VIEWS   IN   UTAH. 
 
 The  real  "American  Desert"— No  Myth—Bitter  Creek— Green  River- 
 Lone  Rock— Plains  of  Bridger— Quaking  Asp  Ridge— Bear  River— A 
 Mormon  Autobiography— "  Pulling  hair"— "Aristocracy"  on  the  Plains 
 -"Mule-skinners"  and  " Bullwhackers  "— The  " BuUwhackers  Epic" 
 —Cache  Cave— Echo  Canon— Mormon  "fortifications"— Braggadocio- 
 Storm  in  Weber  Canon— Up  the  Weber— Pariey's  Park— A  Wife-steal- 
 ing Apostle— Down  the  Canon— Majestic  Scenery— First  view  of  the 
 valley— The  "  City  of  the  Saints," 
 
 On  the  morning  of  August  28th,  1868,  from  the 
 heights  east  of  Green  River,  then  the  eastern  boundary 
 of  the  Territory,  I  took  my  first  view  of  Utah.  I  had 
 not  reached,  as  I  did  not  leave  it,  without  tribulation. 
 In  company  with  a  Mormon  "outfit"  of  sixteen  men, 
 ten  wagons,  and  sixty  mxiles,  I  had  made  the  weari- 
 some journey  from  North  Platte  across  three  hundred 
 nriles  of  the  American  Desert  at  the  dryest  season  of 
 the  year.  The  point  of  our  departure  from  the  rail- 
 road was  too  far  south  for  us  to  reach  the  much  soughi 
 Sweetwater  route,  and,  after  leaving  Bridger's  Pass,  we 
 struck  directly  for  the  head  of  Bitter  Creek,  down 
 which  we  travelled  for  three  days,  days  fixed  in 
 memory,  but  not  dear. 
 
 A  region  of  sand  and  alkali,  where  the  white  dust 
 lay  six  inches  deep  in  the  road,  and  the  whole  surface 
 of  the  valley  looked  like  a  mixture  of  dried  soap  and 
 soda,  this  part  of  the  American  Desert  is  certainly  no 
 
218  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 myth.  On  the  26th  of  August  we  left  that  stream  at 
 Point  of  Rocks,  and  traveled  northward  towards  the 
 upper  crossing  of  Green  River.  Thirty  miles  on  our 
 former  course  would  have  brought  us  to  the  confluence 
 of  Bitter  Creek  and  Green  River,  but  it  was  impossible 
 to  travel  longer  on  the  former  stream,  the  water  of 
 which  resembles  weak  soapsuds,  and  has  the  effect 
 upon  the  system  of  a  mild  infusion  of  aloes.  The  road, 
 always  bad  at  that  season,  was  rendered  much  worse 
 by  the  graders  'everywhere  present,  and  at  work  upon 
 the  line  of  the  railroad.  The  teamsters  we  met, 
 whether  Saxon,  Mexican,  or  Negro,  all  looked  of  one 
 color,  a  moving  "pillar  of  cloud,"  and,  as  they  shook 
 the  dust  from  their  ears,  seemed  living  examj^les  of  the 
 judgment,  "  Dust  thou  art,"  etc. 
 
 Special  notice  is  due  the  "  Twenty-mile  Desert," 
 where  for  ten  hours  the  train  struggled  wearily  through 
 a  loose  bed  of  sand  and  soda,  enveloped  by  a  blinding 
 white  cloud  through  which  the  driver  could  not  see  his 
 lead  mules,  and  naught  was  heard  but  the  cracking  of 
 whips,  the  yells  and  curses  of  the  teamsters  and  the 
 "cry"  of  the  wheels  in  the  soda,  as  they  seemed  to  be 
 groaning  out  the  unspeakable  woes  of  the  dumb  animals. 
 During  this  experience  we  often  turned  our  -eyes  long- 
 ingly toward  the  mountain  ranges  which  lay  so  cool 
 and  invitingly  before  us.  But  a  change  came  over  the 
 spirit  of  our  dream,  when  by  our  new  route  we  had 
 reached  that  elevated  region. 
 
 On  the  mornings  of  the  27tli  and  28th,  M-e  found  ice 
 a  quarter  of  an  inch  thick  on  the  water  in  our  buckets, 
 and  the  winds  were  so  cold  and  piercing,  that  a  heavy 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  219 
 
 coat  and  two  woollen  wrappers  seemed  inadequate  pro- 
 tection. Our  route  was  in  an  irregular  semi-circle, 
 north,  northwest  and  west ;  passing  Lone  Rock,  a  vast 
 block  of  white  and  yellow  stone,  standing  in  the  centre 
 of  a  high,  level  plain,  as  if  thrown  by  some  convulsion 
 of  nature  from  a  flat  summit  two  miles  distant.  As  we 
 approached  it  up  the  valley  from  the  east,  at  some  miles 
 distance,  it  bears  an  exact  resemblance  to  a  large  steam- 
 boat coming  on  under  full  head  of  steam ;  seen  from 
 the  side,  it  resembles  a  vast  Gothic  cathedral,  with 
 spires  at  the  four  corners,  and  numerous  turrets,  doors 
 and  windows,  while  the  mind  imagines  the  interior, 
 with  its  ringing  halls  and  resounding  corridors.  De- 
 scending to  the  valley  by  a  dangerous  "  dugway,"  we 
 forded  Green  River,  a  clear,  pure  stream,  here  fifty 
 yards  wide  and  three  feet  deep,  cold  as  ice-water,  flow- 
 ing rapidly  southward  to  its  junction  with  Grand  River, 
 where  both  form  the  Great  Colorado. 
 
 From  Green  River,  another  day's  travel,  nearly  all 
 the  way  up  hill,  brought  us  upon  another  cold  ridge, 
 where  the  water  froze  again.  The  next  day  was  Sun- 
 day, but  there  is  no  Sabbath  on  the  plains  unless  a  man 
 dies,  a  mule  gets  sick,  or  unusually  good  grass  and  water 
 invite  to  a  day  of  rest,  in  which  case,  Sunday  comes 
 any  day  of  the  week.  So  we  thawed  the  ice  out  of  our 
 pots  and  buckets,  took  a  Uttle  hot  cofiee,  "  damper  "  and 
 pork,  limbered  up  our  joints  and  traveled  on,  this  day 
 crossing  Ross'  Fork. 
 
 Something  in  the  air  of  these  plains  seems  to  furnish 
 an  exemption  from  the  usual  penalties  of  cold  and  ex- 
 posure.    I  have  often  waded  deep  creeks  or  risen  in  the 
 
220  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 morning  wet  and  cold,  but  never  experienced  any  ill 
 effects  from  it.  The  pure  air  of  the  region  proves  a 
 perfect  unmunity  against  its  exposures  and  hardships. 
 From  Ross'  Fork  we  passed  on  to  the  high  plains  of 
 Bridger,  7000  feet  above  sea  level  and  cold  and  barren 
 in  proportion.  Here  Johnston's  army  passed  the  winter 
 of  1857-8,  after  they  had  lost  their  cattle  and  supplies 
 in  Echo  Canon,  and  here  Colonel  Kane,  a  self-consti- 
 tuted embassador  from  the  Mormons,  found  "  the  three 
 heads  of  departments,"  Governor  Cumming,  Colonel 
 Johnston  and  Judge  Eckles,  when  he  sought  the  army 
 on  his  mission  of  peace.  For  the  last  three  days  we 
 have  traveled  in  sight  of  the  Uintah  Range ;  far  to  the 
 south  of  us  its  snowy  peaks  glistened  in  the  morning 
 sun-light  with  a  cloud  like  silvery  whiteness,  while 
 lower  down  the  dark  blue-green  marked  the  timber 
 Ime,  which  lower  still  faded  to  a  dull  gra}",  all  pre- 
 senting as  the  day  advanced  a  varying  panorama  of 
 light  and  shade,  showing  in  the  distance  like  the 
 shadowy  picture  scenes  of  fairy  land. 
 
 Our  last  cold  night,  August  31st,  we  spent  on  Quak- 
 ing Asp  Ridge  where  Boreas  sent  down  a  bitter  blast, 
 determined  to  punish  us  for  intrusion  into  his  high 
 domains.  With  a  double  thickness  of  gunny-bags  be- 
 low our  blankets  and  wagon-cover  above  we  slept 
 soundly  and  warmly,  and  while  the  wind  whistled 
 over  my  head  I  dreamed  of  the  sunny  valley  of  the 
 Ohio,  its  corn  ripening  in  the  warm  August  night 
 while  the  yellow-brown  blades  rustle  in  the  soft  breeze 
 and  sigh  a  lament  for  the  departing  summer. 
 
 From  this  summit  we  traveled  all  day,  constantly 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  221 
 
 descending  along  a  narrow  "  dugway,"  between  ridges 
 lined  with  quaking  asp,  or  through  narrow  canons 
 where  over-hanging  rocks  nearly  shut  out  the  sun- 
 light, emerging  finally  into  a  beautiful  valley  with  a 
 genial  climate  and  luxuriant  grass. 
 
 The  next  day  we  crossed  Bear  River,  finding  a  rich 
 valley  with  some  fine  farms.  All  this  valley  appears 
 capable  of  cultivation,  while  the  lower  hills  and  slopes 
 abound  in  fine  pasturage,  and  the  region  is  evidently  able 
 to  sustain  a  considerable  population.  From  Bear  River 
 Mv-Q  moved  on  to  Yellow  Creek  where  we  camped  one 
 night,  the  next  day  reaching  Cache  Cave  at  the  head 
 of  Echo  Canon  where  we  made  a  mid-day  camp  of  four 
 hours.  Cache  Cave  is  simply  a  hole  in  the  rock,  some 
 fifty  feet  up  the  hillside  and  running  back  forty  feet 
 into  the  clifi",  the  inside  covered  with  names  cut, 
 scratched  and  painted.  Here  we  found  the  grass  and 
 water  fine  but  no  wood,  not  even  the  sage  brush  which 
 had  thus  far  served  our  needs  ;  so  we  took  to  the  plains 
 and  gathered  the  fuel  known  to  plainsmen  as  "  bull 
 chips,"  which  made  a  very  hot  fire  when  used  in  sufii- 
 cient  quantities  and,  "  barrin  the  idee,"  served  to  cook  a 
 first-rate  dinner. 
 
 As  I  am  writing  of  a  mode  of  travel  now  rendered 
 entirely  obsolete  by  the  completed  line  of  railroad,  and 
 of  characters  and  methods  of  life  no  longer  met  with  by 
 the  ordinary  traveler,  some  special  account  of  daily 
 fare  of  those  whose  occupation  has  now  fallen  into  dis- 
 use may  be  interesting  to  the  general  reader.  Li  a  few 
 years  more,  our  aggressive  commercial  enterprise  and 
 comprehensive  civilization  will  have  obliterated  those 
 
222  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 routes  along  which  the  mule  and  ox  trains  bore  the 
 trade  and  immigrants  to  our  great  territories.  The 
 kinds  as  well  as  routes  of  trade  will  be  rapidly  modified, 
 with  new  agencies  and  a  vaster  scope.  With  the  pres- 
 ent generation  will  almost  entirely  disappear  whole 
 classes  of  men  who  were  met  with  everywhere  in  the 
 Territories,  Their  occupation  will  be  gone,  and  there 
 will  be  neither  demand  nor  school  for  the  training  of 
 others.  A  hardy,  brave  and  rough  race  generally,  they 
 were  essential  to  their  time,  pioneers  of  a  better  day, 
 yielding  their  places  slowly  to  new  routes  of  com- 
 merce for  the  world,  their  wagons  disappearing  before 
 railroads,  which  are  vaster  than  plains  or  mountains. 
 With  representatives  of  these  men  I  was  associated  for 
 the  time.  Thus  far  we  had  lived  rather  poorly  on 
 bacon,  bread,  coffee  without  milk  or  sugar,  and  such 
 molasses  as  is  used  in  the  States  as  a  medium  for  fly- 
 poison.  But  west  of  Green  River  we  entered  a  region 
 abounding  in  jack-rabbits  and  sage  hens,  with  which  our 
 passengers  kept  us  pretty  well  supplied.  I  had  thought 
 from  its  appearance  that  the  sage  hen  could  not  be 
 eaten,  but  found  it  rather  palatable,  tasting  like  the 
 flesh  of  our  domestic  hen  strongly  flavored  with  sage. 
 The  jack-rabbit  is  about  four  times  as  large  as  the  com- 
 mon "cotton-tail,"  and  two  of  them  made  an  ample 
 meal  for  our  crowd  of  sixteen.  For  biscuits  the  self- 
 rising  flour  is  used  on  the  plains ;  but  our  cooks  were 
 not  even  respectable  amateurs  and  half  the  time  our 
 bread  was  *'  Missouri-bake,"  i.  e.,  burnt  on  top  and  at 
 the  bottom,  and  raw  in  the  middle. 
 
 The  water  supply  was  so  irregular,  too,  that  most  of 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  223 
 
 the  way  we  made  but  one  "route"  per  day,  which 
 implies  no  dinner.  To  aggravate  the  case  further,  we 
 often  had  not  enough  at  breakfast,  and  supper  was  our 
 only  full  meal.  At  night  all  were  at  leisure;  the 
 mules  were  fed,  turned  out  and  given  in  charge  of  the 
 night  herder ;  the  boys  gathered  around  the  fire,  while 
 the  cooks  took  their  time  and  prepared  a  bushel  or 
 more  of  biscuits,,  and  we  ate  as  long  as  we  pleased. 
 But  in  the  morning  all  was  hurry;  the  mules  were 
 done  eating  before  the  men  began ;  the  "  wagon-boss " 
 hurried  the  cooks,  so  they  did  not  prepare  enough ;  at 
 the  shput  of  "grub-pile,"  every  man  "went  for"  his 
 share  in  haste,  and  the  fastest  eater  got  the  most. 
 "When  we  got  far  enough  to  meet  Salt  Lake  teams 
 with  freshly  dried  peaches  of  this  year's  crop,  we  in- 
 vested largely  therein,  and  our  cooks  made  a  number 
 of  peach  pies. 
 
 The  materials  were  flour,  bacon  grease,  peaches  and 
 the  molasses  above  mentioned,  the  pies  being  cooked 
 in  a  tin  plate  inside  of  a  baking  kettle.  Half  a  dozen 
 of  them  as  curiosities  would  be  a  prize  to  a  Ladies' 
 Fair,  or  a  rare  addition  to  a  Medical  Museum.  Our 
 favorite  dinner,  when  we  could  get  the  meat,  was  of 
 fried  ham  and  "sinkers,"  the  latter  peculiar  to  th^e 
 plains.  Here  is  the  recipe :  Flour,  ad  libitum;  water, 
 quant,  suff.;  soda,  a  spoonful,  if  you  have  it,  if  not  a 
 pinch  of  ashes.  Make  in  thin  cake,s,  and  fry  rapidly 
 in  hot  grease,  with  long  handled  frying  pans.  "  Death- 
 balls"  and  "Stone-blinders"  are  made  in  the  same 
 way,  with  the  addition  to  the  first  of  the  molasses, 
 and  to  the  second  plenty  of  saleratus. 
 
224  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 Lady  readers  will  give  due  credit  for  the  above 
 recipes,  as  I  believe  they  are  not  found  in  "  Leslie." 
 My  fellow  passengers  are  worthy  of  notice.  I  had 
 originally  intended  on  leaving  the  States  to  proceed 
 directly  by  railroad  and  stage  to  Salt  Lake  City ;  but 
 charges  on  the  Union  Pacific  being  then  at  the  rate  of 
 ten  cents  per  mile,  on  reaching  the  then  termmus  at 
 North  Platte,  I  found  myself  laboring  temporarily 
 under  a  serious  attack  of  what  Tom  Hood  calls  "  im- 
 pecuniosity,"  and  under  the  necessity  of  finding  some 
 cheaper,  if  less  expeditious  mode  of  conveyance. 
 Freight  had  accumulated,  and  teamsters  were^  in  de- 
 mand. So  I  took  to  the  plains  with  the  train  of 
 Naisbit  and  Hindley,  Mormon  merchants  of  Salt  Lake 
 City,  in  the  capacity  of  a  "mule-skinner"  for  the  trip, 
 seated  on  the  back  of  my  "  near  wheeler,"  and  wielding 
 a  whip  nearly  half  as  large  as  myself  over  the  backs  of 
 three  spans  of  mules,  viz. :  "  Brigham"  and  "  Sally 
 Ann,"  "Ponce"  and  "Jule,"  "Kit"  and  "Mexico." 
 Whether  the  name  of  my  "off-leader"  had  any  refer- 
 ence to  one  of  the  real  Brigham's  numerous  wives,  I 
 cannot  say;  but  such  a  reckless  system  of  asinine 
 nomenclature  would  hardly  indicate  a  delicate  respect 
 for  the  Prophet  on  the  part  of  these  young  "  Saints." 
 Of  our  little  party  of  sixteen,  two  drivers,  the  night 
 herder  and  three  passengers  were  Gentiles;  the  rest 
 Monnons,  or  at  least  "  hickory  Mormons,"  sons  of 
 Mormon  parents;  most  of  them  tall,  awkward  and 
 lank  lads  of  eighteen  or  twenty,  with  premonitory 
 symptoms  of  manhood  breaking  out  on  their  chins, 
 giving  them,  as  they  never  shaved,  a  very  verdant  and 
 backwoods  appearance.  • 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  22 -J 
 
 For  the  night  we  joined  bhankets  by  two's,  sleeping 
 on  gunny  bags,  under  the  wagons.  My  partner  was  a  tall, 
 lank  Mormon,  a  native  of  Mississippi, — "a  tough  cuss 
 from  Provo,"  his  companions  called  him, — who,  after  a 
 few  days'  travel  grew  quite  confidential  and  told  me  his 
 whole  history.  He  joined  the  Confederate  army  at  the 
 first  call,  fought  till  he  was  tired,  and  allowed  himself 
 to  be  captured  in  Hood's  retreat  from  Nashville ;  took 
 the  amnesty  oath  for  which  his  "  girl,  in  Massassipp, 
 wouldn't  have  nothin'  more  to  say  to  him,"  when  he  took 
 a  huge  disgust  at  the  States,  and  came  out  and  joined  the 
 Mormons  in  1865.  He  has  "  a  house  an'  lot  an'  two 
 good  lookin'  wives  in  the  Twentieth  Ward,  and  con- 
 siders himself  settled."  I  should  think  he  would.  As  an 
 outsider,  I  had  kept  quiet  on  the  subject  of  polygamy; 
 but  one  evening  when  reading  an  account  of  some 
 Chicago  social  abomination,  a  young  Mormon  remarked, 
 ''  That  is  the  benefit  of  polygamy ;  they  have  nothing 
 of  that  sort."  "Polygamy  would  be  all  right.  Bill," 
 said  another,  "if  they  only  wouldn't  pull  hair.  But 
 the  women  will  pull  hair  anyway  you  fix  it."  As  the 
 first  home  testimony  I  had  received  on  the  "  peculiar 
 institution"  of  Utah,  this  could  hardly  be  considered 
 fiivorable.  In  our  party  were  two  grandsons  of  the  late 
 Heber  C.  Kimball,  not  much  of  a  distinction  when  it 
 is  remembered  that  worthy  left  some  fifty  children  to 
 keep  his  name  in  remembrance.  I  have  generally 
 foinid  all  the  younger  generation  of  Mormons  to  be 
 infidels,  and  suspect  it  must  be  so  with  the  youth  of 
 any  religion  which  has  in  it  so  little  of  the  element  of 
 spirituality;  certainly  with  the  more  intelligent  of 
 15 
 
226  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 them.  From  a  gross,  sensuous  religion,  the  thmking 
 mind  glides  naturally  into  a  cold  and  cheerless  skep- 
 ticism. 
 
 Our  group  of  sixteen  stood  as  follows  :  seven  infidels, 
 mostly  of  Mormon  parents;  five  "good  Mormons;" 
 two  Lutherans ;  one  Catliolic,  and  one  Methodist.  Re- 
 ligiously, all  are  pretty  much  alike  on  the  j^lains,  but 
 socially  there  is  even  there  an  "  aristocracy,"  and  con- 
 siderable "class  and  caste"  jealousy.  The  "mule- 
 skinner"  considers  the  "bull-whacker"  quite  beneath 
 him,  and  will  hardly  associate  with  him  upon  equal 
 terms,  while  the  latter  doubtless  looks  upon  the  former 
 as  "  stuck  up  "  and  proud.  The  "  bull-whackers  "  have 
 to  drive  very  late,  for  which  reason  they  never  seem  so 
 social  and  lively  as  the  drivers  in  mule  trains.  All  our 
 work  was  done  by  dark,  and  gathered  around  the  camp- 
 fire  we  would  spend  the  evening  hours  in  lively  songs 
 and  merriment,  varied  by  some  with  an  occasional  dose 
 of  "  Red  Ja,cket,"  which  is  used  on  the  plains  as  an  al- 
 terative, sanative,  sedative  and  preventive.  On  the 
 wild  mountain  side  or  in  the  deep  glen,  by  a  sage  brush 
 fire,  one  may  imagine  the  roaring  chorus  from  a  dozen 
 pairs  of  strong  lungs,  over  such  a  choice  bit  of  poetry 
 as  this : 
 
 "  Oh,  how  happy  is  the  man  who  has  heard  instruction's  voice, 
 And  turned  a  mule-skinner  for  his  first  and  early  choice,"  etc. 
 
 Or  such  a  bit  of  history  as  this : 
 
 "  Obadier,  he  dream pt  a  dream, 
 Drcampt  he  was  drivin'  a  ten  mule  team, 
 But  when  he  woke  he  heaved  a  sigh, 
 Tiie  lead  mule  kicked  c-o-wt  the  swing  mule's  eye." 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMOXISM.  227 
 
 Compared  with  these  bold  and  jojous  utterances,  there 
 13  quite  a  touch  of  the  pathetic  in 
 
 "THE  BULL-WHACKER'S  EPIC." 
 
 "Oh  1  I'm  a  jolly  driver  on  the  Salt  Lake  City  line, 
 And  I  can  lick  the  rascal  that  yokes  an  ox  of  mine  ; 
 He'd  better  turn  him  out,  or  you  bet  your  life  I'll  try 
 To  sprawl  him  with  an  ox-bow — 'Root  hog,  or  die.' 
 
 "  Oh  1  I'll  tell  you  how  it  is  when  you  first  get  on  the  road  : 
 You've  got  an  awkward  team  and  a  very  heavy  load  ; 
 You've  got  to  whip  and  hollow,  (if  you  swear  it's  on  the  sly,)— 
 Punch  your  teams  along  boys — '  Root  hog,  or  die.' 
 
 *'0h  I  it's  every  day  at  noon  there  is  something  to  do. 
 If  there's  nothing  else,  there  will  be  an  ox  to  shoe  ; 
 First  with  ropes  you  throw  him,  and  there  you  make  him  lie 
 "While  you  tack  on  the  shoes,  boys—'  Root  hog,  or  die. ' 
 
 "  Perhaps  you'd  like  to  know  what  it  is  we  have  to  eat, 
 A  little  bit  of  bread,  and  a  dirty  piece  of  meat ; 
 A  little  old  molasses,  and  sugar  on  the  sly, 
 Potatoes  if  you've  got  'em — '  Root  hog,  or  die.' 
 
 "  Oh  I  there's  many  strange  sights  to  be  seen  along  the  road, 
 The  antelopes  and  deer  and  the  great  big  sandy  toad. 
 The  buffalo  and  elk,  the  rabbits  jump  so  high, 
 And  with  all  the  bloody  Injuns — '  Root  hog,  or  die.' 
 
 "  The  prairie  dogs  in  Dog-town,  and  the  prickly  pears, 
 And  the  buffalo  bones  that  are  scattered  everywheres  ; 
 Now  and  then  dead  oxen  from  vile  Alkali, 
 Are  very  thick  in  places,  where  it's  '  Root  hog,  or  die.' 
 
 "  Oh  !  you've  got  to  take  things  on  the  plains  as  you  can, 
 They'll  never  try  to  please  you,  '  or  any  other  man  ;' 
 You  go  it  late  and  early,  and  also  wet  or  dry, 
 And  eat  when  you  can  get  it — '  Root  hog,  or  die.' 
 
 "  Oh,  times  on  Bitter  Creek,  they  never  can  be  beat, 
 '  Root  hog,  or  die'  is  on  every  wagon  sheet ; 
 The  sand  within  your  throat,  the  dust  within  your  eye, 
 Bend  your  back  and  stand  it,  to  'Root  hog,  or  die.' 
 
228  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 "  When  we  carrived  in  Salt  Lake,  the  25th  of  June, 
 The  people  were  surprised  to  see  us  come  so  soon  ; 
 But  we  are  bold  bull-whackers  on  whom  you  can  rely, 
 We're  tough,  and  we  can  stand  it,  to  '  Root  hog,  or  die.'  " 
 
 It  will  be  seen  that  the  "  sacred  nme  "  flourish  even 
 on  the  American  Desert. 
 
 We  were  two  days  in  passing  the  thirty  miles  down 
 Echo  Canon,  our  progress  being  slow  because  the  roads 
 were  so  badly  cut  up  by  the  workmen  on  the  railroad 
 track.  Hundreds  of  English,  Welsh,  Swedes  and  Danes, 
 were  there  at  work  on  Brigham  Young's  contract,  which 
 extended  sixty  miles  through  Echo  and  Weber  Canons, 
 Among  them  were  many  who  had  just  come  over  and 
 were  working  out  their  passage  money,  which  the  Church 
 had  advanced  from  the  Perpetual  Emigration  Fund.  In 
 the  wildest  part  of  the  canon  we  halted  for  four  hours 
 of  a  beautiful  autumn  day,  every  moment  of  which  was 
 full  of  delight,  in  gazing  upon  the  wall-like  cliffs,  the 
 straw  colored  rocks,  the  deep  rifts  and  caverns  in  the 
 mountain  sides,  and  all  the  sublime  scenery  which  has 
 made  this  place  so  noted. 
 
 The  road  here  lay  directly  under  a  perpendicular 
 cliff  of  nearly  a  thousand  feet  in  height,  where  great 
 rocks,  of  many  tons  weight,  hung  over  the  way ;  others 
 which  had  fallen  ages  ago  and  rolled  to  the  lower  plain, 
 stood  like  vast  table  rocks  in  the  valley's  bed.  Where 
 I  stood,  I  could  view  the  southern  slope  of  the  hills  for 
 twenty  miles,  and  beyond  them  the  white  peaks  of  the 
 Wintali  Range,  bathed  in  clouds  of  clear  and  dazzling 
 whiteness,  through  which  the  sun  was  just  breaking  in 
 glorious  majesty.  It  was  the  hour  of  morning  service, 
 and  nature  here  seeried  3- ielding  silent  worship : 
 
SCENE   IX   ECHO   CANON. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  229 
 
 "  But  the  sound  of  the  church -going  bell 
 These  valle)^s  and  rocks  never  heard  ; 
 Ne'er  sighed  at  the  sound  of  a  Icnell, 
 Or  smiled  when  a  Sabbath  appeared." 
 
 A  soft,  sighing  wind  swept  down  the  canon,  and 
 mournfid  murmurs  issued  from  the  rocky  side-crevices, 
 ^^  hich  doubtless  spoke  often  to  the  Indian  as  the  spirits 
 of  his  fathers,  calUng  from  the  happy  hunting  grounds. 
 The  Greek  poet  would  have  heard  in  them  the  moan- 
 ings  of  imprisoned  souls  seeking  release  from  their 
 rocky  dungeons  ;  but  to  the  Christian  the  whole  scene 
 brings  to  solemn  remembrance  the  time  when  "  He 
 stood  and  measured  the  earth ;  the  everlasting  moun- 
 tains were  scattered ;  the  perpetual  hills  did  bow." 
 
 Below  this  point  we  passed  the  remains  of  the  fortifi- 
 cations, or  rather  stone-piles,  which  the  Mormons 
 erected  in  1857  to  stay  the  march  of  Johnston's  army, 
 and  a  little  farther  down  the  young  Mormons  pointed 
 out  a  rock,  rising  apparently  seven  or  eight  hundred 
 feet  above  the  road,  on  the  top  of  which  a  Mormon  boy 
 was  shot  dead  by  his  companion  below,  "just  on  a 
 dare,  and  to  see  if  his  gun  would  carry  up  that  high." 
 This  was  the  only  life  lost  by  the  Mormon  forces  during 
 that  memorable  "  war."  The  sight  of  these  relics,  which 
 would  have  aided  in  checking  a  well-handled  force 
 about  as  much  as  the  canvass  forts  at  Pekin,  caused  a 
 warm  discussion  to  spring  up  among  us.  The 
 "  wretched  awkwardness  "  of  the  Federal  cavalry  was 
 contrasted  very  unfavorably  with  the  "  fiery  valor  "  of 
 the  Mormon  youth,  who  "  offered  to  lassoo  the  gunm, 
 rode  fail  tilt  down  a  point  where  a  blue-coat  wouldn't 
 venture,  took  a  man  prisoner,  drank  with  him  and  let 
 
230  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 him  go,"  etc.,  etc.  "  If  the  army  had  been  volunteers," 
 was  the  general  expression,  "they  would  have  been 
 wiped  out ;  but  we  only  felt  pity  for  the  low  Dutch  and 
 Irish,  sent  out  here  just  to  keep  them  moving." 
 
 Something  might  have  been  deducted  from  this  on 
 the  score  of  prejudice,  but  from  other  and  less  interested 
 testimony,  I  am  compelled  to  conclude  that  the  Army 
 of  Utah  must  have  been  "poor  sticks,"  unless,  as  is 
 probable,  there  was  a  secret  understanding  that  they 
 were  not  to  force  their  way  into  the  valley  the  first  year. 
 Of  all  the  evils  Avith  which  the  "  masterly  inactivity  " 
 of  Buchanan's  Administration  afflicted  us,  the  Utah  ex- 
 pedition of  1857  and  its  results  were  certainly  not  the 
 least.  To-day  three-fourths  of  the  Mormons  firmly  be- 
 lieve that  Johnston's  Army  was  compelled  to  retreat  by 
 the  Mormon  guerilla  chief,  Lot  Smith,  and  that  they 
 were  only  allowed  to  come  into  the  valley  after  a  treaty 
 had  been  made  with  Brigham.  When  asked  why  the 
 people  vacated  their  homes  and  went  South  when  the 
 army  came  in  the  next  year,  if  they  had  gained  the 
 victory,  the  prompt  answer  is  :  "  It  was  the  will  of  the 
 Lord."  This  is  the  explanation  of  all  difficult  points 
 in  Utah,  and  a  very  convenient  one  it  is. 
 
 On  the  5th  of  September,  we  emerged  from  Echo  into 
 Weber  Canon,  finding  a  pretty  little  settlement,  in  a 
 spot  of  great  natural  beauty,  where  we  halted  for  rest 
 and  feed.  Scarcely  had  we  formed  corral  and  loosed 
 our  mules,  when  a  sudden  change  came  over  the  western 
 sky,  the  afternoon  sun  was  obscured  by  a  murky  haze, 
 the  Wasatch  peaks  were  lost  in  sudden  accunmlations 
 of  dense  cloud,  and  in  a  very  few  minutes  the  whole 
 
AKD  CRIMES  OF  MORMONISM.  231 
 
 scene  was  shut  out  from  our  view  by  the  rapidly  gath- 
 ering storm.  For  a  few  minutes  longer,  the  air  where 
 we  stood  was  in  a  dead  calm,  then  a  strong  wind  swept 
 up  the  green  valley  of  the  Weber,  sharp,  jagged  light- 
 ning ran  along  the  mountain  peaks  and  seemed  to  re- 
 bound from  cliff  to  cliff  evenly  with  the  echoing  thun- 
 der, and  we  had  barely  time  to  secure  the  fastenings  of 
 our  wagon  covers  and  take  shelter  within,  when  the 
 storm  was  upon  us  in  all  its  fury.  Blinding  clouds  of 
 dust,  driven  by  fierce  gusts  of  wind,  were  succeeded  in 
 an  instant  by  torrents  of  rain,  alternating  again  with 
 heavy  winds  which  threatened  to  hurl  our  wagons  into 
 the  AVeber.  I  learned  with  surprise  that  this  usually 
 dr}',  mild  climate,  was  subject  during  the  summer  and 
 autumn  to  sudden  and  violent  wind  and  thunder-storms. 
 The  rain  continued  for  an  hour,  sending  great  sluices 
 down  the  mountain  gulches  and  lashing  the  placid 
 waters  of  Echo  Creek  into  a  foaming,  muddy  torrent ; 
 then  ceased  as  suddenly  as  it  had  risen ;  and  issuing 
 from  our  retreats,  we  saw  the  dark  clouds  rolling  away 
 to  the  southeast  over  the  Uintahs,  and  in  another  hour 
 the  sun  was  again  shining  brilliantly.  By  evening  the 
 roads  were  pleasantly  dry,  and  the  stormy  afternoon  was 
 followed  by  a  glorious  sunset  and  a  night  of  unusual 
 clearnCv^is.  We  now  changed  our  course  to  the  south- 
 ward, following  up  Weber  Canon,  or  rather  valley,  for 
 in  this  part  of  its  course  it  is  too  wide  to  merit  the  for- 
 mer name.  The  track  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad, 
 which  has  run  continuously  with  the  old  stage-road 
 from  the  head  of  Bitter  Creek  and  followed  down  Echo 
 Canon  for  twenty  miles,  at  the  mouth  of  Echo  turns  in 
 
232  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 a  direct  W.  N.  W.  course  down  Weber  Cailon,  and  by 
 that  pass  enters  Salt  Lake  Valley  thirty-five  miles  north 
 of  the  city.  The  stage  road  turns  south  from  Echo, 
 follows  up  Weber  to  Spring  Creek,  up  that  W.  S.  W.  to 
 Parley's  Park,  across  the  Park  and  down  Parley's  Canon 
 W.  N.  ^Y.  into  the  city. 
 
 In  Weber  Valley  we  find  ourselves,  for  the  first  time 
 in  many  hundred  miles,  in  a  cultivated  and  settled 
 country,  and  the  contrast  is  most  pleasing  to  the  e^e 
 wearied  by  miles  of  desert  and  mountain,  with  scant 
 growth  of  sage-brush,  grease-wood,  and  desert  cactus. 
 Another  Sunday's  drive,  the  6th  of  September,  took  us 
 through  Coalville,  point  of  coal  supply  for  Salt  Lake 
 City,  through  forty  miles  distant  with  a  high  range  of 
 mountains  between ;  a  rather  neat  but  homely  looking 
 town,  with  a  few  houses  nicely  built  of  beautiful  white 
 stone,  shingled  or  slated,  but  for  the  most  part  dwell- 
 ings of  rough  hewn  logs,  and  pole  roofs  covered  with 
 dirt,  and  often  grass  and  flowers  growing  on  the  top. 
 None  but  Mormons  live  in  this  valley,  and  I  soon 
 learned  that  the  few  houses,  the  finish  of  which  I  ad- 
 mired, were  the  residences  of  the  Bishops  and  promi- 
 nent Elders.  The  settlements  extend  along  the  little 
 valley  of  two  or  three  miles  in  Avidth  with  high  pas- 
 tures beyond  the  cultivated  lands,  rolling  back  to  the 
 mountains.  Vegetation  showed  that  growth  was  slow, 
 and  the  season  late,  as  this  valley  is  among  the  highest 
 in  the  Utah.  Fields  of  oats  near  the  road  had  just 
 been  harvested,  and  hay-making  was  still  in  progress. 
 
 We  next  passed  through  Wanship,  county-seat  of 
 Summit  County,  and  soon  after  left  the  valley,  turning 
 
AND   CRIMES    OF   MORMONISM.  233 
 
 to  the  right  and  following   up    Spring  Creek  Canon, 
 towards  the  summit.      Nearly  all  day  we  traveled  up 
 hill,  passing    towards  evening  over  a  sort  of  summit 
 level  and  then  down  a  gentle  slope  into  Parley's  Park, 
 a  valley  or  mountain  plateau  of  some  ten  thousand 
 acres,  7000  feet  above  searlevel  and  entirely  surrounded 
 by  rugged  mount<ain  ranges,  except  narrow  outlets  to 
 the  north  and  west.     This  tract  produces  fine  grass 
 both  for  pasturage  and  hay,  but  no  gram.     It  was  first 
 o^vned  by  Heber  C.  Kimball,  who  had  wheat  sown  there 
 for  seven  years  in  succession.    It  grew  well  and  headed 
 out,  but  was  invariably  "cut  off  in  the  flower"  by  the 
 frosts  of  early  September,  whereupon  Kimball  stated 
 that  "  it  was  not  the  will  of  the  Lord  grain  should  grow 
 there,"  and  gave  up  the  experiment.    The  Park  received 
 its  name  in  honor  of  Parley  P.  Pratt,  noted  among  the 
 early  apostles  of    Mormonism,  and    brother  of  Orson 
 Pratt,  scholar,  historian,  and   astronomer,  the  Usman 
 of  the  new  fliith.     Parley  seems  to  have  been  a  radical 
 believer  in  polygamy,  as  he  was  certainly  thorough  in 
 its  practice,  having  six  wives  some  time  before  his  death. 
 But,  not  satisfied  with  these,  he  converted  a  Mrs.  Ehnor 
 McLean,  wife  of  Hector  McLean,  of  Arkansas,  and  took 
 her  to  Salt  Lake  City,  and  married  her.     The  enraged 
 husband  sought  Pratt,  when  on  a  mission  in  Kansas,  in 
 1856,  and  literally  cut  him  to  pieces  with  a  bowie  knife. 
 In  Mormonism  as  in  El  Mam,  the  wives  of  the  infidels 
 are  lawful  prey  to  any  believer  who  can  win  them ; 
 while,  at  the  same  tune,  it  is  one  of  the  deadliest  sins 
 m  their  code  for  any  other  man  to  entice  away  one  of 
 their  "women,"  an  unpardonable  crime  for  which  they 
 
234 
 
 LIFE    IN    UTAH;   OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 FOUR  WIVES. 
 
 Openly  threaten  and  claim  the  right  to  inflict  death 
 To  convert  a  Gentile's  wife  to  Mormonisin  is  the  highest 
 achievement;  the  reverse  worthy  of  death.  There  is 
 a  great  deal  in  the  way  one  states  things ;  it  mtilvos  all 
 the  difference  between  "Danite"  and  Damnite.  Pratt 
 was  canonized  among  the  "glorious  martyrs"  of  the 
 Latter-day  faith,  and  his  murder  takes  high  rank  in  the 
 long  list  of  "persecutions"  they  have  laid  up  against 
 the  Gentiles. 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  235 
 
 There  is  a  small  Mormon  settlement  on  the  south 
 side  of  the  Park,  near  where  an  old  fort  stood,  hut  all 
 the  central  portion  is  the  property  of  Mr.  Wm.  Kim- 
 ball, eldest  son  of  Heber,  formerly  an  ardent  Mormon, 
 but  now  weak  in  the  faith,  and  sincerely  trusting  for 
 inspiration  in  a  more  ardent  spirit,  or  at  least  a  more 
 exhilarating  one,  if  the  testimony  of  his  friends  and 
 nose  be  accepted.     He  has,  however,  "  kept  the  faith  " 
 by  taking  three  wives ;  the  youngest  and  handsomest 
 lives  with  him  in  a  large  stone  hotel  near  the  center  of 
 the  Park,  on  the  stage  road;    the  second  wife,  appa- 
 rently quite  old,  lives  in  a  low  log  house  two  hundred 
 yards  from  the  hotel,  and  his  legal  wife  lives  in  the 
 city,  and,  it  is  said,  takes  in  spinning  and  weaving  for 
 a  living.     The  first  and  second  wives  had  each  a  son 
 in  our  "outfit,"   Burton  and  Willie    Kimball,   rather 
 bright,  intelligent  boys,  and  for  the  night  we  encamped 
 near   their    father's    "ranche,"   procuring    a   plentiful 
 supply  of  milk,  butter  and  eggs.     I  afterwards  found 
 it  to  be  quite  common  for  hotel-keepers  on  the  various 
 roads   to    have   two   or    three   wives;    sometimes   an 
 English  wife  as  housekeeper,  a  Danish  wife  as  gardener, 
 and  if  there  was  a  third,  she  did  the  spinning  and 
 weaving  for  the  family. 
 
 Thus  all  the  requirements  of  a  first-class  establish- 
 ment are  kept  up,  and  servants  dispensed  with;  the 
 "  woman  question,"  "  servant-gal-ism  "  and  "  division  of 
 labor"  settled  by  one  master  stroke,  and  profits  deduced 
 from  polygamy  with  more  certainty  than  polygamy 
 from  the  Prophets. 
 
 From  the  Park  we  follow  the  staii^e  road  over  a  low 
 
236  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    TUE    MYSTERIES 
 
 "divide"  to  the  head  of  Pfirley's  Canon,  but  made  such 
 slow  progress  that  we  "vvere  compelled  to  encamp  for  a 
 night  in  the  wildest  part  of  the  gorge,  with  barely 
 room,  and  in  but  one  place  to  range  the  wagons  in 
 corral  between  the  road  and  bed  of  the  stream. 
 
 The  view  was  one  of  indescribable  beauty.  On  either 
 hand  rose  the  dark  green  sides  of  the  canon,  apparently 
 almost  perpendicular,  yet  covered  with  masses  of  tim- 
 ber to  the  very  summit ;  while  down  the  rocky  flume, 
 in  the  lowest  part  of  the  canon,  dashed  the  clear  waters 
 of  the  creek,  fonned  by  melting  snows  but  a  few  miles 
 above.  From  where  we  stand  the  gray  crest  of  the 
 summit  seems  within  pistol  shot,  and  I  am  surprised  to 
 learn  that  it  is  at  least  one  mile  in  a  direct  line  from 
 my  eye,  and  those  apparent  steeps  near  the  top  are 
 really  gentle  slopes  covered  with  grass  and  bushes. 
 The  masses  of  timber  which  stand  out  so  boldly  to- 
 wards the  lower  part  of  the  canon  appear  to  follow  up 
 the  side  gulches  in  rapidly  lessening  lines,  sinking  to 
 rows  of  little  saplings,  and  terminating  in  a  mere  fringe 
 at  the  top  like  ornamental  shrubber3^  Yet  those 
 trifling  looking  poles  are  many  of  them  from  one  to  two 
 feet  thick.  To  one  whose  early  life  has  been  passed  in 
 a  leveler  prairie  country,  these  mountain  scenes  are  an 
 ever-varying  source  of  surprise  and  delight,  and  he 
 only  wonders  why  those  whose  home  has  been  in  the 
 mountains  should  ever  leave  them.  Nor  do  they  often. 
 Tliere  is  a  charm  in  the  wild  freedom  of  these  heights 
 which  all  must  acknowledge,  nor  is  it  nuich  less  so  on 
 the  plains,  and  though  the  mountaineer  and  plainsman 
 may  return  to  eastern  friends  and  the  abodes  of  civil- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  237 
 
 ization,  tliey  as  often  feel  the  irresistible  longing  to  be 
 back  amid  the  untrained  wildness  of  nature. 
 
 From  this  camp  we  made  another  day's  travel  down 
 hill,  all  day  by  the  side  of  the  rushing  stream,  under 
 numerous  hanging  rocks  which  seem  to  threaten  de- 
 struction to  all  who  venture  beneath  ;  now  through 
 frightful  "  dugways  "  far  up  the  hillside,  where  a  vari- 
 ance of  three  feet  would  send  team  and  driver  to  frao'- 
 
 o 
 
 mentary  destruction,  and  now  far  down  in  the  deeps, 
 where  the  enclosing  walls  above  almost  shut  out  the 
 sunshine. 
 
 Soon  after  noon  we  passed  the  last  stage  station  in  a 
 sort  of  open  valley  where  a  side  canon  connects  Emigra- 
 tion and  Parley's,  but  after  a  few  more  turns  we  enter 
 a  deeper  pass,  of  more  wild  and  startling  beauty. 
 Finally  we  reached  the  Canon  Gates,  a  narrow  pass,  just 
 wide  enough  to  afford  road  room,  with  perpendicular 
 walls  several  hundred  feet  in  height,  where  we  emerged 
 from  the  mountains  and  came  out  into  a  hollow  with 
 sloping  sides  and  a  freer  outlook.  About  4  p.  m.  I 
 caught  sight  for  the  first  time  of  the  open  valley  and 
 blue  hills  far  beyond,  but  for  an  hour  more  we  con- 
 tinued to  wind  along  a  "dugway,"  and  at  length 
 emerged  upon  an  open  "  bench,"  where  I  could  see  the 
 distant  glimmer  of  Jordan  and  the  "  marshes,"  and  the 
 mountains  west  of  Great  Salt  Lake,,  a  faint,  blue,  cloudy 
 line,  that  in  the  silvery  light  of  the  declining  sun  aj> 
 peared  fading  away  in  infinite  perspective. 
 
 Slowly  descending  from  the  "  bench"  to  the  valley,  I 
 caught  sight  of  the  hill  north  of  the  city  and  the  cailon 
 from  which  issues  City  Creek;  then  of  Camp  Douglases, 
 
238  LIFE    IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 far  to  the  right  and  three  miles  east  of  the  city ;  then  of 
 the  Arsenal,  Tabernacle,  Brigham's  house,  and  the 
 Theatre,  and  at  last  the  city  appeared  in  full  view, 
 scattered  for  miles  over  the  slope,  and  looking  in  the 
 distance  and  haze  of  evening,  like  a  collection  of  vil- 
 lages with  groves  and  orchards  scattered  among  them. 
 Night  overtook  us  four  miles  out,  where  we  formed 
 corral  in  an  open  space  by  the  "  uphill  canal,"so  called, 
 from  which  place  on  the  next  morning,  September  10th, 
 we  entered  the  city. 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  239 
 
 CHAPTER    IX. 
 
 TWO   WEEKS   IN    SALT   LAKE    CITY. 
 
 Views  of  the  City — Temple  Block — Brigliam's  Block — Theatre — Immi- 
 grants — Mormon  Arguments — Reasons  for  Polj'^gamy — "Book  of  Mor- 
 mon"— First  Mormon  Sermon — "  Old"  Joe  Young — His  Beauty  (?) — 
 His  Sermon — Mormon  Style  of  Preaching — Order  of  Services — First 
 impressions  rather  favorable — Much  to  learn  yet. 
 
 On  first  impressions  Utah  seems  to  me  to  have  the 
 perfection  of  climates,  and  Salt  Lake  City  the  finest  nar 
 tural  site  in  the  West.  Nor  is  this  feeling  much  les- 
 sened by  longer  stay.  From  a  point  on  the  hill  just 
 North  of  the  city  and  near  the  Arsenal  one  can  take  in 
 at  a  view  the  lake,  the  cit}^,  the  mountains  and  the 
 valley  for  thirty  miles  south  and  southeast.  From  this 
 point  Jordan  valley  appears  nearly  in  the  shape  of  a 
 horse  shoe,  with  the  city  just  under  the  point  of  the 
 northern  termination  of  the  east  side,  and  the  lake 
 lying  across  the  open  end.  But  the  southern  point  of 
 the  valley  which  seems  to  the  spectator  here  to  close, 
 only  narrows  at  the  canon  of  the  Jordan,  and  opens  be- 
 yond that  to  contain  the  Utah  Lake  district.  Beginning 
 northeast  of  the  city,  and  extending  south  in  the  order 
 named,  are  City  Creek,  Red  Butte,  Emigration,  Parley's, 
 Big  Cottonwood  and  Little  Cottonwood  caiions,  all  break- 
 ing through  the  Wasatch  from  the  east.  From  this 
 point,  too,  every  house  in  the  city  can  be  seen ;  the  plat 
 resembles  the  even  squares  of  a  checker-board,  the  rows 
 
240  LIFE   IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 of  trees  lining  all  the  streets,  and  the  crystal  streams  of 
 water  which  seem  in  the  distance  like  threads  of  silver, 
 combining  to  give  a  strange  and  fanciful  beauty  to  the 
 scene. 
 
 Salt  Lake  City  is  situated  in  latitude  40°  46'  North, 
 and  longitude  111°  53'  west  of  Greenwich,  nearly 
 4,300  feet  above  sea  level,  and  was  laid  out  in  1847. 
 The  streets  are  at  exact  right  angles,  running  with  the 
 cardinal  points  and  numbered  every  way  from  Temple 
 Block,  which  is  in  Utah  the  starting  point  of  all 
 measurements,  calculations  and  principles,  whether  of 
 ecclesiastical,  civil,  political  or  engineering.  Its  exact 
 place  is  ascertained  to  be  as  above  given  for  the  city. 
 
 The  street  bounding  it  on  the  east  is  called  East 
 Temple  street,  the  next  one  First  East  Temple,  or 
 merely  First  East,  the  next  Second  East  and  thus  on ; 
 the  same  nomenclature  is  maintained  in  all  the 
 streets,  North,  South  and  West.  Each  street  is  forty- 
 four  yards  in  width,  with  sixteen  feet  pavements, 
 leaving  one  hundred  feet  clear,  and  each  block  exactly 
 a  furlong  square,  containing  ten  acres,  divided  into 
 eight  lots  of  an  acre  and  a  quarter  each.  Nine  squares 
 are  included  in  each  ward,  and  there  are  twenty-one 
 wards,  beginning  with  the  First  on  the  southeast  cor- 
 ner and  reckoned  westward  to  the  Fifth,  then  back- 
 ward and  forward,  houstropliedon,  terminating  with  the 
 Twentieth  on  the  northeast.  The  outer  wards,  how- 
 ever, contain  large  additional  tracts  extending  the 
 jurisdiction  of  the  city  over  wide  limits.  The  greatest 
 length  of  tlie  city  proper  is  thus,  from  southeast  to 
 northwest  about  four  miles,  and  its  greatest  width,  from 
 
AXD    CRIMES   OF   MORMONISX.  241 
 
 northeast  to  southwest  a  little  over  two  miles.  But  a 
 small  portion,  however,  of  this  large  area  is  thickly 
 settled ;  in  two-thirds  of  the  city  the  scattered  dwelling's 
 are  mingled  with  orchards,  gardens,  small  pastures  oi 
 grass-plats,  and  even  small  wheat  and  cornfields,  like  a 
 thickly  settled  farming  country  or  nursery  ground, 
 rather  than  a  city;  and  to  this  fa^^t  the  place  is  indebted 
 for  no  small  share  of  its  beauty.  Nine-tenths  of  the 
 buildings  are  of  mlohes,  or  sun  dried  brick,  throughout 
 the  West  spelled  and  pronounced  doUes,  which  material 
 corresponds  nearly  with  brick  in  the  East,  and  where 
 plastered  and^  stuccoed  makes  an  elegant  and  durable 
 building. 
 
 The  western  part  .of  the  city  extends  to  the  Jordan, 
 and  the  ground  in  that  vicinity  is  rather  low  and  in 
 winter  and  spring  marshy ;  hence  the  finest  residences 
 are  north  and  east,,  and  all  the  public  buildings  above 
 Third  South  Street.  Let  us  note  a  few  of  them,  be- 
 ginning, by  invariable  custom,  at  Temple  Block,  which 
 includes  the  usual  ten  acres,  containing  the  old  and 
 new  Tabernacles,  the  Endowment  (locally  known  as 
 Ondooment)  House,  and  the  foundation  for  the  "reat 
 Temple  which  is  to  be.  The  old  Tabernacle  is  a  sort 
 of  nondescript  building,  oblong  in  shape,  with  a  third 
 of  the  room  underground,  in  the  southwest  corner  of 
 the  block,  capable  of  holding  some  2,500  persons.  The 
 now  Tabernacle  is,  in  its  way,  a  curiosity;  there  is 
 certainly  no  idolatry  in  the  reverence  paid  to  it,  for  it 
 is  like  nothing  else  in  the  heavens  above,  or  the  earth 
 beneath,  or  probably  the  waters  under  the  earth.  At 
 first  sight  the  prevailing  feeling  is  one  of  astonishment, 
 
 16 
 
242  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 which  so  311  yields  to  curiosity  as  to  who  could  have 
 designed  it.  It  is  built  in  the  form  of  a  complete  oval, 
 the  major  axis  of  which  is  250  feet  in  length  and  the 
 minor  axis  150  feet.  The  lower  part,  or  foundation 
 for  the  dome,  consists  of  a  succession  of  forty-six  pillars 
 of  red  cut  sand-stone,  each  about  six  feet  square  and 
 ten  feet  high,  all  around  the  building ;  along  the  sides 
 there  are  double  doors  between  the  pillars,  and  at  the 
 ends  a  heavy  partition ;  on  this  structure  the  dome  or 
 roof  rests  like  the  half  of  an  egg-shell.  The  latter  is  a 
 vast  frame-work,  plastered  within  and  shingled  without, 
 raised  along  the  centre  sixty-five  feet  above  the  floor. 
 There  is  not  a  trace  of  the  beautiful  or  impressive 
 about  it;  it  is  simply  a  vast  pile  awkwardly  put  to- 
 gether, and  with  twice  the  outlay  of  stone  and  mortar 
 that  would  have  sufficed  to  provide  the  same  room  and 
 accommodations  in  some  other  shape.  As  the  grand 
 worshipping  hall  of  the  Saints  it  is  a  curiosity ;  as  a 
 work  of  art  a  monstrosity.  The  Endowment  House, 
 where  the  secret  rites  of  Mormonism  are  performed, 
 is  an  unpretentious  adohe  building  in  the  northwest 
 corner  of  the  lot.  I  cannot  describe  its  interior,  for 
 the  profane  Gentile  may  not  enter  therein.  But  if  the 
 testimony  of  numerous  witnesses  may  be  beheved,  it  is 
 fitted  up  with  various  rooms,  curtains,  stages  and 
 scenery,  for  the  performance  of  a  grand  drama,  repre- 
 senting the  creation,  ftill  of  man,  coming  of  a  redeemer, 
 great  apostasy  and  final  restoration  of  the  true  priest- 
 hood through  Joseph  Smith. 
 
 The  eastern  half  of  Temple  Block,  fenced  oil'  from 
 the   western,    contains   only   the    foundation    for   the 
 
I"  Pl'r" 
 
 !|||||||||j|||||l!|!ij|||l!l|jjj|j|  ''^^t:-i^^ 
 
»• 
 
AKD   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  243 
 
 Temple,  which  is  to  be  finished  in  great  splendor  just 
 before  the  Saints  return  to  Jackson  County,  Missouri. 
 Ground  was  first  broken  for  the  work  in  February, 
 1853,  with  imposing  ceremonies;  in  the  seventeen 
 years  that  have  since  elapsed,  the  edifice  has  reached  a 
 level  Avitli  the  ground,  from  which  those  famihar  with 
 the  "  Rule  of  Three "  may  calculate  how  long  it  will 
 require  for  it  to  complete  the  proposed  height  of  ninety- 
 nine  feet.  The  foundation  is  unsurpassed  in  strength 
 and  finish ;  of  the  finest  mountain  granite  of  a  bright 
 gray  or  white,  slightly  flecked  with  blue;  a  building 
 of  such  material  would  indeed  outlast  the  anticipated 
 thousand  years  of  Millennial  reign.  But  work  on  it  is 
 slow,  or  rather  it  is-  suspended ;  the  stone  is  very  hard, 
 and  must  be  brought  some  twenty  miles  from  the 
 mountains,  and  only  at  rare  intervals  a  workman  or 
 two  is  seen  picking  away  at  one  of  the  huge  masses 
 which  are  scattered  around  by  the  ton.  The  entire 
 square  is  surrounded  by  a  wall,  the  base  of  stone  and 
 the  upper  part  of  adobes^  and  plastered,  twelve  feet 
 high,  with  square  turrets  about  every  ten  feet,  and  a 
 massive  gateway  under  stone  arches  at  the  center  of 
 each  of  the  four  sides.  Crossing  East  Temple  Street 
 we  reach  the  "  Prophet's  Block,"  two  squares  of  ten 
 acres  each,  the  w^estern  contaming  the  Deseret  Store, 
 the  office  of  the  Deseret  News,  official  organ  of  the 
 Church,  the  Tithing  House  and  yard,  the  Lion  House, 
 Bee  Hive  House,  offices  and  other  buildings  pertaining 
 to  the  Prophet,  Priest,  Seer,  Revelator,  in  all  the  world, 
 Grand  Archer,  First  President  and  Trustee-in-trust 
 of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints,  all 
 
244  LIFE   IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 of  which  titles  center  in  and  are  borne  by  Brigham 
 Young. 
 
 The  Lion  House  is  an  oblong  building  of  three  stories, 
 plain  in  style,  but  quite  substantially  built  and  well 
 finished.  Its  cost  is  reported  everywhere  from  thirty 
 to  seventy  thousand  dollars.  In  the  States  it  could 
 have  been  built  for  less'  than  the  former  sum.  Over  the 
 pillared  portico  in  front  is  a  stone  lion,  a  sad  misappli- 
 cation of  the  emblem,  by  the  way,  as  that  ro3^al  brute  is 
 ever  content  with  one  mate.  The  bull  would  have  been 
 more  appropriate,  but  that  is  a  matter  of  taste.  The 
 Bee  Hive  House,  a  large  square  building  just  east  of  the 
 former,  is  surmounted  by  a  stone  carving  in  imitation 
 of  a  bee-hive.  The  entire  area  is  surrounded  by  a  wall 
 eleven  feet  high  of  boulders  and  cobble  stones  laid  in 
 mortar,  with  semi-circular  buttresses  at  equal  distances. 
 The  eastern  half  of  the  enclosure  contains  various  build- 
 ings of  no  special  interest.  Between  the  two  lots  is  the 
 main  entrance  to  City  Creek  Canon,  which  was 
 "  granted "  to  Brigham  Young  by  the  first  Territorial 
 Legislature ;  the  entrance  is  by  a  massive  stone  gate- 
 way under  an  arch,  upon  which  is  perched  an  immense 
 eagle,  carved  by  a  Mormon  artist  out  of  native  wood — 
 another  perversion  of  a  sacred  emblem,  the  royal  bird 
 being,  like  his  brute  compeer,  a  strict  monogamist. 
 
 Just  north  of  Brigham's  grounds,  on  the  first "  bench,'' 
 is  the  block  owned  by  the  late  Ileber  C.  Kimball,  con- 
 taining one  superior  mansion  and  a  number  of  smaller 
 dwellings,  in  which  eleven  of  the  Widows  Kimball  still 
 reside.  The  other  seven  live  in  various  parts  of  the 
 city,  with  the  families  to  which  they  belong.     Some 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  245 
 
 fourteen  or  sixteen  of  Brigham's  wives  reside  in  the 
 Lion  House  and  Bee  Hive  House ;  the  others  live  in  dif- 
 ferent parts  of  the  city,  or  on  his  farms  in  the  country. 
 From  the  canon  back  of  Brigham's  grounds  issues 
 City  Creek,  which  is  there,  by  dams,  diverted  from  its 
 channel  and  carried  along  the  upper  part  of  the  city  in 
 a  main  canal,  from  which  side  ditches  convey  the  streams 
 down  both  sides  of  every  street,  furnishing  irrigation  to 
 the  gardens,  and  pure  water,  in  the  upper  part  of  the 
 city,  for  all  other  purposes.  Lower  do\ra,  the  loose  black 
 soil  and  the  wash  of  the  streets  render  the  water  rather 
 impure,  though  it  is  used,  and  durhig  the  season  when 
 irrigation  is  not  in  progress,   is   still  tolerably  clear. 
 Next  to  Temple  Block  and  Brigham's,  the  Theatre  is 
 the  institution  of  Salt  Lake  City.    It  stands  one  square 
 south  of  Brigham's  grounds,  at  the  corner  of  First  South 
 and  First  East  streets ;  is  built  of  brick  and  rough  stone, 
 covered  with  stucco  in  front,  and  its  cost  is  variously 
 estimated  from  seventy  to  two  hundred  thousand  dollars. 
 It  was  built  while  railroads  were  yet  a  thousand  miles 
 distant,  probably  doubhng  its  cost.     It  will  comfortably 
 seat  two  thousand  persons,  and  can  be  packed  with  a 
 few  hundred  more ;  the  proscenium  is  sixty  feet  deep, 
 and  the  building  the  largest  of  the  kind  west  of  Chicago! 
 Formerly  the  playing  was  done  entirely  by  amateurs, 
 under  the  training  of  old  London  professionals  turned 
 Mormons;  then  they  played  only  on  alternate  nights, 
 rehearsing  one  night  and  playing  the  next,  pursuing 
 their  ordinary  calling  by  day.     But  at  present  there  are 
 professional  players  among  the  Mormons,  receiving  a 
 regular  salary  and  assisted  by  "stars"  from  abroad. 
 
246  LIFE    IN    UTAH;     OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 Just  before  I  readied  Salt  Lake,  one  of  the  "  leading 
 ladies"  of  the  home  troupe.  Miss  Sarah  Alexander,  took 
 a  sudden  departure  for  California,  where  she  is  now  en- 
 gaged in  her  profession ;  and  quite  lately  another  home 
 "  star,"  Miss  Asenath  Adams,  born  and  reared  among 
 the  Saints,  has  left  to  become  the  wife  of  a  Gentile. 
 Her  father,  a  bigoted  Mormon,  has  fully  realized  the 
 text,  "Train  up  a  child,  and  away  she  goes." 
 
 The  Parquet  is  usually  occupied  only  by  Mormons 
 and  their  families ;  for  a  Gentile  to  be  seen  there  is  apt 
 to  create  a  suspicion  of  "jack- Mormon"  tendencies. 
 The  resident  Gentiles  and  visitors  occupy  the  first  or 
 Dress  Circle,  while  the  second  and  third  circles  are  given 
 up  to  miners,  transients  and  boys,  and  even  Indians 
 often  find  a  standing  "  at  the  top  of  the  house." 
 
 Next  in  interest  to  the  theatre  among  public  build- 
 ings, are  Social  Hall,  the  Seventies'  Hall  and  the  Court 
 House.  The  last  named  is  built  entirely  of  adobes,  but 
 stuccoed  with  exquisite  finish  and  in  perfect  imitation 
 of  variegated  granite,  making  a  building  of  fine  and  im- 
 posing appearance.  On  Main — East  Temple — Street, 
 .  the  business  houses  are  all  included  within  two  blocks ; 
 among  them,  the  stone  storehouse  of  Ransohofi*  &  Co., 
 the  drug  store  of  Godbe  &"  Co.,  the  large  building  of 
 AYalker  Brothers,  and  Masonic  Hall  building  would 
 take  respectable  rank  in  eastern  cities  of  the  same  size. 
 Vhe  finest  business  house  in  the  city  is  that  of  Wm. 
 Jennings  &  Co.,  now  devoted  to  the  uses  of  "  Zion's  Co- 
 operative Association."  There  are  two  well  built  hotels, 
 the  Revere  House  and  Townsend,  and  a  number  of  pri- 
 vate residences  of  considerable  taste  and  beauty.     But 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  247 
 
 it  is  easy  to  see  after  all,  that  the  beauty  of  Salt  Lake 
 is  largely  by  comparison.  For  twenty  years  it  was  the 
 only  town  between  the  Missouri  and  Sacramento ;  to 
 reach  it,  men  had  to  plod  eleven  hundred  weary  miles, 
 with  mules  or  oxen,  across  alkali  deserts,  rugged  moun- 
 tains, and  barren  flats ;  to  them  it  was  the  half-way 
 place  for  rest  and  recruiting,  and  no  wonder  its  broad, 
 well  watered  streets,  its  green,  cool  gardens  and  or- 
 chards, and  its  neat  white  adobes,  seemed  a  very  terres- 
 trial Eden.  No  wonder  the  Mormon  emigrants  who 
 had  made  the  weary  passage  from  Europe,  broke  forth 
 into  songs  and  shouts  of  glad  surprise,  at  sight  of  their 
 "  Zion."  But  now  that  one  can  run  out  in  three  days 
 from  the  well  built  cities  of  the  East,  the  contrast  is 
 lacking,  the  illusion  is  destroyed,  and  early  visitors  are 
 flatly  accused  of  having  "  blown  the  Salt  Lake  trumpet 
 altogether  too  loud." 
 
 Twenty-three  years  ago,  this  region  was  a  desert  of 
 sage-brush,  grease-wood  and  cactus,  when  on  the  24th  of 
 July,  1847,  the  "pioneers"  first  entered  the  valley. 
 Their  material  progress  since  shows  that  no  human  in- 
 stitution can  be  an  unmixed  evil. 
 
 From  a  ramble  through  the  city,  I  went  to  the  noted 
 Warm  Springs,  just  outside  the  city  to  the  northwest; 
 and  without  the  faith  of  the  Mormons,  I  can  safely  agree 
 with  them  that  this  pool  is  "for  the  healing  of  the  na- 
 tions." This  is  the  season  for  "  the  emigration  "  to  ar- 
 rive, and  returning  to  the  city  I  found  the  people  ex- 
 cited over  the  arrival  of  a  train  of  fifty  teams,  bringing 
 a  large  number  of  new  and  some  old  converts  from  Eng- 
 land, Denmark  and  Switzerland.  The  train  had  unloaded 
 
248  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 in  the  church  corral,  or  tithing  yard,  a  large  walled  en- 
 closure in  the  Prophet's  Block;  I  entered  under  an 
 arched  stone  gateway  and  viewed  the  new  arrivals.  Old, 
 withered-looking  women,  fat,  clumpy-looking  girls  and 
 middle-aged  "  vrows  "  composed  the  female  portion,  and 
 all  evidently  of  the  poorest  class. 
 
 Their  friends,  and  the  sisters,  generally,  had  met  them 
 with  hearty  hospitality,  carrying  in  buckets  of  milk  and 
 baskets  of  fruit  and  provisions,  to  make  a  welcoming- 
 feast,  and  the  corral  was  a  scene  of  feasting  and  merri- 
 ment. But  there  were  a  few  sad  exceptions  to  the  uni- 
 versal joy.  Many  who  started  with  this  outfit  had  died 
 by  the  way,  and  a  few  of  the  old  people  were  so  worn 
 out  by  the  long  journey  that  it  seemed  they  could  not 
 recover.  I  was  particularly  struck  with  the  appearance 
 of  one  group.  An  old  English  woman,  whose  features  bore 
 the  impress  of  exhausting  travel,  while  her  hands  indi- 
 cated a  lifetime  of  unremitting  toil,  was  lying  on  a  pile 
 of  bedding,  evidently  sinking  with  the  weakness  of  fever. 
 The  young  women  had  gathered  around  her  with  every 
 delicacy  to  tempt  the  appetite,  while  a  fair  young  IMor- 
 mon  girl  supported  the  sinking  head  on  her  bosom,  and 
 presented  a  spoonful  of  ripe  peach  to  the  fevered  lips. 
 The  dame  smiled,  while  tears  of  weakness  and  joy  ran 
 from  her  eyes,  and  tried  again  and  again  to  eat  the  prof- 
 fered delicacy,  but  in  vain.  Nature  was  exhausted  by 
 the  long  voyage.  The  eyes  that  had  so  long  and  eagerly 
 looked  for  "  Zion,"  were  soon  to  be  dimmed,  and  the 
 weary  feet  were  hastening  to  an  eternal  rest. 
 
 In  the  universal  hilarity  that  prevailed,  the  Mormon 
 girls  were  selecting  companions  from  the  arrivals,  and 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MOKMONISM.  249 
 
 taking  them  to  their  homes  for  a  few  days'  rest,  the 
 travel-worn  and  dusty,  foreign-made  garments  contrast- 
 ing strangely  with  the  dress  of  the  young  Saints.  Fe- 
 male beauty  is  scarce  in  Utah.  One  occasionally  meets 
 a  fine  looking  woman,  but  there  is  four-fold  the  beauty 
 in  many  a  Gentile  town  of  1,000  inhabitants  that 
 I  can  see  in  all  this  city.  Fine  forms  are  not  uncom- 
 mon, and  some  of  the  younger  women  are  quite  graceful 
 in  carriage,  but  beauty  of  expression  is  rare,  and  the 
 reason  is  obvious.  Facial  beauty  is  assthetic,  the  result 
 of  taste,  sensibility  and  cultivation,  and  at  least  a 
 tolerable  elevation  of  the  moral  faculties.  It  will  not 
 result  from  a  rude  and  coarse  existence.  Beauty  of 
 the  form  is  more  purely  physical,  and  will  naturally 
 spring  up  anywhere,  where  woman  is  not  abused  or 
 overworked.  Given  a  certain  amount  of  fresh  air, 
 moderate  exercise  and  healthy  food,  and  the  correct 
 womanly  form  is  the  result.  But  beauty  of  the  features 
 has  more  of  the  ideal ;  it  is  the  product  of  a  higher  tone 
 of  the  mental  and  moral  nature,  and  other  thins2;s  beins: 
 equal,  the  greatest  number  of  fine  faces  will  be  found 
 in  a  virtuous  and  intelligent  community. 
 
 The  men  were  of  the  same  brawny  and  red-faced 
 foreign  type,  white  haired  boys,  and  simple  looking  old 
 men,  which  every  western  man  has  so  often  seen ;  a 
 low-browed,  stifif-haired,  ignorant  and  stolid  race.  In 
 their  faces  could  be  seen  much  of  the  earnest,  sincere 
 and  quiet ;  but  not  of  the  intellectual,  bright  or  quick 
 of  comprehension.  Every  traveler  through  the  rural 
 districts  of  Utah,  must  have  observed  that,  though 
 individual  Saints  differ  somewhat,  as  other  people  do, 
 
250  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 yet  there  are  certain  peculiar  traits  common  to  all. 
 One  of  these  is  their  almost  total  lack  of  the  humorous 
 faculty  or  principle;  phrenologically  speaking,  they 
 have  no  organ  of  wit  and  humor,  or  if  they  have  it  is 
 so  uncultivated  that  it  is  practically  donnant. 
 
 They  will  laugh  heartily  enough  at  a  broad  joke  or 
 coarse  jest,  but  seem  quite  unable  to  appreciate  keen 
 satire,  irony  or  delicate  wit,  or  to  perceive  the  ludicrous 
 in  odd  associations  of  ideas.  The  Mormon  is  often 
 terribly  in  earnest,  but  he  is  seldom  funny.  This  de- 
 fect is  partly  one  of  race,  partly  in  lack  of  cultivation, 
 but  still  more  in  the  fact  that  few  people  who  can 
 understand  and  appreciate  an  absurdity  would  ever 
 become  Mormons.  Hence  we  rarely  see  among  them 
 the  genial,  humorous  Irishman,  the  keen-witted  Israel- 
 ^ite,  the  intellectual  Swiss,  or  the  lively  and  versatile 
 Frenchman ;  but  in  their  stead  stolid  Saxons  and  plod- 
 ding Scandinavians.  Men  are,  to  a  great  extent,  born 
 to  certain  forms  of  religious  belief;  Boodhism  is  essen- 
 tially Mongolian,  Spiritism  is  of  the  Indian,  jNIoham- 
 medanism  has  its  peculiar  subjects,  and  though  universal 
 in  its  final  application,  the  present  spirit  and  structure 
 of  Christianity  is  Gothic  and  European.  And  the  most 
 gloomy  forms  of  error,  which  have  sprung  from  a 
 corrupt  Christianity,  find  their  devotees  among  the 
 most  solemnly  impressive  and  stolid  of  the  European 
 races.  Old  residents  tell  me  that  Artemus  Ward's 
 lecture  in  Salt  Lake  was,  professionally  speaking,  a 
 perfect  failure,  simply  because  it  was  ''  cut  too  fine " 
 for  the  latitude.  A  few  laughed  at  his  broadest  jokes, 
 then  for  a  solid  hour,  while  he  was  doing  his  funniest, 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  251 
 
 the  audience  sat  "  like  a  bump  on  a  log,"  not  giving  a 
 smile.  It's  a  wonder  it  did  not  kill  the  sensitive 
 author.  Mormonism  might  originate  with  keen  witted 
 Yankees,  but  it  could  not  long  continue  without  a 
 broad  basis  of  the  North-European  races. 
 
 These  new-comers  look  homely  enough,  but  it  is 
 gratifying  to  observe  the  vast  improvement  even  in  the 
 first  generation  of  the  native-born.  Whether  it  is  the 
 climate,  or  better  food,  or  exemption  from  the  severe 
 toil  of  the  poor  in  Europe,  most  of  the  young  girls  now 
 "  coming  on  "  in  Utah  exhibit  a  vast  personal  improve- 
 ment over  their  parents,  and  among  the  very  youngest, 
 whose  families  have  been  here  for  twenty  years,  the 
 little  misses  exhibit  promise  of  the  trim,  graceful  form, 
 the  arched  instep  and  the  light  tripping  step  of  the 
 American  girl.  There  are  many  drawbacks  in  the 
 social  and  domestic  habits  of  "this  people,"  still  nature 
 is  asserting  her  rights  to  some  extent.  She  demands 
 beauty  in  the  female  form,  and  even  Momionism  can- 
 not altogether  prevent  It.  Of  course,  the  younger 
 generation  is  more  quick-witted  and  liberal,  hence  the 
 majority  of  young  Mormons  are  free  thinkers  and  anti- 
 polygamists.  It  is  the  old  story  of  the  hen  hatching 
 swans,  the  vulture  doves,  or  the  caterpillar  giving  life 
 to  the  brilliant  butterfly.  And  this  rapid  improvement 
 is  notable  in  view  of  the  perils  of  young  life  in  Utah, 
 of  whi-cli,  more  anon. 
 
 In  my  first  rambles  about  the  city  I  found  the  Mormons 
 rather  communicative,  and  quite  ready  to  enlighten  me 
 as  to  the  peculiar  features  of  their  faith ;  indeed,  rather 
 anxious  to  prove  the  superiority  of  their  institutions 
 
252  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 over  those  of  the  Gentile  world.  Of  course,  like  all 
 new  comers,  I  looked  upon  polygamy  as  the  one  great 
 evil,  if  not  the  only  evil  of  Utah,  and  our  discussions 
 most  oft<3n  turned  upon  that  point.  The  first  intelligent 
 Mormon,  who  gave  me  his  views  at  length,  was  Mr. 
 Victor  Cram,  educated  as  a  phj^sician,  in  Boston,  but 
 now  a  builder  in  Salt  Lake  City.  As  an  "inside  view," 
 his  ideas  are  worthy  of  presentation  on  the  venerable 
 principle,  Audi  alteram  partem.  ''  We  have,"  said  he, 
 "a  population  of  200,000,  three  times  the  population 
 for  a  new  State,  and  have  had  for  years ;  but  they 
 won't  admit  us.  The  fact  is,  we  are  a  little  rebellious. 
 This  law  of  1862  against  polygamy,  we  don't  abide  by 
 and  the  people  won't  do  so ! " 
 
 "And  what  do  you  think  will  be  the  result?"  I 
 asked. 
 
 "The  result?  Why,  it  will  be  good  when  people  get 
 enlightened  on  this  point.  Then  polygamy  will  become 
 popular  throughout  the  world." 
 
 "But  how  do  3'ou  justify  it,  or  explain  this?" 
 
 "  I  take  the  ground,  sir,  that  polygamy  was  absolutely 
 necessary  to  purify  and  regenerate  mankind;  that  such 
 was  the  tendency  that  in  no  long  time  the  world  would 
 have  been  depopulated,  the  human  race  become  extinct, 
 without  the  gracious  assistance  of  polygamy,  which  in- 
 evitable destiny  God  foresaw,  and  revealed  to  Joseph 
 Smith  the  mode  of  prevention." 
 
 He  then  proceeded  in  a  lengthy  detail  of  the  causes 
 which  were  operating  to  weaken  the  reproductive  force 
 of  nature,  and  destroy  the  young  before  they  reached  a 
 marriageable  age.    His  views  were  unique  and  interest- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  253 
 
 ing,  but  suffice  it  to  say  that  lie  proved,  to  his  ovv^i 
 satisfaction  at  least,  that  the  human  race  was  slowly 
 and  surely  tending  to  inevitable  decay  and  complete 
 extinction,  through  the  violation  of  a  certain  inter-sexual 
 law — which  violation  was  causing  a  decline  among 
 ^\'omen  and  their  offspring;  that  God  revealed  to  Jo- 
 seph Smith  the  means  of  cure,  which  necessitated  the 
 employment  of  polygamy,  which  Avould  in  time  regen- 
 erate the  human  race,  and  restore  it  to  primal  strength 
 and  beauty. 
 
 "  But  how  comes  it,"  I  asked,  ^'  that  the  Caucasian 
 faces  have  gone  on  and  increased  for  three  thousand 
 years  in  single  marriage  ?  " 
 
 "  Because  they  never  run  to  that  excess,  and  then 
 this  new  way  of  killing  infants  before  they  saw  the 
 light  was  not  known.  But  the  present  mode  of  living 
 leads  to  excess,  and  America,  the  youngest  nation,  is 
 going  to  lead  all  the  rest  in  that  excess ;  and  when  the 
 old  nations  of  Europe  learn  these  new  tricks  and  get 
 started  on  this  road,  they  wdll  go  like  a  flock  of  sheep, 
 and  melt  from  the  face  of  the  earth ;  and  without  a 
 radical  corrective  the  race  would  soon  be  extinct. 
 
 "  Mind,  I  say,"  he  continued,  "  these  are  not  the  rea- 
 sons why  we  practice  polygamy.  We  do  it  solely  be- 
 cause God  commanded  it, '  The  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath 
 spoken  it,'  is  our  sole  and  only  warrant,  which  we  dare 
 not  disobey  (!!) ;  but  these  are  merely  a  few  of  the  rea- 
 sons why  God  commanded  it,  as  we  think.  Or  to  throw 
 aside  God's  ordinance,  and  take  nature  for  it,  these  rea- 
 sons are  sufficient  to  show  why  polygamy  is  according 
 to  the  law  and  light  of  nature;  why  it  is  the  natural 
 
254  LIFE    IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 order  of  things,  and  why  God's  chosen  people  were  the 
 offspring  of  polygamous  mothers.  Now,  I  took  ray 
 second  wife  only  last  year ;  my  circumstances  did  not 
 enable  me  to  do  so  before,  and  the  good  effects  of  the 
 arrangement  are  already  observable  in  my  house,  par- 
 ticularly in  the  son  of  my  second  wife,  which  is  a 
 brighter,  healthier  and  stronger  child  than  either  of  my 
 other  eight  children.  And  I  challenge  you  to  go  to  any 
 of  our  schools,  and  pick  out  at  random  a  dozen  children 
 of  polygamous  mothers,  and  then  say  on  your  honor  if 
 they  are  not  superior  to  the  average  children  of  single 
 marriages." 
 
 This  seemed  like  a  bold  offer,  but  one  finds  in  time 
 that  the  Saints  are  very  much  given  to  the  "bluff" 
 game ;  nor  will  it  be  thought  strange  that  they  are  rwt 
 the  only  people  who  excuse  their  own  sins  by  pointing 
 out  those  of  others. 
 
 Without  attempting  to  controvert  his  views,  I  ac- 
 cepted the  loan  of  copies  of  the  "  Book  of  Mormon," 
 "Millennial  Star,"  and  "Doctrine  and  Covenants," 
 which  I  promised  to  read  at  my  earliest  leisure. 
 
 My  first  Sabbath  in  Salt  Lake  was  bright  and  clear, 
 and  I  determined  on  a  visit  to  the  Tabernacle.  The 
 early  morning  I  devoted  to  the  "Book  of  Mormon;"  but 
 two  hours  more  than  satisfied  me.  Of  all  the  dull, 
 wearisome  and  inconsequential  books  I  ever  dosed  over, 
 I  am  qualified  to  say  that  work  takes  the  lead.  It  is 
 verbose,  diffuse  and  full  of  repetitions;  about  the  size  of 
 the  Okl  Testament,  every  material  fact  in  it  could  be 
 compressed  within  the  limits  of  a  Tribune  Almimac. 
 The  Saints  aver  that  it  was  composed  by  the  aiigel  Mo 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  255 
 
 roni  and  delivered  to  Joseph  Smith.  If  so,  1  am  sorry 
 for  Moroni,  sorry  that  there  were  no  grammars  or  "aids 
 to  composition"  in  his  "sphere,"  that  he  might  have 
 given  us  a  work  somewhat  worthy  of  criticism.  The 
 anti-Mormons,  and  a  certain  widow  Davidson,  now  resi- 
 d(?nt  in  New  York,  aver  that  it  wiis  written  by  her  first 
 husband,  Solomon  Spaulding,  an  invalid  clergyman, 
 merely  for  his  own  amusement.  If  so,  he  was  easily 
 amused.  I  sincerely  hope,  for  the  honor  of  her  husband, 
 that  the  good  woman  is  mistaken,  for  if  any  scholar  as- 
 sisted in  the  production  of  that  work,  he  must  have  been 
 very  invalid,  in  mind  as  well  as  body.  I  can  understand 
 how  some  people  admire  M.  F.  Tupper;  I  can  even,  in 
 a  dim,  far-off  way,  appreciate  those  who  appreciate  John 
 Tyler  Junior;  but  that  men  of  even  average  intelligence 
 should  discover  literary  excellence,  divine  philosophy  or 
 spiritual  comfort  in  the  "  Book  of  Mormon, "  is  beyond 
 my  powers. 
 
 That  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  the  human  race  should 
 be  led  to  stake  their  hopes  for  eternity  on  the  divine  au- 
 thenticity of  such  a  work,  is  one  of  the  most  melancholy 
 evidences  of  the  inherent  weakness  of  the  human  intel- 
 lect. 
 
 Service  was  held  in  the  New  Tabernacle  which  will 
 seat  eight  or  ten  thousand  people,  but  is  quite  a  failure 
 as  far  as  hearing  is  concerned.  The  interior  being  a 
 perfect  oval,  those  in  that  portion  nearest  the  stand  and 
 in  the  end  farthest  from  it  can  hear  quite  well,  while  all 
 is  confused  and  indistinct  in  the  central  area,  which  in- 
 cludes nearly  half  the  room.  A  canopy,  or  flat,  some 
 twenty  feet  square  had  been  erected  over  the  speaker's 
 
266  LIFE   IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 stand  to  serve  as  a  sounding  board,  but  helped  the  matter 
 very  little. 
 
 Brigham  does  not  preach  oftener  than  once  or  twice 
 a  month,  and  did  not  favor  us  with  his  presence  this 
 morning;  his  brother,  Joseph  Young,  preached  the 
 opening  sermon,  and  I  have  no  hesitation  in  pronounc- 
 ing him  the  most  inferior-looking  man  I  ever  saw  in  the 
 pulpit,  and  I  have  seen  some  hard  specimens.  He  is 
 very  old,  very  thin,  very  weak-eyed,  and  rather  sallow ; 
 his  general  appearance  suggested  that  he  had  just  slept 
 a  month,  been  awakened  by  a  thunder-storm  and  come 
 away  without  changing  his  clothes,  washed  in  a  mud- 
 puddle,  and  combed  his  hair  by  crawling  through  the 
 sage  brush.  And  yet,  lie  has  four  wives.  Let  the 
 homely  take  courage.  The  distinctive  feature  in  Mor- 
 mon sermons  is  their  exceedingly  rambling  and  discur- 
 sive nature ;  touching  here,  there  and  everyAvhere,  on 
 everything  which  concerns  man's  moral,  spiritual  and 
 material  interests.  The  peculiar  baldness  of  their  style 
 is  made  ten-fold  more  apparent  by  the  homely  words 
 and  phrases  in  which  it  is  couched.  Hints  on  stock 
 raising,  digging  ditches,  building  fences  and  making 
 "  dobies,"  slip  into  the  midst  of  moral  disquisitions  on 
 "  the  whole  duty  of  man." 
 
 I  could  not  discover  what  was  the  special  subject  of 
 Joseph  Young's  remarks;  he  took  no  text,  as  they 
 usually  do  not,  and  fired  away  at  all  the  sins  of  the  con- 
 gregation very  much  on  the  "  Donnybrook  Fair  "  prin- 
 ciple. Before  beginning  his  sermon  proper,  he  called 
 for  general  news  from  any  of  the  settlements,  gave  a 
 list  of  foreign  letters  which  had  arrived,  and  called  for 
 
AND  CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM  257 
 
 all  returned  missionaries  to  come  into  the  stand  and 
 "give  in  their  experience."  No  one  resjDonding,  he 
 commenced  by  stating  that  "  man  was  a  moral  being ;" 
 enlarged  on  the  troubles  of  the  Saints;  confessed  his 
 ignorance  of  the  reason  why  these  things  were  so,  and 
 began  to  "  score  "  the  young  men  for  laziness  and  bad 
 habits  generally.  From  this  he  branched  off  to  the  neces- 
 sity of  giving  liberally  to  aid  the  poor  Saints  in  Europe 
 to  reach  Utah  :  "  They  ought  to  come,  the  Saints  ought 
 all  to  be  here,  for  the  devil  is  watching  where  they  are 
 to  take  the  spirit  out  of  their  minds,  and  they  ought  to 
 come  here,  and  be  treated  with  brotherly  love.  But 
 there  is  too  much  stubbornness  here ;  the  brethren  are 
 all  stubborn.     The  sisters  are  not  quite  so  stubborn." 
 
 This  last  was  news  to  me ;  but  he  went  on  to  prove 
 it  by  a  philosophical  disquisition  on  the  peculiar  differ 
 ence  between  the  masculine  and  feminine  minds,  which 
 seemed  about  an  equal  mixture  of  the  ideas  of  Plato, 
 Tennyson  and  Professor  Fowler,  and  to  have  about  as 
 much  relation  to  the  subject  in  hand,  as  it  had  to  the 
 next  Presidential  election.     He  went  on  : 
 
 "  Now  some  of  you  old  men  that  come  here  early,  feel 
 very  much  broke  down.     You're  all  stiff  and  crippled 
 up,  and  here's  a  lot  of  'young  sprouts,'  as  I  call  'em, 
 who'll  hardly  work  at  all.     I  tell  you  young  fellows,  it 
 won't  do.  .  You've  got  to  stir  around  and  labor  more. 
 And  these  young  fellows  are  so  strong.     Why,  they  are 
 as  elastic  as  the  rabbits  on  yon  mountain !     While  lots 
 of  these  old  men  can't  stoop  down  to  piok  up  a  hoe.     I 
 tell  you,  as  I  told  my  folks  this  morning,  just  after 
 family  prayer,  you  want  knowledge  of  how  to  live  in 
 17 
 
258  LIFE   IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    xMYSTERIES 
 
 this  world.  Take  care  of  your  bodies  !  Don't  eat  so 
 much  of  this  green  stuff! !  Keep  your  stomachs  clean  ! ! ! 
 And  some  of  you  men  are  so  very  inconsistent — in  fact, 
 I'm  inconsistent  myself  sometimes.  To  ask  God  for 
 health,  and  not  take  care  of  it.  Why  do  you  ask  God 
 for  such  a  thing?  Why,  that's  your  own  business. 
 God  says,  '  go  ahead,  and  take  care  of  your  stomachs 
 and  body,  and  I'll  guarantee  the  rest.'  One  thing  I've 
 noticed  here  so  much ;  nearly  everybody  dies  so  sudden, 
 and  the  old  people  who  have  died  lately,  almost  seem 
 as  if  they  had  just  dropped  dead.  We  have  no  linger- 
 ing diseases  among  us.  Come  to  meeting  in  the  right 
 spirit,  and  act  in  brotherly  love  and  sisterly  kindness. 
 And  finally,  may  God  bless  you  all,  brethren  and  sis- 
 ters, is  my  prayer,  for  Jesus'  sake.     Amen." 
 
 He  was  followed  by  Elder  Wilford  Woodrufi",  who 
 gave  a  rather  able  and  connected  address  on  the  dan- 
 gers of  internal  dissensions  in  states,  nations,  churches 
 and  families ;  after  which  the  choir  sang,  "  Come  let  us 
 anew  our  journey  pursue,"  with  great  force  and  beauty, 
 and  the  meeting  adjourned. 
 
 In  their  mode  of  conducting  prayer,  singing  and 
 other  services,  the  Saints  follow  the  Methodist  order ; 
 they  however,  stand  at  prayer,  but  forbid  written 
 sermons ;  they  have  "  experience  meetings "  and  take 
 the  sacrament  every  Sunday,  excluding,  of  course,  all 
 but  their  own  people ;  and  finally,  they  immerse,  re- 
 peating it  after  every  "backsliding,"  interpret  the 
 Scriptures  literally,  preach  long  and  loud  of  "one 
 Lord,  one  faith,  one  baptism,"  stigmatize  all  others  as 
 "  sectarians,"  and  in  their  initial  principles  follow  the 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  259 
 
 Campbell ites.  My  second  Sunday  in  Sa!t  Lake,  I 
 heard  Orson  Pratt  deliver  a  rather  learned  discourse  on 
 the  various  temples  erected  by  *'  the  Lord's  peculiar 
 people,"  embodying  the  idea  that  the  last  and  most 
 glorious  one  was  to  be  that  of  the  Latter-day  Saints,  to 
 be  set  up  in  Jackson  County,  Missouri,  "when  the 
 fulness  of  time  had  come." 
 
 At  the  end  of  two  weeks  in  Salt  Lake  City  my  impres- 
 sions are,  on  the  whole,  rather  favorable.  I  find  the 
 city  quiet,  apparently  in  good  order,  neat  and  pleasant 
 to  dwell  in ;  though  the  people  are  mostly  ignorant  and 
 bigoted,  they  did  not  appear  contentious ;  I  had  been 
 treated  with  considerable  courtesy,  and  began  to  con- 
 clude the  Mormons  had  been  maligned,  and  often  hf  Id 
 long  arguments  in  favor  of  those  whom  I  suspected  to 
 be  a  much  misrepresented  and  persecuted  people.  I 
 had  yet  much  to  learn. 
 
 HOT  SPRINGS  NEAR  SALT   LAKE   CITY. 
 
260  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 CHAPTER  X. 
 
 TRIP   TO   BEAR    RIYER   AND   RETURN. 
 
 Northward  afoot  — Hot  Springs —"  Sessions  Settlement  "  — Polygamy 
 again — "  Eplie  Roberts'  young  wife" — Farmington—Kaysville— Three 
 wives,  i',nd  stone  walls  between — "Let  us  have  Peace" — Red  Sand 
 Ridge — Ogden — Brigham  City — Into  the  Poor  District — Scandinavian 
 Porridge — English  cool;ery — Rural  life  in  Utah— Bear  River,  North — 
 Cache  Valley  and  the  Canon — "Professor"  Barker,  the  "Mad  Philoso- 
 pher"— A  New  Cosmogony — Mormon  Science — "Celestial  Masonry" 
 — "Adam"  redivivus — A  Modern  "Eve" — Folly  and  Fanaticism — 
 Mineral  Springs — The  country  vs.  the  city  Mormon. 
 
 Fine  weather  was  running  to  waste,  and  I  had  seen 
 nothing  of  Utah  outside  the  city ;  so  on  the  afternoon  of 
 September  the  25th,  I  threw  a  few  pounds  of  crackers, 
 dried  beef,  sugar  and  tea  into  my  vaHse,  to  serve  in  case 
 T  should  get  beyond  the  settlements,  and  took  my  way 
 northward  on  foot,  determined  to  see  Mormondom  in  its 
 rural  aspects.  The  nearest  point  on  the  Great  Salt 
 Lake  is  about  twelve  miles  from  the  city,  and  this  road 
 nowhere  approaches  it  nearer  than  two  miles,  but  runs 
 due  north;  with  the  Wasatch  mountains  to  the  east  and 
 the  lake  to  the  west,  leaving  a  valley  with  an  average 
 width  of  five  miles.  My  route  led  me  by  the  Warm 
 Springs,  already  mentioned  ;  three  miles  fiirther  there  is 
 another  known  as  the  Hot  Springs,  from  being  twenty- 
 six  degrees  higher  in  temperature  than  the  former.  A 
 stream  of  scalding  water  as  large  as  a  man's  body  boils 
 
 V 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  261 
 
 out  of  a  rock  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  foi  ns  a  hot 
 pool  two  or  three  rods  in  cu^cuit,  whence  the  branch 
 runs  across  the  road,  and  westward  into  Hot  Spring 
 Lake.  These  springs  will  be  more  fully  described  in 
 another  place. 
 
 The  sun  was  near  the  horizon  when  I  reached  the 
 highest  pomt  on  the  road,  the  sky  which  had  been  hazy 
 all  day  became  clear,  and  glancing  back  towards  the 
 city  I  saw  her  light  colored  dwellings  and  green  gardens 
 glistening  in  the  evening  sunlight,  reminding  one 
 strangely  of  pictures  of  Oriental  Scenes,  while  the  gray 
 peaks  to  the  east,  the  blue  mountains  to  the  southwest 
 and  the  Lake  Island  hills  combined  to  form  a  grand 
 circle  of  beauty  surrounding  the  modern  "  Zion."  Seated 
 on  a  projecting  rock  above  the  road,  as  the  sun  sank 
 slowly  behind  the  islands,  I  tried  again  and  again  to 
 convey  some  description  of  the  scene  to  paper,  and  as 
 often  dropped  book  and  pencil  with  a  mixture  of  dehght 
 and  despair. 
 
 Ten  miles  out  brought  me  to  Sessions  Settlement, 
 sometimes  called  Bountiful,  where  I  spent  the  night  at 
 the  house  of  Mr.  Perry  Green  Sessions,  a  Mormon  elder 
 and  returned  missionary,  who  entertained  me  with  some 
 account  of  his  experience  in  England  and  the  Eastern 
 States  "  while  laboring  to  build  up  Zion  among  those 
 that  are  in  darkness." 
 
 From  there,  I  continued  my  journey  along  the  stage 
 road,  now  along  the  base  of  the  mountains  where  cold 
 springs  break  in  jets  out  of  the  rocks,  and  again  far  out 
 in  the  valley  among  corn  and  cane  fields,  or  amid  dwel- 
 lings surrounded  by  peach  orchards,  where  the  trees 
 
262  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 were  breaking  under  the  load  of  ripening  fruit,  a  sight 
 I  had  not  seen  for  many  years.  A  larger  and  finer  or- 
 chard than  ordinary  attracted  my  attention,  and,  as  the 
 gate  stood  invitingly  open,  I  walked  forward  to  where 
 two  women  sat  beneath  a  tree  preparing  fruit  for  drying, 
 and  proposed  to  purchase  a  dozen  or  two  of  peaches. 
 Fruit  in  plenty  was  offered  and  all  pay  refused,  and 
 while  I  took  a  proffered  seat,  the  younger  lady,  a  bright, 
 lively,  voluble  woman,  entered  at  once  into  conversa- 
 tion by  asking  what  State  I  had  come  from. 
 
 "  How  do  you  know  I  am  not  a  Utah  man  ? "  I  asked. 
 "Oh,  I  knowed  you  was  a  Gentile  the  minute  you 
 stepped  in  at  the  gate,  and  you  bet  everybody  knows  it 
 the  minute  they  see  you,"  was  the  reply. 
 
 Further  conversation  showed  that  the  lady  had  quite 
 a  history.  She  told  me  her  father  came  to  Salt  Lake 
 City  twenty-one  years  ago,  and  she  was  the  third  white 
 child  born  in  the  place. 
 
 "  But  I  could  n't  see  it  in  my  way  to  marry  a  Saint, 
 not  much ;  though  I  was  raised  to  believe  in  it,  and  do 
 believe  in  the  religion  all  but  that." 
 
 "  Is  your  father  a  Mormon  ? "  I  ventured  to  ask. 
 
 "  Oh,  yes,  and  got  four  women ;  only  one  wife,  mind 
 you,  that 's  my  mother ;  but  four  women  who  call  them- 
 selves his  wives.  I  never  was  raised  to  know  anything 
 else,  but  when  I  was  nineteen  father  married  me  to  a 
 Gentile,  'cause  he  could  n't  help  himself,  I  reckon.  My 
 husband  was  raised  next  door  to  me,  and  went  to  Cali- 
 fornia and  stayed  five  years,  and  soon  as  he  come  back 
 we  was  married.  I  'd  a  stayed  an  old  maid  a  thousand 
 years  before  I'd  take  a  pluralist.     Plurality's  all  well 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  263 
 
 enough  for  the  men,  but  common  sense  shows  that  it 
 don't  suit  women." 
 
 "  Why,  then,  do  some  of  them  hold  up  for  it  ?  " 
 
 "  Well,  they  think  they  must  to  get  salvation  ;  it 's  a 
 part  of  their  religion,  and  sometimes  they  get  along 
 pretty  well.  We  never  had  any  trouble  in  father's 
 family.  The  children  all  growed  up  just  like  brothers 
 and  sisters,  and  treated  each  other  so.  Father  always 
 taught  me  to  respect  his  other  women,  and  I  always 
 did  so. 
 
 "But,  law,  I've  seen  such  sights  in  other  families. 
 Why,  I've  seen  our  neighbor's  women  just  pull  the  hair 
 right  out  of  each  other's  heads.  There's  so  many  men 
 when  they  get  a  young  wife,  will  let  her  abuse  the  old 
 one,  and  encourage  her  to  do  it. 
 
 "  I've  seen  the  man  stand  by,  and  say,  *  Go  in, 
 kill  her,  if  you  can.'  Now,  there  is  Ephe.  Roberts, 
 right  over  there," — pointing  to  a  stone  house  near  the 
 mountain, — "he  brought  a  real  young  delicate  wife  from 
 New  York,  now  goin'  on  sixteen  years  ago,  and  she 
 worked  awful  hard,  I  tell  you ;  why,  I've  known  her 
 to  do  all  her  own  work  when  Ephe.  had  three  hands 
 and  the  threshin'  machine  at  his  house,  and  sometimes 
 she  worked  out  in  the  field,  bound  wheat  and  raked 
 hay,  which,  you  know,  is  awful  hard  on  a  delicate  New 
 York  woman — 'taint  as  if  she  been  raised  to  it,  like  we 
 folks,  and  after  all,  just  last  year,  Ephe.  went  and  mar- 
 ried another  woman,  a  real  young  one,  not  over  twenty, 
 and,  don't  you  think,  this  spring  she  knocked  Maria — 
 that's  his  first  wife — down  with  the  churn-dasher,  and 
 scalded  her.    Ephe.  stood  by,  and  just  said,  go  in  Luce* 
 
264  LIFE    IN   UTAH  5    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 kill  her,  if  you  can ! '  It  all  started  about  a  churn,  too. 
 Both  wanted  to  use  it  at  once.  Maria  had  it,  and  her 
 butter  was  a  little  slow  a  comin',  and  they  got  mad, 
 and  Luce  struck  her,  and  then  snatched  the  kettle  right 
 off  the  stove,  and  then  poured  hot  water  on  her  feet, 
 so  she  fell  down  when  she  tried  to  run  out.  And  what 
 was  the  result,  finally  ?  Well,  Maria  left  him ;  of 
 course,  she  had  to,  or  be  killed.  It's  very  nice,  though, 
 for  the  men.  I  had  a  dozen  chances  to  marry  old 
 Mormons,  but  law  !  I  wouldn't  give  that  for  all  of  'em. 
 Why,  just  turn  things  round,  and  let  a  woman  have 
 two  or  three  men,  and  see  how  they'd  like  that!  There 
 wouldn't  be  no  murderin'  done  in  these  parts,  oh,  no ! 
 And,  I  reckon,  a  woman  has  as  fine  feelin's  as  a  man. 
 I  tell  you,  if  my  husband  ever  joins  'em,  or  tries  to  get 
 another  wife,  that  day  I'll  hunt  another  Gentile ;  you 
 bet ! "  The  testimony  of  "  this  witness,"  professionally 
 speaking,  was  certainly  plain  ;  nor  did  she  trouble  me 
 to  cross-examine,  but  gave  her  views  freely.  I  note 
 one  singular  fact  in  all  similar  cases :  During  a  long 
 residence  in  Utah  I  have  never  in  a  single  instance 
 talked  ten  minutes  with  a  young  lady  of  polygamous 
 family,  that  did  not  manage  in  some  way  to  tell  me, 
 site  was  the  daugliter  of  the  first,  or  legal  wife,  if  such 
 was  the  case.  If  silent  on  that  point,  it  may  safely 
 be  presumed  they  are  of  polygamous  mothers.  And 
 in  more  than  one  instance,  I  have  known  them  to 
 falsely  claim  legitimate  birth. 
 
 From  this  "apostate's"  I  journeyed  on  to  Farming- 
 ton,  eighteen  miles  north  of  the  city,  a  beautiful  town 
 and  settlement  of  some  two  thousand  inhabitants  j  the 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  265 
 
 residence  of  the  Mormon  hero,  Lot  Smith,  who  com- 
 manded their  guerilla  force  at  the  time  it  confronted 
 Johnston's  army  in  Echo  Canon,  burned  his  wagons 
 and  drove  off  his  cattle. 
 
 I  spent  the  night  with  a  well-to-do  Mormon  who  oc- 
 cupied a  long,  one-story,  stone  house,  divided  into  three 
 large  rooms,  with  a  Idtchen  in  the  rear  of  each ;  each 
 room  was  occupied  by  one  of  his  three  wives  and  her 
 children.  He  seemed  to  be  hving  at  the  time  with  the 
 middle  one,  where  we  took  supper.  The  partition  walls 
 must  have  been  two  feet  thick,  without  any  communi- 
 cation, each  wife  with  her  progeny  keeping  strictly  to 
 her  own  department.  He  was  doubtless  a  "  Grant 
 man  j"  his  motto  seemed  to  be  "  Let  us  have  peace." 
 A  "  constitutional "  the  next  morning  brought  me  to 
 the  next  settlement,  Kaysville  by  name,  where  I  took 
 breakfast  with  a  Gentile  w^ho  had  a  Mormon  wife.  He 
 was  a  Missourian  some  fifty  years  old,  and  belonged  to 
 the  Church,  he  told  me,  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago,  but 
 was  "  dis-fellowshiped  for  not  payin'  tithes." 
 
 He  talked  quite  earnestly  when  he  found  I  was  from 
 the  States,  and  gave  his  views  on  the  entire  subject 
 without  troubling  me  to  ask  a  question.  "  I  never 
 heard  in  my  life,"  said  he,  "  that  Christ  and  his  Apos- 
 tles rode  around  the  country  in  a  fine  carriage  with  two 
 span  o'  gray  bosses,  and  made  the  people  turn  out  pro- 
 vision enough  to  keep  him  up,  as  we've  had  to  do  for 
 the  bishop  here.  Brigham  Young  pretends  to  be  His 
 successor,  and  at  the  same  time  makes  his  brags  that 
 he  never  touches  anything  he  don't  make  money  outen. 
 Now,  just  look  at  that  Deseret  Telegraph  line.    He  had 
 
266 
 
 LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 LET   rS  HATE  PEACE." 
 
 aU  the  people  pay  tithes  and  make  donations  for  it 
 ,a^in'  it  would  be  such  a  nice  thing  for  the  people,  and 
 every  settlement  had  to  famish  a  certain  number  o^ 
 poles;  and  now  they'll  charge  you  five  dollars  for  sendm 
 ten  words,  be  you  Samt  or  Gentile.     And  here  after 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   ilORMOXISM.  267 
 
 all,  he's  round  makin'  every  Saint,  the  poorest  ov  'em, 
 give  so  much  to  help  pay  these  operators  that  come 
 dovm.  to  teach  the  girls  along  through  the  Territor}-, 
 how  to  work  the  wires.  Now,  what  comes  o'  that 
 money  ?  it  goes  into  Brigham's  pockets.  But,  pshaw, 
 these  people  won't  listen  to  you.  Can't  make  my  wife 
 believe  a  word  o'  that." 
 
 The  good  woman  retorted  with  a  wordv  defence  of 
 the  Church  and  the  Prophet,  avening  her  firm  belief  in 
 everj-thing  Mormon,  to  which  the  husband  hstened 
 with  a  dry  quizzical  smile,  and  finally  remarked : 
 "  Well,  p'raps  I  had  better  go  back.  Guess  I  iciU,  and 
 git  me  another  wife.  Like  demation  well  to  have  a 
 nice,  trim,  young  creatur  about  twenty-five." 
 
 The  wife,  whose  waist  was  after  the  pattern  of  a  rum 
 barrel,  and  her  feet  models  for  a  patent  brick  machine, 
 reddened  a  little  and  was  silent.  I  think  he  will  con- 
 vert her  yet. 
 
 The  Deseret  Telegraph  line  to  which  he  referred, 
 follows  this  road  to  the  northern  boundary  of  the 
 Territory,  and  south  of  the  city  extends  nearly  to 
 Arizona,  with  side  branches  connecting  all  the  detached 
 settlements;  the  wires  center  in  Brigham  Young's 
 oflBce,  and  thus  at  a  moment's  notice  he  can  send  a 
 warning  of  danger  to  five-sixths  of  his  people,  and  in 
 twenty-four  hours'  time  the  most  isolated  settlers  could 
 be  ready  to  move.  Whether  for  good  or  bad  purposes, 
 it  is  a  remarkable  monument  of  Mormon  enterprise.  I 
 had  intended  to  keep  the  Sabbath  at  :his  point,  but 
 falling  in  with  a  farmer  returning  to  Cache  Valley 
 from  the  city,  I  rode  some  twelve  miles  with  him, 
 
268  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 passing  over  the  Red  Sand  Desert.  This  is  a  ridge  1 
 piece  of  land  jutting  out  from  near  the  mouth  of 
 Weber  Canon,  towards  the  lake,  about  ten  miles  long 
 and  eight  wide,  and  too  high  for  ordinary  irrigation. 
 Most  of  the  land  north  of  the  city  has  one  general 
 character,  a  mixture  of  gravel  and  loam,  or  of  fine  red 
 sand  and  "  dobie  earth,"  a  peculiar  whitish  clay ;  in  its 
 natural  state  it  is  as  barren  as  any  part  of  the  plains. 
 
 A  piece  of  land  is  worthless  unless  water  can  be 
 brought  upon  it ;  but  with  irrigation  it  produces  equally 
 with  any  soil  in  the  world.  Leaving  the  ridge  we 
 descend  into  Weber  Valley,  and  in  five  miles  reach  the 
 city  of  Ogden,  the  most  important  in  northern  Utah ; 
 containing  with  its  vicinity  a  population  of  three  or 
 four  thousand,  and  now  the  point  of  junction  of  the 
 Union  Pacific,  Central  Pacific  and  Utah  Central  (Brig- 
 ham's)  Railroads.  Thence  two  day's  sauntering,  twenty- 
 two  miles,  brings  me  through  Willard  settlement  to 
 Brigham  City,  some  sixty  miles  north  of  Salt  Lake 
 City.  This  is  the  county  seat  of  Box  Elder  Co.,  which 
 contains  at  present  a  Gentile  population  of  at  least  a 
 thousand. 
 
 It  has  a  beautiful  location  at  the  foot  of  the  Wasatch, 
 at  the  mouth  of  a  canon,  which  sends  out  a  large 
 stream  of  pure,  clear  water,  and  a  little  northeast  of 
 the  head  of  Bear  River  Bay,  the  northeastern  projec- 
 tion of  Great  Salt  Lake.  From  Brigham  City,  north- 
 ward, the  valley  of  Salt  Lake  shows  much  less  sign  of 
 cultivation  and  settlement  than  below  that  point. 
 Peach  orchards  entirely  disappear,  apple-trees  and 
 grape  vines  are  quite  rare,  stone-houses  and  stucco- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  269 
 
 finished  "  dobies  "  are  seen  no  more,  and  their  place  is 
 filled  by  rude  log-cabins,  with  a  very  uninviting  ex- 
 terior and  interior  not  over  clean,  inhabited  mostly  by 
 Welsh,  Danes  and  Swedes. 
 
 The  English  inhabitants  of  the  valley  live  quite  well, 
 nearly  as  well  as  the  corresponding  class  in  our  "Western 
 States,  though  I  have  visited  no  part  of  America  where 
 I  found  them  so  entirely  English  in  dialect  and  manner 
 as  here.  Taking  my  meals  wherever  the  hour  over- 
 took me,  I  have  found  rich  brown  cofiee,  golden  butter 
 and  light  white  bread  in  company  with  the  broad  Eng- 
 lish accent,  and  have  learned  to  associate  the  "  hex- 
 asperated  haitch,"  with  'igh  'opes  for  a  'ungry  man. 
 
 But  if  I  stepped  into  a  cabin  and  heard  the  Welsh 
 or  Danish  guttural,  I  asked  some  trivial  favor  and  passed 
 on  to  the  Britons,  whom  I  consider  the  best  part  of  the 
 Mormon  people.  A  traveler  should  not  be  an  epicure, 
 but  I  acknowledge  a  weakness  in  that  respect,  and 
 while  I  had  that  glorious  appetite,  I  hated  to  waste  it 
 on  the  suspicious  looking  porridge,  which  is  a  standing 
 dish  among  the  Scandinavian  Saints. 
 
 A  few  of  the  American  Mormons  come  up  to  the 
 English  standard,  but  in  the  country  the  majority  fall 
 below  it ;  they  constitute,  however,  so  small  a  part  of 
 these  people,  that  I  do  not  stop  with  them  one  time  in 
 five.  They  are  nearly  all  from  New  York  and  Penn- 
 sylvania, and  belong  to  the  original  sect,  all  the  late 
 converts  being  foreigners.  I  see  no  Western  peoj^le 
 among  them  to  speak  of.  I  met  one  middle  aged  lady 
 from  Greene  County,  Indiana,  and  when  she  learned  I 
 was  from  Parke  County,  adjoining,  she  was  quite  over- 
 
270  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 come,  got  me  up  the  best  breakfast  the  cabin  afforded, 
 and  talked  and  cried  alternately  while  I  was  eating  it. 
 Her  parents  joined  the  Mormons  while  she  was  a  young 
 woman,  and  she  has  heard  from  her  old  home  but  three 
 or  four  times  since. 
 
 That  region  was  attracting  considerable  interest,  as 
 the  probable  site  of  the  "great  central  city  of  the  fu- 
 ture," the  town  on  the  railroad  which  was  to  be,  the 
 most  convenient  spot  for  staging  and  freighting  to  Mon- 
 tana, Idaho,  Oregon  and  Washington,  which  would 
 doubtless  be  a  city  of  great  and  permanent  importance. 
 But  the  railroad  was  yet  four  hundred  miles  distant, 
 and  the  location  of  the  future  city  in  great  doubt. 
 Many  thought  it  would  be  at  the  last  crossing  on  Weber 
 River,  while  others  were  equally  sanguine  it  would  be 
 in  Curlew  Valley,  a  hundred  miles  west  of  Bear  River. 
 Meanwhile,  work  was  pushed  forward  rapidly;  the 
 Union  Pacific  Company  had  just  let  contracts  for  a 
 hundred  miles  of  grading  north  of  the  lake,  teams  were 
 passing  that  way  in  considerable  numbers,  and  graders' 
 camps  were  thick  along  the  route. 
 
 At  the  north  crossing  of  Bear  River  I  found  a  "  home 
 station"  of  Wells,  Fargo  &  Co.'s  stages,  where  their 
 branch  line  to  Boise  City  and  into  Oregon  takes  its 
 start ;  also  a  fine  hotel,  bridge,  store,  and  quite  a  little 
 village.  A  few  miles  above.  Bear  River,  which  has  run 
 around  a  long  U  of  three  hundred  miles  from  its  source 
 in  eastern  Utah,  "  canyons  "  downward  a  thousand  feet 
 in  three  miles,  out  of  Cache  into  Bear  River  Valley. 
 
 Seventy  miles  up  the  river,  in  Idaho,  are  the  noted 
 Soda  Springs;  near  them  Camp  Connor  and  a  small 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  271 
 
 settlement  of  "  Morrisites,"  a  sect  of  recusant  Mormons, 
 a  little  more  crazy  than  the  rest,  but  not  quite  so  mean, 
 who  souglit  the  shelter  of  the  military  in  their  escape 
 from  Brighamism. 
 
 My  return  trip  from  Bear  River  was  varied  by  two 
 incidents  worthy  of  special  mention — a  visit  to  the 
 Mineral  Springs  and  an  interview  with  the  "  mad 
 philosopher"  of  Utah.  This  eccentric  genius  merits 
 more  than  a  passing  notice.  His  name  is  J.  W.  Barker, 
 generally  called  "  Professor,"  an  Englishman  by  birth, 
 who  came  to  this  country  fourteen  years  ago  with  a 
 Mormon  party.  He  claimed  to  have  discovered  the 
 primitive  laws,  which  govern  the  whole  material  uni- 
 verse, and  that,  in  time,  he  would  refute  all  the  theories 
 of  such  philosophers  as  Newton,  La  Place,  and  Descartes, 
 from  whom  he  dissented  in  toto.  True  to  his  convic- 
 tions, as  soon  as  he  had  his  family  comfortably  settled, 
 he  fell  to  work  investigating,  collecting  facts,  analyzing 
 and  arranging  specimens,  and  writing  the  principia  of 
 his  great  work,  the  "  Magna  Charta  of  Universal 
 Science,"  which  was  to  annihilate  all  our  present  ideas 
 of  gravity,  light,  and  momentum,  and  usher  in  the 
 scientific  millennium,  at  the  same  time  with  the  moral 
 regeneration  of  mankind. 
 
 For  ten  long,  weary  years,  he  has  devoted  every  hour, 
 beyond  those  requisite  for  obtaining  the  bare  necessaries 
 of  life,  to  this  research.  He  has  traveled  hundreds  of 
 miles  among  the  mines  and  canons,  digging  into  drift, 
 wash  dirt,  gravel,  quartz,  and  gold  gulch  and  bar,  till 
 he  is  known  to  the  miners  from  Montana  to  Salt  Lake. 
 Night  after  night  he  has  watched  the  moon  and  stars, 
 
272  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,    THE   MTSTERTES 
 
 and  calculated  the  slightest  changes  of  the  atmosphere 
 and  mist,  and  every  observation  has  been  faithfully  re- 
 corded, and  assigned  to  its  proper  cause,  in  his  new 
 classification  of  principles.  Being  an  unlettered  man, 
 whose  only  knowledge  of  geology  was  gained  as  an 
 English  miner,  he  has  worked  his  way  against  diffi- 
 culties which  would  have  daunted  any  but  a  half-mad 
 enthusiast;  has  surrounded  himself  with  dictionaries  and 
 lexicons  of  science,  and  hammered  his  way  into  the 
 first  principles  of  more  than  one  language,  by  the  most 
 exhaustive  labor.  I  found  the  "  Professor  "  in  a  moun- 
 tain nook  which  might  well  excuse  a  man  for  going 
 mad  over  the  works  of  nature. 
 
 Directly  fronting  his  house,  three  majestic  gray  peaks 
 of  the  Wasatch  range  rise  a  mile  above  the  level  plain, 
 while  a  short  distance  in  the  rear  of  his  farm  spread  the 
 azure  waters  of  the  Salt  Lake,  beyond  which  is  the  blue 
 line  of  the  mountains  on  the  promontory. 
 
 His  painfully  thin  and  gaunt  appearance  showed  that 
 he  had  hung  over  his  books  and  burned  the  midnight 
 oil  till  the  vital  frame  had  shrunk ;  but  his  manner  was 
 earnest  and  his  voice  firm,  while  the  corded  muscles 
 stood  out  on  a  body  without  an  ounce  of  fat,  and  seemed 
 to  run  over  the  bones  like  the  wire  pulleys  of  a  metal 
 clock.  He  conversed  pleasantly  and  quite  intelligently 
 on  various  topics,  till  glancing  at  the  mountain  peaks  I 
 remarked  that  they  must  have  been  thrown  up  by  some 
 great  convulsion  of  nature;  then  his  eyes  lighted  with  a 
 strange  fire  as  he  hastily  replied  :  "  They  certainly  were 
 not  thrown  up ;  they  were  thrown  down."  Then  hold- 
 ing forth  an  hour  on  the  origin  of  mountains,  he  invited 
 
A.ND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  273 
 
 me  to  his  study.  A  low  room  half  underground  in  the 
 rear  of  his  house,  built  of  logs,  had  been  rudely  fitted  up 
 with  board,  chest  and  table,  block  candle-holders  attached 
 to  the  wall  by  wires,  so  as  to  bend  out  and  in,  and  a  few 
 chairs.  The  walls  were  completely  covered  with  rude 
 maps  and  charts,  and  with  long  lists  of  words,  which  he 
 stated  he  had  to  use  often  and  did  not  know  how  to 
 spell,  all  copied  from  the  dictionary  in  large  capitals. 
 
 Producing  a  seat  for  me  and  a  large  bowl  of  water  for 
 himself,  he  entered  on  a  three  hours'  exposition  of  his 
 views.  He  holds  that  all  the  fluid  elements  of  nature 
 are  resolvable  into  four  gases ;  that  all  the  'grosser  ele- 
 ments are  in  like  manner  reducible  to  four  simple  solids; 
 and  from  varying  proportions  of  these  few  primitives  are 
 derived  all  possible  materials  throughout  the  universe 
 He  contends  also  that  the  entire  Newtonian  theory  of 
 gravity  is  erroneous  and  false  to  true  science ;  that  there 
 is,  in  strictness  of  language,  no  such  principle  as  gravity 
 anywhere  operating  in  creation ;  that  the  terms  refrac- 
 tion and  reflection  are  ba&'ed  on  a  total  misconception  of 
 the  nature  of  light ;  that  all  space  outside  of  the  atmos- 
 phere contains  a  material  medium,  and  that  the  atmos- 
 phere is  shown  by  actual  demonstration  to  be  eight  thou- 
 sand miles  thick  instead  of  forty-five. 
 
 He  thinks  that  all  nature  is  operated  upon  by  four 
 simple,  constant  and  regular  laws,  and  that  all  we  ob- 
 serve are  but  combinations  and  inter-relations  of  these 
 four,  which  depend  for  their  action  simply  on  the  will 
 and  moving  power  of  God.  They  operate  in  one  course 
 through  countless  cycles  of  time,  tending  alwaj's  to  a 
 common  center,  and,  having  run  that  course,  are  directed 
 18 
 
274  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 in  a  returning  course  for  other  terms.  The  mental, 
 moral  and  spiritual  world  is  but  a  microcosmical  copy 
 of  the  material,  consisting,  too,  of  four  subtle  elements 
 mingled  with  four  grosser  elements,  and  moved  upon  by 
 infinite  combinations  of  four  simple  laws,  directly  refer- 
 rable  to  the  will  of  God, 
 
 The  mountains  are  remains  of  precipitated  satellites, 
 of  which  the  earth  has  had  many,  the  moon  only  re- 
 maining ;  but  like  all  the  others  it  is  a  hollow  globe, 
 destined  to  fall  upon  and  give  final  shape  to  the  surface 
 of  the  earth.  The  planets  inside  of  our  orbit  have  now 
 no  satellites,  but  are  hurrying  on  to  their  destiny  on  the 
 face  of  the  sun ;  while  those  outside  of  us  have  many,  and 
 are  coming  in  more  slowly.  We  on  the  earth  are  ap- 
 proaching the  latter  part  of  our  career,  and  have  barely 
 time  to  complete  the  moral  regeneration  of  the  race. 
 
 It  is  consoling  to  know  that  the  grand  smash-up  will 
 not  take  place  till  after  the  millennium.  The  old  gen- 
 tleman has  just  finished  his  great  work,  and  required 
 all  the  information  I  could  give  him  as  to  the  cost  and 
 facilities  of  getting  it  printed  in  the  East.  It  consisted 
 of  forty-six  chapters,  bound  up  in  as  many  separate 
 manuscript  volumes.  Take  him  all  in  all  he  is  a  curi- 
 ous case  of  scientific  insanity,  well  worthy  the  attention 
 of  Mr.  Beck,  the  learned  writer  on  the  subject.  The 
 "  Professor  "  lectures  in  Salt  Lake  City  occasionally,  and 
 Orson  Pratt — professor  and  elder,  and  the  learned  man 
 of  the  city — has  thought  it  worth  while  to  reply  to  him 
 through  the  press.  Wild  and  strange  as  this  man's 
 ideas  may  appear,  he  is  but  a  type  of  hundreds  in  Utah. 
 In  science  as  in  theology,  Mormonism  is  at  war  with 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  275 
 
 all  existing  systems;  one-third  of  the  whole  people 
 seem  a  little  crazy  on  some  subject  or  other,  and  the 
 wildest,  most  baseless  theory,  the  one  farthest  removed 
 from  natural  causes,  is  ever  the  one  most  likely  to 
 prevail. 
 
 Having  cut  loose  from  all  recognized  standards  in 
 spiritual  matters,  they  seem  equally  determined  on  the 
 supernatural,  and  extra  human  in  medicine,  science, 
 astronomy  and  natural  history.  I  was  once  called 
 upon  by  a  Mormon,  a  little  more  crazy  than  ordinary, 
 with  an  immense  chart  of  what  he  called  "  Celestial 
 Masonry."  For  the  medical  museum  of  a  mad-house, 
 it  would  have  been  a  priceless  treasure.  A  canvass 
 three  feet  square  was  covered  by  the  pictured  folds  of 
 an  enormous  serpent,  along  which  were  drawings  of  the 
 various  scenes,  symbols  and  implements  of  the  new  Ma- 
 sonry, divided  for  the  various  degrees,  of  which  there 
 twenty-seven !  All  the  work  had  been  done  with 
 colored  crayons;  by  "inspirational  writing,"  as  the 
 Mormon  averred,  the  spirits  guiding  his  hand  without 
 his  volition ;  and  as  a  work  of  art  it  showed  remarkable 
 style  and  finish. 
 
 Some  three  years  ago  a  "Josephite,"  or  recusant 
 Mormon,  who  had  adopted  the  new  Mormon  doctrine 
 of  "transmission  of  spirits,"  conceived  that  he  was 
 Adam  sent  back  to  the  flesh ;  his  wife,  a  little  worse 
 crazed,  was  Eve ;  but  during  the  six  thousand  years  of 
 their  separation  she  had  fallen  away  and  become  a 
 prostitute.  To  "  purify  her "  he  cut  ofF  all  her  hair, 
 pulled  out  her  teeth,  and  for  the  better  convenience  of 
 locomotion  dressed  her  in  man's  clothes,  when  both 
 
276  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 started  on  foot  for  the  States.  A  year  afterwards  they 
 made  their  appearance  at  a  ranclie  in  Colorado,  nearly 
 dead  with  hunger  and  fatigue ;  nor  did  it  ever  appear 
 how  they  had  reached  there.  From  there  they  came 
 mth  a  returning  train  to  the  Missouri,  where  the  au- 
 thorities properly  consigned  them  to  the  lunatic  asylum. 
 
 There  is  no  refuge  for  the  insane  in  Utah ;  fortu- 
 nately, perhaps,  for  it  might  require  a  small  war  to 
 settle  who  should  occupy  it.  Few  are  violent,  but 
 many  are  deranged;  and  the  whole  Territory  would 
 present  a  fine  field  for  the  student  in  the  jurisprudence 
 of  insanity. 
 
 The  Mineral  Springs  are  ten  miles  south  of  Bear 
 River  Bridge,  and  seventy  north  of  the  city ;  but  I 
 defer  a  full  description,  which  will  be  found  under  the 
 proper  heading. 
 
 In  my  trip  to  Bear  River,  and  return,  I  journeyed 
 nearly  two  hundred  miles  among  the  rural  Saints,  and 
 observed  their  ways  with  all  earnestness  and  curiosity. 
 The  country  Mormon  is  more  religious  than  his  city 
 brother,  but  less  intelligent.  He  is  a  greater  stickler 
 for  the  small  matters  of  his  faith,  but  much  less  able  to 
 give  a  reason  why.  He  is  more  hospitable,  generous 
 and  social,  but  much  more  offensive  in  thrusting  the  un- 
 pleasant features  of  his  faith  upon  you.  But  the 
 greatest  difference  is  among  the  women.  The  polj'ga- 
 mous  wife  in  the  city  is  in  paradise  compared  with  her 
 sister  in  the  country,  where  farm  labors  and  cares  must 
 be  shared  in  common.  There  the  conditic^i  of  woman 
 is  already  fast  tending  to  what  it  is  in  other  iDolyga- 
 mous  countries,  and   there  the  degeneracy  is  soonest 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  277 
 
 manifest.  While  the  men  are  enthusiastically  devoted 
 to  their  faith,  I  did  not  see  a  single  woman  in  the 
 country  who  defended  polygamy,  though  strongly 
 Mormon  in  everything  else. 
 
 At  least  one-third  the  entire  population  of  the  valley 
 is  from  Great  Britain,  one-third  or  more  from  Sweden, 
 Norway  and  Denmark,  while  possibly  one-sixth  is 
 American.  As  far  as  I  know  all  the  posts  of  honor, 
 indeed  all  the  easy  and  lucrative  positions,  are  filled  by 
 Americans,  simply  because  the  others  are  generally  in- 
 capable. The  missionaries  are  largely  of  foreign  birth, 
 each  being  sent  back  to  his  native  country,  after  a  few 
 years  residence  in  Utah. 
 
 Little  more  than  a  year  afterwards,  in  visiting  the 
 same  section,  I  met  with  an  experience  in  Brigham 
 City,  which,  though  equally  novel,  was  nothing  like  so 
 pleasant.  The  Saints,  who  had  seemed  mdifferent  on 
 my  first  visit,  were  altogether  too  pointed  in  their  atten- 
 tions the  last  time. 
 
 But  I  anticipate.  I  reached  Salt  Lake  City  the 
 morning  of  October  the  sixth,  in  time  for  the  "fall  Con- 
 ference "  of  1868. 
 
278  LIFE  IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 CHAPTER  XL 
 
 THE    CONFERENCE    AND   ITS    RESULTS. 
 
 A  Mormon  mass-meeting — Paces  and  features — Great  enth\asiajm — A 
 living  "martyr" — A  Mormon  hymn — The  Poetess — A  "president" 
 chosen — He  recites  the  Cliurch  history — First  view  of  Brigham — He 
 curses  the  Gentiles — A  "nasty  sermon" — Coarseness  and  profanity — 
 Bitterness  of  other  speakers — Swearing  in  the  pulpit — Exciting  the 
 people — Their  frenzy  and  fanatacism— Hatred  against  the  United  States  — 
 Foolish  bravado — The  author  gains  new  light  on  Mormonism — A  sub- 
 ject to  be  studied — English  and  European  Sects  of  like  character — 
 Division  of  the  subject. 
 
 The  semi-annual  conference  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
 Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints  convened  on  Tuesday 
 morning,  October  6th,  in  the  new  Tabernacle,  and  was 
 to  me  an  occasion  of  great  interest.  Long  before  the 
 hour  of  meeting,  indeed,  from  early  dawn,  all  the  roads 
 leading  into  the  city  were  thronged  by  crowds  from  dis- 
 tant settlements,  going  up  to  their  half-yearly  worship 
 in  "  Zion."  As  I  returned  from  Bear  River  on  the 
 Sunday  and  Monday  preceding,  I  was  passed  every 
 hour  by  long  trains  of  Saints  from  the  northern  and 
 northeastern  parts  of  the  Territory,  and,  on  reaching 
 the  city,  found  still  larger  delegations  from  Utah  Lake 
 District,  Provo,  Fillmore,  San  Pete,  and  St.  George. 
 
 This  occasion  among  the  Saints  is  every  way  equal  to 
 the  yearly  passover  among  the  Jews,  and  every  one  who 
 can  possibly  leave  home  makes  a  visit  to  "  Zion,"  and 
 esteems  it  an  honor  and  privilege  to  do  so. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  279 
 
 I  reached  the  building  too  late  on  Tuesday  morning, 
 and,  with  many  thousand  others,  was  turned  away  for 
 want  of  room.  The  Saints  seemed  to  consider  it  suffi- 
 cient happiness  to  stand  around  and  gaze  at  the  buil- 
 ding, and  think  of  what  was  going  on  inside;  but  I  was 
 sustained  by  no  such  enthusiasm,  and  consoled  myself 
 by  getting  an  early  dinner  preparatory  to  securing  a 
 seat  as  soon  as  the  doors  were  opened  in  the  afternoon. 
 The  sight  was  well  worth  the  trouble.  From  my  seat 
 near  the  pulpit,  and  just  at  one  side,  I  could  overlook 
 the  whole  vast  sea  of  faces.  The  curtain  in  the  rear 
 had  been  removed  and  the  entire  oval,  as  well  as  the 
 space  beside  the  organ,  was  completely  filled  by  at  least 
 ten  thousand  eager  auditors.  The  rows  of  high  seats 
 on  either  side  of  the  pulpit  were  occupied  by  bishops 
 and  elders  from  distant  settlements,  some  three  hundred 
 in  all,  while  the  four  long  seats  constituting  the  pulpit, 
 were  occupied  by  the  First  Presidency,  consisting  of 
 Brigham  Young,  Daniel  E[.  Wells,  and  a  vacant  space 
 or  the  late  Heber  C.  Kimball;  also  by  the  Twelve 
 Apostles,  the  Heads  of  the  Quorum  of  Seventies,  the 
 Church  Secretary,  Historian  and  City  Elders.  It  was 
 the  largest  collection  of  the  Saints  I  had  yet  seen,  and 
 I  studied  it  with  much  interest. 
 
 Occasionally  I  would  see  a  fine  cast  of  American 
 features,  but  nearly  all  the  faces  had  that  indescribable 
 foreign  look,  which  all  can  recognize  and  none  portray. 
 In  companies  of  fifties  and  hundreds  they  had  left  their 
 distant  homes  at  the  call  of  the  missionarj^,  had  given 
 up  friends,  property,  country  and  religion,  as  they 
 thought,  to  follow  Christ ;  had  tossed  upon  the  waves 
 
280  LIFE   IN    UTAU;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 in  noisome  emigrant  ships,  had  turned  their  backs  upon 
 the  great  and  fertile  States,  and  traversed  eleven  hun- 
 dred miles  of  prairie,  mountain  and  burning  sand,  "  to 
 build  up  the  kingdom  of  God  in  Deseret."  And  to 
 these  people,  all  before  them  to-day  was  a  glorious  real- 
 ity. Feeling  as  I  did,  that  all  this  was  but  part  of  a 
 great  delusion,  I  could  not  but  reverence  the  intense 
 faith  of  these  devotees. 
 
 The  meeting  was  called  to  order,  after  which  the 
 Twentieth  Ward  choir  sang, 
 
 "My  soul  is  full  of  peace  and  love, 
 I  soon  shall  see  Christ  from  above,"  etc. 
 
 Prayer  was  offered  by  Elder  Erastus  Snow,  followed 
 by  a  quartette  by  the  Brigham  City  choir, 
 
 "  Pray  for  the  peace  of  Deseret," 
 
 after  which  Elder  John  Taylor  addressed  the  meeting. 
 Taylor  is  one  of  the  early  converts  to  Mormonism,  and 
 enjoys  a  high  reputation  among  them,  having  been  with 
 Joseph  Smith  in  many  trying  scenes.  With  another 
 brother,  he  was  with  Joseph  and  Hyrum  at  the  time 
 they  were  killed  in  Carthage  jail,  Hancock  Co.,  Illinois. 
 According  to  the  popular  Mormon  account,  as  the 
 mob  commenced  firing,  Joseph  said  to  Taylor,  "I  shall 
 pass  away,  but  you  shall  live  to  tell  the  tale  to  children's 
 children."  At  that  moment  Hyrum  fell  dead.  Joseph 
 cried,  "  Oh,  my  dear  brother  Hyrum !"  and  sprang  into 
 the  window.  A  second  volley  was  fired,  when  Joseph 
 exclaimed,  "Oh,  Lord,  my  God!"  and  fell  into  the 
 street.  Of  the  same  volley,  four  shots  wounded  Tajlor 
 in  as  many  places,  and  a  fifth — an  ounce  ball  from  a 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  281 
 
 yager  musket — struck  him  squarely  in  the  breast,  and 
 buried  in  an  English  lever  watch  which  had  run  with- 
 out interruption  for  ten  years,  stopping  the  hands  exactly 
 at  5  o'clock,  16  minutes,  and  22  seconds,  P.  M.,  which 
 is  marked  among  the  Saints  as  the  solemn  hour  of  the 
 Prophet's  death.  On  the  fall  of  Joseph,  the  molj  rushed 
 aromid  the  building,  and  the  fourth  brother,  who  was 
 unhurt,  carried  Taylor  down  stairs  and  to  a  place  of 
 safety.  A  Mormon  tradition  adds,  that  at  the  same 
 time  a  gigantic  Missourian,  with  his  face  blackened,  ran 
 forward  to  cut  off  Joseph's  head,  for  which  a  reward 
 had  been  offered ;  but  as  he  knelt,  knife  in  hand,  on 
 the  body  of  the  Prophet,  a  flash  of  lightning  darted 
 from  the  clear  sky  between  him  and  his  victim,  and 
 shook  the  knife  from  his  grasp.  This  incident,  which 
 is  the  subject  of  a  sensational  engraving  often  seen  in 
 the  Mormon  dwellings,  rests  upon  the  statement  of  one 
 Daniels,  the  only  witness  of  the  assassination  not  con- 
 nected either  with  the  Mormons  or  the  mob.  He  joined 
 the  Mormons  soon  after,  and,  at  the  request  of  the 
 Apostles,  published  his  account.  He  was  afterward 
 "  cut  off"  from  the  church,  but  they  still  cling  to  his 
 testimony.  The  watch  which  marked  the  hour  so  pre- 
 cisely, is  kept  as  a  sacred  relic  in  the  city.  Taylor, 
 though  shot  nearly  all  to  pieces,  recovered  entirely  and 
 is  a  healthy,  venerable -looking  old  man  of  sixty  years. 
 He  gave  a  rather  able  address,  reciting  some  of  the  early 
 trials,  and  urging  the  Saints  to  be  industrious  and  self- 
 sustaining. 
 
 The  choir  then  sang  the  following  hymn,  composed 
 by  Miss  Eliza  R.  Snow,  the  Mormon  poetess : — 
 
282  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 "OUR  PROPHET,   BRIGHAM  YOUNG   ' 
 
 "  O  God  of  life  and  glory  I 
 
 Hear  Thou  a  people's  prayer, 
 Bless,  bless  our  Prophet  Brigham  ; 
 Let  him  thy  fullness  share. 
 He  is  Thy  chosen  servant — 
 To  lead  Thine  Israel  forth. 
 Till  Zion,  crowned  with  joy,  shall  be 
 A  praise  in  all  the  earth. 
 
 "  He  draws  from  Christ,  the  fountain 
 
 Of  everlasting  truth, 
 The  wise  and  prudent  counsels 
 Which  he  gives  to  age  and  youth. 
 Thyself  in  him  reflected 
 
 Through  mortal  agency, 
 He  is  Thy  representative 
 To  set  Thy  people  free. 
 
 "  Thou  richly  hast  endowed  him 
 
 With  wisdom's  bounteous  store, 
 And  Thou  hast  made  him  mighty 
 By  Thy  own  Almiiility  power. 
 Oh,  let  his  life  be  precious — 
 
 Bless  Thou  his  brethren,  too, 
 Wlio  firmly  join  him  side  by  side, 
 Who're  true  as  he  is  true. 
 
 "  Help  him  to  found  Thy  kindom 
 
 In  majesty  and  power, 
 With  peace  in  every  palace 
 And  with  strength  in  every  tower ; 
 And  when  thy  chosen  Israel 
 
 Their  noblest  strains  have  sung 
 The  swelling  chorus  there  shall  be 
 Our  Prophet,  Brigham  Young." 
 
 This  authoress  is  one  of  the   "  spiritual  wives "  of 
 Brigham,  which   class  of  ladies  usually  retain   their 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF  MORMONISM.  283 
 
 maidenly  appellation,  sometimes  merely  adding  that  of 
 the  spiritual  husband.  She  is  a  very  fine,  intellectual- 
 looking  woman  of  forty  or  fifty  years,  and  from  her 
 appearance  seems  made  to  be  loved. 
 
 On  Wednesday  morning  Elder  George  A.  Smith, 
 cousin  of  Joseph,  was  chosen  as  First  Counselor  to  Brig- 
 ham  Young,  in  place  of  Heber  C.  Kimball,  deceased. 
 Daniel  H.  Wells  is  Second  Counselor,  and  these  three 
 constitute  the  First  Presidency,  at  the  head  of  all  afi'airs 
 of  the  Church. 
 
 President  Smith  then  gave  a  lengthy  account  of  the 
 early  history  of  the  Church  from  the  time  Joseph  was 
 called  to  take  the  golden  plates  out  of  the  Hill  of  Cu- 
 morali,  in  western  New  York,  to  the  expulsion  from 
 Nauvoo.  He  enlarged  on  their  troubles  in  Kirtland  and 
 journey  to  Missouri.  "  There  two  priests  organized  a 
 mob,  and  the  Lieutenant-Governor  called  out  the  militia. 
 The  Saints  were  driven  from  Jackson  County  to  Clay, 
 and  from  Clay  to  Caldwell,,  which  they  found  occupied 
 by  seven  persons,  all  hunters.  Far  West  was  built  as  if 
 by  magic.  By  August  1, 1838,  they  owned  all  of  Cald- 
 well and  parts  of  neighboring  counties,  when  the  mobs 
 came  upon  them  again.  The  Governor  called  out  fifteen 
 thousand  men,  but  there  was  no  law  but  mob  law, 
 whipping  men  and  ravishing  women.  Women  and 
 children  Avandered  for  fifteen  days  on  the  burnt  prairie, 
 and  could  be  tracked  by  the  blood  from  their  feet.  Then 
 the  Saints  went  to  Illinois  and  built  the  beautiful  city 
 of  Nauvoo,  and  while  there  Joseph  Smith  went  to  see 
 the  President,  Martin  Van  Buren,  who  heard  his  peti- 
 tion through,  and  then  said :  '  Your  cause  is  just,  but  I 
 
284  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 can  do  nothing  for  you.'  Soon  after  this  Joseph  and 
 Hyrum  were  arrested  and  murdered.  Then  a  combina- 
 tion was  formed  in  nine  counties  to  expel  us. 
 
 "  We  appealed  to  the  Governors  of  the  States  and 
 were  told  the  law  was  on  our  side,  but  public  opinion 
 was  against  us  and  we  would  have  to  leave.  We  finished 
 our  temple  with  the  trowel  in  one  hand  and  rifle  in  the 
 other.  Then  our  city  was  bombarded  for  three  days 
 and  we  retreated  again.  We  commenced  to  cross  the 
 Mississippi  in  the  month  of  February  on  the  ice.  While 
 lying  on  the  bank  of  the  river  the  Lord  sent  quails  into 
 the  camp  that  they  could  take  them  with  the  hand, 
 which  kept  the  people  from  dying  of  hunger.  In  that 
 condition  they  remained  till  those  who  had  gone  west 
 could  return  with  wagons  and  take  them  away ;  but  be- 
 fore this  was  done  many  perished." 
 
 This  history  was  continued  at  various  times  b}^  all 
 the  speakers,  and  in  the  most  exaggerated  and  intiam- 
 matory  style.  On  Thursday  morning  I  heard  Brigham 
 Young  for  the  first  time.  He  is  above  medium  height, 
 well  proportioned,  fine  and  portly-looking;  with  gray  or 
 light  blue  eyes,  hght  brown  or  golden  hair,  now  sprinkled 
 with  gray,  clear,  rosy  skin  and  sanguine  temperament. 
 His  voice  is  quite  clear  and  his  enunciation  distinct,  with 
 considerable  of  what  is  termed  "presence,"  and  electric 
 effect  upon  his  congregation.  But  his  style  was  coarse, 
 in  this  instance  even  vulgar  beyond  the  bounds  of  des- 
 cription. He  was  evidently  either  in  an  ill  humor  or 
 determined  to  make  the  people  so,  indulging  in  remin- 
 iscences both  personal  and  public,  which  led  him  into 
 violent  denunciation  of  all  outsiders.     When  he   first 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISxM.  285 
 
 arose  I  was  somewhat  impressed,  and  thought  I  saw  one 
 reason  for  his  supremacy,  that  he  was  indebted  for  his 
 power  over  an  ignorant  people  almost  as  much  to  his 
 physical  as  to  his  mental  superiority.  But  when  he  had 
 closed  I  was  utterly  amazed,  and  it  seemed  incredible 
 that  one  hundred  people  could  be  found,  much  less  a 
 thousand  times  that  number,  who  should  regard  him  as 
 a  "  prophet  of  the  Lord."  Afterwards,  however,  I  had 
 the  pleasure  of  hearing  him  when  he  was  in  a  calmer 
 mood,  when  he  appeared,  to  some  extent  at  least,  the 
 prophet,  priest  and  king. 
 
 For  the  rest  of  the  Conference,  which  was  mainly 
 devoted  to  the  discussion  of  a  general  movement  to 
 prevent  trade  with  the  Gentile  merchants,  the  speakers 
 seemed  to  vie  with  each  other  in  bitterness,  intemper- 
 ance of  language,  and  hostility  to  Gentiles ;  and  all  the 
 good  opinions  of  the  Mormons  I  had  hitherto  formed 
 were  utterly  dissipated.  For  the  first  time  in  my  life  I 
 heard  the  Government  and  people  of  the  United  States 
 denounced,  ridiculed  and  cursed,  and  the  very  name  of 
 American  made  a  hissing  and  a  byword ;  for  the  first 
 time  I  heard  professed  preachers  swearing  in  the  pulpit, 
 and  such  expressions  as  "d — d  apostate"  flung  reck- 
 lessly about  by  so-called  apostles  and  priests.  The 
 Conference  closed,  and  its  bad  effect  was  soon  apparent 
 When  I  first  arrived,  there  had  been  an  era  of  good 
 feeling  5  old  bitterness  appeared  to  be  passing  away, 
 and  I  was  quite  convinced  that  much  I  had  heard  of  the 
 feud  between  Gentiles  and  Mormons  was  exaggerated. 
 
 In  this  temper  of  the  public  mind  the  Conference 
 met,  passed  a  decree  of  non-intercourse  with  the  re- 
 
286  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 sident  Gentiles,  and  spared  no  pains  to  inflame  the 
 public  mind.  The  entire  history  of  the  Church  waa 
 rehearsed,  and  in  the  most  intemperate  style ;  every 
 act  of  "  persecution,"  every  slight  and  neglect  was  dwelt 
 upon  to  the  most  minute  particulars,  and  matters  of 
 comparative  indifference  exaggerated  clear  out  of  truth- 
 ful proportion.  There  was  not  the  slightest  hint 
 that  the  Mormons  were  anywhere  in  the  wrong,  that 
 there  was  the  least  palliation  for  their  enemies;  not 
 even  the  charitable  assumption  that  some  few  of  the 
 latter  believed  themselves  in  the  right.  On  the  con- 
 trary, every  scrap  of  history  began  and  continued  with 
 the  broad  assumption,  "We  are  the  chosen  people  of 
 God,  to  whom  He  has  spoken  by  the  mouth  of  His 
 Prophet  in  these  latter  days,  and,  being  such,  of  course, 
 the  world  hated  us.  There  is  and  must  be  eternal 
 enmity  between  God  and  the  devil,  so  there  was  and 
 must  be  between  Zion  and  the  children  of  the  devil,  to 
 wit,  the  Missourians  and  the  Illinoisans."  And  these 
 simple  folks,  who  had  come  up  to  the  Tabernacle  with 
 quiet  minds,  at  peace  with  each  other  and  all  the  world, 
 left  it  with  a  burning  bitterness  against  all  Gentiles ; 
 and,  as  successive  speakers  recounted  their  troubles  in 
 Missouri  and  Illinois,  they  seemed  wrought  up  to  a  per- 
 fect frenzy.  In  Brigham's  "sermon"  he  threatened  dii^e 
 mischiefs  upon  the  "d — d  apostates,"  and  expressed 
 himself  as  "only  sorry  for  one  thing,  that  God  didn't 
 tell  us  to  fight  the  d — d  mobocrats,"  to  which  the 
 Tabernacle  resounded  with  shouts  of  "Amen,  Amen!" 
 Another  speaker,  George  Q.  Cannon,  went  much 
 farther,  and  seemed  to  exhaust  all  the  resources  of 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  287 
 
 lingual  ingenuity  to  provoke  the  people  to  mob  violence, 
 without  directly  advising  it.     The  great  objects  of  his 
 animosity  were  the  Reporter — Gentile  paper — and  the 
 grammar  school  of  St.  Mark's  Associate  Mission,  the 
 Gentile  school  of  the  City.      Cannon  stigmatized  the 
 school  as  one  of  the  institutions  of  the  devil  set  up  in 
 Zion,  and  then  asked :  "  Shall  such  an  institution  be 
 allowed  to  go  on  and   innoculate  the  minds  of  our 
 children  with  its  damnable  and  pernicious  doctrines  T 
 Which  was  answered  with  a  universal  shout  of  "  No !" 
 "No."     He  hardly  dared  to  directly  advise  the  people 
 to  attack  or  destroy  the  Reporter  office,  but  related  a 
 bit  of  history,  with  comments,  which,  if  not  intended  to 
 mdicate  violence,  had  no  force  that  I  can  perceive.     He 
 said  when  he  was  a  boy  in  Nauvoo,  there  was  a  paper 
 published  there  by  some  "  apostates  "  called  the  "  Ex- 
 positor."    It  vilified  the  Saints,  and  scandalized  their 
 wives  and  daughters  till  the  City  Council  declared  it  a 
 nuisance.     About  that  time  the  speaker  was  in  the 
 office  of  the  Mormon  paper  there,  and  heard  Joseph 
 and    Hyrum   Smith  talking  about   it.      Hyrum  said, 
 "  Rather  than  allow  it  to  go  on,  he  would  lay  his  body 
 m  the  walls  of  the  building  where  it  was  issued."     The 
 speaker  then  gave  a  glowing  account  of  the  martyrdom 
 of  Joseph   and   Hyrum,   and   the   many    Saints   who 
 suffered  on  account  of  the  "  Expositor  "  till  the  people 
 were  wrought  into  a  perfect  frenzy.     He  then  stated 
 that   "  right  here  in  the  midst  of  Zion  a  paper  was 
 issued,  so  much  like  that,  he  could  hardly  tell  them 
 apart,  and  the  times  were  so  similar  he  almost  imagined 
 himself  a  boy  again."     Then   reading  some  extracts 
 
288  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 from  the  Reporter,  and  commenting  in  an  inflammatory 
 style,  he  said :  "  In  any  other  community  such  a  paper 
 as  this  would  be  gutted  inside  of  five  days,  and  its 
 Editor  strung  up  to  a  telegraph  pole.  To  which  the 
 excited  congregation  responded,  "  Hear,  hear,"  "  Here 
 we  are,"  etc. 
 
 I  now  began  to  understand  what  had  at  first  seemed 
 a  mystery  to  me;  that  in  every  State  where  the  Mor- 
 mons had  lived,  the  people  who  had  at  first  welcomed 
 them  gladly,  ended  by  hating  and  opposing  them. 
 Granting  that  all  the  charges  against  them  of  petty 
 thieving,  counterfeiting  and  trespass  were  untrue,  such 
 mad  fanaticism  could  not  but  destroy  good  neighlDor- 
 hood,  and  arouse  all  other  violent  elements  in  opposi- 
 tion to  their  own.  Mormonism,  which  had  hitherto 
 been  to  me  a  mere  amusement  or  matter  of  passing 
 interest,  now  appeared  a  subject  worthy  of  serious  and 
 earnest  investigation. 
 
 That  a  vast  multitude  of  people  should  embrace  a 
 wild  scheme  of  religion  is  no  new  thing,  perhaps  no 
 great  wonder;  the  foremost  nations  of  Europe  liave 
 witnessed  greater  displays  of  fanaticism ;  England  had 
 her  Irvmgites,  Muggletonians  and  devotees  of  Joanna 
 Southcott ;  Germany  was  compelled  to  slaughter  fifty 
 thousand  of  the  fierce  Anabaptists  of  Munster,  followers 
 of  St.  John  of  Lcydcn ;  while  the  convulsionists  of 
 France,  and  the  self-mutilating  sects  of  Russia,  have 
 shown  more  unnatural  bigotry  than  the  Mormons.  But 
 that  a  theocratic  despotism  should  spring  up  in  a  free 
 republic;  that  the  cool  and  practical  Yankee  should 
 turn   Prophet,  and  that  after  two  thousand  years  of 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  285 
 
 Christain  progress,  men  and  women  should  voluntarily 
 turn  back  to  polygamy,  semi-paganism  and  the  "  dead 
 works  "  of  a  ceremonial  law — this  is  cause  for  inquiry. 
 Let  us  then  take  a  brief  view  of  the  most  characteristic 
 features  of  Mormonism,  arranging  them  for  conveni- 
 ence in  the  following  order : 
 
 I.  Mormon  society  and  general  views. 
 II.  Analysis  of  Mormon  theology. 
 
 III.  Theoretical  polygamy — its  history. 
 
 IV.  Practical  polygamy. 
 
 V.  The  Mormon  theocracy. 
 
 19 
 
290  LIFE   IN   UTAU;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 CHAPTER  XII. 
 
 ANALYSIS  OF   MORMON   SOCIETY. 
 
 Difficulty  at  the  outset — Extremes  among  witnesses — Prejudice  on  both 
 sides — First  impressions  favorable — "  "Whited  Sepulchres" — Classes  of 
 Mormons — Brigham  Young  ;  impostor  or  fanatic  ? — The  dishonest  class 
 —The  "earnest  Mormons" — Disloyalty — Church  and  State — Killing 
 men  to  save  their  souls — Slavery  of  woman — Brigham  the  government 
 — Prophecy  against  the  United  States — "War" — "Seven  women  to 
 take  hold  of  one  man  " — Another  war  expected — Blood  and  thunder  in 
 store  for  the  Gentiles—"  The  great  tribulation  "  about  due — Popular  er- 
 rors— Witchcraft — "Faith-doctoring" — Zion  in  Jackson  County,  Mis 
 souri — Comfortable  prospect. 
 
 Before  entering  upon  a  subject  so  complex  as  Mor- 
 mon society  and  theology,  it  is  necessary  to  warn  the 
 reader  that  on  many  of  its  features  it  is  difficult  to 
 write  without  some  warmth  of  feeling ;  and  as  to  polyg- 
 amy, quite  impossible  to  treat  thereon  without  coarse- 
 ness. In  this  part  of  my  work  too,  a  special  preface  is 
 appropriate,  as  our  American-Saxon  is  particularly  defi- 
 cient in  those  delicate  euphemisms  which  enable  an  au- 
 thor to  describe  that  which  is  vile,  in  language  which 
 is  comparatively  chaste,  or  at  any  rate,  not  shocking  or 
 offensive.  In  treating  of  the  gross  materialism  and 
 perverted  sexualism  of  the  Mormons,  it  has  been 
 thought  best  to  speak  plainly,  that  the  full  effects  of  this 
 new  Mohammedanism  may  be  seen  and  read  of  all  men. 
 
 A  serious  difficulty  meets  us  at  the  very  outset  of  an 
 'examination  into  the  affairs  of  Utah.     The  fair-minded 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  291 
 
 Gentile,  who  really  desires  to  know  the  truth,  must  in 
 effect,  resolve  himself  into  a  perambulating  jury  of  one, 
 to  try  every  fact  presented  by  the  strictest  rules  of  legal 
 acimien.  He  will  find  three  different  accounts  of,  three 
 separate  reasons  for,  and  three  opposite  deductions  from 
 every  possible  occurrence,  viz.:  the  Mormon  account 
 wholly  presumed  and  one-sided;  the  bitter  anti-Mor- 
 mon account  which  would  condemn  all  of  an  opposite 
 creed  without  distinction,  and  the  account  of  the  moder- 
 ate Gentiles,  who  are  in  the  best  position  to  give  a  fair 
 judgment,  but  being  necessarily  distrusted  by  both  the 
 other  parties,  are  in  a  poor  way  to  get  at  facts. 
 
 Two  classes  of  writers  have  dealt  with  the  Mormon 
 question ;  the  one  has  described  in  glowing  terms  the 
 simple  earnestness  of  the  people,  their  devotion  to  an 
 idea,  their  faithfulness  to  their  leaders,  their  industry, 
 frugality,  temperance,   and  love  of  home;    the  other 
 has  painted,  in  dark  colors,  their  horrible  crimes,  their 
 lustful  and  debasing  doctrines,  their  depravity,  treach- 
 ery, disloyalty,  petty   tyranny   and   social   meanness. 
 Paradoxical  as  it  may  appear,  there  is  a  measure  of 
 truth  on  both  sides ;  thousands  of  the  Mormon  laity, 
 ignorant,  zealous  and  sincere,  have  many  of  the  virtues 
 claimed  for  them,  while  the  gang  of  hcentious  villains 
 who  mould  this  pliable  mass,  are  guilty  of  tenfold  more 
 crimes  than  the  world  will  ever  know.     In  all  descrip- 
 tions of  life  and  manners  in  Utah,  this  distinction  is  to 
 be  carefully  kept  in  mind.    It  is  a  noteworthy  fact,  too, 
 that  visitors  who  reach  Salt  Lake  City  with  no  decided 
 feelings  eitlier  way,  nearly  always  form  a  more  favor- 
 able opinion  at  first,  than  they  have  after  a  few  months* 
 
292  LIFE   IN   UTAH  5   OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 residence.  I  was  slow  in  arriving  at  the  reasons  for 
 this,  but  there  are  good  ones. 
 
 Men  of  quiet  tastes  arrive  there  from  some  border 
 towns,  where  the  offscourings  of  Christendom  are  gath- 
 ered, and  the  apparent  change  strikes  them  with  great 
 force.  They  are  charmed  with  the  quiet  and  order  and 
 beauty  that  seem  to  prevail  on  every  hand,  and  in  all 
 conversations  it  is  carefully  impressed  upon  their  minds, 
 that  all  this  is  the  result  of  Brighamism  and  the  insti- 
 tutions set  up  under  it.  Much  more  is  claimed  than  is 
 true,  and  the  visitor  finding  things  better  than  he  ex- 
 pected, is  led  to  believe  them  better  than  they  really 
 are.  But  as  he  progresses  in  knowledge,  his  views  of 
 this  vaunted  "  quiet,  and  order,  and  beauty,"  begin  to 
 change.  He  finds  that  this  quiet  is  the  quiet  of  des- 
 potism— this  order  is  of  the  kind  that  "  reigned  in 
 Warsaw  "  on  a  certain  historic  occasion,  when  the  heel 
 of  the  tyrant  was  on  fifty  thousand  necks,  and  to  mur- 
 mur was  to  be  crushed. 
 
 He  finds  that  the  beauty  is  mostly  of  nature's  mak- 
 ing, and  as  to  the  boasted  virtue  and  honesty,  it  is 
 about  like  that  of  other  similar  communities — good, 
 bad  and  indifierent.  There  ought  to  be  virtue  in  a 
 community  where  no  man  is  introduced  to  a  woman, 
 until  he  has  been  thoroughly  tested,  and  where  the 
 "  dagger  to  the  heart"  is  the  openly  avowed  penalty  for 
 the  slightest  infraction ;  and  yet  such  are  the  defects  of 
 their  social  system  that,  despite  these  dread  penalties, 
 virtue  is  not  secured.  Public  25rostitution  is,  of  course, 
 comparatively  unknown,  but  that  private  innnorality, 
 and  that  of  the  most  loathsome  character,  prevails  ex- 
 
AND  CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  293 
 
 tensively,  is  well  known  to  all  who  care  to  inquire ;  and 
 is  often  flatly  acknowledged  by  their  own  speakers,  one 
 of  whom  said,  in  a  public  sermon,  that  he  could  not 
 preser\'e  his  own  honor,  "couldn't  trust  his  women  out 
 of  his  sight,  and  was  bound  to  have  'em  all  in  one  house, 
 under  his  own  eye."  The  resident  finally  learns  these 
 facts,  and  learns,  too,  that  things  he  considers  gross 
 crimes  are  practiced  under  the  name  of  religion. 
 
 Then  a  reaction  begins  in  his  mind,  and  anger  is 
 excited  more  fiercely  against  crimes  concealed  in  the 
 name  of  religion,  than  those  which  appear  in  true 
 colors.  And  this  is  the  crime  of  Brighamism,  that  a 
 class  of  swindling  fanatics  can  so  put  on  the  appearance 
 of  virtue  as  to  deceive  both  those  within  and  without, 
 their  followers  and  their  visitors.  At  first,  I  thought 
 I  was  alone  in  thus  changing  my  views ;  but  I  find  it 
 to  be  the  case,  nine  times  out  of  ten,  with  the  fair- 
 minded  Gentile.  Look  at  the  long  list  of  visitors  who 
 have  spoken  or  written,  and  it  will  generally  be  found, 
 the  shorter  their  stay,  the  more  favorable  their  testi- 
 mony. There  is  one  point  on  which  I  long  refused 
 belief,  the  existence  of  "Danites"  or  "  Destro^nng 
 Angels."  I  looked  upon  them  as  rather  a  bug-a-boo  of 
 the  Gentile  mind.  But  the  testimony  is  now  unim- 
 peachable. I  find  their  existence  avowed  in  Brigham's 
 old  sermons.  I  have  met  more  than  one  man  who  had 
 narrowly  escaped  from  them  with  life.  I  have  it  from 
 the  statements  of  apostates,  and  more  than  all  else,  my 
 personal  friends  among  the  Mormons  themselves,  have 
 avowed  and  defended  the  order.  To  a  young  Mormon 
 woman,  who  was  laboring  for  my  conversion,  I  said,  in 
 
294  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 jest :  "  Do  you  believe  in  these  Danites  ?  Do  you  sus- 
 tain such  a  man  as  Bill  Hickman  in  his  murders?' 
 and,  to  my  surprise,  the  reply  was:  "That  is  his  office, 
 to  cut  off  those  who  violate  a  sacred  obligation,  for 
 which  there  is  no  forgiveness.  That  is  the  law  of  God." 
 When  a  man  finds  growing  within  him  a  sentiment 
 of  hostility  to  a  sect  claiming  to  be  religious,  he  does 
 well  to  consider  carefully  the  grounds  of  such  feeling, 
 lest  early  prejudice  or  sectarian  bias  be  misleading  hinx 
 Charges  against  religious  bodies  are  to  be  received  witK 
 caution,  and  examined  with  more  than  legal  distrust. 
 We  do  well  to  remember  that  the  crimes  of  religious 
 communities  have  been  exaggerated  in  every  age  of  the 
 world,  and  hence  extra  caution  is  due  to  them  in  ex- 
 amining their  history.  In  this  spirit  I  can  truly  sa}^  I 
 approached  Mormonism  ;  and  when  compelled  to  radi- 
 cally change  my  views  of  them,  while  I  felt  a  natural 
 chagrin  at  having  been  at  first  deceived,  it  was  more 
 in  sorrow  than  in  anger  that  I  found  myself  disen- 
 chanted. And  this  has  been  the  experience  of  the 
 great  majority  who  have  made  a  lengthy  residence  in 
 Utah.  For  a  few  weeks  all  seems  right ;  but  if  any 
 man  flatters  himself  that  at  the  end  of  six  weeks  he 
 has  seen  more  than  the  superficies  of  Mormon  society, 
 he  is  wofully  deceived.  When  the  first  flush  of  curi- 
 osity had  subsided  I  ceased  hunting  for  information  of 
 those  so  fixlsely  called  "  representative  men ;"  I  began 
 to  look  among  the  people.  I  talked  with  the  young, 
 and  extended  my  acquaintance  among  that  class — most 
 generally  women — who  have  been  wrecked  in  mind, 
 body  and  estate  by  the  maelstrom  of  lust  and  fanatical 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  29b 
 
 Airy,  which  is  ever  raging  in  the  Mormon  capital.  It 
 is  not  easy  to  get  at  these  facts.  The  witnesses  will  no», 
 speak  while  there  is  the  slightest  doubt.  They  know  not 
 whom  to  trust,  and  one  must  take  a  decided  stand,  and 
 become  himself  an  object  of  hatred  and  distrust  to  the 
 hierarchy,  before  he  can  safely  be  considered  a  friend  to 
 its  victims.  But  when  a  man  has  fairly  cut  loose  from 
 the  misrepresentations  of  the  few,  and  begun  to  get  the 
 facts  from  the  mass,  every  day  the  odious  features  of 
 Mormonism  rise  into  clearer  view,  till  he  stands  aghast 
 to  think  he  ever  had  a  good  opinion  of  the  system. 
 The  Mormon  Church,  or  rather  community,  may  be 
 divided  into  four  classes. 
 
 I.  First  are  the  leaders  of  all  ranks,  from  the  First 
 Presidency  down  through  all  the  grades  of  apostles, 
 seventies,  bishops,  elders,  priests,  evangelists,  mission- 
 aries and  teachers. 
 
 They  are  all  bound  to  the  Church  by  the  strongest 
 ties  of  self-interest,  as  by  it  they  live — many  of  them 
 in  splendor  and  affluence.  In  such  a  state  of  facts,  we 
 may  well  question  their  sincerity,  especially  as  some  of 
 them  are  men  of  keen  analytical  talents,  and  far-reach- 
 ing sagacity.  But  whether  they  think  it  true  or  false, 
 they  must  stand  or  fall  with  the  system.  Some  of  them 
 evidently  believe  in  it  with  all  earnestness ;  others,  as 
 evidently  do  not.  Their  history  and  unguarded  ex- 
 pressions show  that.  Still  a  third  class  seem  doubtful, 
 and  to  this  it  must  be  confessed  Brigham  Young  belongs. 
 Outsiders  are  strangely  divided  in  opinion  regarding 
 him.  His  worst  enemies,  while  they  charge  him  with 
 every  crime  in  the  code,  yet  often  admit  that  he  is  sin- 
 
296  LIFE   m   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 cere  in  his  religious  belief;  "  but,"  say  they,  "  his  relig 
 ion  admits  of  the  most  atrocious  crimes,  if  done  to  fur- 
 ther good  interests ! "  Others  look  upon  him  as  a  heart- 
 less impostor,  a  sensual,  deceitful  tyrant,  and  this  I  find 
 to  be  the  common  view  among  apostates,  or  recusant 
 Mormons,  who  have  suffered  from  his  acts.  I  am  in- 
 clined to  regard  him  as  that  strange  compound  of  im- 
 postor and  fanatic,  which  history  has  shown  to  be  pos- 
 sible, as  in  the  cases  of  the  Florentine,  Savonarola  and 
 the  Jesuit,  Loyola.  Incredible  as  it  may  appear  to  a 
 mind  and  conscience  yet  undebauched,  men  may  and 
 actually  do  persuade  themselves  that  they  are  doing 
 God's  service  while  committing  the  most  heinous  crimes, 
 
 and 
 
 "Christians  have  burnt  each  other,  quite  persuaded 
 That  all  the  Apostles  would  have  done  as  they  did." 
 
 II.  The  second  class  comprises  those  who  have  em- 
 braced Mormonism  from  unworthy  motives,  and  consists 
 generally  of  men  with  no  fixed  sentiments  on  any  sub- 
 ject except  their  own  self-interest.  They  are  men  who 
 have  been  unfortunate  or  criminal  in  other  communities, 
 and  fled  to  Mormonism  for  a  refuge.  Broken  down 
 merchants,  professional  men,  without  character,  and  the 
 "  bilks "  and  "  dead  beats "  of  other  communities 
 generally,  who  have  been  deceived  by  the  representa- 
 tions of  progress  there,  and  expected  to  better  them- 
 selves by  casting  in  their  fortunes  with  a  rising  sect. 
 And  from  this  class  have  originated  many  of  the  Mor- 
 mon troubles,  in  times  past.  They  often  become 
 dissatisfied  and  turl)iilent,  and  often  apostatize,  but 
 have  too  little  fixedness  of  sentiment,  and  too  much 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  297 
 
 dullness  of  morcal  perception  to  be  of  any  value  to 
 either  side.  Some  of  them  seek  easy  positions  under 
 the  hierarchy ;  others,  more  desperate,  sink  lower,  and 
 become  the  mere  tools  of  the  leaders  to  do  all  their 
 dirty  and  infamous  work.  Mutual  guilt  then  makes 
 them  mutual  spies,  and  conscious  that  their  lives  are  in 
 the  power  of  their  masters,  they  live  as  guilty  and 
 miserable  slaves,  with  the  assured  knowledge  that,  at 
 the  slightest  disloyal  move,  their  lives  will  pay  the  for- 
 feit. More  than  one  of  this  class  has  met  with  a  bloody 
 death,  from  the  simple  fact  that  he  knew  too  much,  as 
 I  now  know  from  undoubted  testimony. 
 
 III.  The  third  class  consists  of  those  who  became 
 Mormons  sincerely,  but  from  slight  or  insufficient  mo- 
 tives. They  united  with  the  sect,  with  as  much 
 sincerity  as  they  were  capable  of,  but  with,  no  clear 
 understanding  of  what  was  before  them.  Before  em- 
 bracing Mormonism,  they  were  generally  afloat  on 
 religious  subjects,  or  dissatisfied  with  what  they  saw  in 
 their  own  churches,  and  had  fallen  into  the  dangerous 
 habit  of  suspecting  all  men  of  hypocrisy  who  showed 
 much  zeal  for  moralit}^  I  have  met  dozens  of  this 
 class  who  had  been  "  lobby  members  "  of  the  Methodist, 
 Baptist,  Presbyterian,  and  Campbellite  Churches ;  that 
 weak,  feeble  class  of  Christians  who  expect  the  church 
 to  pick  them  up  and  carry  them  to  heaven,  carefully 
 lifting  them  over  the  rough  places  in  the  road,  and  re- 
 moving every  annoying  doubt  which  will  rise  in  an 
 idle  or  rapid  brain.  I  have  heard  them  speak  of  their 
 churches  as  "  stationary,"  or  "  sleepy,"  never  dreaming 
 that  the  fault  was  in  themselves.    They  were  the  weak, 
 
298  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 discontented  disciples,  without  the  fierce  vigor  and 
 aggressive  spirit  of  the  true  Church  ;  not  having  learned 
 the  first  principle  of  Christianity  to  be  zealous,  unselfish 
 laborers.  In  this  state  of  mind  their  attention  is  caught 
 and  fancy  captivated  by  the  claim  of  a  new  revelation, 
 of  holding  direct  communion  with  heaven,  of  walking 
 every  day  in  new  light  received  from  without ;  and  also 
 at  thought  of  a  distinctively  American  religion,  with 
 saints,  apostles,  prophets  and  martyrs,  all  of  our  own 
 race  and  time.  This  class  are  very  enthusiastic  on 
 first  reaching  the  new  "  Zion,"  but  often  grow  dis- 
 contented, and  fall  again  into  their  doubting  and 
 querulous  habits.  But  as  they  did  not  think  their  way 
 into  Mormonism,  they  cannot  think  themselves  out, 
 and  so  they  simply  float.  Sometimes  they  apostatize, 
 but  are  no  loss  to  the  Church  and  no  gain  to  the  Gen- 
 tiles, from  pure  lack  of  intellectual  vigor. 
 
 IV.  The  fourth  class  consists  of  those  who  really  be- 
 lieve in  Mormonism  with  all  its  absurdities  and  con- 
 tradictions. They  never  doubt  for  a  moment,  that 
 Joseph  Smith  was  sent  direct  from  God,  and  that  Brig- 
 ham  Young  is  his  successor.  This  class  comprises  about 
 half  of  the  whole  connn unity,  and  they  are  the  really 
 dangerous  element.  No  miraculous  story  is  too  great  for 
 their  Ijelief,  if  it  have  the  stamp  of  "  authority,"  and  no  op- 
 pression or  priestly  tyranny  seems  to  shake  their  faith  for 
 a  moment;  and,  paradoxical  as  it  may  seem,  in  this  class 
 are  found  all  the  virtues  of  the  Mormon  comnuuiity. 
 They  are  industrious,  frugal  (often  from  necessity),  and 
 reasonably  temperate.  Their  honesty,  I  think,  has 
 been  overrated,  and  Brigham  and  other  leaders  often  say 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  299 
 
 the  same.  Yet,  one  may  travel  among  them  for  weeks, 
 as  I  have  done,  and  meet  with  nothing  hut  kindness 
 and  hospitality. 
 
 But  in  their  very  virtues  lies  the  greatest  danger. 
 Their  constancy  to  their  leaders  is  wonderful,  and  their 
 gullibility  and  capacity  to  swallow  the  marvelous,  be- 
 yond belief;  so  they  constitute  a  mass  of  dangerous 
 power  in  the  hands  of  corrupt  and  treasonable  men. 
 These  are  the  men  we  ought  to  reach  and  try  to  save, 
 and  yet  they  are  the  very  ones  who  are  hardest  to 
 influence.  They  will  not  read  our  books  or  papers, 
 (very  many  of  them  cannot),  nor  listen  for  a  moment 
 to  our  arguments.  They  denounce  everything  which 
 is  not  approved  by  the  bishop,  and  pronounce  the 
 plainest  facts  of  history  false,  if  they  clash  with  the 
 statements  of  "  authority."  Conversing  once  with  one 
 such,  a  merchant  of  the  city,  I  read  the  following  pas- 
 sage from  the  "  Book  of  Mormon  :"  "  We  found  upon 
 the  land  of  promise  (Central  America),  that  there  were 
 beasts  in  the  forest  of  every  kind,  both  the  cow  and  the 
 ox,  and  the  ass  and  the  liorse,  and  all  manner  of  wild 
 animals,  which  were  for  the  use  of  men." 
 
 "  Now,"  said  I,  "  your  Prophet  says  the  Nephites 
 landed  in  America  six  hundred  years  before  Christ,  and 
 the  last  of  them  perished  about  A.  D.  500,  and  all  this 
 time  they  had  used  the  horse  and  the  ass.  Now,  any 
 history  of  America  will  show  that  the  horse  was  com- 
 pletely unknown  to  the  Indians  till  brought  here  by  the 
 Spaniards." 
 
 "  0,  pshaw  !"  was  the  reply,  "  I  don't  believe  a  word 
 of  it ;  it's  a  d — d  lie,  got  up  by  some  enemy  of  the 
 truth." 
 
300  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 " Bat"  I  urged,  " go  further  back  than  Mormonism. 
 Take  the  letters  of  George  Washington,  and  you  will 
 find  that  he  was  the  first  man  who  ever  imported  the 
 ass  to  America !  Could  the  Nephites  have  had  these 
 animals,  and  no  trace  of  them  be  found  ?" 
 
 "  I  don't  believe  George  "Washington,  or  any  other 
 man,  knows  anything  about  it,"  said  he;  "you  examine 
 and  you  will  find  many  of  the  so-called  facts  of  history 
 are  not  facts.  You  may  read  every  history  written,  and 
 pick  out  every  fact  against  that  book,  (Mormon)  and 
 when  you  look  into  it  you  will  find  them  all  false." 
 
 This  was  the  mode  of  reasoning  adopted  by  a  man 
 of  extra  intelligence  for  a  Mormon.  I  have  talked 
 with  dozens  of  this  sort,  and  no  matter  how  clear  on 
 everything  else,  they  seem  to  go  w41d  in  their  logic 
 when  Mormonism  was  touched  upon.  "  Do  you  ac- 
 tually believe,"  I  asked  an  old  lady,  "  that  the  earthly 
 paradise  will  be  in  Jackson  County,  Missouri  ?"  "  Oh, 
 yes,"  she  said,  "  for  the  Lord  pointed  out  the  exact 
 place  to  Joseph,  and  said  that  Zion  should  never  be 
 moved,  and  all  the  people  of  America  who  do  not  re- 
 pent will  be  destroyed  now  in  a  few  ^^ears,  so  there  will 
 be  but  one  man  for  seven  women.  Those  are  the  very 
 words,  and  everything  Joseph  and  Isaiah  (!)  said  has 
 turned  out  just  exactly  as  thoy  said  it  would." 
 
 Such  are  the  ideas  impressed  upon  the  minds  of 
 these  people.  Numbers  of  them  testify  in  the  most 
 positive  manner  to  miraculous  cures  performed  upon 
 themselves  or  their  friends,  simply  by  tlie  "  la^^ing  on 
 of  hands  "  by  an  elder  or  bishop.  They  devoutly  be- 
 lieve that  Stephen  A.  Douglas  failed  politically,  because 
 
AND  CRIMES   OF   MORMOOTSM.  301 
 
 he  urged  vigorous  measures  against  the  Mormons,  and 
 that  Frank  P.  Blair  is  sinking  for  the  same  reason, 
 ihe  late  war  never  would  have  occurred,  thej  think 
 if  Johnston's  amij  had  not  been  sent;  and  as  to  thrash- 
 ing the  United  States,  they  consider  it  will  be  a  mere 
 "breakfast  spell,"  when  things  get  in  the  right  fix,  and 
 Brigham  gives  the  word.     At  his  command  they  would 
 hght  the  world  in  arms,  or  quietly  give  up  their  all 
 and  migrate  to  any  part  of  the  world  he  might  desi- 
 nate.     The  most  of  this  class  will  stick  to  Mormonism 
 as  long  as  it  has  an  existence,  but  the  other  classes 
 wiU  tail  away  whenever  it  is  to  their  interest  to  do  so 
 But  with  mere  moral  distinctions  the   Government 
 and  people  of  the  United  States  have  little  to  do      The 
 patriot  and  statesman  will  ask  a  more  important  ques- 
 tion :  What  is  the  state  of  public  feeling  among  the 
 Mormons;    how  do   they  stand  affected   towards  the 
 General   Government?     In   a   full   answer   many   in- 
 fluences are  to  be  considered.     It  must  be  remembered 
 m  starting,  that  at  least  seven-eighths  of  all  these  people 
 are  foreigners,  and  that  of  the  lowest  and  most  ignorant 
 class;  that  they  came  direct  from  Europe  to  Utah   and 
 know  absolutely  nothing  of  the  States  and  their  people  • 
 «iat   they   merely   have    Mormonism   grafted    on    to 
 J^uropeanism,    and    cannot    be     expected   to   become 
 nationalized  like  their  countrymen  who  settle  in  the 
 East.     Whatever  distinctively  American  feeling  they 
 have  must,  then,  be  looked  for  in  the  influences  there 
 and   the  teachings  of  the    Church.     Those  influences 
 and    teachings    are    all    anti-American.      Mormonism 
 teaches  three  doctrines  directly  opposed  to  the  spirit  of 
 tne  Constitution  and  our  institutions. 
 
302  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 1.  The  union  of  Church  and  State;  or  rather  the 
 complete  absorption  of  the  state  in  the  church ;  that  the 
 former  is  a  mere  appendage  of  the  latter  for  convenience 
 sake,  and  may  be  dropped  whenever  convenience  no 
 longer  calls  for  a  stote  organization. 
 
 2.  The  shedding  of  a  man's  blood,  for  the  remission 
 of  his  sins,  even  his  sins  against  the  Church.  This  is 
 sometimes  denied  and  sometimes  advocated,  but  that  it 
 is  a  doctrine  of  the  Mormon  Church  is  now  beyond  doubt. 
 Brigham  openly  says  that  the  only  reason  why  it  is  not 
 more  generally  advocated  is,  that  it  is  "  too  strong  a 
 doctrine  for  the  weak  in  faith ;  the  people  are  not  fully 
 prepared  for  it,"  etc.  Unwilling  to  leave  this  matter 
 doubtful  in  any  mind,  I  clip  the  following  extracts 
 from  published  sermons,  the  first  from  those  of  Jedediah 
 M.  Grant,  delivered  in  the  Tabernacle : 
 
 "  Brethren  and  sisters,  we  want  you  to  repent  and 
 forsake  your  sins.  And  you  that  have  committed  sins 
 that  cannot  be  forgiven  through  baptism,  let  your  blood 
 he  shed,  and  let  the  smohe  ascend,  that  the  incense  thereof 
 may  come  up  before  God,  as  atonement  for  your  sins, 
 and  that  the  sinners  in  Zion  may  be  afraid."  {Deseret 
 News,  October  1,  1856.) 
 
 "  We  have  been  trying  long  enough  with  these  people, 
 and  I  go  in  for  letting  the  sword  of  the  Almighty  be 
 unsheathed,  not  only  in  word,  but  in  deed."     {Ibid.) 
 
 "  I  say  that  there  are  men  and  women  here,  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  a  place  be  selected,  and  let  that  committee 
 ehed  their  blood."    {Deseret  News,  September,  1856.) 
 
AND  CRIMES    OF   MORMONISM.  303 
 
 Which  was  endorsed  by  Brigham,  as  follows : 
 
 "  There  are  sins  men  commit  for  which  they  cannot 
 receive  forgiveness  in  this  world,  or  in  that  which  is 
 to  come,  and  if  they  had  their  eyes  open  to  see  their 
 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 ; 
 whereas,  if  such  is  not  the  case,  they  will  stick  to  them 
 and  remain  upon  them  in  the  spirit  world.  I  know 
 when  you  hear  my  brethren  talk  about  cutting  people 
 off  from  the  earth,  you  consider  it  strong  doctrine.  It 
 is  to  save  them,  not  to  destroy  them.  It  is  true  that 
 the  blood  of  the  Son  of  God  was  shed  for  our  sins,  but 
 men  can  commit  sins  which  it  can  never  remit. 
 
 "  As  it  was  in  ancient  days,  so  is  it  in  our  day ;  the 
 law  is  precisely  the  same.  There  are  sins  that  the 
 blood  of  a  lamb  or  a  calf  cannot  remit,  but  they  must 
 be  atoned  for  by  the  blood  of  man.  That  is  the  reason 
 why  men  talk  to  you  as  they  do  from  this  stand.  They 
 understand  the  doctrine  and  throw  out  a  few  words 
 about  it."     {Deseret  News,  October  1,  1856.) 
 
 This  is  "  sound  Mormon  doctrine,"  and  that  many 
 have  been  sacrificed  under  it,  is  well  known  in  Utah. 
 This  is  one  of  the  features  of  Mormonism  I  was  slow  to 
 believe,  nor  did  I  credit  it  without  overwhelming  proof; 
 but  to  put  the  matter  beyond  doubt,  more  than  one 
 prominent  Mormon  has  avowed  the  doctrine  to  me,  and 
 defended  it  as  an  ordinance  of  God. 
 
 Under  this  law  Potter,  and  the  Parish  family  of 
 Springville,  were  murdered  when  attempting  to  leave 
 the  Territory,  and  Potter  and  Wilson  of  Weber  Valley, 
 
304  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 were  assassinated  in  jail ;  under  the  same  law  the  Mor- 
 mons claim  the  right  to  slay  all  who  commit  adultery, 
 "  or  violate  a  sanctified  oath,"  and  for  this  cause  Elder 
 John  Hyde  was  compelled  to  flee  from  the  Territory, 
 while  his  friends  Margetts  and  Cowdy,  were  followed 
 several  hundred  miles  and  barbarously  murdered.  ■ 
 
 3.  The  third  an ti- American  feature  of  Mormonism  is 
 the  complete  subserviency  and  mental  slavery  of  woman, 
 not  as  to  polygamy  alone,  though  that  is  an  outgrowth, 
 but  in  everything. 
 
 Their  theology  teaches  that,  "  as  Eve  led  Adam  out 
 of  Paradise,  he  must  lead  her  back,"  and  though  they 
 hesitatingly  admit  that  she  may  secure  "a  salvation" 
 without  man's  help,  she  cannot  secure  "an  exaltation." 
 She  must  have  a  husband  "to  lead  her  into  the  presence 
 of  God,  and  introduce  her  to  that  husband's  glory." 
 "She  will  not  necessarily  go  to  hell,  because  she  is 
 single,  but  she  never  can  rise  to  the  first  glory."  Such 
 an  atrocious  and  un-Christian  idea  can  have  but  one 
 tendency,  to  make  woman  merely  a  creature  for  man's 
 convenience  and  pleasure.  Hence,  all  our  American 
 ideas  of  dower,  partition,  equal  descent,  and  woman 
 holding  land  in  fee  apart  from  her  husband,  are  un- 
 known to  the  laws  of  Utah.  Everything  a  woman 
 possesses  at  marriage  becomes  absolutely  the  property 
 of  her  husband.  The  feminine  interest  is  nowhere  pro- 
 vided for,  and,  in  looking  over  their  laws,  if  they  have 
 any  Common  Law  at  all,  it  seems  to  be  a  transcript  of 
 that  which  prevailed  in  the  time  of  James  I.  The 
 further  we  pursue  the  investigation  the  more  this  ten- 
 dency appears,  till  it  is  plain  to  be  seen  there  is  none 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  305 
 
 of  what  we  call  Americanism  there.  The  spirit  exists 
 neither  in  their  birth,  training  nor  religion.  To  them 
 Brigham  is  the  Government,  and  Utah  is  America. 
 They  know  no  other,  and  consider  it  the  height  of 
 presumption  for  the  United  States  authorities  to  claim 
 the  right  to  rule  over  them.  True,  they  claim  to  be 
 true  Americans,  just  as  the  Abyssinians  claim  to  be  true 
 Christians,  while  it  is  evident  neither  understand  their 
 own  words. 
 
 But  there  is  another  curious  fact  bearing  on  their 
 views.  On  the  25th  of  December,  1832,  Joseph  Smith 
 delivered  a  remarkable  prophecy,  detailing  what  was  to 
 happen  to  America  for  her  "persecution  of  the  Saints." 
 It  was  published  in  Tlie  Seer,  a  Mormon  periodical  in 
 Washington  City,  of  April,  1854,  from  which  I  copy : 
 
 "War! 
 
 "  Verily  thus  saith  the  Lord  concerning  the  wars 
 that  will  shortly  come  to  pass,  beginning  at  the  rebel- 
 lion of  South  Carolina,  which  will  eventually  terminate 
 in  the  deatli  and  misery  of  many  souls.  The  days  will 
 come  that  wars  will  be  poured  out  upon  all  nations, 
 beginning  at  that  place ;  for,  behold,  the  Southern  States 
 shall  be  divided  against  the  Northern  States;  and  the 
 Southern  States  will  call  upon  other  nations,  even  the 
 nation  of  Great  Britain,  as  it  is  called,  and  they  shall 
 also  call  upon  other  nations,  in  order  to  defend  them- 
 selves against  other  nations ;  and  thus  war  shall  be 
 poured  out  upon  all  nations.  And  it  shall  come  to 
 pass,  after  many  days,  slaves  shall  rise  up  against  their 
 masters,  who  shall  be  marshaled  and  disciplined  for 
 20 
 
306  LITE   IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 war.  And  it  will  come  to  pass,  also,  that  the  remnant 
 which  are  left  of  the  land*  shall  marshal  themselves 
 and  shall  become  exceedingly  angry,  and  shall  vex  the 
 Gentiles  with  a  sore  vexation.  And  thus,  with  the 
 gword  and  by  bloodshed,  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth 
 shall  mourn,  and  with  famine  and  plague  and  earth- 
 quakes, 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  chasten- 
 ing hand  of  an  Almighty  God,  until  the  consumption 
 decreed  hath  made  an  end  of  all  nations  ;  that  the  cry 
 of  the  Saints  and  of  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.  Wherefore 
 stand  ye  in  holy  places,  and  be  not  moved  until  the 
 day  of  the  Lord  come ;  for,  behold,  it  cometh  quickly, 
 saith  the  Lord  !     Amen." 
 
 It  will  be  perceived  that  of  the  thousand  predictions 
 in  relation  to  our  civil  war,  Joseph's  was  among  the 
 most  shrewd,  and  certainly  hit  on  two  or  three  very 
 curious  things.  But  he  met  with  the  difficulty  common 
 to  all  prophets  in  these  days,  when  he  ran  into  particu- 
 lars he  missed  it  seriously.  With  the  benevolent  de 
 sign  of  saving  the  country,  Joseph  offered  himself  for 
 President,  but  as  he  Avas  rejected,  of  coui-se  the  evil  is 
 bound  to  come.  With  the  Mormons  this  is  the  grand 
 prophecy.  War  is  to  go  on,  they  say,  till  nearly  all 
 the  men  in  the  Union  are  killed,  and  then  the  Saints 
 are  to  return  and  set  up  "  Zion  "  in  Jackson  County, 
 Missouri ;  and  the  faithful  who  have  meanwhile  gath- 
 
 *  The  Indians. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  307 
 
 ered,  are  to  possess  the  whole  land,  and  be  husbands  to 
 all  the  widows  and  fathers  to  all  the  orphans.  Then  is 
 to  come  the  time  mentioned  by  Isaiah,  when  "seven  wo- 
 men shall  take  hold  of  one  man,"  and  agree  to  earn  their 
 own  support,  if  they  only  may  "  be  called  by  his  name 
 to  take  away  their  reproach,"  which  reproach,  of  course, 
 is  childlessness ;  or,  commercially  speaking,  women  will 
 be  at  a  heavy  discount,  and  men  at  600  per  cent,  pre- 
 mium. 
 
 As  near  as  I  can  determine  there  hav.e  been  about 
 ten  thousand  commentaries  written  and  preached  on 
 this  prophecy  ;  for  the  varying  circumstances  of  every 
 year,  and  almost  every  week,  require  new  elucidations 
 of  the  way  it  is  all  to  come  about.  The  war,  of  course, 
 settled  it  all  for  awhile ;  but  that  stopped  so  suddenly, 
 they  maintain  it  must  soon  break  out  again,  and  several 
 of  their  commentators  concluded  the  last  Presidential 
 election  would  signal  its  re-opening.  What  folly  for 
 any  people  to  pretend  fealty  to  an  institution  which  they 
 claim  is  going  to  eternal  smash  in  ten  years  at  the  most. 
 
 It  is  a  law  of  mind  that  what  we  projDhecy  often  we 
 soon  come  to  wish  for  ;  and  if  there  were  no  other  cause, 
 the  tendency  of  all  their  preaching  and  prophesying  is 
 to  make  them  look  eagerly  for  the  downfall  of  our 
 Government.  It  is  a  prime  principle  in  their  creed  that 
 all  mankind  but  themselves  are  on  the  swift  road  to 
 ruin,  and  they  are  never  so  well  pleased  as  in  listening 
 to  statements  in  regard  to  "  the  great  increase  of  crime 
 and  immoralit}^  in  the  States."  I  could  not  make  one 
 of  them  angry  quicker  than  by  persistently  arguing  that 
 the  highest  degree  of  prosperity  prevails  in  the  East  to- 
 
308  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 day,  and  my  best  friends  were  ready  to  knock  me  down 
 at  tlie  statement  that  there  were  still  more  men  than 
 women  in  the  United  States. 
 
 I  showed  them  from  the  census  that  the  men  were 
 in  a  majority  of  730,000  in  1860 ;  that  by  immigration 
 we  gained  several  hundred  thousand  more  men  than 
 women,  and  did  not  lose,  at  the  outside,  more  than 
 700,000  in  the  war.  They  maintained  that  by  au- 
 thentic (?)  Southern  histories,  we  lost  in  battle  one 
 million  rebels  and  two  million  Yankees !  How  easy  to 
 make  men  believe  what  they  wish.  All  the  "  persecu- 
 tions "  these  people  talk  so  much  of,  were  caused  by 
 Southerners  and  Democrats,  and  yet  they  are  all  rebel 
 sympathizers  and  pro-slavery  politicians.  They  talk 
 loud  and  long  of  their  loyalty,  when  there  is  anything 
 to  be  gained  by  it ;  but  send  there  a  Federal  judge  or 
 officer,  who  refuses  to  be  Brigham's  tool,  and  you  soon 
 hear  their  real  feelings  toward  the  Union.  Just  now 
 they  are  only  waiting,  watching  a  few  weeks  or  months 
 till  all  shall  go  to  destruction  in  the  States,  when  they 
 will  return  and  occupy  their  terrestrial  heaven — Jackson 
 County,  Missouri.  Thus  this  vast  mass  of  ignorance 
 has  been  wrought  upon  and  moulded  by  a  few  leaders, 
 till  the  people  are  ready  for  any  desperate  enterprise 
 those  men  may  direct.  The  common  people,  two-thirds 
 of  them  at  least,  are  naturally  peaceable,  too ;  but  they 
 are  so  terribly  priest-ridden,  that  their  best  qualities  are 
 as  dangerous  as  other  men's  worst. 
 
 Like  the  poor  of  all  lands,  they  are  constant  in  their 
 attachments;  but  ^vith  the  favorites  they  have  chosen, 
 their  constancy  is  a  vice  rather  than  a  virtue.     No 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  309 
 
 doubt  a  very  large  number  would  apostatize  rather  than 
 suffer  ;  but  half  of  them  are  so  rooted  and  grounded  in 
 their  faith,  they  will  bUndly  follow  their  leaders,  what- 
 ever course  they  take. 
 
 There  are  no  free  schools  in  Utah,  and  no  organized 
 systems  of  instruction  ;  nevertheless  the  social  and  in- 
 tellectual condition  of  the  people  is  far  superior  to  what 
 it  was  ten  or  even  five  years  ago.  There  is  a  general 
 prejudice  against  the  learned  professions,  particularly 
 medicine;  and  a  general  feeling  that  the  Saints  are 
 above  the  necessity  of  such  knowledge — which  idea  is 
 summed  up  by  Brigham  Young  in  these  words  :  "  Study 
 twenty  years  in  the  world's  knowledge,  and  God  Al- 
 mighty will  give  the  poorest  Saint  more  knowledge  in 
 five  minutes  than  you  get  in  all  that  time."  In  this 
 social  view,  it  were  an  endless  task  to  mention  all  the 
 thousand  forms  of  popular  error,  the  belief  in  witch- 
 craft, dreams,  evestrciy  ghostly  fancies  and  "faith-doc- 
 toring "  which  prevail  among  them  ;  but  it  is  worthy  of 
 remark  that  there  is  certainly  no  other  place  in  America 
 where  retrograde  ideas,  as  they  might  be  called,  pre- 
 vail so  extensively  as  in  Utah.  Nine-tenths  of  the 
 Saints  seem  to  have  taken  up  one  common  wail  about 
 everything  outside  of  Utah.  Whether  it  is  to  persuade 
 themselves  that  they  are  really  better  than  other  men, 
 or  to  console  themselves  at  the  thought  of  others'  mis- 
 ery, it  seems  to  be  their  meat  and  drink  to  denigrate 
 the  character  of  the  rest  of  mankind.  They  take  up 
 the  wailing  jeremiad  that  there  is  so  much  more  crime 
 in  the  country  than  formerly ;  that  people  generally  are 
 80  much  more  dishonest ;  that  there  are  so  few  virtuous 
 
310  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 women ;  that  the  country  is  rapidly  going  to  decay ; 
 that  religion  has  lost  its  power ;  that  all  political  action 
 is  wrong,  slavery  ought  never  to  have  been  abolished, 
 and  nothing  should  have  been  done  as  it  has  been  for 
 the  last  twenty-five  years.  To  quote  history  or  statis- 
 tics to  the  contrary  would  be  no  proof  at  all  to  them  j 
 they  regard  all  such  as  "  Gentile  lies."  And  thus,  in 
 the  supreme  belief  that  they  alone  are  "  in  the  ark  of 
 safety,"  they  confidently  wait  for  the  "  great  tribulation" 
 which  is  now  about  due ;  while  thousands  of  them  fully 
 expect  to  live  to  see  the  time  when  the  American  na- 
 tion shall  be  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  Macaulay's  New 
 Zealander  shall  "  sit  on  London  Bridge  and  muse  on 
 the  decline  and  fall  of  the  British  Empire." 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  311 
 
 CHAPTER  XIII. 
 
 ANALYSIS   OF   MORMON    THEOLOGY. 
 
 Its  origin — A  tlieologic  conglomerate — Mythology,  Paganism,  Moham- 
 medanism, corrupt  Christianity  and  Philosophy  run  mad — "First  prin- 
 ciples of  the  Gospel" — The  five  points  of  variance — Materialism — No 
 spirit — A  rjod  with  " hody,  parts  and  passions" — Matter  eternal — No 
 "creation" — Intelligent  atoms — Pre-existent  souls — High  Times  in  the 
 Spirit  Worlds— Birth  of  Spirits— They  hunt  for  "  Earthly  Tabernacles  " 
 —The  "Second  Estate  "—Apotheosis— The  "  Third  Estate  "— "  Fourth 
 Estate" — Men  become  gods — "Divine  generation" — Earthly  Families 
 and  Heavenly  Kingdoms — Did  Man  come  from  the  Sun? — "Building 
 up  the  Kingdom  " — One  day  as  a  thousand  years — The  time  of  the  Gen- 
 tiles about  out — Great  events  at  hand — "  Gog  and  Magog,"  et.  al. — 
 Gentiles,  prepare  to  make  tracks —Return  to  "Zion,"  in  Missouri — 
 Christ's  earthly  empire— Great  destiny  for  Missouri — Tenets  from  Chris- 
 tianity— Baptism  a  "  Saving  Ordinance  " — Baptized  twelve  times — Office 
 of  the  Holy  Ghost — Strange  fanaticism — Eclectic  Theology— A  personal 
 god — The  h&moousian  and  the  Tiomoiousian — The  Logos  and  the  Aeon — 
 Grossness  and  Vulgarity, 
 
 In  their  origin,  the  Mormons  may  be  said  to  have 
 been  an  offshoot  from  the  Campbellites ;  Sidney  Rigdon, 
 the  author  of  their  early  doctrines,  having  originally 
 left  the  Baptists  to  join  the  former  sect,  from  which  he 
 again  seceded  and  founded  a  sect  in  Ohio,  locally  known 
 as  "Disciples."  Of  this  band  a  portion  went  crazy  as 
 Millenarians,  another  part  became  Perfectionists,  and 
 the  remainder  followed  Eigdon  when  he  joined  his 
 fortunes  with  those  of  Joe  Smith,  and  assisted  in  found- 
 ing Kirtland;  Ohio.  Under  the  early  teachings  of  Brig 
 ham  Young  they  adopted  the  Methodist  order  of  services 
 
312  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 Their  missionaries  when  abroad,  at  present,  first  preach 
 principles  very  similar  to  those  of  the  Campbellites ; 
 and  what  the  Mormons  call  "  the  first  principles  of  the 
 gospel "  are  mainly  those  of  that  sect.  But  it  is  the 
 smallest  part  of  Mormon  theology  which  has  its  origin 
 in  any  recognized  Christian  system ;  and  by  the  succes- 
 sive additions  of  Rigdon,  Joe  Smith,  and  Brigham 
 Young,  the  laborious  philosophical  speculations  of 
 Orson  Pratt,  and  the  wild  poetical  dreams  of  his 
 brother  Parley  P.  Pratt,  it  may  well  be  said  there  is 
 scarcely  a  known  system  of  religion,  ancient  or  modem, 
 but  has  contributed  some  shred  of  doctrine  toMormonism. 
 It  is  now  beyond  the  power  of  man  to  invent  a  new 
 religion.  At  this  late  day  combination  is  all  that  is 
 left  for  the  innovator,  and  the  doctrinal  points  of  Mor- 
 monism  are  culled  from  three  different  sources,  viz. : 
 
 I.  Christianity,  by  a  literal  interpretation  of  the 
 Bible,  particularly  the  prophecies, 
 
 II.  Ancient  mythology  and  various  modern  forms  of 
 pagan  philosophy. 
 
 III.  The  philosophical  speculations  of  various  schools ; 
 the  whole  modified  and  practical ized  by  revelation  ap- 
 plied to  events  of  daily  occurrence. 
 
 Thus  has  grown  up  a  vast  and  cumbrous  system 
 which  is  the  standard  Mormon  theology,  but  of  which 
 each  individual  Mormon  believes  so  much  or  so  little 
 as  he  can  comprehend.  It  were  an  endless  task  to 
 pursue  these  doctrines  through  all  the  variations,  neces- 
 sary to  force  some  sort  of  agreement,  and  the  hfeless 
 application  of  perverted  texts  of  Scripture.  But  the 
 distinctive  points  in  which  they  differ  from  all  Christian 
 sects  may  be  grouped  under  five  heads ; 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  313 
 
 I.  Pure  materialism ;  but  slightly  different  from  the 
 atomic  materialism  of  the  Greek  school. 
 
 II.  The  eternity  of  matter. 
 
 III.  Pre-existence  of  the  soul,  and  transmission  of 
 spirits. 
 
 IV.  A  plurality  of  gods. 
 
 Y    A  plurality  of  wives,  or  "  celestial  marriage." 
 All  these  are  blended  in  various  ways,  and  depend 
 upon  each  other  in  a  score  of  combinations  and  con- 
 fused inter-relations;   but  as  far  as  possible  they  are 
 treated  of  separately. 
 
 I.  The  Mormons  hold  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
 spirit  distinct  from  matter ;  that  spirit  is  only  matter 
 refined,  and  that  spirits  themselves  are  composed  of 
 purely  material  atoms,  only  finer  than  the  tangible 
 things  of  earth,  as  air  is  finer  and  more  subtle  than 
 water,  while  both  are  equally  material.  "  The  purest, 
 most  refined  and  subtle  of  all  is  that  substance  called 
 the  Holy  Spirit.  This  substance,  like  all  others,  is  one 
 of  the  elements  of  material  or  physical  existence,  and 
 therefore,  subject  to  the  necessary  laws  which  govern 
 all  other  matter.  Like  the  other  elements  its  whole 
 is  composed  of  individual  particles.  Each  particle 
 occupies  space,  possesses  the  power  of  motion,  requires 
 time  to  move  from  one  part  of  space  to  another,  and 
 can  in  nowise  occupy  two  places  at  once,  in  this  re- 
 spect differing  nothing  from  all  other  matter.  It  is 
 widely  diffused  among  all  the  elements  of  space;  under 
 the  control  of  the  Great  Eloheim  it  is  the  moving 
 cause  of  all  the  intelligences,  by  which  they  act.  It  is 
 omnipresent  by  reason  of  the  infinitude  of  its  particles, 
 
314  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OK.    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 is  the  controling  element  of  all  others  and  comprehends 
 all  things.  By  the  mandate  of  the  Almighty  it  per- 
 forms all  the  wonders  ever  manifested  in  the  name  of 
 the  Lord.  Its  inherent  properties  embrace  all  the  at- 
 tributes of  intelligence  and  affection.  In  short  it  is  the 
 attributes  of  the  eternal  power  and  Godhead."* 
 
 Gods,  angels,  spirits  and  men,  the  four  orders  of 
 intelligent  beings,  are  all  of  one  species,  composed  of 
 similar  materials,  differing  not  in  kind  but  in  degree. 
 God  is  a  perfected  man ;  man  is  an  embryotic  or  unde- 
 veloped god.  Orson  Pratt  has  pursued  this  doctrine  to 
 its  wildest  ultimate,  and  proves  to  his  own  satisfaction 
 that  every  original  atom  was  endowed  with  a  self-act- 
 ing, independent  intelligence,  and  they  merely  "got 
 together"  of  their  own  volition.  Thus  in  the  attempt 
 to  avoid  the  supposed  mysterj^  of  an  instantaneous  crciv 
 tion  by  the  one  God,  he  has  raised  an  infinity  of  un- 
 solved problems  by  making  every  atom  a  god. 
 
 II.  The  eternity  of  matter  is  a  logical  outgrowth  of 
 materialism.  In  this  view  every  atom  now  in  being 
 has  existed  from  all  eternity  past  and  will  exist  for  all 
 eternity  to  come.  There  never  could  have  been  a 
 "creation,"  except  to  appropriate  "matter  unformed  and 
 void,"  and  change  its  form,  impressing  new  conditions 
 upon  it. 
 
 New  worlds  are  constantly  being  formed  of  the  un- 
 appropriated material  of  the  universe,  and  stocked  with 
 spirits,  after  which  faithful  Saints  rule  over  them  and 
 become  gods. 
 
 *  The  quotations  in  this  cluviitor  nre  from  Parley  V.  Pratt's  ''Key 
 to  Tlicology,"  a  standard  work  among  the  Mormoiis,  and  by  tht^iu 
 considered  as  inspired. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  315 
 
 III.  Closely  allied  with  the  last  principle  is  that  of 
 the  pre-existence  of  souls ;  and  here  we  first  meet  with 
 the  sexual  principle  which  underlies  all  the  remaining 
 portion  of  Mormonism.  All  the  sexual  passions  exist 
 in  full  force  in  the  different  worlds,  and  animate  the 
 immortal  gods  as  fulh^  as  their  human  offspring.  Count- 
 less millions  of  spirits  are  thus  horn  in  the  eternal  worlds, 
 and  are  awaiting  by  myriads  the  physical  processes  by 
 which  they  may  enter  earthly  tabernacles  and  begin 
 their  second,  or  probationary  state.  "Wisdom  inspires 
 the  gods  to  multiply  their  species,"  and  as  these  spiritual 
 bodies  increase,  fresh  worlds  are  necessary  upon  which 
 to  transplant  them.  These  spiritual  bodies  have  all  the 
 organs  of  thought,  speech  and  hearing,  in  exact  simili- 
 tude to  earthly  senses.  But  in  this  state  they  could 
 not  advance ;  it  was  necessary  for  them  to  be  subject 
 to  the  moral  law  of  earth  that  regeneration  might  go  on. 
 Hence  they  "seek  earnestly  for  earthly  tabernacles, 
 haunting  even  the  abodes  of  the  vilest  of  mankind  to 
 obtain  them."  To  bestow  these  tabernacles  is  the  high- 
 est glory  of  woman,  and  her  exaltation  in  eternity  will 
 be  in  exact  proportion  to  the  number  she  has  furnished. 
 Man  may  preach  the  gospel,  may  reach  the  highest 
 glories  of  the  priesthood,  may  in  time  even  be  a  creator; 
 but  woman's  only  road  to  glory  is  by  the  physical  pro- 
 cess of  introducing  spirits  to  earth.  Hence  the  larger 
 her  fiimily  the  greater  her  glory  ;  any  means  to  prevent 
 natural  increase  are  in  the  highest  degree  sinful,  and 
 violent  means  an  unpardonable  sin. 
 
 Of  these  spirits  it  is  intimated  some  "  did  not  keep 
 their  first  estate,"  and  are  to  be  thrust  down  and  never 
 
316  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 permitted  to  have  earthly  tabernacles  or  propagate  their 
 species.  Those  who  reach  this  earth  are  in  their 
 "  second  estate,"  and  if  faithful  Saints  will  pass  to  their 
 "  third  estate,"  celestialized  men,  after  which  they  be- 
 come gods. 
 
 IV.  There  is  a  vast  multitude  of  gods,  dispersed 
 throughout  all  the  worlds  as  kingdoms,  families  and 
 nations.  There  is,  however,  but  one  god  regnant  on 
 each  world,  who  is  to  the  inhabitants  of  that  world  the 
 "  only  true  and  living  God."  But  each  god  having  a  first 
 born  son,  there  is  "One  God  and  One  Christ"  to  each 
 world.  Thus  "  there  are  lords  many  and  gods  many,"  but 
 to  us  there  is  but  one  God,  the  Creator  of  the  world  and 
 the  Father  of  our  spirits,  literally  begotten.  He  was  once 
 a  man  of  some  world  and  attained  His  high  position  by 
 successive  degrees.  "  He  is  the  Father  of  Jesus  Christ 
 in  the  only  way  known  in  nature,  just  as  John  Smith, 
 Senior,  is  the  father  of  John  Smith,  Junior." 
 
 All  the  gods  have  many  wives  and  become  the 
 fathers  of  the  souls  of  men  by  divine  generation.  The 
 gods  are  in  the  exact  form  of  men,  of  material  substance, 
 but  highly  refined  and  spiritualized.  A  grand  council 
 of  the  gods,  with  a  president  directing,  constitute  the 
 designing  and  creating  power  ;  but  man,  if  faithful,  will 
 advance  by  degrees  till  endowed  with  the  same  creative 
 power,  or  strictly,  formative  will.  All  faithful  Saints 
 will  become  gods  and  finally  have  worlds  given  them 
 to  people  and  govern.  All  their  earthly  wives  and 
 children  will  belong  to  and  constitute  the  beginning  of 
 their  heavenly  kingdom,  and  they  will  rule  over  their 
 increasing  posterity  forever. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  317 
 
 "  When  the  earth  was  prepared,  there  came  from  an 
 upper  world  a  Son  of  God,  with  His  beloved  spouse, 
 and  thus  a  colony  from  Heaven,  it  may  be  from  the 
 sun,  was  transplanted  on  our  soil."  Joseph  Smith  is 
 one  of  the  gods  of  this  generation  and  now  occupies  a 
 high  position  next  to  Christ,  who  in  turn  stands  next 
 to  Adam.  Above  Adam  is  Jehovah  and  above  Jehovah 
 is  Eloheim,  who  is  the  greatest  god  of  whom  we  have 
 any  knowledge.  His  residence  is  in  the  planet  Kolob, 
 near  the  center  of  our  system,  which  revolves  upon  its 
 axis  once  in  a  thousand  years,  which  are  "with  the 
 Lord  as  one  day."  There  were  six  of  our  days  in  the 
 first  "creation"  of  this  world,  and  six  of  the  Lord's  days  in 
 the  great  preparation  or  course  of  the  world,  each  day 
 lasting  a  thousand  years.  There  were  two  of  these 
 days  to  each  dispensation.  The  Patriarchal  had  two 
 of  these  days ;  the  Mosaic  in  like  manner  a  day  of  rise 
 and  a  day  of  decline ;  the  Christian  dispensation  also 
 had  its  two  days  of  trial,  but,"  after  St.  John's  death,  a  great 
 apostasy  began,  and  for  eighteen  hundred  years  the  so- 
 called  Christain  world  has  been  in  darkness  and  there 
 has  been  no  true  priesthood  upon  the  earth.  There 
 have  been  no  visions,  revelations  or  miraculous  gifts 
 from  the  Lord  enjoj-ed  among  men.  The  various  sects 
 knew  something  of  the  truth  but  not  its  fullness ;  they 
 had  the  form  of  godliness  but  denied  the  power. 
 
 But  this  time  of  darkness  is  nearly  completed ;  the 
 dawn  of  the  Lord's  day  is  here,  and  the  great  Sabbath 
 will  soon  be  ushered  in.  But  a  few  more  years  are 
 given  to  the  Gentiles,  then  the  great  contest  of  Gog  and 
 Magog  will  set  in,  and  nearly  all  the  Gentile  world  be 
 
318  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 destroyed.  Those  who  remain  will  become  servants  to 
 the  Saints,  who  will  return  and  possess  the  whole  land ; 
 the  widows  will  come  begging  the  Mormon  elders  to 
 marry  them,  and  seven  women  will  lay  hold  of  one 
 man.  At  the  same  time  the  remnant  left  of  the  In- 
 dians, who  are  descendants  of  the  ancient  Jews,  will 
 be  converted,  have  the  curse  removed  and  become  "  a 
 fair  and  delightsome  people."  The  way  Avill  be  opened 
 to  the  remainder  of  the  "  ten  lost  tribes,"  who  are  shut 
 up  somewhere  near  the  North  Pole ;  old  Jerusalem  will 
 be  rebuilt  by  all  the  Jews  gathering  to  the  Holy  Land, 
 and  about  the  year  1890,  the  new  Jerusalem  will  be  let 
 down  from  God  out  of  Heaven  and  located  in  Jackson 
 County,  Missouri,  with  the  corner-stone  of  the  Great 
 Temple  "  three  hundred  yards  west  of  the  old  court- 
 house in  Independence,"  where  is  to  be  the  capital  of 
 Christ's  earthly  kingdom.  The  Saints  will  own  all  the 
 property  of  the  country,  and  marry  all  the  women  they 
 desire ;  the  streets  of  their  city  will  be  paved  with  the 
 gold  dug  by  Gentiles  from  the  Rocky  Mountains;  noxious 
 insects  will  be  banished,  contagious  diseases  cease,  the 
 land  produce  abundantly  of  grain,  flower  and  fruit,  and 
 everything  will  be  lovely  in  the  new  Jerusalem ! 
 
 Leaving  the  reader  to  smile  or  regret,  as  personal 
 temperament  may  incline,  I  hasten  to  a  consideration 
 of  the  Mormon  tenets  nominally  derived  from  the 
 Christian  Bible.  The  Mohannnedan  portion  of  their 
 faith  and  practice  is  reserved  for  the  two  succeeding 
 cliapters. 
 
 The  Mormons  steadily  claim  the  Bible  as  the  first 
 foundation  of  their  belief;  that  they  "  believe  all  tliat 
 
MOKMOX    r.ATTISM. 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  319 
 
 any  Christians  do,  and  a  great  deal  more."  Their  tenets 
 most  nearly  resembling  those  of  Christian  sects,  and 
 which  they  call  the  "  First  principles  of  the  Gospel," 
 are  four  in  number,  ranked  in  order  of  time,  as  follows  • 
 1.  Faith,  2.  Repentance,  3.  Baptism  by  immersion, 
 and  4.  Laying  on  of  hands  for  the  remission  of  sins,  and 
 the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  They  are  explained  at 
 great  length  in  the  "  Doctrines  and  Covenants,"  the 
 New  Testament  of  Mormonism.  This  book  is  made  up 
 of  revelations,  "  selected  (!)  from  those  of  Joseph  Smith," 
 and  the  doctrinal  lectures  of  various  elders,  particularly 
 Sidney  Rigdon,  with  an  addition  containing  the  rules 
 and  discipline  of  the  Church.  The  "  Lectures  on  fiiith 
 and  repentance  "  contain  nothing  more  than  is  familiar 
 to  every  attendant  on  the  worship  of  Arminian  sects. 
 Baptism  the  Mormons  regard  as  "  a  saving  ordinance," 
 of  actual  and  material  value  ;  and  to  such  an  extent  do 
 they  carry  this  doctrine,  that  they  baptize  again  and 
 again,  after  every  backsliding,  and  sometimes  wlien 
 there  has  been  a  period  "of  "general  coldness"  in  the 
 Church.  At  the  time  known  in  Mormon  annals  as  the 
 "  Reformation,"  when  it  was  supposed  the  Lord  had  sent 
 drouth  and  grasshoppers  to  punish  their  backsliding, 
 every  adult  member  of  the  Church  was  re-baptized. 
 Nearly  all  the  old  members  have  been  baptized  two  or 
 three  times  each,  and  Brigham  Young,  in  one  of  his 
 sermons,  mentions  an  old  reprobate  who  had  been  bap- 
 tized no  less  than  twelve  times,  and  "  cut  off  thirteen 
 times  for  lying,"  Brigham  himself,  who  was  then 
 much  addicted  to  liquor,  seems  to  have  fallen  under  the 
 power  of  his  enemy  soon  after  uniting  with  the  Church, 
 
320  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 thus  rendering  re-baptism  necessary ;  and  a  quiet  joke 
 is  current  among  the  less  reverent  Saints,  to  the  effect 
 that  a  noted  Jew,  named  Seixas,  then  connected  with 
 the  Mormons,  jocosely  proposed  to  "  leave  him  in  over 
 night." 
 
 But  the  fourth  tenet  opens  to  view  the  whole  of  their 
 divergence  from  Christian  sects.  The  prime  principle 
 in  their  faith  which  marks  this  departure  is,  that  the 
 office  of  the  Holy  Ghost  had  been  unknown  on  earth 
 from  the  death  of  the  last  Apostle  to  the  calling  of 
 Joseph  Smith ;  that  the  "  mystic  power  "  mentioned  by 
 St.  John,  had  warred  with  the  Saints  and  overcome 
 them ;  that  the  true  priesthood  was  then  taken  from 
 the  earth,  and  men,  blindly  seeking  the  truth,  divided 
 into  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  sects,  "  the  number  of 
 the  beast,"  each  having  a  little  truth,  but  none  holding 
 it  in  purity. 
 
 Joseph  Smith,  earnestly  calling  upon  the  Lord  to 
 know  which  of  the  sects  was  in  the  right,  was  told  that 
 all  were  alike  gone  astray,  and  was  himself  ordained  by 
 heave  uly  messengers,  first  to  the  Aarbnic  and  after- 
 wards to  the  Melchisedec  priesthood.  Thenceforth  the 
 Holy  Ghost  was  to  be  given  to  all  true  believers ;  the 
 "  witness  of  the  spirit "  was  to  be  an  absolute  certainty, 
 and  all  who  had  truly  embraced  the  new  gospel  were 
 "to  know  for  themselves,  and  without  a  shadow  of 
 doubt"  that  it  was  true.  How  strange  and  yet  how 
 natural,  this  constant  seeking  by  man  for  certainty  as 
 to  the  affairs  of  the  unseen  world  !  Hundreds  of  times 
 I  have  listened  to  the  testimony  of  individual  Mormons  : 
 "  You  helieve  you  are  right — I  know  this  religion  is 
 true.     We  have  a  witness  no  other  people  can  have — 
 
AND  CRIMES  OF  mormonism:.  321 
 
 the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  the  old  churches  we 
 always  had  our  doubts  ;  now  we  know  the  correctness 
 of  this  doctrine."  Thus  for  a  season.  But  man  was 
 not  made  for  such  absolutism  ;  it  is  folly  to  seek  a  per- 
 fect certainty  in  that  which  is  from  its  very  nature  in- 
 tangible and  uncertain,  and  it  will  often  be  found  that 
 the  wildest  and  most  unreasoning  ftiith  has  the  most 
 obstmate  devotees.  It  is  sufficient  comment  uj^on  the 
 above  "  testimony,"  to  state  the  facts  that  no  church  ever 
 organized  has  developed  so  many  factions  in  so  short  a 
 time  as  Mormonism ;  that  the  original  organization  has, 
 from  time  to  time,  given  rise  to  twenty-five  sects,  of 
 which  half-a-dozen  are  still  in  existence ;  that  of  all  who 
 have  ever  embraced  Mormonism,  over  seventy  per  cent, 
 have  apostatized,  and  that  at  the  present  writing,  two 
 powerful  schisms  are  raging  in  the  very  bosom  of  the 
 Church. 
 
 At  the  same  time  with  the  Holy  Ghost,  all  the  "  gifts  " 
 of  the  first  Church  were  to  be  restored ;  prophecy,  heal- 
 ing, miracles,  speaking  in  tongues  and  the  interpretation 
 of  tongues  were  to  accompany  the  new  gospel  and  be 
 its  powerful  witnesses  among  men.  Hence,  all  the 
 miracles  which  have  followed  the  Latter-day  work. 
 The  Mormons  are  fond  of  quoting  that  text  where  all 
 power  is  given  to  the  Church,  and  the  enumeration  of 
 gifts  with  the  statement,  "These  signs  shall  follow 
 them  that  believe."  They  then  triumphantly  exclaim, 
 ''  Where  is  the  professed  Christian  Church  which  has, 
 or  even  claims  these  gifts  ?  We  have  them  in  their 
 fullness,  and  this  is  our  testimony  that  we  are  truly  of 
 the  Lord."     As  far  as  human  testimony  can  prove  auy- 
 
 21 
 
321:!  LIFE    IN   UTAH;     OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 thing  on  such  a  subject,  they  prove  numerous  "  miracles  " 
 in  the  way  of  healing  various  ailments;  but  I  have 
 heard  of  none  that  cannot  be  readily  accounted  for  from 
 the  effects  of  a  "  fervent  and  fooling  faith."  The  most 
 common  "  miracle  "  is  the  cure  of  rheumatism  and  neu- 
 ralgia by  "laying  on  of  hands,"  and  anointing  with 
 holy  oil.  The  general  rule  of  the  Church  is  to  send 
 for  the  nearest  elders  and  bishops  as  soon  as  a  Saint  is 
 taken  sick ;  they  "  lay  on  hands,"  and  anoint  the  pa- 
 tient with  "  consecrated  oil,"  rubbing  it  briskly  on  the 
 parts  most  affected.  J£  the  patient  grows  worse,  other 
 dignitaries  are  sent  for,  more  vigorous  prayers  are  offered 
 up,  and  strenuous  efforts  made  to  arouse  the  "healing 
 virtue ; "  but  generally  a  physician  is  the  last  resort,  a 
 religious  prejudice  prevailing  to  some  extent  against 
 the  profession.  A  resident  physician  of  Salt  Lake  City 
 informed  me  that  he  was  once  called  to  see  a  woman  in 
 labor,  who  had  been  suffering  for  twenty-four  hours, 
 and  was  literally  "  greased  from  head  to  foot  with  the 
 consecrated  oil."  It  proved  to  be  a  very  simple  and  by 
 no  means  unusual  case,  which  he  relieved  in  a  few 
 minutes,  at  the  very  time  the  attendant  women  were 
 emptying  a  large  horn  of  "  consecrated  oil "  upon  the 
 patient's  head  ;  the  relief  was  followed  by  loud  praises 
 of  the  efficacy  of  the  "  holy  oil,"  and  the  woman  is  now 
 a  firm  witness  of  the  "  miracle." 
 
 "  Speaking  in  tongues  "  is  not,  as  one  would  naturally 
 suppose,  the  gift  of  speech  in  the  vernacular  of  various 
 nations,  such  as  attended  the  pentecostal  season.  That 
 would  be  altogether  too  linguistic  and  practical  for  these 
 latter  days      It  consists  merely  of  uttering  a  rapid  suo- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  323 
 
 cession  of  articulate  and  connected  sounds,  not  under- 
 stood by  the  speaker  himself,  but  which  are  explained 
 by  some  one  having  the  "  interpretation  of  tongues." 
 The  mode  is  for  the  person  who  thinks  himself  en- 
 dowed with  this  gift  to  "  stand  up,  call  upon  the  Lord 
 in  silent  prayer  for  a  few  moments,  then  open  the  mouth 
 and  utter  whatever  words  come  to  hand  and  the  Lord 
 will  make  them  a  language."  An  interpreter  will  then 
 be  provided  and  the  hidden  meaning  made  plain ;  but 
 no  person  ever  has  both  gifts. 
 
 This  gift  prevailed  to  a  surprising  extent  among  cer- 
 tain fanatical  sects  in  England,  and  was  there  charitably 
 attributed  to  an  abnormal  condition  of  the  organs  of 
 language ;  but  here  is  more  naturally  accounted  for 
 either  by  imposture  or  the  effects  of  a  wild  fanaticism. 
 I  heard  it  but  once,  and  then  merely  repeated  by  a  de- 
 voted Mormon  as  he  had  heard  the  "gifted"  deliver  it, 
 and,  in  a  philological  inquiry,  I  should  pronounce  it  a 
 cognate  branch  of  that  "dog-latin"  which  belongs  to 
 the  erudition  of  school-boy  days.  This  exercise  is  a 
 little  too  ridiculous,  even  for  the  Mormons  at  present, 
 and  is  rarely  heard  of;  but  in  the  early  j-ears  of  their 
 Church  it  was  a  frequent  occurrence,  whole  days  of 
 "speaking  meetings"  being  devoted  to  it.  An  old 
 apostate,  who  was  in  the  Church  at  Nauvoo,  tells  me 
 of  having  been  present  at  one  of  those  meetings  where 
 the  first  doubts  iDCgan  to  arise  in  his  mind  in  regard  to 
 his  new  faith.  Having  formerly  been  a  trader  among 
 the  Choctaws,  he  suddenly  arose  and  delivered  a 
 lengthy  speech  on  hunting  in  the  language  of  that 
 tribe,  which  the  interpreter  rendered  into  a  glowing  and 
 
324  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 florid  account  of  the  glories  to  result  from  the  coniple- 
 tion  of  the  Great  Temple,  then  in  progress.  Lieutenant 
 Gunnison,  in  his  admirable  work,  gives  an  account  of 
 one  lad  who  had  become  so  noted  in  the  "  interpretation 
 of  tongues"  that  he  was  generally  called  upon  by  the 
 elders  in  the  most  difficult  cases,  and  seems  to  have 
 felt  under  obligation  to  give  some  sort  of  rendering  and 
 meaning  to  any  speech,  however  crude  or  whimsical. 
 On  one  occasion,  a  woman,  with  the  "gifts  of  tongues," 
 suddenly  rose  in  the  meeting,  and  shouted,  "  0  mela, 
 meli,  melee!"  The  boy  was  at  once  pressed  for  an  in- 
 terpretation, and  promptly  gave  the  rendition,  "  0  my 
 leg,  my  thigh,  my  knee ! "  He  was  cited  before  the 
 Council  for  his  profanity,  but  stoutly  maintained  that 
 his  interpretation  was  "according  to  the  spirit,"  and 
 was  released  with  an  admonition. 
 
 Miss  Eliza  Snow,  the  Mormon  poetess,  was  particu- 
 larly "gifted"  in  tongues;  and,  according  to  the  account 
 of  young  Mormons,  now  apostatized,  she  was  accus- 
 tomed often  during  their  early  journeyings,  to  rush 
 into  the  dwelling  of  some  other  woman,  exclaiming : 
 "  Sister,  I  want  to  bless  you ! "  lay  her  hands  upon  the 
 other's  head,  and  pour  forth  a  strain  of  confused  jargon, 
 which  was  supposed  to  be  a  blessing  in  the  "unknown 
 tongue."  Such  are  the  various  "gifts,"  and  to  a  people 
 less  blinded  by  fanaticism,  their  practical  effects  among 
 the  Mormons  would  be  sufficient  to  disprove  the  claim 
 for  their  divine  origin.  To  mention  but  one :  it  is  evi- 
 dent to  any  intelligent  observer  that  numerous  deaths 
 occur  annually  in  Salt  Lake  City  simply  from  a  disre- 
 gard of  hygienic  laws  and  a  lack  of  proper  medical 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  325 
 
 treatment,  with  a  blind  reliance  upon  treatment  by 
 "faith;"  and,  notwithstanding  their  splendid  climate, 
 the  death-rate  of  the  Mormons  is  unusually  large 
 from  those  very  classes  of  disease  for  which  any  intel- 
 ligent physician  can  aflford  immediate  relief  It  is  a 
 remarkable  fact  that  more  women  die  in  child-birth  in 
 Salt  Lake  City  than  in  any  other  of  the  same  size  in 
 America,  and  that  for  many  years  the  death-rate  of 
 infants  was  only  exceeded  by  one  Southern  State, 
 Louisiana. 
 
 So  much  for  their  theology  as  it  relates  to  earth ;  I 
 have  not  been  able  to  discover  the  exact  source  of  their 
 ideas  of  heaven.  They  hold  that  there  are  three  hea- 
 vens :  the  celestial,  terrestrial  and  telestial,  typified  by 
 the  sun,  moon  and  stars.  The  last  two  are  for  those 
 who  have  neither  obeyed  nor  disobeyed  the  gospel; 
 some  because  they  did  not  hear  it,  others  from  "  invin- 
 cible ignorance,"  and  still  others  because  they  were 
 morally  hindered  in  various  ways.  To  one  or  the  other 
 of  these  heavens  all  sincere  people  of  whatever  race  or 
 creed,  who  have  never  heard  the  Gospel,  but  followed 
 the  light  they  had,  will  be  admitted,  and  there  enjoy 
 as  much  happiness  as  they  are  capable  of.  But  if  they 
 have  once  heard  the  true  Gospel  and  refused  to  obey  it? 
 have  persecuted  the  Saints  or  apostatized  and  lost  the 
 spirit  of  God,  "  this  testimony  will  go  with  them  through 
 all  eternity,  and  they  can  never  enter  a  rest."  Their 
 final  destiny,  however,  is  not  revealed  to  mortals.  Wo- 
 man, in  and  of  herself,  could  never  progress  to  the 
 highest  place,  "  As  Eve  led  Adam  out  of  the  garden  he 
 must  lead  her  back."      K  she  wilfully  remain  single  and 
 
326  LIFE   IN    UTAH  ;    OE,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 slights  the  great  duty  imposed  upon  her,  she  is  useless  in 
 the  economy  of  creation,  and  therefore  is  condemned. 
 But  many  special  provisions  are  made  for  the  really 
 worthy  of  both  sexes,  by  which  the  living  may  vica- 
 riously  atone  for  the  dead  who  never  heard  the  Gospel. 
 Baptism  for  the  dead,  and  marriage  for  the  dead,  are 
 chief  among  these  means.  The  former  they  found 
 upon  St.  Paul's  writings,  and  under  its  provisions  the 
 Saint  is  often  baptized  for  some  relative  who  died  many 
 years  before  in  Europe,  or  for  some  eminent  personage. 
 George  Washington,  Benjamin  Franklin  and  Thomas 
 Jefferson  are  thus  vicariously  Members  of  the  Mormon 
 Church, 
 
 The  celestial  heaven  is  theirs  only  who  have  both 
 heard  and  obeyed  the  Gospel.  In  that  happy  state  they 
 enjoy  all  that  made  this  life  desirable ;  they  eat,  drink 
 and  are  merry ;  they  are  solaced  by  the  embraces  of 
 their  earthly  wives,  and  many  more  will  be  given  them  ; 
 all  material  enjoyments  will  be  free  from  the  defects 
 of  earth,  and  pleasures  will  never  pall.  In  time  the 
 most  faithful  will  become  gods. 
 
 "  They  will  ever  look  upon  the  elements  as  their 
 home;  hence  the  elements  will  ever  keep  pace  with 
 them  in  all  the  degrees  of  progressive  refinement, 
 while  room  is  found  in  infinite  space  : 
 
 "  While  there  are  particles  of  unorganized  element  in 
 nature's  store- house : 
 
 "  While  the  trees  of  paradise  yield  their  fruits,  or  the 
 fountain  of  life  its  river : 
 
 "  While  the  bosoms  of  the  (jods  glow  with  afiection. 
 While  eternal  charity  endures,  or  eternity  itself  rolls 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  327 
 
 its  successive  ages,  the  heavens  will  multiply,  and  new 
 worlds  and  more  people  be  added  to  the  kingdom  of  the 
 Fathers." 
 
 But  there  is  still  another  class  of  persons  who  do  not 
 quite  live  up  to  their  pri\dleges,  and  yet  deserve  a 
 salvation.  Unmarried  men  and  women,  and  those 
 guilty  of  various  derelictions  make  up  this  class. 
 They  will  never  progress,  but  be  angels  merely ;  mes- 
 sengers and  servants  to  those  worthy  of  greater  glory ; 
 and  "  bachelor  angels"  only,  with  no  families,  and  com- 
 pelled to  go  through  eternity  without  a  mate. 
 
 Amusement  and  disgust  possess  us  by  turns  as  we 
 pursue  these  blasphemous  speculations  in  regard  to  the 
 employment  of  the  gods,  or  the  vain  attempt  to  supply 
 those  points  of  knoweldge  which  Infinite  Wisdom  has 
 left  unrevealed.  In  this  attempt  the  Mormons  might 
 well  be  styled  eclectic  theologians.  They  are  Chris- 
 tians in  their  belief  in  the  New  Testament,  and  the 
 mission  of  Christ;  Jews  in  their  temporal  theocracy, 
 tithing  and  belief  in  prophecy;  Mohammedans  in  re- 
 gard to  the  relations  of  the  sexes,  and  Voudoos  or 
 Fetichists,  in  their  witchcraft,  good  and  evil  spirits, 
 faith  doctoring  and  superstition.  From  the  Boodhists 
 they  have  stolen  their  doctrines  of  apotheosis  and 
 development  of  gods  ;  from  the  Greek  mythology  their 
 loves  of  the  immortals  and  spirits ;  they  have  blended 
 the  ideas  of  many  nations  of  polytheists,  and  made  the 
 whole  consistent  by  outdoing  the  materialists.  In  the 
 labor  of  harmonizing  all  this  with  Christianity,  there  is 
 scarcely  a  schism  that  has  ever  rent  the  Christian 
 world,   but    has   furnished    some   scraps   of    doctrine. 
 
328  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;   OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 They  are  Arians  in  making  Christ  a  secondary  being  in 
 the  Godhead — "  the  greatest  of  created  things  and  yet 
 a  creature ;"  they  are  Manicheans  in  their  division  of 
 the  universe  between  good  and  evil  spirits,  and  Gnostics 
 in  their  gross  ascription  of  all  human  indulgences  and 
 enjoyments,  even  polygamy,  to  the  Saviour.  Of  the 
 modern  sects,  they  have  the  order  of  service,  "ex- 
 perience meetings  "  and  "  witness  of  the  spirit "  of  the 
 Methodists ;  the  "  first  principles  "  of  the  Campbellites, 
 and  the  "universal  suffrage"  of  the  Presbyterians; 
 while  their  views  on  baptism,  the  "perseverance  of 
 the  Saints,"  backsliding  and  restoration,  read  like  a 
 desperate  attempt  to  combine  the  doctrines  of  the 
 Campbellites,  Methodists,  and  Cumberland  Presby- 
 terians. Finally,  they  are  Millenarians  in  their  speedy 
 expectation  of  Christ's  earthly  reign;  almost  Uni- 
 versalists  in  the  belief  that  a  very  small  portion  of 
 mankind  will  finally  fail  of  any  heaven ;  Spirituahsts 
 in  their  faith  that  the  unseen  powers  produce  special 
 and  actual  visible  effects  on  earth,  though  by  natural 
 laws,  and  Communists  in  their  system  of  public  works. 
 But  it  is  in  regard  to  the  personality  and  life  of  Christ 
 that  their  ideas  seem  most  strange  and  blasphemous. 
 They  hold  that  He  was  the  literally  begotten,  that  he 
 had  five  wives  while  upon  earth,  two  of  whom  were 
 Martha  and  Mary,  and  thus  actually  violated  the  law 
 under  which  He  lived ;  at  the  same  time  they  vaguely 
 unite  the  views  of  the  Greek  and  Latin  Fathers,  hold- 
 ing Ilim  both  the  Logos  and  the  Aeon,  the  Mediator 
 and  the  God-mim. 
 
 The  question  which  for  five  centuries  agitated  the 
 
AKD  CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  329 
 
 early  Church  as  to  the  personality  of  Christ,  the  homo- 
 ousian  and  the  homoiousian,  the  "  same  substance "  or 
 the  "similar  substa.nce,"  can  have  no  place  in  their 
 theology ;  they  have  boldly  evaded  it  by  obliterating 
 all  distinction,  either  in  form,  substance  or  develop- 
 ment, between  God  and  man ;  both  are  alike  material 
 and  differ  only  in  degree.  Met  at  the  outset  by  the 
 difficulty  of  comprehending  God,  they  simplified  it  by 
 making  their  Deity  a  "perfected  maai."  This  part  of 
 their  theology,  then,  as  far  as  it  is  the  result  of  earnest 
 and  sincere  thought  on  the  part  of  its  devotees,  merely 
 presents  itself  to  my  mind  as  another  one  of  the  ten 
 thousand  schemes  of  man  to  get  away  from  that  dogma 
 which  must  be  received  on  faith,  simply  because  it  is 
 utterly  beyond  the  grasp  of  finite  reason.  For  nearly 
 two  thousand  years  the  Christian  Church  has  presented 
 for  the  world's  acceptance  a  Being,  not  all  of  earth,  not 
 all  of  heaven,  yet  perfect  earth  and  perfect  heaven  -,  has 
 asked  the  world  to  believe  in  the  God-Man,  the  Divine- 
 Human,  the  humanly  inexplicable  mystery  of  "God 
 made  manifest  in  the  flesh."  But  man  is  unable  of  his 
 own  reason  alone  to  receive  this  truth ;  and  there  is  an 
 intense  desire  in  the  natural  mind  to  know  more  of  God 
 and  hidden  things  personally,  to  see  or  hear  them  face 
 to  face.  Man  would  pry  into  the  hidden  mysteries  of 
 Providence,  which  we  are  told  "  the  angels  desired  to 
 look  into  and  were  not  able ;"  at  the  same  time  the 
 carnal  mind  is  unwilling  to  use  the  appointed  means 
 whereby  only  this  knowledge  may  be  obtained ;  to 
 study  the  written  "Word,  to  do  the  works  therein  com- 
 manded, and  rise  to  that  degree  of  moral  purity  by 
 
330  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 which  alone  his  conception  of  unseen  things  can  be 
 heightened  and  made  harmonious.  He  would  be  gross, 
 sensual  and  earthy;  and  at  the  same  time  comprehend 
 the  pure  and  heavenly.  The  two  are  incompatible. 
 Hence,  dissatisfied  with  his  own  condition  and  without 
 the  moral  energy  to  amend  it,  discontented  with  the 
 truth  ojQfered  yet  unwilling  to  take  the  required  course 
 to  gain  more  truth,  he  seeks  for  some  shorter,  easier 
 way,  some  method  more  consonant  with  a  corrupt 
 nature,  to  satisfy  his  mind  and  perhaps  quiet  an 
 awakened  conscience.  This  natural  feeling  of  the 
 human  mind  is  seized  upon  by  impostors,  sometimes 
 "  the  man  with  a  purpose,"  and  sometimes  the  dupe  of 
 their  own  fancies;  and  hence  from  age  to  age  the  ten 
 thousand  short  lived  sects,  diverging  now  to  the  in- 
 tensely material  and  again  to  the  ultra  spiritual,  but 
 still  departing  from  the  great  central  line  of  the  Church. 
 In  our  own  day.  Spiritualism  complains  that  the 
 Church  is  too  material,  too  earthy  and  secular;  that 
 man  finds  therein  no  supply  for  the  wants  of  his  spirit- 
 ual nature,  and  they  seek  therefor  a  corrective :  the 
 Mormons,  diverging  to  the  opposite  extreme,  complain 
 that  the  Church  is  too  speculative  and  mystical,  too 
 much  given  up  to  the  vague  and  intangible;  that  their 
 God  "without  body,  parts  or  passions"  is  too  far  re- 
 moved from  human  sympathy,  and  for  this  they  would 
 find  a  corrective  in  the  most  intense  materialism.  And 
 this  reaction  once  begun,  the  only  limit  or  law  to  filthy 
 imagination,  is  the  range  or  power  of  human  fancy. 
 The  gross  fiuniliarity  with  which  fanatics  of  all  kinds 
 speak  of  the  Supreme  Being,  the  Mormon  claim  of  the 
 
AND  CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  331 
 
 office  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  their  polygamy,  incest  and 
 blood  atonement,  are  a  necessary  and  logical  result  of 
 this  degrading  conception  of  spiritual  things.  Nowhere 
 through  the  long  detail  of  their  tenets  is  purity  taught 
 or  hinted  at.  It  is  all  pure  selfishness,  mere  grossness, 
 sexualism  deified  and  the  domain  of  the  senses  made 
 the  empire  of  the  universe.  The  Being,  in  whose  sight 
 "the  heavens  are  not  clean,"  who  "put  no  trust  in  llis 
 servants  and  charged  His  angels  with  folly,"  who  is  far 
 above  all  taint  of  earthliness,  has  no  place  in  such  a 
 system.  They  have  degraded  the  human  conception 
 of  Deity,  till  He  has  become  in  their  minds  "  altogether 
 such  a  one  as  themselves."  The  heathen  philosophers 
 of  two  thousand  years  ago,  with  only  the  unaided  light 
 of  reason,  were  infinitely  their  superiors ;  and  Plato's 
 Deity  is  as  much  more  worthy  of  our  adoration  than 
 Brigham's,  as  the  loftiest  conceptions  of  a  refined  and 
 virtuous  philosopher  are  above  the  impure  imaginations 
 of  a  sensualist. 
 
332  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    Olt,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 CHAPTER    XIV. 
 
 THEORETICAL   POLYGAMY ITS   HISTORY. 
 
 Poetry  of  religious  concubinage — Fanaticism  and  Sensualism — Two  ex- 
 tremes— Origin  of  Polygamy — The  great  revelation— Its  contradictions 
 and  absurdities— Mormon  argument— Real  origin— Beginning  of  Polyg- 
 amy — A  prostitute  for  religion's  sake — Failures  and  Scandals — "War  in 
 the  Church — Stealing  a  Brother's  wife — Furore  in  consequence — The 
 Expositor — Its  destruction — Death  of  the  Smiths — Polygamy  practiced 
 secretly  and  denied  openly — Brigham's  marriages — Nine  years  of  con- 
 cealment— Avowal  at  last— Argument  in  its  favor — Demoralization  in 
 the  English  Church — A  climax  of  unnatural  obscenity — The  "  Eefor- 
 mation"— Temporary  decline  in  Polygamy — Hostility  of  native  Mor- 
 mon girls— Outside  influence — Difference  of  opinion — It  dies  hard — 
 Spiritual  wives — Mystery  and  abomination. 
 
 The  occasional  references  hitherto  in  regard  to  "  Pre- 
 existence  of  the  soul,"  "  Sexual  resurrection,"  "  Progress 
 in  eternity"  and  "  Generation  of  the  gods,"  have  pre- 
 pared the  reader  somewhat  for  special  consideration  of 
 polygamy;  but  it  is  necessary  also  to  look  into  its 
 earthly  history,  and  the  reasons  urged  for  its  origin  and 
 continuance.  And  in  these  reasons  we  are  sur]3rised  to 
 find  how  captivating  a  veil  of  religious  fancy  may  be 
 thrown  over  an  institution  naturally  and  inherently 
 vile.  Gross  forms  of  religious  error  seem  almost  in- 
 variably to  lead  to  sensuality,  to  some  singular  perversion 
 of  the  marriage  relation  or  the  sexual  instinct ;  probably 
 because  the  same  constitution  of  mind  and  temperament 
 which  gives  rise  to  the  one,  powerfully  predisposes  toward 
 the  other.     The  fanatic  is  of  logical  necessity  either  an 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  333 
 
 ascetic  or  a  sensualist;  healthy  moderation  is  foreign 
 alike  to  his  speculative  faith  and  social  practice.  He 
 either  gives  full  rein  to  his  baser  propensities  under 
 the  specious  name  of  "  Christian  liberty/'  or  with  a  little 
 more  conscientiousness,  swings  to  the  opposite  extreme 
 and  forbids  those  innocent  gratifications  prompted  by 
 nature  and  permitted  by  God.  Of  the  former  class  are 
 the  Mormons,  Noyseites  of  Oneida,  the  Antinomians, 
 and  the  followers  of  St.  John  of  Leyden;  of  the  latter 
 the  Shakers,  Harmonists,  monks  and  nuns,  and  a  score 
 of  orders  of  celibate  priests. 
 
 The  Mormons  are  particular  to  declare  that  they 
 never  would  have  practical  polygamy,  except  in  accord- 
 ance with  an  express  revelation  from  God ;  and  though 
 they  occasionally  defend  it  on  various  physiological  and 
 scriptural  grounds,  they  always  fall  back  upon  the  ex- 
 press command.  This  revelation  is  said  to  have  been 
 given  at  Nauvoo,  Illinois,  July  12,  1843.  It  was  first 
 published  in  the  Deseret  News  Extra,  of  September  14, 
 1852,  and  next  in  the  April  number,  1853,  of  the  Mil- 
 leimial  Star,  Liverpool,  England ;  and  is  contained  at  ' 
 full  length  in  Burton's  "City  of 'the  Saints,"  and  many 
 other  publications.  It  is  too  long  and  discursive  to 
 quote  entire,  and  I  sectionize  it  for  convenient  reference. 
 
 1.  The  revelation  opens  with  this  remarkable  state- 
 ment, the  Lord  represented  as  speaking : 
 
 "  Verily,  thus  saith  the  Lord  unto  you,  my  servant 
 Joseph,  that  inasmuch  as  you  have  inquired  at  my  hand 
 to  know  wherein  I,  the  Lord,  justified  my  servants 
 Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob ;  as  also  Moses,  David  and 
 Solomon,  my  servants,  as  touching  the  principle  and 
 
334  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 doctrine  of  their  having  many  wives  and  concubines ; 
 behold,  and  lo,  I  am  the  Lord  and  will  answer  thee  as 
 touching  this  matter,"  etc. 
 
 It  will  not  escape  notice,  that  as  here  stated  Joseph 
 had  asked  the  Lord  about  the  matter.  We  cannot  but 
 wonder  whether  it  would  have  been  revealed  at  all, 
 without  this  preliminary  questioning.  Many  good  Mor- 
 mons think  it  would  not,  and  Mormon  ladies  frequently 
 express  a  pious  regret  that  the  Prophet  ever  asked 
 about  it !  The  section  concludes  by  denouncing  dam- 
 nation upon  all  who  reject  the  new  gospel. 
 
 2.  This  section  states  that, "  All  covenants,  contracts, 
 bonds,  obligations,  oaths,  vows,  performances,  connec- 
 tions, associations  or  expectations  that  are  not  made 
 and  entered  into,  and  sealed  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of 
 promise  of  him  who  is  anointed,"  are  void  in  eternity, 
 and  only  good  for  this  world. 
 
 It  sets  forth  also  with  great  verbosity  of  language, 
 that  "  God's  house,  is  a  house  of  order." 
 
 3.  The  same  principle  is  applied  to  the  marriage 
 covenant,  stating  that  all  who  are  not  married  "  and 
 sealed  according  to  the  new  and  everlasting  covenant," 
 are  married  for  this  world  only,  and  shall  not  be  en- 
 titled to  their  respective  partners  in  eternity,  but  shall 
 continue  "  angels  only,  and  not  gods,  kept  as  ministers 
 to  those  who  are  worthy  of  a  far  more  exceeding  and 
 eternal  weight  of  glory." 
 
 4.  Description  of  the  future  glory  of  those  who  keep 
 the  new  covenant :  "  Then  shall  they  be  gods  because 
 they  have  no  end ;  there  they  shall  be  from  everlasting 
 to  everlasting,  because  they  continue ;  then  shall  thev 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  335 
 
 be  above  all,  because  all  things  are  subject  unto  them. 
 Then  shall  they  be  gods,  because  they  have  all  power, 
 and  the  angels  are  subject  unto  themr 
 
 5.  To  such  are  forgiven  all  manner  of  crimes,  ex- 
 cept murder,  "  wherein  they  shed  innocent  blood,"  and 
 blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost.  Apostasy,  be  it  no- 
 ted,  is  the  worst  form  of  the  latter  sin. 
 
 6.  This  section  explains  the  cases  of  Abraham  and 
 other  ancient  polygamists  at  great  length,  concluding  by 
 citing  David  as  an  example  of  how  men  lose  their  "  ex- 
 altiition "  by  abusing  their  privileges :  "  In  none  of 
 these  things  did  he  sin  against  me,  save  in  the  case  of 
 Uriah  and  his  wife,  and,  therefore,  he  hath  fallen  from 
 his  exaltation  and  received  his  position ;  and  he  shall 
 not  inherit  them  out  of  the  world,  for  I  gave  them  unto 
 another,  saith  the  Lord." 
 
 7.  Great  power  is  conferred  upon  Joseph  Smith  to 
 regulate  all  such  celestial  marriages,  punish  for  adultery, 
 and  take  away  the  wives  of  the  guilty  and  give  them 
 to  good  men. 
 
 8.  This  section  gives  very  full  and  explicit  instruc- 
 tions to  Emma  Smith,  wife  of  Joseph,  how  to  conduct 
 herself  under  the  new  dispensation  ;  that  she  "  receive 
 all  those  that  htwe  been  given  unto  my  servant  Joseph, 
 who  are  virtuous  and  pure  before  me,"  aud  threatening 
 her  with  destruction  if  she  do  not. 
 
 9.  The  revelation  changes  abruptly  and  gives  Joseph 
 Smith  full  directions  how  to  manage  his  propertj^ ;  par- 
 ticulary  "  let  not  my  servant  Joseph  put  his  j)roperty 
 out  of  his  hands,  lest  an  enemy  come  and  destroy  him," 
 and  threatening  severely  all  who  injure  him. 
 
336  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 The  reader  familiar  with  the  old  Revised  Statutes  of 
 Illinois,  would  be  surprised  to  find  the  Lord  talking  so 
 much  like  a  Justice  of  the  Peace. 
 
 10.  The  revelation  comes,  at  last,  to  the  gist  of  the 
 matter  and  grants  plurality  of  wives,  in  these  words : 
 
 "  And  again,  as  pertaining  to  the  law  of  the  priest- 
 hood :  If  any  man  espouse  a  virgin  and  desires  to  es- 
 pouse another,  and  the  first  give  her  consent ;  and  if  he 
 espouse  the  second,  and  they  are  virgins,  and  have 
 vowed  to  no  other  man,  then  is  he  justified ;  he  cannot 
 commit  adultery  for  they  are  given  unto  him ;  for  he 
 cannot  commit  adultery  with  that  that  belongeth  unto 
 him  and  to  none  else  ;  and  if  he  have  ten  virgins  given 
 unto  him  by  this  law,  he  cannot  commit  adultery  for 
 they  belong  to  him  and  are  given  unto  him ;  therefore 
 is  he  justified.  They  are  given  unto  him  to  multiply 
 and  replenish  the  earth  according  to  my  commandment, 
 and  to  fulfil  the  promise  which  was  given  by  my 
 Father  before  the  foundation  of  the  world;  and  for 
 their  exaltation  in  the  eternal  worlds,  that  they  may 
 bear  the  souls  of  men ;  for  herein  is  the  work  of  my 
 Father  continued,  that  he  may  be  glorified." 
 
 11.  Heavy  punishment  is  threatened  to  all  women 
 who  refuse,  without  good  cause,  to  give  their  husbands 
 second  wives ;  concluding  as  follows :  "  And  now,  as 
 pertaining  unto  this  law,  verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you, 
 I  will  reveal  more  unto  you  hereafter ;  therefore,  let 
 this  suffice  for  the  present.  Behold,  I  am  Alpha  and 
 Omega.     Amen." 
 
 Such  is  the  revelation.  Space  fails  me  to  note  all  ita 
 contradictions  and  absurdities.    One,  however,  is  worthy 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  337 
 
 uf  special  remark.  In  the  eighth  section  Emma  Smith 
 is  commanded  to  receive  lovingly  "  all  those  that  have 
 been  given  unto  my  servant  Joseph."  The  past  tense 
 is  used.  Thus  the  first  revelation  authorizing  polygamy 
 implies  that  Joseph  had  already  practiced  it.  Stranger 
 still,  polygamy  is  expressly  forbidden  by  the  "  Book  of 
 Moimon." 
 
 In  the  third  book  and  second  chapter  of  that  work, 
 the  angel  messenger  is  represented  as  saying  to  the 
 Nephites  :  "  But  the  word  of  God  burdens  me  because 
 of  your  grosser  crimes.  For  this  people  begin  to  wax  in 
 iniquity ;  they  understand  not  the  scriptures,  for  they 
 seek  to  excuse  themselves  in  committing  whoredoms, 
 because  of  the  things  that  were  written  concerning 
 David  and  Solomon,  his  son.  They,  truly,  had  many 
 wives  and  concubines  which  thing  was  abominable  be- 
 fore me,  saith  the  Lord,  wherefore,  hearken  unto  the 
 word  of  the  Lord,  for  there  shall  not  any  man  among 
 you  have  save  it  h6  one  wife,  and  concubines  he  shall 
 have  none,  for  I,  the  Lord  God,  delighteth  in  the 
 chastity  of  women." 
 
 It  has  exhausted  all  the  ingenuity  of  Mormon  writers 
 to  reconcile  this  passage  with  the  new  revelation,  but 
 they  succeed  in  domg  so  sufficiently  to  satisfy  their  con- 
 sciences. The  Mormon  history  relates  that  when  the 
 full  force  of  the  new  covenant  was  perceived  the 
 Prophet  was  filled  with  astonishment  and  dread.  All 
 the  traditions  of  his  early  education  were  overthrown, 
 and  yet  he  felt  that  it  was  the  work  of  the  Lord.  In 
 vain  he  sought  to  be  released  from  the  burden  of  com- 
 municating the  new  doctrine  to  the  world,  and  at  length 
 
 22 
 
338  LIFE    IN    UTAH  )    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 obtained  permission  to  keep  it  secret,  as  yet,  from  all 
 but  the  Twelve  Apostles,  and  a  few  other  leading  men 
 As  the  hour  approached  when  he  was  to  meet  them  in 
 council,  horror  and  fear  of  what  might  be  the  result  over- 
 came him,  and  he  hastily  mounted  his  horse  and  tied 
 from  the  city.  But  a  mighty  angel  met  him  on  the  road, 
 stood  in  the  way  with  a  drawn  sword,  and  with  awful 
 voice  and  offended  mien  bade  him  return. 
 
 These  pretended  forebodings  were  fully  justified  by 
 the  event,  for,  in  spite  of  the  secresy  maintained,  the 
 matter  was  soon  bruited  abroad,  and  there  was  fearful 
 commotion  in  "Zion."  Old  Mormons  have  told  me  that 
 when  they  first  heard  it  they  were  horror-stricken  at 
 the  thought,  and  for  years  after  could  not  believe  the 
 report. 
 
 When  the  matter  was  first  broached  in  secret  council, 
 William  Law,  First  Counselor  to  Joseph  Smith,  stood 
 up  and  denounced  it  as  from  the  devil,  and  added :  "  If 
 any  man  preaches  that  doctrine  in  my  family,  I  will 
 take  his  life."  This  Law  had  a  young  and  beautiful 
 wife,  for  whom  Joseph  was  already  intriguing,  and  his 
 final  success  with  her  and  attempt  to  get  her  divorced 
 from  her  husband,  caused  the  latter  to  apostatize,  and 
 had  no  small  share  in  bringing  on  the  difiiculties  which 
 resulted  in  Joseph's  death. 
 
 As  might  be  expected,  the  men  were  the  first  converts 
 Joseph  and  a  few  others  began  soon  to  act  upon  their 
 new  privileges.  Joseph  seems  to  have  been  pretty  suc- 
 cessful, and  soon  had  half-Ordozen  spiritual  wives,  though 
 all  was  still  kept  secret.  While  soliciting  ladies  to 
 become  "sealed"  t^j  him,  he  made  several  unsuccessful 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  339 
 
 attempts,  which  caused  great  scandal.  In  particular, 
 his  doings  were  published  by  Miss  Martha  H.  Brother- 
 ton,  who  immediately  withdrew  from  the  Church  ;  also 
 by  Miss  Eliza  Rigdon,  daughter  of  Sidney  Rigdon,  Mrs. 
 Foster,  and  Mrs.  Sarah  Pratt,  first  wife  of  Orson  Pratt. 
 
 Great  was  the  fury  among  the  Saints  at  these  revela- 
 tions, and  every  epithet  a  vile  fancy  could  suggest  was 
 heaped  upon  these  ladies,  for  what  were  styled  "  their 
 perjured  lies  to  injure  the  Prophet."  One  of  them  was 
 forced  to  sign  a  written  retraction ;  another,  discarded 
 and  denounced  by  her  Mormon  parents,  died  of  a  broken 
 heart.  Miss  Brotherton  escaped  and  returned  to  Boston, 
 while  Foster,  Higbee,  and  a  few  others,  whose  families 
 had  been  insulted,  apostatized.  For  awhile  the  disso- 
 lution of  the  Church  seemed  imminent,  but  the  mingled 
 boldness  and  hpyocrisy  of  the  Prophet  restored  some- 
 thing like  order,  and  polygamy  was  indignantly  de- 
 nounced and  repudiated. 
 
 At  this  j)lace  in  our  narrative,  having  given  the 
 Mormon  account,  it  may  be  well  to  give  the  real  origin 
 of  polygamy.  In  the  Mormon  archives  are  a  set  of 
 phrenological  charts,  of  the  various  Mormon  leaders  at 
 Nauvoo,  taken  by  a  prominent  professor.  In  the  chart 
 of  Joseph  Smith's  head,  in  a  scale  running  from  one  to 
 twelve,  "  amativeness,"  or  sexual  passion,  is  recorded  at 
 eleven;  while  that  of  Bennett,  his  "right  hand  man," 
 is  set  down  at  "  ten — very  full !"  In  the  propensity 
 which  these  are  held  to  indicate,  was  the  real  origin  of 
 polygamy.  A  prominent  Mormon  says  that  Joseph 
 Smith  informed  him  that,  as  early  as  1832,  he  had  pre- 
 liminary revelations  upon  the  subject ;  and  it  is  a  noto- 
 
340  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 rious  fact,  that  almost  from  the  first,  the  Prophet  had 
 ised  his  powers  of  fascination  to  triumph  over  the 
 virtue  of  his  female  devotees,  and  had  anticipated  polyg- 
 amy in  accordance  with  revelation,  by  unauthorized 
 promiscuous  intercourse.  His  intrigues  with  various 
 women  had  involved  the  rising  sect  in  constant  trouble 
 at  Kirtland  and  in  Missouri ;  and  by  the  sworn  testimony 
 of  the  best  men  who  seceded  from  the  Mormons  in  Mis- 
 souri, the  Prophet  had  already  established  a  sort  of 
 polygamy. 
 
 Shortly  after  the  settlement  of  Nauvoo  also,  Sidney 
 Rigdon  had  advanced  his  "  spiritual  wife "  doctrine, 
 which  regular  Mormons  now  denounce  as  the  great 
 mystery  of  abominations,  "  sent  by  the  devil  to  bring 
 dishonor  upon  the  true  order  of  celestial  marriage." 
 Kigdon's  theory  of  "  Spiritual  wifery,"  as  reported  by 
 old  Mormons,  was  as  follows : 
 
 In  the  pre-existent  state  souls  are  mated,  male  and 
 female,  as  it  is  divinely  intended  they  shall  fill  the  mar- 
 riage relation  in  this  life ;  or,  in  more  poetic  phrase, 
 "marriages  are  made  in  heaven."  But  in  the  general 
 jumble  of  contradictions  and  cross-purposes  attending 
 man  in  this  state,  many  mistakes  have  been  made  in 
 this  matter;  A.  has  got  the  woman  first  intended  for 
 B.,  the  latter  has  got  C's  true  mate,  and  thus  on,  utterly 
 defeating  the  counsel  of  the  gods  in  the  pre-marriage 
 of  the  spirits.  But  the  time  had  come  for  all  this  to 
 be  set  right,  and  though  they  might  not  put  aside  their 
 present  wives,  which  would  throw  society  somewhat 
 out  of  gear,  yet  Smith  might  in  addition,  exercise  the 
 privileges  of  husband  toward  Bro^vn's  wife  and  vice  versa. 
 
AND   CRIMES  OP  MORMONISM.  341 
 
 This  seems  to  have  been  merely  the  Mormon  version 
 of  modern  "  free-loveism,"  and  from  recent  evidence  it 
 is  quite  probable  it  also  was  practiced  to  some  extent 
 in  Nauvoo,  thus  making  polygamy  equally  free  to  men 
 and  women ;  but  it  is  quite  different,  in  theory  at  least, 
 from  the  present  "  spiritual  wifeism  "  of  the  Mormons, 
 as  will  presently  appear. 
 
 But  Rigdon's  doctrines  were  both  varying  and  dan- 
 gerous, and  he  lacked  the  faculty  of  concealment ;  so  he 
 was  soon  condemned,  and  his  doctrines  with  him. 
 
 As  the  first  open  hints  of  the  new  doctrine,  in  the 
 autumn  of  1843,  excited  so  much  contention,  and  as 
 the  indignation  of  the  people  of  IlUnois  was  justly 
 feared,  orders  were  given  to  all  the  traveling  elders  to 
 persistently  deny  the  doctrine.  On  the  first  of  Febru- 
 ary, 1844,  the  Times  and  Seasons,  church  paper  at  Nau- 
 voo,  contained  the  following : 
 
 "  Notice  ! 
 "  As  we  have  lately  been  credibly  informed,  that  an 
 Elder  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-Day 
 Saints,  by  the  name  of  Hyrum  Brown,  has  been  preach- 
 ing Polygamy,  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  ojQf  from  the  Church  for  his 
 iniquity;  and  he  is  further  notified  to  appear  at  the 
 Special  Conference,  on  the  6  th  of  April  next,  to  make 
 answer  to  these  charges. 
 
 Joseph  Smith, 
 Hyrum  Smith, 
 *Ptesidents  of  the  Church.** 
 
342  LIFE    IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 The  Gentiles  appear  not  to  have  been  well  enough 
 posted  on  the  subject  to  pay  much  heed  to  the  "Notice," 
 but  it  excited  no  little  commotion  among  the  Mormons, 
 who  had  heard  or  received  reports  from  others  of  the 
 doctrine ;  and  on  the  day  appointed  a  large  number  of 
 the  disaffected,  and  a  few  resident  Gentiles,  were  present. 
 Hyrura  Smith  arose  and  stated  that  "great  reports  had 
 been  bruited  about  of  schism  in  Zion,  and,  no  doubt, 
 many  were  present,  hoping  to  witness  dissension  ;  but 
 all  such  hopes  were  vain,  the  Lord  had  healed  all  back- 
 slidings,  there  would  be  no  charges  made,  and  the  day 
 would  be  spent  in  prayer  and  other  exercises ;"  and 
 spent  it  was  accordingly.  Six  weeks  afterwards,  Hyrum 
 found  it  necessary  to  write  as  follows : 
 
 "Nauvoo,  March  15,  1844. 
 "7b    tJie   Brethren  of    tlie   Church  of  Jesus  Christ   of 
 
 Latter-Day    /Saints,    living    on    China      Creek,   in 
 
 Hancock  Count?/,  Greeting : 
 "Whereas,  Brother  Richard  Hewett  has  called  on 
 me  to-day,  to  know  my  views  concerning  some  doc- 
 trines that  are  preached  in  ^^our  place,  and  states  to  me 
 that  some  of  your  Elders  say,  that  a  man,  having  a  cer- 
 tairi  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 ;  and  any  man  that  is  found  teaching 
 privately  or  publicly  any  such  doctrine,  is  culpable,  and 
 will  stand  a  chance  to  be  brought  before  the  High 
 Council,  and  lose  his  license  and  membership  also; 
 therefore  he  had  better  beware  what  he  is  about." 
 
A.ND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  343 
 
 This  letter  will  also  be  found  in  the  5th  volume  of 
 the  Times  and  Seasons,  page  474.  But  affairs  had  gone 
 too  far ;  a  powerful  schism  broke  out  in  the  bosom  of 
 the  Church,  and  William  Law,  Dr.  Foster,  Chauncey 
 L.  Higbee,  Francis  M.  Higbee,  and  a  number  of  other 
 apostates  commenced  preaching  openly  against  the 
 Prophet,  and  established  at  Nauvoo  a  paper  called  the 
 Expositor,  devoted  to  making  war  upon  the  new  sj'stem. 
 But  they  only  issued  one  number,  which  contained  six- 
 teen affidavits,  mostly  from  ladies,  setting  forth  the 
 licentious  actions  of  Joseph  Smith  and  Brigh am  Young. 
 Joseph  was  at  that  time  not  only  Prophet,  Priest,  and 
 Eevelator,  but  also  Mayor  of  the  City  and  M;ijor-Gen- 
 eral  of  the  Nauvoo  Legion.  Such  a  daring  publication 
 in  the  stronghold  of  his  power  was  not  to  be  tolerated. 
 So  he  hastily  convened  the  City  Council,  who,  at  his 
 suggestion,  declared  the  Expositor  a  "public  nuisance," 
 and  ordered  that  it  be  "at  once  abated."  The  City 
 Marshal  and  his  posse  forthwith  attacked  the  office  and 
 abated  it  in  the  literal  meaning  of  that  word,  and  in 
 the  Mormon  fashion,  by  breaking  the  press  and  scatter- 
 ing the  type.  The  publishers  fled  for  their  lives,  and, 
 proceeding  to  Carthage,  the  county-seat  of  Hnncock 
 County,  procured  warrants  against  several  Mormons, 
 under  the  State  law  of  Illinois,  determined  to  test  the 
 legality  of  such  extensive  jurisdiction  by  the  Council. 
 Both  the  Smiths  were  finally  arrested  and  murdered  in 
 jail,  as  more  fully  related  elsewhere. 
 
 After  their  death  the  policy  of  concealment  was  con- 
 tinued. In  July,  1845,  Parley  P.  Pratt,  in  the  Millen- 
 nial Star,  Mormon  publication  at  Liverpool,  England, 
 
344  LIFE   LN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 denounced  "  spiritual  wifery"  as  a  "  doctrine  of  devils 
 and  seducing  spirits ;  but  another  name  for  whoredom, 
 •wicked  and  unlawful  connection,  and  every  kind  of  cor- 
 ruption, confusion  and  abomination ;"  and  in  the  follow- 
 ing year  the  General  Conference  of  Europe  denounced 
 both  the  doctrine  and  practice  in  the  strongest  terms. 
 In  May,  1848,  the  Millennial  Star  called  for  the  ven- 
 geance of  heaven  on  all  the  liars  who  charged  •'  such 
 odious  practices  as  spiritual  wifeism  and  polygism" 
 upon  the  Church  ;  ending  with  the  following : 
 
 "  In  all  ages  of  the  Church  truth  has  been  turned 
 into  a  lie,  and  the  grace  of  God  converted  into  lascivi- 
 ousness,  by  men  who  have  sought  to  make  '  a  gain  of 
 godliness,'  and  feed  their  lusts  on  the  credulity  of  the 
 righteous  and  unsuspicious.  *  *  *  Next  to  the  long- 
 hackneyed  and  bug-a-boo  whisperings  of  polygism  is 
 another  abomination  that  sometimes  shows  its  serpen- 
 tine crests,  which  we  shall  call  sexual  resurrectionism. 
 *  *  *  *  The  doctrines  of  corrupt  spirits  are  always  in 
 close  affinity  with  each  other,  whether  they  consist  in 
 spiritual  wifeism,  sexual  resurrection,  gross  lascivious- 
 ness,  or  the  unavoidable  separation  of  husbands  and 
 wives,  or  the  communism  of  property." 
 
 In  July,  1850,  Elder  John  Taylor  held  a  discussion 
 at  Boulogne,  France,  with  three  English  clergjmen. 
 They  quoted  from  the  anti-Mormon  works  then  just 
 published  by  J.  C.  Bennett  and  J.  B.  Bowes,  which 
 charged  polygamy  as  a  practice  of  the  Church ;  to 
 which  Taylor  made  the  following  reply:  "We  are 
 accused  here  of  polygamy,  and  actions  the  most  indeli- 
 cate, obscene  and  disgusting,  such  that  none  but  a  cor- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  345 
 
 rupt  heart  could  have  contrived.  These  things  are  too 
 outrageous  to  admit  of  belief.  Therefore,  leaving  the 
 sisters  of  the  'white  veil'  and  the  'black  veil,'  and 
 all  the  other  veils  with  those  gentlemen  to  dispose  of, 
 together  with  their  authors,  as  they  think  best,  I  shall 
 content  myself  by  reading  our  views  of  chastity  and 
 marriage  from  a  work  published  by  us,  containing  some 
 of  the  articles  of  our  faith."  He  then  read  from  the 
 "Doctrines  aiid  Covenants^^  which  was  adopted  in  full 
 conference  tlie  year  after  Smith's  death,  the  following : 
 
 "4.  *  *  *  Inasmuch  as  this  Church  of  Christ  has 
 been  reproached  with  the  crime  of  fornication  and 
 polygamy ;  we  declare  that  we  believe  that  one  man 
 should  have  ojie  wife ;  and  one  woman  but  one  hus- 
 band, except  in  case  of  death,  when  either  is  at  liberty 
 to  marry  again." 
 
 The  italics  are  my  own.  As  a  specimen  of  Mormon 
 reasoning,  it  may  here  be  added,  they  now  insist  that 
 in  the  above  clause  "  one  wife  "  really  meant  of  course 
 "  one  or  more ;"  that  the .  adversative  "  but "  was  added 
 in  case  of  the  woman  to  cut  off  any  such  free  rendering 
 in  her  case,  and  that  the  clause  was  so  worded  "  to 
 specially  deceive  the  Gentiles  and  yet  tell  the  exact 
 truth."  They  further  add  that,  "  under  certain  circum- 
 stances the  Lord  allows  His  priesthood  to  lie  in  order  to 
 save  His  people ;  it  would  not  do  to  give  strong  meat  to 
 little  children ;  they  must  first  be  fed  with  milk,  and 
 when  they  get  stronger  they  can  have  meat :  so  with 
 the  truth,  they  must  be  taught  it  little  at  a  time." 
 
 The  foreign  Mormons  were  thus  kept  in  perfect 
 ignorance   of  the   matter,  and  were  highly  indignant 
 
346  LUTE   IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 when  the  charge  was  made ;  still,  as  it  was  practiced, 
 reports  of  it  were  constantly  made  and  generally  be- 
 lieved throughout  the  United  States. 
 
 Brigham  Young  soon  became  head  of  the  Church, 
 and  took  for  his  second  wife  Lucy  Decker  Seely,  who 
 had  previously  been  divorced  from  Doctor  Seely.  Not 
 long  after,  at  their  winter  quarters  near  Council  Bluffs, 
 Iowa,  he  married  Harriet  Cook,  whose  son,  Oscar 
 Young,  is  the  first  child  in  polygamy.  He  is  now  a 
 young  man  of  twenty-two  or  three,  bright,  active  and 
 intelligent,  and  a  great  favorite  with  his  Gentile  friends, 
 though  a  little  to  be  dreaded  sometimes  on  account  of 
 his  savage  temper  when  angry. 
 
 This  marriage  was  followed  by  those  of  Clara  Decker, 
 Clara  Chase,  Lucy  Bigelow,  Harriet  Bowker  and  Har- 
 riet Barney.  Mary  Ann  Angell  Young,  the  original 
 wife  of  Brigham,  still  lives  in  a  house  of  her  own,  just 
 back  of  the  Lion  house.  She  had  five  children — Brig- 
 ham, Joseph,  John,  Alice  and  Luna;  all  are  married 
 and  living  in  Salt  Lake  City.  Brigham  was  at  first  a 
 widower  and  the  two  daughters  of  his  first  wife,  now 
 middle-aged  ladies,  are  both  married  and  living  in  Utah. 
 A  few  years  after  leaving  Nauvoo,  Brigham  married 
 Emmeline  Free,  who  was  for  many  years  his  favorite 
 wife,  and  often  styled  among  Gentiles,  "  the  Light  of 
 the  Harem."  She  was  finally  discarded,  some  six 
 .years  ago,  for  Amelia  Folsom,  his  youngest  wife  and 
 present  favorite.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  tell 
 with  exactness  the  number  of  his  wives,  but  those  best 
 informed  place  them  at  twenty-three  actual  wives,  and 
 fifty-one  spiritual.     Miss  Eliza  Roxy  Snow,  the  Mor- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  347 
 
 mon  poetess,  is  one  of  his  spiritual  wives,  or  "  proxy  " 
 women,  and  is  married  to  him  by  proxy  for  Joseph 
 Smith,  of  whom  she  claims  to  have  been  the  first 
 spiritual  wife. 
 
 Meanwhile  the  Saints  had  become  firmly  fixed  in 
 Utah,  where  it  seems  that  "  Gentiles,  their  laws  and 
 mobs  would  annoy  no  more;"  and  the  necessity  for 
 concealment  no  longer  existed.  So  the  doctrine  was 
 more  and  more  openly  discussed,  and  finally,  on  the 
 29th  of  August,  1852,  it  was  publicly  announced  by 
 Brigham  Young  in  a  meeting  at  Salt  Lake  City,  where 
 the  revelation  was  for  the  first  time  publicly  read  and 
 pronounced  valid.  The  sermons  in  its  favor,  by  Orson 
 Pratt  and  Brigham  Young,  were  first  published,  to- 
 gether with  the  revelation,  in  the  Deseret  News,  Extra, 
 of  September  14th,  1852.  From  Young's  address  I  ex- 
 tract the  following : 
 
 "  You  heard  Brother  Pratt  state,  this  morning,  that 
 a  Revelation  would  be  read  this  afternoon,  which  was 
 given  previous  to  Joseph's  death.  It  contains  a  doc- 
 trine a  small  portion  of  the  world  is  opposed  to ;  but  I 
 can  deliver  a  prophecy  upon  it.  Though  that  doctrine 
 has  not  been  preached  by  the  Elders,  this  people  have 
 believed  in  it  for  years. 
 
 "  The  original  copy  of  this  Revelation  was  burnt  up. 
 William  Clayton  was  the  man  who  wrote  it  from  the 
 mouth  of  the  Prophet.  In  the  meantime  it  was  in 
 Bishop  Whitney's  possession.  He  wished  the  privilege 
 to  copy  it,  which  brother  Joseph  granted.  Sister 
 Emma  (wife  of  Joseph  Smith)  burnt  the  original.  The 
 reason  I  mention  this  is,  because  that  the  people  who 
 
848  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 did  know  of  the  Revelation,  supposed  it  was  not  now 
 in  existence. 
 
 "  The  Revelation  will  be  read  to  you.  The  principle 
 spoken  upon  by  Brother  Pratt  this  morning,  we  be- 
 lieve in.  Many  others  are  of  the  same  mind.  They 
 are  not  ignorant  of  what  we  are  doing  in  our  social 
 capacit}^  They  have  cried  out  proclaim  it ;  but  it  would 
 not  do  a  few  years  ago ;  everything  must  come  in  its 
 time,  as  there  is  a  time  for  all  things,  I  am  now  ready 
 to  proclaim  it. 
 
 "  This  Revelation  has  been  in  my  possession  for 
 many  years ;  and  who  has  known  it  ?  None  but  those 
 who  should  know  it.  I  keep  a  patent  lock  on  my 
 desk,  and  there  does  not  anything  leak  out  that  should 
 not." 
 
 The  people  of  Utah  were  prepared  for  the  announce- 
 ment, but  polygamy  was  too  "  strong  doctrine  "  for  Eu- 
 rope, and  when  first  published  there,  in  April,  1853,  it 
 seemed  that  even  then  it  would  destroy  the  foreign 
 Church.  In  England,  especially,  the  demoralization 
 was  fearful ;  hundreds  after  hundreds  apostatized,  whole 
 churches  and  conferences  dissolved ;  talented  knaves  in 
 many  instances,  finding  in  this  the  excuse  for  going  ofi* 
 without  surrendering  the  money-bags  which  they  held. 
 The  missions  entirely  disappeared  in  many  parts  of 
 Europe,  and  even  in  America,  thousands  of  new  con- 
 verts who  had  not  gone  to  "  Zion,"  turned  away  and 
 joined  the  Josephites,  Gladdenites,  Straugites,  and  other 
 sects  of  recusant  Mormons. 
 
 The  Millennial  Star  remained  silent  on  the  subject 
 for  weeks  after  publishing  the  revelation,  coming  out  at 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  64.)) 
 
 length  with  a  feeble  defence  of  the  system,  from  the 
 pen  of  J.  Jaques,  a  leading  Mormon  polemic.  The 
 fact  was  the  people  did  not  understand  the  new  idea, 
 they  did  not  see  the  spiritual  necessities  for  it ;  they 
 had  so  far  believed  that  Mormonism  was  simply  an  ad- 
 vance in  Christianity,  and  could  not  feel  that  "  in  this 
 the  fullness  of  time,  the  ancient  covenant  was  restored 
 with  all  its  privileges."  But  in  Utah  a  great  rush  was 
 made  for  new  wives ;  old  men  traded  for  young  girls, 
 and  the  new  order  was  hailed  as  the  great  crowning  joy 
 and  privilege  of  believers.  Polygamy  continued  ex- 
 tending until  that  period  known  as  the  "  Reformation  " 
 in  1855-56,  when  the  whole  Church  was  re-baptized, 
 and  a  new  point  of  departure  taken.  Then  the  new 
 practice  seemed  for  awhile  to  reach  a  furious  climax 
 of  unnatural  and  degrading  obscenity.  The  duty  and 
 importance  of  polygamy  were  presented  every  Sunday ; 
 hundreds  of  girls  of  only  twelve  or  thirteen  years  were 
 forced  or  persuaded  into  its  practice ;  and  in  numerous 
 instances  even  younger  girls  were  "  sealed  "  to  old  rep- 
 robates, with  an  agreement  on  the  part  of  the  latter  to 
 wait  until  the  girls  were  more  mature  and  suited  to  act 
 the  part  of  wives.  Hundreds  of  instances  occurred 
 which  would  be  utterly  incredible  at  present  were  they 
 not  fully  proved  by  many  authentic  witnesses.  Old 
 men  met  openly  in  the  streets  and  traded  daughters, 
 and  whole  families  of  girls  were  married  to  the  same 
 man.  This  was  the  period  when  polygamy  reached  its 
 worst  manifestation,  and  bad  as  it  is  now,  gross  as  many 
 of  its  features  still  are,  it  was  ten-fold  worse  then.  Wo- 
 men of  my  acquaintance  at  Salt  Lake  City,  who  were 
 
350  LIFE    IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 children  at  the  time,  have  told  me  of  occurrences  during 
 that  period  which  would  indicate  an  almost  incredible 
 reign  of  lust  and  fanaticism.  Divorce  also  became  so 
 common  that  these  marriages  scarcely  amounted  to  more 
 than  promiscuous  intercourse.  I  met  one  woman  who 
 had  been  divorced  and  re-married  six  times,  and  an  old 
 Mormon  once  pointed  out  to  me  a  woman  who  had 
 once  been  his  wife,  and  had  been  divorced  and  re-mar- 
 ried nine  times.  In  numerous  instances  a  young  girl 
 would  be  married  to  some  prominent  elder,  with  whom 
 she  would  reside  a  few  months,  after  which  she  would 
 be  divorced  and  married  to  another  and  again  to  another, 
 "  going  the  rounds,"  as  the  phrase  was,  of  half  a  dozen 
 priests. 
 
 A  general  demoralization  seemed  to  seize  upon  the 
 community;  vulgarity  of  language,  both  in  public 
 address  and  private  speech,  became  so  common  that 
 thousands  of  Mormons  w^ere  themselves  disgusted,  and 
 a  reaction  set  in  against  such  excesses.  It  would  seem 
 that  Brigham  also  became  alarmed  at  the  tendency, 
 and,  as  he  had  been  greatly  annoyed  by  applications 
 for  divorce,  commenced  exacting  a  heavy  fee  for  the 
 service.  The  period  of  comparative  starvation  which 
 followed,  during  the  winters  of  1856-7,  may  have  had 
 something  to  do  with  checking  the  prevailing  teiulency, 
 but  certain  it  is,  there  has  been  no  such  general  license 
 since. 
 
 The  entrance  of  Johnston's  army,  too,  indirectly  pro- 
 duced a  great  effect;  stage  and  mail  hues  were  fully 
 established ;  Utah  was  brought  into  much  closer  re- 
 lations with  the  rest  of  the  world,  a  considerable  Gentile 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  351 
 
 influence  began  to  manifest  itself,  sources  of  information 
 were  multiplied  and  polygamy  began  to  be  unpopular 
 with  the  young  women  of  Utah.  In  this  regard,  then, 
 Mormon  history  may  be  divided  into  three  periods : 
 
 I.  The  monogamic  period:  from  its  origin  till  1843, 
 during  Avhich  time  all  tlieir  publications  and  sermons 
 were  opposed  to  polygamy  in  their  tone. 
 
 II.  The  transition  period:  from  1843  till  1852,  w^hen 
 polygamy  was  secretly  taught  and  extended,  but  openly 
 denied  and  condemned. 
 
 III.  The  polygamic  period  :  from  1852  to  the  present, 
 in  all  wliich  time  polygamy  has  been  avowed  and  de- 
 fended as  an  essential  part  of  Mormon  religion.  The 
 third  period  might  properly  again  be  divided  into  an 
 era  of  rise  and  one  of  decline ;  for  it  is  evident  that 
 polygamy  culminated  in  all  its  worst  features  as  early 
 as  1856,  since  which  time  it  has  been  slowly  on  the 
 decline,  and  even  without  Government  interference 
 would  hardly  have  endured  much  more  than  another 
 generation.  In  these  last  statements  I  am  aware  that 
 I  differ  from  some  whose  evidence  carries  the  weight  of 
 authority,  particularly^  Judges  Drake  and  Titus,  and 
 other  United  States  officials  who  have  lately  testified 
 before  the  Congressional  Committee  on  Territories. 
 Nevertheless,  such  is  my  conclusion  from  a  mass  of  evi- 
 dence given  by  persons  both  in  and  out  of  the  Mormon 
 Church,  and  from  a  careful  examination  of  the  records. 
 That  polygamy  has  declined  in  the  last  five  years  is 
 quite  certain,  from  causes  both  within  and  without  the 
 Church ;  it  is  now  almost  impossible  to  induce  a  young 
 girl  brought  up  in  Salt  Lake  City,  or  the  northern  set- 
 
352  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 tlements,  to  enter  that  condition,  and  the  instances  of 
 plural  marriage  are  confined  ahnost  entirely  to  young 
 women  just  brought  from  Europe. 
 
 Of  their  theology  as  it  relates  to  polygamy,  but  little 
 need  be  added.  It  is  so  thoroughly  grafted  into  and  in- 
 terwoven with  their  whole  system,  that  at  no  point  can 
 one  be  touched  without  attacking  the  other.  Polygamy 
 is  not,  as  recusant  Mormons  assert,  a  mere  addition  by 
 Brighara  Young  to  the  original  faith ;  it  is  a  necessary 
 and  logical  outgrowth  of  the  system.  If  Mormonism 
 be  true,  then  polygamy  is  right ;  for  "  pre-existence  of 
 the  soul,"  "  progression  of  the  gods,"  and  all  other  pe- 
 culiarities of  the  system,  depend  by  a  thousand  combi- 
 nations and  inter-relations  upon  the  plurality  system. 
 A  man's  or  woman's  glory  in  eternity,  is  to  depend  upon 
 the  size  of  the  family  ;  for  a  woman  to  remain  childless 
 is  a  sin  and  calamity,  and  she  cannot  secure  "  exal- 
 tation," as  the  wife  of  a  Gentile  or  an  apostate ;  her 
 husband's  rank  in  eternity  must  greatly  depend  upon 
 the  number  of  his  wives,  and  she  will  share  in  that 
 glory  whatever  it  is.  All  this  points  unerringly  to 
 polygamy.  Hence,  also,  the  last  feature  of  this  com- 
 plex and  unnatural  relationship,  known  as  "  spiritual 
 wives,"  which  is  to  be  understood  as  follows :  Any 
 woman,  having  an  earthly  husband  of  whose  final  ex- 
 altation she  is  in  doubt,  may  be  "sealed  for  eternity" 
 to  some  prominent  Mormon,  who  will  raise  her  and 
 make  her  part  of  his  final  kingdom.  In  theory  this 
 gives  the  spiritual  husband  no  marital  rights,  but,  as 
 stated  by  Elder  John  Hyde,  the  noted  apostate,  "it 
 may  well  be  doubted  whether  the  woman  w^lio  can  pre- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  353 
 
 fer  another  man  for  her  pseudo-eternal  husband,  has 
 not  fallen  low  enough  to  sin  in  deed,  as  well  as  thought, 
 against  her  earthly  husband." 
 
 By  "  marriage  for  the  dead,"  living  women  are  sealed 
 to  dead  men,  and  vice  versa,  some  one  "standing  proxy" 
 for  the  deceased.  Thus,  a  widow  and  widower  may  each 
 prefer  their  first  partners  "  for  eternity,"  but  like  each 
 other  well  enough  "for  time;"  in  which  case  they  are 
 first  sealed  to  each  other  "  for  time,"  then  each,  by 
 proxy  for  the  departed  "  for  eternity,"  thus  requiring 
 three  separate  ceremonies  to  settle  the  temporal  and 
 eternal  relations  of  all  parties,  who  may  in  turn  be 
 divorced  from  either  by  Brigham  Young  and  the  Pro- 
 bate Courts.  So  a  man  may  have  a  wife  "  for  time," 
 who  belongs  to  some  man  already  dead  "  for  eternity," 
 in  which  case  all  the  children  will  belong  to  the  latter 
 in  eternity,  the  living  man  merely  "  raising  up  seed 
 unto  his  dead  brother."  To  such  lengths  of  vain 
 imaginings  may  a  credulous  people  be  led  by  artful 
 impostors. 
 
 23 
 
354  LIFE    IN    UTAH  :    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 CHAPTER    XV. 
 
 PRACTICAL    POLYGAMY. 
 
 Open  evils  and  hidden  snfiFerings — Miss  S.  E.  Carmichael's  testimony — 
 Mormon  sophistry — The  sexual  principle — Its  objects — Theory  and  facta 
 — Monogamist  vs.  Polygamist— Turk,  Persian  and  African  vs.  the  Chris- 
 tian White — The  same  effects  in  Utah — Jealousy  and  misery — Children 
 of  different  wives — Cultivated  indifference — Hatred  among  children — 
 Brigham's  idea  of  parental  duty — Are  the  Mormon  women  happy  ? — 
 Submission  and  silence — Degradation  of  women — Mormon  idea  of  polite- 
 ness— Heber  C.  Kimball  and  his  "cows"— "My  women" — Slavery  of 
 sex — Moses  and  Mohammed  outdone — Incest— Marrying  a  whole  family 
 — Robert  Sharkey — Remorse  and  suicide— Uncle  and  niece — Bishop 
 Smith  and  his  nieces — i\Iixture  of  blood — Horrible  crimes — Half-brother 
 and  sister — The  Prophet  "sold" — The  doctrine  of  incest — "Too  strong 
 now,  but  the  people  will  come  to  it" — Now  openly  avowed — Brothers 
 and  sisters  to  marry  for  a  "pure  priesthood" — Testimony  of  Wra. 
 Hcpworth  Dixon — Father  and  daughter  may  marry — Effects  upon  the 
 young — Infant  mortality — Large  average-mortality  — Fatal  blindness — 
 The  growing  youth — Demoralization— Youthful  depravity — No  hope  for 
 young  men  and  women — Sophistry  and  madness — Ancient  sensualism 
 to  be  revived. 
 
 The  worst  period  of  polygamy  has  passed,  but  its 
 evil  effects  continue  in  full  force  to  the  present.  At  the 
 outset  I  meet  with  a  difliculty  in  describing  its  greatest 
 evils.  As  formerly  stated,  the  virtues  of  Mormonism 
 are  all  easily  seen,  while  its  vices  are,  as  much  as  possi- 
 ble, hidden,  and  this  is  peculiarly  the  case  with 
 polygamy. 
 
 We  can  see  its  evils  in  a  political  point  of  view,  in 
 their  laws,  to  some  extent  in  their  society,  in  the  mix- 
 ture of  population  and  the  blood  of  near  kindred ;  but 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  355 
 
 who  can  enter  into  the  penetralia  of  the  affections, 
 weigh  and  estimate  woman's  anguish,  count  the  heart- 
 drops  of  sorrow,  and  say,  here  is  so  much  misery,  or 
 there  is  so  much  resignation. 
 
 This  last  is  by  far  the  greatest  evil  of  polygamy,  and 
 though  it  may  be  felt,  and  to  some  extent  seen,  it  can 
 never  be  described. 
 
 Miss  Sarah  E.  Carmichael,  now  Mrs.  Williamson, 
 who  was  reared  at  Salt  Lake,  says  :  "  If  I  were  a  man, 
 as  I  am  a  woman,  I  would  stand  in  the  halls  of  Con- 
 gress, and  cry  aloud  for  the  miserable  women  of  Utah, 
 till  the  world  should  hear  and  know  the  wrongs  and 
 miseries  of  polygamy."  The  Mormons  argue  that  the 
 laws  of  nature,  physical  nature,  point  out  polygamy  as 
 the  natural  condition.  There  may  be  some  argument 
 in  its  favor  in  the  physical  organization,  but  when  we 
 come  to  the  soul  and  mind,  the  mentality  of  woman 
 points  unerringly  to  monogamy  as  her  only  possible 
 state  for  domestic  happiness;  and  any  system  which 
 attempts  to  establish  unity  in  the  household  by  dividing 
 one  man's  care  and  affection  among  two  or  three  women, 
 is  founded  upon  a  total  misconception  of  the  sexual 
 principle.  For,  why  was  that  principle  so  deeply  im- 
 planted in  the  human  nature?  The  Mormons  would  tell 
 us  "  for  the  one  purpose  only,  that  men  might  increase." 
 But  a  sound  philosophy,  and  the  history  of  mankind, 
 show  that  this  is  but  one  of  man}'-  reasons,  though 
 necessary  and  important,  yet  not  all  either  of  man's 
 duty  or  ha-ppiness. 
 
 In  the  nobler  view  this  principle  has  at  least  three 
 manifestations,  and  three  objects  to  fulfil. 
 
356  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 First  and  lowest  is  a  mere  amativeness — the  feeling 
 which  the  male  animal  has  for  the  female — common  to 
 man  with  the  brutes.  Its  object  is  reproduction,  its 
 nobler  uses,  the  perpetuation  of  our  species. 
 
 But  far  above  this  is  a  second  division  of  the  great 
 principle,  companionship,  society,  love  of  a  congenial 
 associate.  With  it  is  connected  the  admiration  for 
 beauty,  grace  and  refinement,  mutual  help  and  protec- 
 tion, and  the  interchange  of  kind  offices.  Its  public 
 benefits  are  in  the  founding  of  flxmilies  and  establish- 
 ment of  communities,  and  by  it  alone  can  the  State  be 
 established,  on  aught  approaching  sure  foundations.  In 
 this  view  then,  marriage  is  not,  as  certain  theorists 
 would  persuade  us,  a  matter  strictly  between  the  indi- 
 viduals; the  State  has  the  highest  interest  in  its 
 regulation,  and  justly  determines  from  the  experience 
 of  the  past  what  is  best  for  the  stability  of  our  institu- 
 tions. But  he  who  should  stop  at  this  point  in  the 
 inquiry  would  have  at  last  but  a  poor  and  mean  view 
 of  the  sexual  principle  or  the  marriage  relation. 
 
 As  man  is  not  all  animal,  but  also  a  member  of  a 
 family  and  community,  one  helping  and  needing  help, 
 a  citizen  and  a  debtor  to  the  jiublic  weal ;  so  he  is  not 
 all  man,  not  all  citizen,  communist  or  worker ;  he  is,  in 
 part,  divine,  he  has  a  nature  in  common  with  the  angels. 
 And  in  this  deparment  of  his  nature,  the  great  principle 
 manifests  itself  as  a  high  and  holy  affection,  a  pure  re- 
 gard for  what  is  pure,  a  silent  adoration  for  that  which 
 is  divine  in  the  human ;  its  exercise  and  reward  alike 
 are  in  a  complete  intercommunion  of  soul  and  inter- 
 change of  pure  affection. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  367 
 
 And  its  very  essence  is  duality ;  a  divided  affection 
 is  utterly  at  war  with  "  that  sweet  egotism  of  the  heart 
 called  love,"  that  divine  selfishness  of  choosing  one 
 being  apart  from  all  the  world,  perhaps  the  only  form 
 in  which  selfishness  is  approved  of  God.  And  the 
 object  of  this  principle  is  a  higher  development  of  the 
 whole  man,  male  and  female ;  this  is  the  moet  noble 
 object  of  the  marriage  relation,  and  by  this  alone  is  it 
 sanctified.  Can  the  wildest  fanaticism  or  most  earnest 
 sophistry  claim  that  aught  of  this  can  be  found  in  the 
 polygamic  order  ?  The  Mormon  is  but  one-third  mar- 
 ried ;  he  has  in  such  unions  provided  for  but  one-third, 
 and  that  the  lowest,  basest  part  of  his  nature.  But,  it 
 may  be  said,  this  last  is  only  a  theory.  Let  us  then 
 briefly  examine  a  few  facts.  That  this  indication  is  to 
 be  followed  rather  than  the  other,  is  abundantly  shown 
 by  a  comparative  view  of  polygamous  and  monogamous 
 nations.  The  Indian  and  native  African  know  nothing 
 of  the  softer  sentiments  which  make  life  amiable  and 
 agreeable ;  to  them  woman  is  merely  a  superior  beast 
 of  burden ;  they  can  purchase  as  many  wives  as  their 
 means  connnand,  and  are,  by  nature,  habit  and  religion, 
 thorough-going  polygamists.  Coming  a  little  higher  to 
 the  partially  civilized  races,  we  find  a  great  improve- 
 ment, but  nothing  like  Christian  ideas.  The  Hindoo 
 considers  this  such  a  poor  world  for  women,  that  it  is 
 thought  no  particular  harm  to  drown  a  female  infant, 
 though  a  heinous  offence  to  thus  dispose  of  a  boy.  The 
 same  is  true,  to  some  extent,  of  the  Persians,  Turks, 
 and  Mohammedan  races,  generally.  Home,  as  under- 
 stood by  us,  is  an  unknown  institution ;    the  harem 
 
% 
 
 S58  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 takes  its  place,  and  polygamous  customs  have  destroyed, 
 to  a  great  extent,  the  valor  and  energy  of  the  men 
 and  the  attractive  graces  of  woman. 
 
 In  the  march  of  progress,  these  nations  are  fast 
 faUing  behind  and  sinking  beneath  the  hardy  vigor  of 
 Western  Christians.  History  scarcely  records  an  in- 
 stance where  an  organized  nation  of  monogamists  has 
 fallen  before  polygamists. 
 
 The  monogamic  Greeks,  with  a  little  army  of  forty 
 thousand  men,  overran  all  the  proud  empires  of  South- 
 ern Asia;  the  effeminate  Persians  and  Hindoos  could 
 not  stand  before  the  hardy  valor  of  that  people,  who 
 held,  as  a  fixed  principle,  that  the  dignity  of  woman  is 
 the  strength  of  the  State.  Monogamic  Rome  com- 
 pleted what  Greece  had  begun,  in  destroying  the  power 
 of  the  Western  Asiatics.  For  six  hundred  years  the 
 honor  and  dignity  of  the  Roman  matron  w^ere  the  sub- 
 jects of  unwearied  praise,  till  Rome  herself  was  corrup- 
 ted by  the  nations  she  had  conquered.  The  reign  of 
 the  first  Asiatic,  who  wore  the  Imperial  purple,  marks 
 the  beginning  of  a  great  decline,  and  Rome,  in  turn, 
 fell  before  the  hardy  monogamists  of  Northern  Eu- 
 rope. The  Mohammedans  easily  overran  Asia  and 
 Northern  Africa,  but  in  Europe  their  course  was  soon 
 checked.  The  hosts  of  Abderahman  melted  like  snow 
 before  the  stout  arms  of  the  German  nations,  who  left 
 the  plains  of  Poictiers  covered  with  the  corpses  of  three 
 hundred  thousand  polygamists. 
 
 But  it  may  be  said  these  comparisons  are  unfair,  as 
 setting  civilized  nations  against  semi-barbarians.  But 
 this  fact  makes  a  better  comparison  impossible,  that  the 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  359 
 
 lowest  nation  of  monogamists  is  far  above  the  highest 
 of  polygamists.  The  white  inhabitants  of  Utah  are  the 
 only  branch  of  the  Caucasian  race  that  have  adopted 
 polygamy  within  many  hundred  years.  Of  course  we 
 would  look  for  certain  results  there,  and  if  not  seen  at 
 once,  many  would  conclude  that  Utah  was  an  exception 
 to  the  general  rule.  But  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
 polygamy  has  been  practiced  among  them  but  twenty- 
 seven  years.  Nevertheless  it  has  shown  a  marked  and 
 rapid  tendency  towards  evil ;  and  in  many  of  its  features 
 probably  worse  than  in  any  Mohammedan  country. 
 
 The  first  result  to  be  noted  is  a  universal,  and  worse 
 than  Moslem  jealousy,  both  among  men  and  women. 
 I  have  the  testimony  of  dozens,  brought  up  in  the 
 midst  of  the  system,  and  several  of  them  children  of 
 second  wives,  that  such  a  thing  as  a  harmonious  family 
 of  many  wives  is  unknown  in  their  acquaintance. 
 Others  say  there  are  such,  but  all  admit  they  are  rare. 
 I  am  speaking  now  of  the  women  and  young  people's 
 testimony;  the  men  will  often  claim  the  contrary, 
 even  when  their  own  families  disprove  it.  Among  my 
 acquaintances  in  Salt  Lake  City  is  a  young  lady,  who 
 is  the  daughter  of  a  second  wife,  whose  history  illus- 
 trates this  matter  very  forcibly.  Her  mother  had  lived 
 in  polygamy  for  fifteen  years,  and  finally  became  con- 
 vinced that  it  was  as  sinful  as  she  had  found  it  miserable. 
 
 The  troubles  of  her  mind  brought  on  a  mortal  sick- 
 ness, when  she  called  her  daughter  to  her  bedside,  and 
 told  her  that  she  had  lived  in  misery,  and  was  dying 
 without  hope ;  that  she  was  now  convinced  of  her  sin. 
 and  only  desired  her  daughter  to  escape  from  it. 
 
360  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 The  daughter  as  required,  took  a  solemn  oath  never 
 to  enter  polygamy.  The  motlier  told  her  to  be  firm, 
 and  her  mother's  spirit  would  protect  her.  Soon  after 
 she  died,  and  the  daughter  left  her  father's  house,  at 
 the  age  of  fourteen,  to  reside  with  a  relative  who  had 
 apostatized,  and  though  twice  taken  back,  is  now  per- 
 mitted to  live  there  unmolested.  The  father  stands 
 high  in  the  Mormon  Church,  and  still  has  four  wives. 
 During  the  first  month  of  my  stay  in  Salt  Lake  City, 
 the  second  wife  of  a  well  known  Mormon  left  him,  and 
 went  to  work  in  a  hotel.  After  a  short  stay  there,  she 
 took  her  child  and  started  to  Montana,  Avlien  the  hus- 
 band took  out  a  writ  of  haheas  corpus  for  the  child  ;  the 
 Sheriff  overtook  her  thirty  miles  North,  when,  seeing 
 him  coming,  she  ran  for  the  mountains,  distant  half  a 
 mile.  She  was  overtaken  and  the  child  torn  away  from 
 her,  and  brought  to  the  city,  which,  of  course,  induced 
 the  mother  to  return.  She  was  going  with  some  emi- 
 grants who  dared  not  assist  her,  for  fear  of  Mormon 
 vengeance. 
 
 Instances  of  like  nature  might  be  cited  at  will ;  and 
 it  is  only  too  plain,  that  the  system  results  in  the  utter 
 destruction  of  domestic  love  and  harmony.  The  Mor- 
 mons themselves  hesitatingly  acknowledge,  that  the 
 "  thing  called  love  among  the  Gentiles"  cannot  exist 
 under  their  sj-stem  ;  but  claim  that  they  have  instead, 
 a  purer  feeling  of  respect,  support  and  friendship. 
 
 Hence,  it  is  quite  the  custom  among  the  Mormon 
 leaders,  to  speak  of  domestic  affection  and  endear- 
 ments with  a  sort  of  sneer,  or  as  something  to  be  but 
 rarely  indulged  in,  and  rather  unworthy  of  the  manly 
 character. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISIT.  361 
 
 The  Mormons  claim  that  a  man  may  love  equally 
 half  a  dozen  women,  as  well  as  a  mother  may  the  same 
 number  of  children,  and  that  the  women  are  satisfied 
 with  this  divided  affection ;  but  that  this  is  not,  and 
 never  can  be  the  case,  I  need  say  to  no  one  who 
 has  the  slightest  knowledge  of  the  female  heart.  For  a 
 man  to  love  six  women,  equally  well,  is  manifestly  im- 
 possible ;  but  it  is  possible  for  him  to  be  equally  indiffer- 
 ent to  all.  And  to  this  does  the  teaching  of  the  leaders 
 directly  tend ;  rather  than  create  a  jealousy,  or  show  a 
 marked  preference  for  one,  they  are  to  cultivate  a  mere 
 equal  respect  for  all.  Nor  is  it  often  possible  for  a  man, 
 whose  care  and  affection  are  divided  between  three  or 
 four  women  of  varying  charms  and  tempers,  to  regard 
 equally  the  children  of  all ;  if  he  have  common  affec- 
 tion, the  most  affectionate  child  will  become  his  favor- 
 ite, and  engross  his  attention;  and  thus  jealousy,  far 
 from  being  confined  to  adults,  rages  equally  in  the 
 bosoms  of  the  young.  This  is  seen  and  noticed  in 
 almost  every  family,  and  the  story  of  Jacob's  partial- 
 ity, and  his  children's  jealousy,  is  repeated  every 
 day  in  the  year.  So  greatly  do  these  troubles  mul- 
 tiply in  the  larger  families,  that  in  spite  of  their  incli- 
 nation to  secrecy,  the  parents  are  forced  in  bitterness 
 of  soul  to  make  known  their  grievances. 
 
 In  one  sermon,  preached  while  I  was  at  Salt  Lake, 
 Brigham  Young  made  this  remark :  ''  The  women  are 
 every  day  complaining  of  what  they  have  to  suffer  in 
 plurality.  If  it's  any  harder  on  them  than  it  is  on  the 
 men,  God  help  them.  Many  of  them  seem  to  think  a 
 man  in  plurality  has  nothing  to  do  but  listen  to  their 
 
362  LIFE    IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 troubles,  and  run  at  their  beck  and  call.  I  believe  I 
 have  wives  that  would  see  me  damned  rather  than  not 
 get  every  little  furbelow  they  want." 
 
 But  the  smaller  families  are  happy  in  comparison, 
 and  it  is  within  the  walls  of  the  larger  harems,  accord- 
 ing to  all  reports,  that  the  demon  of  jealousy  reigns 
 supreme.  Female  nurses  of  Salt  Lake  say  that  it  is  no 
 uncommon  thing,  in  the  better  class  of  polj'gamous 
 households,  for  a  child  to  be  born  to  one  wife  and  all 
 the  others  to  remain  sullenly  in  their  rooms,  unless 
 specially  called,  apparently  without  interest  or  concern 
 for  the  result. 
 
 At  first  view  it  seems  incredible  that  any  woman 
 should  be  indifferent  under  such  circumstances ;  and 
 yet  we  can  readily  understand  that  a  woman  would  be 
 far  from  pleased  at  the  birth  of  a  child  which  was  her 
 husband's,  but  not  hers.  From  the  torment  of  such 
 feelings  there  is  no  refuge  but  in  a  cultivated  indiiference, 
 and  such  seems  to  be  the  ideal  of  all  thorough  Mormons 
 in  regard  to  the  affections. 
 
 Brigham  Young  himself  is  personally  one  of  the 
 coldest  of  men.  According  to  one  who  knows  his 
 habits,  he  usually  sleeps  alone,  in  a  small  room  behind 
 his  office ;  and  a  woman  who  lived  many  years  in  hi« 
 family,  tells  me  she  never  saw  him  caress  or  pet  but 
 one  of  his  children.  In  speaking  to  one  of  my  Mormon 
 acquaintances,  Brigham  gave  the  following  as  his  idea 
 of  fatherly  duty  :  "  I  pay  no  attention  to  the  children, 
 but  leave  that  to  their  mothers,  according  to  the  law  of 
 nature.     The  bull  pays  no  attention  to  his  calves." 
 
 In  this  sentence  is  embodied  the  social  perfection  of 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  363 
 
 polygamy,  as  it  will  be  '"'when  the  Lord  has  healed  the 
 Saints  of  all  their  old  Gentilish  traditions."  The  ques- 
 tion will,  of  course,  be  asked  :  Are  the  Mormon  women 
 happy  ?  It  must  be  remembered  that  only  one-third  or 
 one-fourth  of  all  the  women  in  Utah  are  in  polygamy, 
 either  as  first  or  subsequent  wives;  and,  as  to  the  rest, 
 there  is  no  particular  cause  for  unhappiness  from  that 
 source,  except  the  constant  dread  that  their  husbands 
 will  take  additional  wives.  These  exceptions  noted  the 
 testimony,  as  far  as  it  can  be  had,  is  universal,  that  Mor- 
 monism  is  a  "  hard  faith  for  women."  Again,  it  may  be 
 asked  :  What  do  the  women  say  about  it  ?  Generally, 
 they  say  nothing.  It  is  ''  sound  Mormon  doctrine," 
 that  the  "first  duty  of  a  woman  is  submission,  and  the 
 second  silence;"  and,  certainly,  the  majority  of  Utah 
 women  would  gain  heaven  on  those  conditions.  The 
 most  noticeable  fact  to  a  Gentile  traveling  through 
 Mormon  settlements  is  the  strangely  quiet  way  in 
 which  women  discharge  their  household  duties. 
 
 They  stand  behind  the  guest  at  the  way-side  hotel, 
 replenish  the  table  and  attend  upon  his  wants,  but 
 never  enter  into  the  conversation,  venture  not  the 
 Blightest  observation  or  inquiry,  and  very  rarely  answer 
 his  questions  in  anything  more  than  monosyllables. 
 And  those  questions  are  few,  for  it  is  almost,  if  not 
 quite,  a  capital  crime  in  the  Mormon  code  to  "interfere 
 with  our  women"  Such  principles  and  such  jDractice 
 can  tend  only  to  the  degradation  of  woman ;  and  this  I 
 note  as  the  second  great  evil  of  polygamy.  To  Eastern 
 minds  it  is  quite  impossible  to  convey  a  full  comprehen- 
 eion  of  the  many  ways,  the  thousand  little  expressions, 
 
364  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 the  tone  of  public  and  private  manners,  and  the  daily 
 incidents  in  which  is  manifested  this  general  lack  of 
 respect  for  women.  This  is  so  marked  that  it  is  a  com- 
 mon subject  of  talk,  even  among  themselves.  Said  a 
 young  Mormon  woman,  who  had  just  married  a  Gentile, 
 to  me  :  "  I  don't  know  half  a  dozen  men  here  who  really 
 respect  their  wives.  It  is  a  constant  wonder  to  us,  the 
 way  the  Gentiles  treat  their  women." 
 
 I  have  often  been  amused  at  the  appearance  of  their 
 young  women  who  were  attending  Gentile  balls  for  the 
 first  time.  That  a  gentleman  should  bow  so  reverently 
 to  his  partner,  that  he  should  offer  a  lady  his  arm  just 
 to  cross  the  room,  that  he  should  esteem  it  a  pleasure 
 rather  than  a  favor,  to  bring  a  glass  of  water  or  the 
 like,  seems  to  excite  their  amazement.  Social  lines 
 were  closely  drawn  the  winter  of  my  stay  in  Salt 
 Lake,  and  no  young  woman  could  venture  to  associate 
 with  the  Gentiles,  without  losing  her  standing  among 
 Mormons  entirely.  Still,  many  found  their  way  into 
 Gentile  society,  though  if  they  persisted  in  it,  they 
 were  usually  "cut  ofi"  and  dis-fellowshiped"  by  the 
 Church  authorities. 
 
 The  fanaticism  of  the  Mormons  is  so  great  that 
 they  consider  a  woman  "lost"  if  she  associates  with  Gen- 
 tile men ;  it  is  concluded  at  once  that  she  can  have  no 
 pure  motive  in  so  doing,  and  among  their  own  people 
 they  possess  the  power  to  ruin  a  woman's  character 
 entirely.  An  old  Mormon,  at  whose  house  1  visited 
 occasionally,  seldom  failed  to  give  me  his  views  of  the 
 absurdity  of  our  common  ideas  of  woman.  Ilis  favorite 
 style  was  to  give  me  a  burlesque  representation  of  our 
 
jLND  CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  365 
 
 mode  of  addressing  ladies,  and  when  he  got  warmed 
 up  on  the  subject,  it  was  highly  amusing  to  see  him 
 skip  about  the  room,  hat  in  hand,  bowing  and  grunacing 
 to  the  chairs,  and  imitating  the  dandified  address 
 of  an  exquisite.  Most  of  the  polygamists  habitually 
 speak  of  their  wives  as  "  my  women,"  and  in  his 
 jocular  moments,  while  preaching,  the  late  Heber  C. 
 Kimball  often  spoke  of  his  facetiously  as  "  my  cows." 
 
 I  must  say,  however,  that  all  of  this  is  not  due  to 
 polygamy,  but  much  of  it  to  the  women  themselves. 
 Nearly  all  of  them  are  of  foreign  birth,  English,  Welsh, 
 Scotch  and  Scandinavian,  and  of  that  class,  too,  among 
 whom  men  have  never  been  accustomed  to  respect  wo- 
 men very  highly.  I  am  sure  polygamy  could  not  have 
 been  established  in  a  purely  American  community,  and 
 the  Mormons  themselves  say  that  all  the  trouble  and 
 opposition  comes  from  the  American  or  Irish  wives, 
 though  there  are  but  few  of  the  latter. 
 
 But  the  vileness  of  Mormon  polj^gamy,  which  gives 
 it  infamous  pre-eminence"  over  that  of  Jews,  Turks  and 
 Hindoos,  is  yet  to  be  described,  and  consists  in  the 
 grosser  forms  of  incest,  the  intermarriage  of  near  rela- 
 tions. In  their  general  revolt  against  the  ethics  of 
 Christendom,  and  attempt  to  found  a  society  upon  the 
 most  primitive  models,  they  have  disregarded  alike  the 
 laws  of  Moses  and  Mohammed ;  and  if  they  have  any 
 example  in  modem  times,  it  must  be  in  the  Utes  and 
 Shoshonees  who  surround  them.  To  marry  a  mother 
 and  one  or  more  of  her  daughters  is  even  thought 
 meritorious ;  and  the  Mormon  authorities  often  advise 
 a  man  to  marry  sisters,  as  they  usually  agi-ee  better 
 than  others. 
 
366  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 Robert  Sharkey,  a  merchant  of  Salt  Lake  City, 
 married  three  sisters,  one  of  whom  was  divorced  from 
 her  first  husband  to  marry  him.  They  all  lived  in  one 
 house,  and  quite  happily,  it  is  said,  for  several  years, 
 when  in  some  strange  manner  they  all  became  con- 
 vinced that  polygamy  was  wrong.  One  of  the  sisters 
 started  East,  but  soon  returned  and  endeavored  to  make 
 some  arrangement  for  him  to  put  away  the  other  two. 
 There  were  difficulties  in  the  way,  and  Sharkey's 
 trouble  was  so  great  on  the  subject  that  his  mind  be- 
 came disordered,  and  in  August,  1868,  he  committed 
 suicide  by  shooting  himself  through  the  head.  The 
 widowed  sisters  still  live  together,  and  are  determined 
 opponents  of  polygamy.  Two  of  Brigham  Young's 
 favored  wives,  Clara  Decker  and  Lucy  Decker  Seely, 
 are  sisters,  the  second  having  been  the  widow  of  Dr. 
 Isaac  Seely,  of  Nauvoo,  Illinois.  One  family  within 
 my  knowledge  consists  of  two  men  and  four  women, 
 the  men's  first  wives  being  sisters,  and  their  second 
 wives  each  a  sister  of  the  other  man,  all  living  in  one 
 house.  Or  to  state  it  mathematically :  A  and  B,  first 
 marry  sisters,  then  A  marries  B's  sister,  and  B  A's 
 sister.  Here  is  no  marriage  of  blood  relations,  and  yet 
 it  looks  like  a  terrible  mixture  somewhere. 
 
 The  question  arises  for  lawyers  :  Suppose  each  of  the 
 women  to  have  children,  what  akin  are  thoy  respec- 
 tively ?  And  which  of  them  could  lawfully  marry 
 according  to  Leviticus  and  Chancellor  Kent  ?  If  polyg- 
 amy continues,  these  mixtures  are  nothing  to  what 
 nuist  take  place  in  the  next  generation,  for  without  a 
 chemical   analysis   no  "  heraldry  Harvey "  could  ever 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  367 
 
 succeed  in  finding  the  consanguineous  circulation,  to 
 saj  nothing  of  the  collateral.  As  it  now  is,  it  seems 
 as  if  half  the  children  in  the  city  are  related  in  some 
 way  or  other  to  the  Kimballs,  the  Pratts  or  the 
 Youngs,  and  many  to  all  three.  If  it  stopped  here, 
 some  faint  excuse  might  be  made ;  but  the  marriage  of 
 uncle  and  niece  has  occurred  often  enough  to  establish 
 it  as  a  Mormon  custom.  Bishop  Smith,  of  Brigham 
 City,  numbers  two  of  his  own  brothers  daughters  among 
 the  inmates  of  his  harem,  "  sealed "  to  him  by  Brig- 
 ham  Young,  with  a  full  knowledge  of  the  relationship ; 
 and  in  the  southern  settlements  several  such  cases  exist. 
 As  already  stated,  polygamy  is  but  a  mild  affair  north 
 of  Salt  Lake  City,  compared  with  the  southern  settle- 
 ments ;  and  in  the  latter  are  found  all  the  worst  fea- 
 tures of  Mormonism.  There  the  bishop  is  absolute, 
 spiritual  guide,  temporal  governor  and  social  tjrant; 
 there  are  collected  the  most  ignorant  and  degraded  of 
 the  foreign  converts ;  the  doctrines  of  Mormonism  coin- 
 cide fully  with  the  people's  natural  habits  of  thought ; 
 respect  for  woman,  who  is  practically  a  slave,  is  a  thing 
 unknown,  and  the  marriage  of  near  relatives  is  so  com- 
 mon that  to  remark  on  it  would  itself  be  considered  re- 
 markable. The  marriage  of  first  cousins  is  common, 
 but  I  have  heard  of  no  case  of  aunt  and  nephew.  The 
 following  affair  seems  too  horrible  for  belief  among  any 
 people  in  America ;  but  is  as  well  proved  as  any  fact 
 can  be  by  human  testimony,  particularly  that  of  the 
 woman  herself  who  went  out  of  the  Territory  with  a 
 military  expedition  fitted  out  under  General  Connor. 
 Some  sixteen  years  ago,  a  young  Scotchman  came  to 
 
368  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 Salt  Lake  City  in  company  with  his  half  sister,  who 
 commenced  keeping  house  for  him.  After  a  time  he 
 went  to  Brigham  and  professed  a  desire  to  marry  the 
 girl,  citing  the  example  of  Abraham  and  his  half  sister 
 Sarai.  Brigham  owned  there  was  something  in  it 
 Abraham  was  an  example  in  favor  of  polygamy,  and 
 why  not  in  this  ?  He  finally  sent  for  the  girl,  and  find- 
 ing her  handsome  and  lively,  solved  the  problem  by 
 marrying  her  himself;  the  half  brother  yielded  to  the 
 Prophet's  superior  claim,  and  all  was  well.  But  in  a 
 few  short  weeks  the  lady's  delicate  condition  showed 
 too  plainly  that  the  amorous  half  brother  had  anti- 
 cipated marital  rights,  and  Brigham  found  himself  in  a 
 fair  way  to  have  an  heir  de  jure  that  was  not  de  san- 
 guine. Here  was  a  problem.  It  would  never  do  for 
 the  Prophet  to  acknowledge  himself  "sold,"  so  he 
 sent  for  the  brother,  told  him  he  had  reconsidered 
 the  matter,  divorced  the  woman  from  himself,  and 
 delivered  her  to  the  brother,  who  dutifully  received 
 her  from  the  arms  of  the  Prophet.  She  lived  with 
 her  half  brother  a  few  years  as  his  wife,  and  bore 
 him  three  children,  but  finally  saw  the  degradation 
 of  ber  position,  and  left  for  the  States.  This  man 
 still  resides  in  Salt  Lake  City,  is  a  prominent 
 citizen,  and  seems  to  have  neither  blame  nor  shame 
 attached  to  him.  When  I  first  heard  of  this  and  other 
 instances  of  like  nature,  and  heard  the  horrible  doctrine 
 of  incest  attributed  to  the  Mormons,  I  could  not  but 
 think  it  an  invention  of  some  bitter  enemy  of  the  sect ; 
 but  since  then  I  have  ■  heard  it  fully  avowed  by  the 
 same  prominent  Mormon,  whose  testimony  is  given  in 
 
AND   CRIMES    OF   MORMONISM.  369 
 
 chapter  ninth.  Referring  to  the  cases  above,  he  said : 
 "  That  is  the  law  of  God  under  the  new  dispensation. 
 Things  are  allowed  under  one  dispensation  which  are 
 not  under  others.  As  it  was  with  Abel  and  Abraham, 
 so  it  will  be  again.  The  day  will  soon  come,  when 
 brothers  and  sisiors  will  marry.  Shouldn't  I  prefer 
 my  own  blood  to  any  other?  Don't  I  love  my  own 
 blood  best?"  Still  another  Mormon  avers,  that  "to 
 have  a  pure  priesthood,  we  may  in  time  have  to  follow 
 the  examj)le  of  the  doves  in  tlielr  nest,  as  Christ  meant 
 it  to  be  understood."  This  doctrine  was  first  advanced 
 by  Brigham  from  the  pulpit  several  years  ago,  but  was 
 received  with  such  undisguised  manifestations  of  sur- 
 prise and  disgust,  that  he  ceased  to  pursue  it  further, 
 closing  with  the  remark  :  "  Well  it's  a  little  too  strong 
 doctrine  for  you  now ;  but  the  time  icill  be,  when  you 
 will  take  it  in  fully."  Since  then  the  subject  has  gen- 
 erally been  avoided  "  at  head-quarters,"  but  cannot  be 
 altogether  denied.  Brigham  has  never  favored  but 
 one  Gentile  with  his  views  on  the  subject,  viz. :  Wm 
 Hepworth  Dixon,  who  gives  the  following  statement  in 
 his  late  work  entitled  "  New  America : " 
 
 "  Perhaps  it  would  not  be  too  much  to  say  that  in 
 the  Mormon  code  there  is  no  such  crime  as  incest,  and 
 that  a  man  is  practically  free  to  woo  and  wed  any 
 woman  who  may  take  his  eye. 
 
 "We  have  had  a  very  strange  conversation  with  Young 
 
 about  the   Mormon  doctrine  of  incest.     I  asked   him 
 
 whether  it  was  a  common  thing  among  the  Saints  to 
 
 marry  mother  and  daughter;  and,  if  so,  on  what  au- 
 
 24 
 
370  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 thority  tliey  acted,  since  that  kind  of  union  was  not 
 sanctioned,  either  by  the  command  to  Moses  or  by  the 
 'revelation'  to  Smith.  When  he  hung  back  from  ad- 
 mitting that  such  a  thing  occurred  at  all,  I  named  a 
 case  in  one  of  the  city  wards,  of  which  we  had  obtained 
 some  private  knowledge. 
 
 "Apostle  Cannon  said  that  in  such  case,  the  first  mar- 
 riao'e  would  be  only  a  form;  that  the  elder  female 
 would  be  understood  as  being  a  mother  to  her  husband 
 and  his  younger  bride,  on  which  I  named  my  example, 
 and  in  which  an  elder  of  the  Church  had  married  an 
 English  woman,  a  widow,  with  a  daughter  then  of 
 twelve ;  in  which  the  woman  had  borne  four  children 
 to  this  husband ;  and  in  which  this  husband  had  mar- 
 ried her  daughter  when  she  came  of  age. 
 
 "Young  said  it  was  not  a  common  thing  at  Salt  Lake. 
 
 "  '  But  it  does  occur?' 
 
 " '  Yes,'  said  Young,  '  it  occurs  sometimes.' 
 
 "  On  what  ground  is  such  a  practice  justified  by  the 
 church?"  After  a  short  pause,  he  said,  with  a  faint 
 and  wheedling  smile :  '  This  is  a  part  of  the  question 
 of  incest.  We  have  no  sure  light  on  it  yet.  I  cannot 
 tell  you  what  the  church  holds  to  be  the  actual  truth ; 
 I  can  tell  you  my  own  opinion  ;  but  you  must  not  pu]> 
 lii^li  it — you  must  not  tell  it — lest  I  should  be  misunder- 
 stood  and  blamed.' 
 
 "  He  then  made  to  us  a  communication  on  the  nature 
 of  incest,  as  he  thinks  of  this  ofience  and  judges  it; 
 l)ut  what  he  then  said  I  am  not  at  liberty  to  print.  As 
 to  the  facts  which  came  under  my  own  eyes,  I  am  free 
 to  speak. 
 
AND  CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  371 
 
 "  Incest,  in  the  sense  in  which  we  use  the  word — ^mar- 
 riage within  the  prohibited  degrees — is  not  regarded  as 
 a  crime  in  the  Mormon  Church. 
 
 "  It  is  known  that  in  some  of  these  saintly  harems,  the 
 female  occupants  stand  to  their  lords  in  closer  relation- 
 ship of  blood  than  the  American  law  permits.  It  is  a 
 daily  event  in  Salt  lake  City  for  a  man  to  wed  two  sis- 
 ters, a  brother's  widow,  and  even  a  mother  and  daugh- 
 ter. In  one  household  in  Utah  may  be  seen  the  spec- 
 tacle of  three  women,  who  stand  toward  each  other  in 
 the  relation  of  child,  mother  and  grand-dame,  living  in 
 one  man's  harem  as  his  wives !  I  asked  the  President, 
 whether,  with  his  new  lights  on  the  virtue  of  breeding 
 in  and  in,  he  saw  any  objection  to  the  marriage  of  bro- 
 ther and  sister.  Speaking  for  himself,  not  for  the 
 Church,  he  said  he  saw  none  at  all.  What  follows,  I 
 give  in  the  actual  words  of  the  speakers ; 
 
 "  D. — '  Does  that  sort  of  marriage  ever  take  place  ? ' 
 "Young. — '  Never.' 
 
 "  D.— '  Is  it  prohibited  by  the  Church  ? ' 
 "  Young. — '  No ;  it  is  prohibited  by  prejudice.' 
 "  Kimball. — '  Public  opinion  won't  allow  it.' 
 "  Young. — '  I  would  not  do  it  myself,  nor  suffer  any 
 one  else,  when  I  could  help  it.' 
 
 "  D. — 'Then  you  don't  prohibit,  and  you  don't  practise 
 it?' 
 
 "  Young. — '  My  prejudices  prevent  me.' 
 
 "  This  remnant  of  an  old  feeling  brought  from  the 
 
 Gentile  world,  and  this  alone,  would  seem  to  prevent 
 
 the  Saints  from  rushing  into  the  higher  forms  of  incest. 
 
 How  long  will  these  Gentile  sentiments  remain  in  force  V 
 
372  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 " '  You  will  find  here/  said  Elder  Stenhouse  to  me, 
 talking  on  another  subject,  ^polygamists  of  the  third 
 generation;  when  these  boys  and  girls  grow  lip,  and 
 marry,  you  will  have  in  these  valleys  the  true  feeling 
 of  patriarchal  life. 
 
 "  '  The  old  world  is  about  us  yet ;  and  we  are  always 
 thinking  of  what  people  may  say  in  the  Scottish  hills 
 and  the  Midland  shires.'  " 
 
 Morally  the  reader  may  be  shocked,  but  logically  he 
 should  be  prepared  for  all  this ;  for  if  we  are  to  restore 
 a  line  of  prophets  and  follow  the  example  of  the  patri- 
 archs, then  incest  and  polygamy  are  from  the  same  high 
 source.  The  examples  of  Abraham  and  Sarai,  half 
 brother  and  sister ;  of  Lot  and  Judah  and  earlier  wor- 
 thies are  to  be  repeated.  As  one  Mormon  said  to  me, 
 "the  world  could  never  have  been  peopled  without 
 this  practice,  and  the  foremost  nations  of  antiquity 
 maintained  it ; "  and  it  is  darkly  hinted  at  Salt  Lake 
 that  father  and  daughter  may  form  an  allowable  union. 
 And  why  not  ?  If  "  the  souls  in  the  spirit  world 
 wait  earnestly  for  tabernacles,"  to  furnish  them  io  a 
 mere  mechanical  act,  and  may  be  performed  by  one  per- 
 son as  well  as  another. 
 
 Thus  polygamy,  incest  and  blood  atonement  grow  as 
 naturally  from  Mormon  theology  as  three  branches  from 
 the  same  stock. 
 
 The  mind  revolts  from  the  pursuit  of  these  disgusting 
 details,  and  to  the  credit  of  the  Mormon  people  be  it 
 said,  they  arc  far  from  being  universal  in  approval  of 
 these  later  doctrines. 
 
 Will  it  be  credited  after  all  this  that  the  MorLuoua 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  373 
 
 claim  to  be  the  most  virtuous  people  in  the  world  ?  Yet 
 such  is  the  fact ;  and  they  never  weary  of  pointing  to 
 the  prostitution  of  our  great  cities,  claiming  that  it  is 
 their  appointed  destiny  to  remove  all  such  evils,  and 
 make  woman  universally  pure.  This,  then,  is  the  self- 
 proclaimed  task  of  Mormonism  :  to  save  a  few  by  re- 
 ducing all  to  a  level ;  to  abolish  prostitution  by  legaliz- 
 mg  concubinage ;  to  promote  conjugal  purity  by  multi- 
 plying the  husband's  temptation  and  opportunity,  and 
 to  improve  the  condition  of  woman  by  making  her  a 
 mere  life-giving  machine. 
 
 Perhaps  the  most  saddening  feature  of  Mormon  polyg- 
 amy, is  the  effect  it  has  had  upon  the  young.  The 
 medico-theologians  of  Utah  claim  that  polygamy  tends 
 to  a  more  rapid  increase  of  population,  as  well  as  to  the 
 physical  and  moral  improvement  of  the  species.  The 
 former  claim  may  well  be  questioned,  and  that  the  latter 
 is  a  serious  mistake,  is  plain  to  any  unprejudiced 
 observer. 
 
 Salt  Lake  City  already  shows  its  bad  effect  on  the 
 offspring.  The  site  is  forty-three  hundred  feet  above 
 the  level  of  the  sea,  in  a  dry  and  bracing  climate,  equally 
 free  from  extremes  of  heat  and  cold ;  and  consequently 
 it  should  be  one  of  the  healthiest  cities  in  the  world. 
 
 Exactly  the  reverse  is  the  fact.  The  death  rate,  of 
 all  ages,  was  for  years  a  little  more  than  twice  that  of 
 the  State  of  Oregon,  and  greater  than  that  of  New 
 York,  or  any  city  north  of  the  Gulf  States.  When  we 
 come  to  children,  the  disparity  is  still  more  frightful. 
 
 By  actual  statistics  it  is  shown  that  the  mortality 
 among  children  was,  for  many  years,  greater  in  Salt 
 
374  LIFE    m    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 Lake  City  than  any  other  in  America,  and  the  death- 
 rate  of  Utah  only  exceeded  by  that  of  Louisiana.  The 
 Mormons  have  greatly  exaggerated  the  population  of 
 the  city,  which  really  contains  a  little  less  than  eighteen 
 thousand  souls,  and  in  this  small  number  the  sexton's 
 report  for  October,  1868,  the  healthiest  month  in  the 
 year,  and  my  first  in  the  city,  gives  the  interments  at 
 sixty,  of  which  forty-four  were  children.  Last  year  was 
 unusually  healthy,  and  yet  the  death  rate  exceeds  that 
 of  any  other  State  or  Territory  west  of  the  Mississippi. 
 The  Mormons  explain  this  by  saying  that  their  people 
 are  generally  poor  and  exposed  to  hardships,  but  much 
 of  that  poverty  is  directly  traceable  to  their  religion. 
 Another  sad  fact  is  the  general  neglect  of  medical  care, 
 or  rather  a  general  tendency  to  run  to  wild  and  absurd 
 schemes  of  doctoring.  They  claim  that  "  laying  on  of 
 hands  and  the  prayer  of  faith  "  will  heal  the  sick,  and, 
 yet,  no  people  within  my  knowledge  are  so  given  to 
 "  Thomsonianism,"  "steam  doctoring,"  "  yarb  medicine," 
 and  every  other  irregular  mode  of  treating  disease. 
 
 One  day,  during  my  residence  there,  three  young 
 children  died  in  the  seventeenth  ward  of  scarlet  fever. 
 Li  neither  case  was  a  physician  called;  the  Bishop 
 came  and  "  laid  on  hands  with  the  holy  anointing," 
 and  an  old  woman  treated  two  of  them  with  a  mild 
 palliative,  such  as  is  used  for  a  sore  throat.  If  the 
 patients  live  after  such  treatment,  it  is  a  "  miracle  ;"  if 
 they  die  "  it  is  the  will  of  the  Lord."  Two-thirds  of  the 
 polygamists  do  not  and  cannot  attend  properly  to  their 
 children. 
 
 The  bishop  of  one  ward,  the  fourteenth,  has  thirty 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF    MORMOXISM.  37-5 
 
 cliiklreii  living,  and  nearly  twenty  dead.  Joseph  Smith 
 had  a  dozen  spiritual  wives;  but  three  sons  survived 
 him — all  of  his  legal  wife. 
 
 When  Heber  Kimball  was  alive  there  were  five  men 
 in  the  city  who  had  together  seventy  Avives  ;  they  had. 
 all  told,  less  than  a  hundred  and  fifty  children. 
 
 A  Mormon  grave-yard  is  the  most  melancholy  siglit 
 on  earth.  One  bishop  of  the  city  has  seventeen  children 
 buried  in  one  row,  and  the  longest  grave  is  not  over  four 
 feet.  If  these  men  have  but  the  common  feelincrs  of 
 humanity,  how  fearfully  are  they  punished  for  the 
 crime  of  polygamy  !  Brigham's  children  are  generally 
 healthy,  except  that  the  girls  mostly  have  weak  eyes, 
 and  two  of  them  are  nearly  blind ;  but  they  fire  well 
 fed,  housed  and  clothed.  But  such  is  the  exception, 
 and  I  could  mention  a  dozen  men  whose  houses  are  full 
 of  women,  but  their  children  are  in  the  grave. 
 
 The  Asiatic  institution  was  never  meant  to  flourish 
 on  American  soil,  and  has  resulted  here  in  a  "  slaughter 
 of  the  innocents,"  which  is  saddening  to  contemplate. 
 As  only  the  most  hardy  survive,  they  generallj^  grow 
 up  robust  and  active;  but  the  effects  of  their  social  bias 
 are  seen  in  a  strange  dullness  of  moral  perception,  a 
 general  ignorance  and  apparently  inherited  tendency  to 
 vice.  If  the  testimony  of  Oscar  Young,  of  the  oldest 
 son  of  the  Elder  Stenhouse  mentioned  above,  and  of 
 numerous  other  young  Mormons,  can  be  relied  on, 
 youthful  demoralization  certainly  begins  at  an  earlier 
 age  in  Salt  Lake  than  in  other  places.  In  many  cases 
 of  poor  men  in  polygamy,  the  husband,  two  wives  and 
 their   children   occupy  the   same  room;   in   many  in- 
 
376  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 stances  the  husband  and  two  wives  have  but  one  bed, 
 and  when  we  consider  the  scenes  and  conversation  to 
 which  thes3  children  are  witnesses,  it  would  seem  that 
 no  exalted  ideas  of  purity  could  ever  enter  their  minds. 
 Taken  from  school  at  an  early  age,  or  only  permitted 
 to  enter  it  at  all  during  a  few  winter  months,  they  are 
 often  put  in  extreme  youth  to  herding  cattle  on  the 
 "  bench,"  or  beyond  Jordan ;  there  they  hear  the  slang 
 of  older  youths,  and  from  hearing  learn  to  repeat,  observe 
 and  imitate ;  demoralization  spreads  and  moral  decay 
 seizes  upon  the  very  bloom  of  youth. 
 
 From  what  they  so  often  hear  at  home,  they  become 
 precociously  prurient  and  premature  observers  of  the 
 brute  creation ;  and  from  personal  observation  and  the 
 testimony  of  many  young  Mormons,  I  am  convinced 
 there  is  no  part  of  America  where  youthful  vice,  of  the 
 peculiarly  destructive  and  degrading  kind,  prevails  so 
 extensively  as  in  Salt  Lake  City.  And  this  is  but  a 
 natural  result ;  for  polygamy  is  tenfold  more  unnatural 
 with  such  a  climate  and  race  than  in  Southern  Asia  or 
 Africa. 
 
 Strange  and  paradoxical  it  is  that  in  a  barren  land 
 and  temperate  or  harsh  clime,  they  have  succeeded  in 
 setting  up  a  practice  which  social  philosophy  had  de- 
 cided to  belong  only  in  regions  of  abundance,  in 
 voluptuous  climes  where  soft  airs  incline  to  sensual 
 indulgence. 
 
 Stranger  still,  in  the  attempt  to  found  a  i)nrely 
 religious  commimity,  they  have  begun  by  utterly  re- 
 versing every  idea  wliicli  the  experience  of  three  thou- 
 sand years  had  piovcd  to  be  valuable;  and  in  the  very 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  377 
 
 inception  of  a  young  society,  which  was  to  be  fresh, 
 vigorous  and  pure,  have  adopted  the  worst  vices  of  an 
 old  and  worn  out  civilization.  But  to  them  these 
 arguments  are  idle ;  "  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  hath  com- 
 manded it ;"  and  it  is  theirs  not  to  study  results  but  to 
 leave  it  with  the  Lord :  so,  beholding  all  around  them 
 the  furious  revenges  of  nature  on  those  who  violate  her 
 most  important  law,  they  shut  their  eyes  to  these  facts 
 and  pronounce  them  false ;  and  bearing  in  their  own 
 bodies  the  effects  of  physiological  sin,  impiously  claim  a 
 divine  sanction  to  violate  the  laws  of  nature. 
 
 When,  leaving  the  mere  youth  we  come  to  young  men 
 and  women,  we  observe  two  curious  elSects  of  polygamy. 
 The  first  is  a  growing  tendency  to  single  life ;  polygamy 
 to  some  extent  necessitates  celibacy,  for  the  number  of 
 the  sexes  being  about  equal,  even  in  Utah,  if  one  man 
 marries  two  wives,  some  other  man  must  do  without  his 
 one.  Polygamy  is  in  fact  the  worst  kind  of  robbery, 
 and  for  the  twelve  young  women  whom  Heber  C.  Kim- 
 ball married  after  reaching  Utah,  some  of  them  not  over 
 eighteen,  twelve  young  men  must  remain  single. 
 
 This  tendency  is  now  greatly  on  the  increase, 
 particularly  among  the  girls,  and  it  is  a  common 
 remark  with  them  that  they  will  never  marry  till 
 they  can  leave  the  Territory.  And  this  accounts  in 
 part  for  the  second,  a  general  desire  among  the  un- 
 married to  get  away  and  sottle  out  of  Utah.  The 
 world  would  be  surprised  at  the  constant  losses  to 
 their  population  from  this  source;  there  has  been 
 for  years  a  constant  leak  from  the  territory  in  every 
 direction,    and    in    one    sermon    I    heard    Brigham 
 
378  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 Young  enumerate  a  score  of  places  in  California,  Nevada, 
 Washington  and  Oregon,  settled  entirely  by  recusant 
 Mormons.  In  spite  of  a  steady  immigration  from 
 Europe  of  from  one  to  four  thousand  per  year,  it  is  still 
 a  debatable  question  whether  the  Mormons  have  gained 
 faster  than  by  natural  increase  for  the  last  five  years. 
 
 Indeed,  Utah  offers  but  few  inducements  for  a  young 
 Mormon,  if  he  possess  more  than  average  intelligence  or 
 enterprise ;  and  such,  it  will  generally  be  found,  make 
 their  way  to  some  other  locality.  Much  has  been 
 claimed  by  the  Mormons  for  the  virtue  of  their  young 
 women,  and  more  said  against  it  by  some  of  their  oppo- 
 nents. From  the  best  evidence  at  my  command  I  think 
 their  virtue  will  average  as  well,  or  nearly  so,  as  that 
 of  any  very  poor  and  ignorant  people ;  but  the  fatal 
 error  of  the  Mormons  is  in  allowing  for  no  virtue  ex- 
 cept that  by  constraint  and  constant  watching.  No 
 dependence  whatever  is  placed  upon  the  innate  moral 
 sense,  and  apparently  no  effort  made  to  cultivate  or 
 strengthen  it ;  it  is  not  supposed  that  virtue  is  founded 
 in  aught  but  dread,  and  every  thorough  going  Mormon 
 acts  as  if  he  expected  his  daughters  to  go  wrong  the  very 
 first  opportunity. 
 
 The  jealousy  of  the  men  is  even  greater  than  that  of 
 the  women.  Nine-tenths  of  them  take  it  for  granted 
 that  a  Gentile  can  have  no  good  purpose  in  addressing 
 a  Mormon  girl ;  and  it  is  not  uncommon  to  hear  a  Mor- 
 mon say,  "I  will  shoot  any  Gentile  I  see  walking  with 
 my  daughter." 
 
 It  must  be  confessed,  they  have  some  foundation  for 
 this  harsh  judgment,  as  in  former  years  hundreds  of 
 
AND  CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  379 
 
 Gentiles  merely  came  there  to  winter,  and  often  left 
 their  wives  in  the  spring ;  and  it  is  a  sad  fact  that  of 
 all  the  women  who  have  left  the  Mormons,  the  majority 
 have  turned  out  badly.  When  the  California  volunteers 
 left  there,  they  took  off  a  great  many  with  them,  of 
 whom  the  majority  were  not  married.  The  Mormons, 
 of  course,  attribute  this  to  the  immoral  character  of  the 
 Gentiles ;  but  it  is  plainly  attributable  to  their  system 
 of  forced  virtue,  by  means  of  constraint  and  constant 
 watching.  "The  virtue  that  must  be  guarded  is  not 
 worth  the  sentinel;"  and  these  girls,  who  have  been 
 brought  up  in  such  strictness  and  seclusion,  with  the 
 idea  that  none  of  their  Mormon  companions  would 
 dare  attempt  their  virtue,  are  but  poorly  prepared  to 
 encounter  the  seductive  arts  we  know  to  be  common  in 
 the  Gentile  world.  If  there  is  such  a  thing  as  trust 
 between  the  sexes  in  Utah,  I  have  witnessed  no  mani- 
 festations of  it ;  society  has  already  assumed  the  same 
 air  of  jealous  distrust  so  often  remarked  among  the 
 Moslems,  while  austerity  and  reserve  are  considered 
 the  noblest  graces  of  woman. 
 
 It  is  gratifying  to  state,  however,  that  the  grossness 
 of  sentiment  and  language  which  prevailed  ten  years 
 ago,  is  slowly  yielding  to  something  better,  and  plain 
 spoken  as  the  Mormons  now  are,  they  would  hardly 
 listen  quietly  to  the  indecent  harangues  once  so  com- 
 mon from  Heber  C.  Kimball.  Though  they  constantly 
 insist  that  they  care  nothing  for  the  Gentile  world,  and 
 will  not  be  moved  by  its  opinions,  yet  the  Mormons 
 are  being  slowly  improved  in  spite  of  themselves  ;  they 
 have  adopted  Sunday  schools,  daily  papers,  and  lyce- 
 
380  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 urns  from  the  Gentiles  settled  among  them,  and  a  more 
 healthy  sentiment  is  struggling  weakly  against  the  tide 
 of  corruption.  But  with  all  present  mitigating  features, 
 polygamy  still  remains  the  foulest  blot  upon  America's 
 fame,  and  the  Mormons  still  defy  every  law  of  God  and 
 man  in  their  doctrines,  and,  to  some  extent,  in  their 
 practice.  Such,  in  brief,  is  Mormonism.  While  all  the 
 world  is  striving  to  move  on  to  a  higher,  more  spiritual 
 plane  of  religious  truth,  they  have  turned  back  to  the 
 gross  forms  and  symbols  of  the  time  when  religion  was 
 in  its  infancy.  It  is  as  though  the  old  mathematician 
 should  throw  aside  his  acquired  learning,  and  go  back 
 to  the  sticks  and  balls  with  which  he  learned  to  count. 
 While  the  Christian  world  is  rejoitiing,  that  Christ  has 
 freed  us  "from  the  yoke  which  our  fathers  were  not 
 able  to  bear,"  they  go  back  two  thousand  years,  and 
 seek  all  their  example,s  from  a  barbarous  age  and  a 
 stiff-necked  and  rebellious  people.  And  their  practice 
 is  like  their  faith.  Claiming  a  religion  which  will 
 elevate  men  to  gods,  they  plead  for  examples  the  base 
 instincts  of  the  brute  creation ;  with  snow  in  sight  the 
 year  round,  they  pattern  their  domestic  life  after  that 
 of  inter-tropical  barbarians,  and  vainly  hope  to  produce 
 the  vigor  of  hardy  North-men  from  the  worst  practices 
 of  effeminate  Asiatics. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  381 
 
 CHAPTER  XVI. 
 
 THE   MORMON    THEOCRACY. 
 
 Absolutism— An  ancient  model— Three  governments  in  UtaL— Church 
 officials— First  President— First  Presidency—"  The  worst  man  in  Utah  " 
 —Quorum  of  Apostles—"  The  Twelve  " — A  dozen  men  with  fifty -two 
 drives— President  of  Seventies— Patriarch— "  A  blessing  for  a  dollar  "— 
 Bishops- Division  of  the  City  and  Territory— Their  magisteri-il  capacity 
 High  Council— Judge  and  jury— Ward  teachers— The  confessional— The 
 priesthood— Aaronic  and  Melchisedec— Evangelists— Secret  police  or 
 "Danites" — Civil  government  only  an  appendage — Excessive  power  of 
 the  Mormon  Courts — Perversions  of  law  and  justice — Organic  Act  de- 
 fective—Federal Judges— Their  weakness  and  disgrace— Verdict  by 
 eccle&iastical  "counsel"— Verdicts  dictated  from  the  pulpit— Probate 
 Judges  really  appointed  by  Brigham  Young— Voting  system— Marked 
 ballots— "  Protecting  the  ballot"— The  Hooper-MoGroarty  race— Plu- 
 rality of  offices  as  well  as  wives — Tyranny  of  the  Church — The  Mormon 
 vs.  the  American  idea — The  evils  of  which  Gentiles  complain. 
 
 In  government,  as  in  doctrine  and  practice,  the  Mor- 
 mons have  adopted  the  most  ancient  model.  But  it 
 was  not  quite  possible  even  for  them  to  entirely  ignore 
 the  popular  element,  hence  they  have  pieced  out  their 
 theocracy  with  a  shred  of  universal  suffrage,  proving 
 themselves  eclectic  in  politics  as  well  as  theology. 
 Government  in  Utah  is  to  be  viewed  in  three  relations, 
 or  rather,  there  are  as  many  distinct  governments  : — 
 
 I.  The  recognized  and  openly  acknowledged  ecclesi- 
 astical government  of  the  Mormon  Church. 
 
 II.  The  secret  and  irresponsible  government  operated 
 by  a  few  of  the  leading  men. 
 
382  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 III.  The  Territorial  government,  which  was  for  years 
 but  the  mere  convenient  machine  of  the  Church,  and 
 has  but  lately  stood  forth  in  anything  like  its  intended 
 character. 
 
 For  the  success  of  such  an  institution  as  Mormonism, 
 it  was  absolutely  necessary  there  should  be  a  recognized 
 priesthood,  through  which  channel  alone,  all  commands 
 from  heaven  should  come.  If  any  man  who  "  felt  the 
 moving  of  the  Spirit"  was  at  liberty  to  prophesy, 
 prophets  would  soon  cease  to  have  any  honor.  It  was 
 necessary,  too,  that  this  priesthood  should  bear  com- 
 plete rule,  and  to  this  end  an  ignorant  laity  was  neces- 
 sary. These  conditions  have  all  been  filled,  and  the 
 Mormon  Church  stands  forth  complete  as  a  theocratic 
 absolutism.  I  present  in  the  order  of  their  rank,  the 
 various  officers  of  the  Church,  and  the  duties  connected 
 with  them. 
 
 First  President. 
 
 This  officer  stands  at  the  head  of  all  the  affiiirs 
 of  the  Church,  temporal  and  spiritual,  financial  and 
 priestly ;  he  alone  has  the  power  of  "  sealing,"  though 
 in  some  cases  he  may  delegate  it,  and  he  only  is  ac- 
 knowledged revelator.  This  office,  first  filled  by  Joseph 
 Smith,  is  now  held  by  Brigham  Young,  who  is  "  Prophet, 
 Priest,  Seer,  Revelator  in  all  the  world.  First  President 
 and  Trustee-in-trust  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
 Latter-Day  Saints,"  and  doubtless  ex-officio  the  reposi- 
 tory of  any  other  needed  office  or  power. 
 
 To  consider  him  in  all  these  roles'"^  would  exceed  my 
 
 •  Those  who  arc  curious  to  learn  more  fully  of  Brigham  Young, 
 and  liis  wives  and  children,  will  lind  this  with  much  other  valuable 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  383 
 
 present  space;  his  various  powers  will  appear  more 
 fully  in  the  course  of  the  work.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that 
 as  Prophet,  he  holds  the  "  keys  of  the  kingdom,"  and 
 without  his  permission  none  can  enter  the  Church  or  he 
 saved;  as  Revelator,  he  unfolds  to  the  people  the  will 
 of  God  concerning  them ;  as  Seer,  he  is  warned  to  avoid 
 any  danger  which  may  be  in  the  future  for  him  or  his 
 people,  and,  as  Priest,  he  "  seals  "  men  and  women  for 
 eternity.  In  temporal  matters  he  is  equally  absolute. 
 As  President,  he  orders  all  the  concerns  of  the  Church, 
 appoints  new  bishops  and  elders,  and  determines  the 
 political  bearings  of  the  community;  as  Trustee-in- 
 trust, all  the  title  to  the  Church  property  is  in  his 
 name,  he  buys,  sells,  and  conveys  it  with  no  fixed  sys- 
 tem of  rendering  account,  and  as  Treasurer  of  the  Per- 
 petual Emigrating  Fund,  his  draft  alone  can  be  honored 
 where  the  funds  are  on  deposit.  He  claims  and  is 
 acknowledged  by  his  followers,  to  be  the  Supreme 
 Pontiff  of  the  world  in  all  spiritual  matters,  and 
 entitled  to  the  obedience  of  all  Mormons. 
 
 True,  there  are  various  parties  now  rising  u^d  among 
 the  Mormons,  who  claim  that  the  President  is  entitled 
 to  their  obedience  only  within  certain  limits ;  but  they 
 are  generally  held  as  heretics,  "  governed  by  an  apos- 
 tate spirit,"  and  all  "  good  Mormons "  claim  that  they 
 are  bound  by  the  orders  of  the  Prophet,  even  to  matters 
 of  life  and  death.  The  doctrine  has  lately  been  still 
 more  authoritatively  declared  by  the  First  President 
 
 information,  in  the  ably  written  and  only  authentic  work  on  the  sub- 
 ject :  The  Mormon  Prophet  and  His  IIarem,  Written  by  Mrs. 
 C  V.  Waite.     Printed  at  the  Biverside  Press,  Cambridge,  1866. 
 
384  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 and  liis  Counselors,  that  "it  is  apostasy  to  differ  with 
 the  Priesthood — though  ever  so  honestly — a  man  may 
 honestly  differ,  and  go  to  hell  for  it."  If  there  is  any 
 limit  to  his  power,  it  is  not  apparent  to  the  Gentile  mind. 
 
 THE    FIRST    PRESIDENCY. 
 
 This  consists  of  the  First  President  and  his  First  and 
 Second  Counselors,  George  A.  Smith  and  Daniel  H. 
 Wells.  The  first  place  was  formerly  filled  by  Ileber  C. 
 Kimball,  who  died  a  short  time  before  I  entered  the 
 Territory,  and  at  the  ensuing  Conference,  Smith  was 
 chosen  to  the  place.  These  last  also  have  the  title  of 
 President,  they  are  the  Lieutenants  and  Prime  Ministers 
 of  the  President  to  do  all  his  commands,  and  are  autho- 
 rized to  act  in  various  capacities  in  his  absence.  In  ad- 
 dition George  A.  Smith  is  Church  Historian,  and  Dan- 
 iel H.  Wells  is  Mayor,  Justice  of  the  Peace  and  Lieu- 
 tenant-General  of  the  Nauvoo  Legion.  He  seems  to 
 bear  about  him  less  of  the  ecclesiastical  character  than 
 his  colleague,  and  is  generally  denominated  'Squire 
 Wells ;  but  he  is  probably  the  worst  man  in  the  Hier- 
 archy, being  both  a  half-crazy  fanatic  and  a  blood-thirsty 
 bigot. 
 
 QUORUM   OF    APOSTLES. 
 
 The  body  third  in  importance  in  the  Church  is  the 
 College  or  Quorum  of  the  Twelve  Apostles.  They 
 come  nuicli  nearer  to  the  people  than  the  First  Presi- 
 dency, as  the  whole  Mormon  territory  is  nominally  di- 
 vided between  them,  and  it  is  their  duty  to  inspect 
 their  various  districts  and  see  "  that  each  stake  is  set 
 in  order."     Individual  Apostles  are  often  put  in  charge 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF  MORMONISM. 
 
 385 
 
 of  foreign  missions,  sent  away  to  edit  newspapers  or 
 magazines,  or  to  preside  over  some  newly  selected 
 "stake"  of  the  extending  settlements,  in  either  of 
 which  cases,  another  Apostle  is  chosen  in  place  of  the 
 absent.  Thus  there  are  sometimes  as  many  as  fifteen 
 acting  Apostles,  but  only  the  Twelve  are  entitled  to 
 seats  in  the  Quorum  at  one  time. 
 
 I  present  the  list  as  it  stood  during  my  residence  in 
 Utah,  and  as  an  Apostle's  dignity,  like  that  of  most 
 other  officers,  depends  largely  upon  the  number  of  his 
 wives,  I  give  their  number  also  : 
 
 Orson  Hyde, 
 
 First  Apostle, 
 
 Five  Wives 
 
 Orson  Pratt, 
 
 Second     " 
 
 Four      ' 
 
 John  Taylor, 
 
 Third      " 
 
 Seven    ' 
 
 WiLFOVD   WOODRUJ?']'', 
 
 Fourth     " 
 
 Three    ' 
 
 Joseph  F.  Smith, 
 
 Fifth 
 
 Three    ' 
 
 Amasa  Lyman, 
 
 Sixth        " 
 
 Five      ' 
 
 Ezra  Benson, 
 
 Seventh    " 
 
 Four      *■ 
 
 Charles  Rich, 
 
 Eighth     " 
 
 Seven    * 
 
 Lorenzo  Snow, 
 
 Ninth      « 
 
 Four      ' 
 
 Erastus  Snow, 
 
 Tenth      « 
 
 Three    ' 
 
 Franklin  Richards, 
 
 Eleventh'' 
 
 Four      ' 
 
 George  Q.  Cannon, 
 
 Tioelfth  " 
 
 Three    ' 
 
 Ezra  Benson  died  last  summer,  and  his  place  had  not 
 been  supplied  when  I  left  Utah.  With  the  exception 
 of  John  Taylor  the  Apostles  are  reported  to  be  poor 
 men ;  Orson  Pratt  particularly  is  in  very  moderate  cir- 
 cumstances, and  Orson  Hyde  has  the  reputation  of 
 being  "  an  inveterate  beggar,"  in  an  ecclesiastical  way, 
 of  course. 
 
 25 
 
386  LIFE^  IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 PRESIDENT   OF   SEVENTIES. 
 
 This  office  appears  to  rank  next  to  that  of  an  Apos- 
 tle, and  arises  as  follows :  The  great  working  body  of 
 male  Mormons  is  divided  into  seventy  Quorums,  each 
 haying  nominally  seventy  members,  though,  in  reality, 
 they  range  everywhere  from  ten  to  seventy.  Each  has 
 a  President  and  these,  collectively  known  as  the 
 Seventy,  constitute  a  grand  missionary  board,  which 
 has  the  general  control  of  all  matters  connected  with 
 propagating  the  faith.  These  seventy  Presidents  have 
 also  a  President,  filling  the  office  under  consideration. 
 These  offices  have  no  special  rank  in  the  Church,  as  an 
 Apostle  or  leading  elder  may  be  but  a  lay  member  in 
 this  order. 
 
 PATRIARCH. 
 
 I  place  this  office  fifth  in  rank  because,  though  of 
 great  sanctity  and  honor,  it  is  entirely  spiritual,  con- 
 ferring no  power.  Ilis  business  is  merely  to  grant  "bles- 
 sings," written  out  and  signed  by  him.  The  usual  fee 
 therefor  is  one  dollar,  and  the  "  blessings,"  as  far  as  I 
 have  read  any  of  them,  consist  of  vague  and  general 
 promises  that  the  recipient  will  "  be  blessed  if  faithful." 
 The  first  Patriarch  in  the  Church  was  "  Old  Father 
 Smith,"  or  Joseph,  father  of  the  Prophet,  who  was  suc- 
 ceeded by  the  latter  s  brother  Hyrum,  he  by  "  uncle " 
 John  Smith,  cousin  of  Joe,  and  he  in  turn  by  William 
 Smith,  son  of  "  Ilyrum  the  martyr."  To  hold  this 
 office  the  only  qualifications  which  seem  necessary,  are 
 
AND  CRIMES  OF  MORMONISM.  387 
 
 that  one  should  be  an  "  uncle  "  and  a  Smith,  neither  of 
 which  is  liable  to  fail  for  some  time 
 
 BISHOPS. 
 
 We  now  consider  purely  temporal  officers,  a  set  of 
 men  who  direct  municipal  regulations  and  are,  as  occar 
 sion  demands,  either  officers  of  the  Church  or  Civil 
 Magistrates.  Of  these  the  most  important  is  the  bishop. 
 Salt  Lake  City  is  divided  into  twenty-one  wards,  each 
 of  which  has  a  bishop,  and  the  entire  Territory  is  in 
 the  same  manner  conveniently  divided  into  wards  with 
 a  bishop  over  each.  They  "hear  and  determine"  all 
 complaints,  and  as  they  are,  under  the  peculiar  statutes 
 of  Utah,  also  Probate  Judges  in  their  respective  counties, 
 they  govern  Gentiles  in  that  character.  Thus,  as 
 spiritual  guide  in  all  matters  of  dispute  among  members 
 of  his  flock,  and  civil  magistrate,  in  all  cases  where 
 Gentiles  are  concerned,  the  bishop  is  equally  "  master 
 of  ^  the  situation,"  and  fully  apprized  of  whatever  is 
 going  on.  Hence,  also,  his  character  as  informer. 
 From  his  decision  as  Judge  the  Gentile  may  appeal  to 
 the  Superior  Court,  at  Salt  Lake  City ;  from  his  epis- 
 copal adjudications  the  Mormon  can  appeal  to  the 
 
 HIGH  COUNCIL. 
 
 This  body  is  composed  of  fifteen  men,  chosen  from 
 the  High  Priests.  Twelve  act  as  a  jury,  of  whom  a 
 majority  decide  the  case,  and  the  other  three  pass 
 sentence,  or  fix  the  damages  and  costs.  From  this 
 tribunal  there  is  an  appeal  to  the  First  Presidency. 
 The  bishop  is  assisted  in  his  labors  by  the 
 
36B  LIFE   IN   UTAH';   OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 "WARD  TEACHERS. 
 
 Their  duty  is  to  visit  all  the  people  in  their  ward, 
 report  all  suspected  persons,  catechize  avery  one  as  to 
 personal  feeling,  belief,  etc.,  to  report  all  irregularities, 
 heresies,  false  doctrine  and  schism,  and  generally  to 
 act  as  spies  and  informers.  On  these  visitations  every 
 person  is  obliged  to  formally  subscribe  to  all  the  doc- 
 trines of  the  Church,  and  many  misdemeanors  and 
 even  criminalties  are  hushed  up  in  the  ward  where 
 they  occur,  without  the  sliglitest  knowledge  thereof 
 being  made  public.  Hence  much  of  the  reputation  for 
 good  order,  claimed  by  the  Mormons.  In  one  instance, 
 which  came  to  my  knowledge,  an  atrocious  rape,  com- 
 mitted upon  a  girl  thirteen  years  old,  was  not  known 
 outside  of  the  ward  where  it  occurred  until  one  year 
 after,  and  it  would  probably  not  have  been  then  made 
 known,  had  not  the  father  of  the  girl  apostatized.  In 
 many  cases  boys  of  fifteen  years  fill  the  place  of 
 Teacher,  and  are  required  to  report  the  doings  of  their 
 fellows.  All  Mormons  are  solemnly  sworn  to  keep  no 
 secrets  from  the  Teachers,  and  on  their  monthly  visits 
 to  each  family  these  have  the  right  to  see  each  person 
 alone,  and  hold  a  strict  and  nasty  "confessional." 
 This,  with  the  "  Danite  "  or  secret  police  system,  makes 
 of  Mormon  society  a  united  and  tyrannized  whole. 
 
 THE  PRIESTHOOD. 
 
 Thus  far  I  have  treated  rather  of  the  temporal 
 offices,  Init  all  officiating  Mormons  are  divided  into 
 two  bodies — The  Aaroidc  and   the  Mdchlsedec  Priest- 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  3^9 
 
 hood.  The  latter  is  the  superior,  and  in  many  respects 
 includes  the  former ;  it  is  both  spiritual  and  temporal, 
 while  the  former  is  exclusively  temporal  A  High 
 Priest  of  the  Melchisedec  order  may  always  officiate  in 
 place  of  an  Aaronic  Priest ;  but  without  special  ordain- 
 ment,  the  latter  is  always  confined  to  temporal  affairs. 
 All  the  higher  officials  belong  to  the  Melchisedec  order. 
 The  High  Priest  ranks  next  to  the  Apostle,  and  after 
 him  some  order  of  Elders,  below  whom  are  simple 
 Priests  and  ordinary  Elders.  In  these  different  ranks 
 all  Mormons  are  Priests  of  some  sort,  and  in  religious 
 cant  speak  of  themselves  as  "  Kings  and  Priests  of  the 
 most  High  God." 
 
 EVANGELISTS. 
 
 These,  as  the  name  implies,  are  propagandists.  The 
 name  seems  to  indicate  a  kmd  of  work  rather  than 
 specific  rank  or  office. 
 
 Such  is  the  recognized  ecclesiastical  polity  of  the 
 Church.  But  lest  this  should  not  prove  effective  in  all 
 cases,  or  some  should  grow  restive  under  such  restraint, 
 the  Church  has  often  used  an  order  of  secret  police, 
 popularly  known  as  "Danites."  This  order  was  first 
 instituted  during  the  troubles  in  Missouri ;  it  was  re- 
 modeled in  the  third  or  fourth  year  of  their  residence  at 
 Nauvoo,  and  has  been  continued  since.  By  some  of  the 
 Mormons  its  existence  is  denied,  by  others  defended  on 
 the  score  of  self-protection.  That  thousands  of  honest 
 Mormons  are  ignorant  of  and  do  not  believe  in  its  exist- 
 ence, I  am  well  aware ;  but  that  it  has  been,  and  to 
 some  extent  is  yet,  an  active  working  force,  is  as  clearly 
 
390  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 proved  as  any  fact  can  be.  From  the  nature  of  the  case 
 but  little  can  be  known  of  its  secret  organization ;  its 
 work  plainly  appears  in  the  course  of  Mormon  history. 
 
 With  all  their  ecclesiastical  organization,  both  public 
 and  private,  much  would  have  remained  beyond  their 
 power  to  compass  without  a  civil  government ;  and  the 
 manner  in  which  they  have  used  it,  merely  to  further 
 Church  policy,  is  a  singular  comment  on  the  forbearance 
 of  a  republican  government. 
 
 The  most  conmion  perversion  of  right,  and  yet  the  most 
 is  difficult  to  be  comprehended  by  residents  in  the  East, 
 the  peculiar  manner  in  which  the  laws  and  local  courts  of 
 the  Territory  are  made  an  engine  of  tyranny  in  the  hands 
 of  the  ruling  oligarchy.  Like  every  other  territory, 
 Utah  has  Federal  District  Courts  and  local  Probate 
 Courts ;  but  unlike  any  other  State  or  territory  in  the 
 Union,  the  powers  and  jurisdiction  of  the  latter  are 
 made  superior  to  those  of  the  former.  Section  29,  page 
 31  of  the  Territorial  Statutes,  gives  the  Probate  Courts 
 general  jurisdiction  in  all  matters,  civil  and  criminal; 
 while  section  1  of  an  "Act  in  relation  to  Bills  of  Divorce 
 and  Alimony,"  gives  the  Probate  Courts  exclusive  juris- 
 diction over  all  such  cases,  thus  making  them  superior 
 to  the  Federal  District  Courts  in  such  matters,  and 
 equal  to  them  in  every  other  respect. 
 
 All  this  in  opposition  to  the  fact  that  the  Organic 
 Act  of  Utah  gives  the  Legislature  no  power  to  build  up 
 such  local  courts,  and  in  other  territories  this  matter 
 has  been  settled  by  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court,  and 
 by  its  decision  the  Probate  Courts  limited  to  probate 
 matters  and  a  very  limited  civil  jurisdiction.     But  the 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  391 
 
 Organic  Act  provides  that  the  Probate  or  County  Courta 
 shall  have  "  such  jurisdiction  as  shall  be  prescribed  by 
 law,"  and  from  this  loose  wording  the  Legislature  claims 
 the  right  to  give  them  jurisdiction  over  all  subjects  what- 
 ever. This  anomaly  in  the  judicial  system  is  not  with- 
 out good  cause.  The  District  Judges  are  United  States 
 officials,  and  are  supposed  to  be  supporting  the  national 
 authority ;  the  Probate  Judges  are  simply  the  bishops 
 or  elders  in  the  different  counties,  over  whom  Brigham's 
 power  is  absolute.  In  former  days,  Brigham  divorced 
 whomsoever  he  saw  fit,  on  his  own  motion,  and  on  pay- 
 ment of  a  fee  of  ten  dollars.  He  boasted  once  in  a 
 sermon,  that  he  made  enough  this  way,  "by  their 
 d — d  foolishness,  to  keep  him  in  spending  money."  But 
 of  late  years  it  has  been  thought  best  to  give  some  at- 
 tention to  forms  of  law ;  and  now,  though  parties  must 
 first  be  divorced  by  Brigham,  or  a  special  deputy  within 
 the  Church  law,  yet,  after  that,  they  must  have  a  legal 
 divorce  in  the  Probate  Courts.  Of  course,  it  never  hap- 
 pens that  Brigham's  wishes  are  disregarded  in  the 
 Probate.  But  this  is  their  own  affair ;  it  is  with  their 
 criminal  jurisdiction  that  Gentiles  have  to  do.  A  case 
 which  occured  in  a  southern  settlement,  while  I  was  in 
 Utah,  illustrates  in  so  forcible  a  manner  their  style  of 
 getting  rid  of  obnoxious  citizens,  that  I  set  it  forth  entire. 
 In  1860,  a  lad  of  that  district,  of  more  than  ordinary 
 intelligence,  left  for  California,  where  he  remained  for 
 eight  years,  when  he  returned  home  with  a  consider- 
 able amount  of  money,  and  of  course,  with  no  disposition 
 to  submit  to  the  exactions  of  Mormonism.  His  parents 
 being  Mormons,  and  that  his  native  place,  he  properly 
 
392  LIFE   IN"   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 belonged  to  the  class  known  as  "  hickory  Mormons  "  or 
 "  Come-outers."  With  plenty  of  money,  and  being 
 well  dressed,  he  went  into  all  their  dances  and  social 
 parties,  became  a  great  favorite  with  the  Mormon 
 girls,  did  not  hesitate  to  express  his  opinion  about  the 
 bishops  and  elders,  and,  in  short,  his  example  was,  as 
 the  bishop  said,  "d — d  demoralizing."  One  evening 
 he  accompanied  a  Mormon's  daughter  from  the  village, 
 to  her  home  in  the  country.  On  their  way  was  a  nar- 
 row ravine,  about  half  way  between  two  houses  which 
 were  just  a  furlong  apart.  They  remained  some  min- 
 utes in  this  hollow,  and  were  afterwards  seen  chatting 
 for  half  an  hour  at  her  father's  gate.  One  week  after- 
 wards he  was  arrested  on  a  charge  of  rape !  He  was 
 first  taken  before  a  magistrate,  where  he  demanded  a 
 jury  of  twelve  men,  and  was  by  them  unanimously  ac- 
 quitted. Then  the  Bishop  of  the  settlement,  also  a 
 Probate  Judge,  issued  a  bench  warrant,  pronounced  all 
 the  proceedings  before  the  magistrate  void,  brought  the 
 young  man  before  himself,  and  by  the  aid  of  her  father, 
 absolutely  forced  the  girl  to  testify  against  him,  and 
 upon  evidence  that  would  have  been  laughed  out  of 
 court  in  any  State,  pronounced  him  guilty,  and  sen- 
 tenced him  to  the  penitentiary  for  ten  years !  He  was 
 started  at  once  for  the  prison  in  Salt  Lake  City,  but 
 managed  to  inform  Judge  Strickland,  a  lawyer  of  the 
 city,  who  succeeded  in  having  him  brought  before  Chief 
 Justice  Wilson,  of  the  District  Court,  by  writ  of  haheas 
 corpus,  where  the  girl  refused  to  testify  to  anything 
 criminating  him,  and  he  was  released.  This  atrocious 
 perversion  of  legal  principles,  is  practiced  all  over  the 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  393 
 
 country  settlements  by  these  bishops — judges,  who  are 
 directed  in  their  proceedings  by  "  authority,"  and  use 
 their  offices  to  drive  out,  or  scare  away  all  "  Come- 
 outers"  or  recusant  Mormons.  If  the  accused  is  brought 
 to  Salt  Lake  City,  the  United  States  officials  are  often 
 able  to  interfere ;  but  no  matter  how  plain  and  direct 
 the  evidence,  as  in  the  case  above,  nine-tenths  of  the 
 Mormons  merely  think  it  another  case,  in  which  a  vile 
 criminal  is  let  loose  upon  them  by  Gentile  Judges. 
 
 As  might  be  expected,  the  Brighamites  are  very 
 tenacious  of  this  great  power  in  their  hands,  and 
 threaten  and  bluster  whenever  it  is  questioned.  In  a 
 case  tried  before  Chief  Justice  Wilson,  the  power  of  the 
 Probate  Courts  was  put  in  issue,  and  on  the  20th  of 
 November,  1868,  when  this  case  was  argued,  Z.  Snow, 
 a  Mormon  lawyer,  and  Attorney-General  for  Utah,  said : 
 "If  his  Honor  decided  against  such  jurisdiction,  blood 
 would  flow  in  the  streets  of  this  City."  From  the 
 known  character  of  Judge  Snow,  it  is  highly  probable 
 he  never  would  have  made  such  a  statement  but  by 
 express  direction  from  Brigham  Young.  The  statement 
 was  made  in  open  court,  in  presence  of  the  entire  bar  of 
 the  city,  and  a  few  moments  after  consultation  with  his 
 associate  counsel,  also  a  Mormon.  The  plain  meaning 
 of  this  was,  that  the  Brighamites  intended  to  obey  the 
 law  only  when  construed  in  their  favor,  but  otherwise 
 to  evade  it,  and,  when  safe,  try  violence.  Fair  notice 
 was  thus  given  to  all  officials  to  yield,  or  be  crushed 
 Judge  Snow  also  said  that,  until  within  a  few  years, 
 *'  United  State  Judges  had  not  resided  here  but  a  very 
 small  portion  of  their  time,  though  he  did  not  know 
 why." 
 
394  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 This  hint  opens  to  remembrance  a  melancholy  view 
 of  the  dishonor  to  our  Government  through  its  officials 
 in  Utah.  Not  that  Brigham  Young  has  tried  violence 
 in  many  cases.  He  is  far  too  wary  for  that.  Brute 
 force  is  the  last  resort  of  a  really  astute  mind,  like  that 
 of  Brigham.  Chicane  is  his  natural  weapon,  and  with 
 it  he  has  completely  circumvented  the  majority  of  the 
 judges;  assisted  too  often  by  the  imbecile  appointments 
 from  the  time  of  Fillmore  until  Lincoln's  Administration. 
 The  first  judge.  Perry  E.  Brochus,  was  incautious  in  his 
 attacks  upon  polygamy,  and,  having  been  led  to  believe 
 that  his  life  was  in  danger,  left  the  Territory.  Another 
 official  was  detected  in  immorality,  and  resigned  to 
 avoid  exposure;  another  disgraced  his  office  by  taking  a 
 prostitute  upon  the  bench  with  him ;  another  impaired 
 his  efficiency  by  secret  drinking;  and  still  another 
 allowed  himself  to  be  completely  entrapped  by  two  of 
 Brigham's  "decoy  women."  One  of  these  delinquents 
 was  followed  into  Weber  Canon  by  a  self-appointed 
 committee  of  "Mormon  boys,"  and  received  at  their 
 hands  a  severe  castigation. 
 
 It  is  a  prime  principle  of  the  Mormon  faith  that  their 
 affiiirs  ought  not  to  come  before  a  Gentile  Court  at  all ; 
 and  if  they  must  go  there  in  a  case  where  a  Gentile  is 
 interested,  the  jury  should  be  governed  by  "counsel" 
 in  making  up  their  verdict.  But  there  seem  to  have 
 been  restive  spirits,  even  in  the  most  palmy  days  of  the 
 Church  government,  who  were  often  chastised  from  the 
 Mormon  pulpit,  as  witness  the  following  from  a  sermon 
 delivered  in  the  Tabernacle  by  Jedediah  M.  Grant,  one 
 of  Brigham  Young's  councilors,  on  Sunday,  March  2d, 
 1856 
 
AND  CRIMES  OF  MORMONISM.  395 
 
 "Last  Sunday  the  President  chastised  some  of  the 
 Apostles  and  Bishops  who  were  on  the  grand  jury. 
 Did  he  fully  succeed  in  clearing  away  the  fog  that  sur- 
 rounded them,  and  in  removing  blindness  from  their 
 eyes  ?  No ;  for  they  could  go  to  their  room  and  again 
 disagree,  though  to  their  credit  be  it  said,  a  little  expla- 
 nation made  them  unanimous  in  their  action.  But 
 how  is  it  with  the  little  jury  ?  Some  of  them  have 
 got  into  the  fog  to  suck  down  the  words  and  eat  the 
 filth  of  a  Gentile  court,  ostensibly  a  court  in  Utah.'* 
 This  extract  gives  a  sufficiently  clear  idea  of  the  jury 
 system  in  Utah,  and  from  all  that  has  yet  appeared  the 
 attempt  to  enforce  any  Federal  statute  by  Mormon  ju- 
 ries, would  simply  amount  to  a  solemn  farce.  To  ren- 
 der the  matter  worse,  these  Bishop-judges  are  not 
 elected  by  the  people,  but  under  the  provisions  of  the 
 Judiciary  Act,  are  appointed  by  the  Territorial  Legis- 
 lature, which  means  in  effect  by  Brigham  Young; 
 thus  the  Judiciary  are  as  completely  under  his  man 
 agement  as  the  officers  of  the  ecclesiastical  organization 
 One  might  think  there  was  still  some  chance  for  the 
 people  in  voting,  and  many  are  inclined  to  ask :  If 
 there  is  dissatisfaction,  or  opposition  to  Brigham  Young'js 
 government,  can  it  not  make  itself  felt  in  the  elections  ? 
 Even  this  outlet  is  effectually  barred  by  the  following 
 Section  of  "An  Act  regulating  elections,"  passed  in 
 January,  1853  : 
 
 "  Each  elector  shall  provide  himself  with  a  ballot 
 containing  the  names  of  the  persons  he  wishes  elected, 
 and  the  offices  he  would  have  them  fill,  and  present  it 
 neatly  folded  to  the  judge  of  the  election,  who  shall 
 
596  LIFE   IN"  UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 number  it  and  deposit  it  in  the  ballot-box.  The  clerk 
 ehall  then  write  the  name  of  the  elector  and  opposite 
 thereto  the  number  of  his  vote." 
 
 With  a  sarcasm  which  is  almost  amusing,  the  Mormon 
 leaders  call  this  a  measure  "  to  protect  the  freedom  and 
 purity  of  the  ballot."  Thus  artistically  do  they  abohsh 
 the  free  vote  while  they  retain  the  ballot.  "  Thus," 
 says  the  English  Captain  Burton,  their  apologist,  "they 
 retain  the  privilege  of  voting,  while  they  avoid  the 
 evils  of  universal  suffrage;  subjecting,  as  it  always 
 should  be,  the  ignorant  many  to  the  supervision  of  the 
 intelligent  few." 
 
 Under  this  system,  Brigham  Young's  emissary  can 
 go  into  any  precinct  in  the  Territory  and  discover  just 
 how  any  man  has  voted  at  any  election  for  the  last 
 fifteen  years  !  And  with  this  ignorant  people,  alive  to 
 spiritual  terrors,  and  knowing  too  well  what  temporal 
 trouble  may  be  brought  upon  them,  it  is  plain  that  the 
 opposition  must  be  in  a  majority  before  it  can  venture 
 to  make  itself  known.  It  cannot  make  a  start  to  con- 
 solidate. It  may  be  worthy  of  note  here,  that  all  the 
 officers  of  the  Mormon  Church  are  proposed  for  re-elec- 
 tion or  rejection,  twice  every  year,  at  the  General 
 Conferences,  thus  apparently  tempering  this  theocratic 
 absolutism  with  universal  suffrage,  women  voting  as 
 well  as  men.  But  only  three  instances  have  been 
 known  of  persons  daring  to  vote  agahist  the  known 
 wishes  of  the  Hierarchy ;  and  in  each  case  the  offenders 
 were  promptly  cited  before  the  High  Council  and  re- 
 quired to  explain,  in  default  of  which  i\\Qy  were  "  cut 
 off "  as  being  in  a  "  spirit  of  apostasy."     Practically, 
 
AND  CRIMES  OF  MORMONISM.  397 
 
 one  man  in  each  settlement  or  ward  might  just  as  well 
 do  all  the  voting.  The  Church  puts  her  ticket  in  the 
 field,  and  the  bishop  directs  the  people  to  vote  it,  which 
 they  do  accordingly. 
 
 On  one  memorable  occasion,  it  is  said,  a  sort  of 
 spiritual  rebellion  occurred  in  the  Utah  Lake  district, 
 where  many  American  converts  reside,  and  the  opposi- 
 tion candidate  to  the  Legislature  was  elected.  On 
 reaching  Salt  Lake  City  the  successful  candidate  was 
 simply  "  counseled "  to  resign,  did  so  quietly,  and  the 
 regular  nominee  was  declared  entitled  to  the  seat. 
 Three  years  ago  the  Jews,  Gentiles,  Apostates  and  re- 
 cusant Mormons  of  the  Thirteenth  Ward,  in  the  city, 
 found  they  had  a  majority,  as  nearly  all  of  these  classes 
 in  the  city  lived  in  that  ward.  They  elected  Bishop 
 Wooley,  a  good  Mormon,  however,  for  Councilman, 
 against  the  regular  nominee.  The  Bishop  was  at  once 
 cited  before  Brigham,  promptly  resigned  according  to 
 "counsel,"  and  the  other  candidate  was  admitted  to 
 the  seat. 
 
 When  the  celebrated  and  somewhat  amusing  Hooper- 
 McGroarty  race,  for  delegate  to  Congress,  took  place, 
 hundreds  who  would  have  voted  for  an  available  Gen- 
 tile nominee,  but  who  regarded  McGroarty's  candidacy 
 as  a  mere  burlesque,  did  not  vote  at  all ;  consequently 
 that  gentleman  received  less  than  two  hundred  votes, 
 while,  as  the  Mormons  did  their  best.  Hooper  received 
 some  fifteen  thousand.  It  is  yet  a  standing  joke  in 
 Utah  to  repeat  portions  of  McGroarty's  speech,  prepared 
 to  be  delivered  before  Congress ;  he  employed  a  lawyer 
 to  write  it  for  him,  and  while  committing  it  to  memory, 
 
398  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 he  could  never  talk  ten  minutes  with  a  friend  without 
 running  into  his  speech,  assuming  an  oratorical  manner, 
 and  the  plural  number,  as  if  addressing  Congress. 
 
 The  evils  of  this  system  of  voting  are  numerous,  be- 
 sides the  immense  power  it  gives  a  few  leaders ;  but  one 
 is  particularly  noticeable,  the  number  and  variety  of 
 offices  held  by  the  same  man.  In  the  town  of  Fillmore, 
 the  old  capital,  at  one  time  one  man  held  the  offices  of 
 County  Clerk  and  Recorder,  Town  Clerk  and  Justice  of 
 the  Peace,  Assessor  and  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue, 
 and  ex  officio  Overseer  of  the  Poor.  While  I  was  in 
 Salt  Lake  City,  one  Robert  T.  Burton  was  Collector  of 
 Internal  Revenue  for  the  Territory,  Sheriff  of  the  County, 
 Assessor  and  Collector  of  Territorial  and  County  taxes, 
 and  a  General  in  the  Nauvoo  Legion ;  besides  being  a 
 prominent  elder  in  the  Church,  the  husband  of  three 
 wives,  and  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  secret  police.  This 
 Burton  is  the  man  who  led  the  posse  to  capture  the 
 Morrisites,  a  sect  of  recusant  Mormons,  and,  according 
 to  his  own  account,  shot  four  of  those  people  after  their 
 surrender,  and  his  continuance  in  the  revenue  office  was 
 a  damning  blot  upon  the  Johnson  administration  in 
 Utah.     He  is  in  appearance 
 
 "The  mildest  mannered  ma,n 
 That  ever  scuttled  ship  or  cut  a  throat." 
 
 But  if  there  is  truth  in  one-fourth  the  private  memoirs 
 of  apostates,  he  is  a  most  cruel  and  blood-thirsty  bigot. 
 All  the  various  civil  officers  are  at  the  same  time 
 leading  dignitaries  in  the  Mormon  Church,  active 
 agents  of  its  will,  chosen  to  their  civil  j)Osition  solely 
 on  that  account ;  they  consider  the  latter  far  inferior  in 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  399 
 
 importance,  and,  in  fact,  subordinate  in  policy  to  their 
 Church  dignities,  and  knowing  Httle,  if  any,  law,  they 
 are  guided  by  ecclesiastical  authority  and  "  counsel." 
 
 Let  one  travel  wherever  he  will  through  the  outer 
 settlements,  he  rarely  if  ever  hears  the  people  speak  of 
 the  Probate  Judges  as  judges ;  it  is  always  "  the  bishop 
 decided  so  and  so."  With  them  he  is  always  acting  in 
 his  character  as  bishop,  never  as  judge.  Nor  need  we 
 be  surprised  at  this;  it  is  the  natural  conflict  under 
 such  a  system,  between  the  theocratic,  the  ecclesiastical, 
 and  the  popular,  the  democratic  and  laical.  The  Ameri- 
 can idea  is  that  power  is  derived  from  the  people,  is 
 merely  delegated  to  the  officer,  and  rests  upon  the  just 
 consent  of  the  governed.  The  Mormon  idea  is  exactly 
 the  reverse  :  power  and  authority  come  from  above  and 
 operate  downward  through  all  the  grades ;  the  official 
 is  not  responsible  to  those  below  him — to  them  he  is 
 the  voice  of  God — but  to  those  above  him ;  from  them 
 he  derives  his  authority,  and  to  them  he  must  render 
 an  account. 
 
 In  the  words  of  a  Mormon  polemic,  "It  is  not  con- 
 sistent that  the  people  of  God  should  organize  or  be 
 subject  to  man-made  governments.  If  it  were  so,  they 
 could  never  be  perfected.  There  can  be  but  one  perfect 
 government — that  organized  by  God;  a  government 
 by  apostles,  prophets,  priests,  teachers  and  evangelists ; 
 the  order  of  the  original  Church,  of  all  churches  acknowl- 
 edged by  God."  I  am  thus  minute  in  my  statements, 
 because  so  many  people  in  the  East  have  an  idea  that 
 polygamy  is  the  only  great  evil  of  Mormonism.  There 
 are  many  evils  felt  more  than  that ;  in  fact,  polygamy 
 
400  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 in  itself  is  but  a  slight  annoyance  to  the  Gentile  resi- 
 dents of  Utah. 
 
 Mormonism  was  an  unmitigated  evil  before  they  had 
 polygamy ;  the  priests  ruled  the  ignorant  people  with 
 spiritual  terrors,  and  that  made  them  dangerous  neigh- 
 bors and  troublesome  citizens  wherever  they  lived. 
 Probably  some  of  these  other  evils  grew  out  of  or  have 
 been  strengthened  by  polygamy,  but  that  of  itself 
 troubles  other  residents  very  little.  It  is  that  the  Terri- 
 tory is  ruled  by  a  Church,  that  civil  and  legal  measures 
 are  carried  by  ecclesiastical  policy  rather  than  law ;  that 
 residents,  not  Mormons,  are  subjected  to  all  the  annoy- 
 ances of  petty  tyranny;  that  in  their  business  and 
 social  life  they  are  constantly  subjected  to  the  secret 
 espionage  of  the  Church ;  that  they  are  hampered  in 
 business  by  church  hostility  and  the  imposition  of  ex- 
 cessive taxes ;  that  friends  and  fellow-countrymen  have 
 been  secretly  murdered,  and  the  Church  prevents  them 
 from  obtaining  justice ;  in  short,  they  are  exposed  to 
 the  tyranny  of  an  unopposed  majority,  and  that  majority 
 controlled  by  a  small  and  compact  hierarchy,  workmg 
 out  its  Star-chamber  decrees  against  liberty  by  secret 
 and,  to  the  people,  irresponsible  agents. 
 
 It  is  this  that  grinds  the  feelings  of  American  citizens, 
 not  poljgamy,  though  that  is  a  great  moral  and  social 
 evil.  The  Mormon  people  as  a  mass  are  naturally  dis- 
 posed to  deal  justly,  but,  unfortunately,  the  people  are 
 ciphers,  and  it  seems  to  be  the  policy  of  their  leaders  to 
 keep  them  in  a  constant  state  of  irritation  and  hostile 
 feeling  towards  all  outsiders,  and  to  the  Government  of 
 tlie  United  States. 
 
 Thus  it  is  the  union  of  Church  and  State,  or  rather 
 
AND   CRIMES   OP   MORMONISM.  401 
 
 the  absolute  subservience  of  the  State  to  the  Church, 
 the  latter  merely  using  the  outside  organization  to  carry 
 mto  effect  decrees  already  concluded  in  secret  council, 
 that  makes  Mormonism  our  enemy.  Missouri  and  lUi- 
 iiois  found,  at  dear  cost,  that  no  State  could  tolerate  a 
 church  exercising  an  absolute  temporal  jurisdiction,  with- 
 in the  State,  but  independent  of  and  often  hostile  to  it; 
 dominating  and  directing  the  action  of  courts  within  its 
 influence,  subverting  free  institutions,  and  exercising  a 
 greater  right  over  the  consciences  of  its  subjects  than  is 
 claimed  by  the  laws  of  the  State.  In  short,  it  is  not 
 the  social,  immoral,  or  polygamic  features  that  so  chiefly 
 concern  us,  but  the  hostile,  the  treasonable  and  the 
 mutinous.  The  law  against  polygamy  should  be  strictly 
 enforced,  as  every  other  law  of  the  Government ;  but 
 it  is  idle  to  say,  as  so  many  do,  that  that  is  the  only 
 objection  to  the  Mormons,  or  to  the  admission  of  Utah 
 as  a  State.  If  polygamy  were  blotted  out  to-morrow, 
 we  could  never  admit  Utah  in  her  present  condition. 
 Such  a  State  organization  would  be  opposed  to  every 
 principle  of  our  political  structure,  and  our  Constitution 
 was  never  meant  to  recognize  the  temporal  government 
 of  a  church.  Happily  the  present  Administration  have 
 recognized  many  of  the  needs  of  Utah,  and  begun  by 
 removing  all  polygamists  and  Mormon  s^anpathizers 
 from  office,  filling  their  places  wdth  good  men.  Much 
 remains  to  be  done  by  the  Executive  and  Congress,  but 
 it  is  gratifying  to  note  that  something  of  a  reform  has 
 set  in,  and  that  Utah  is  no  longer  what  it  was  through 
 three  Administrations,  "  the  Botany  Bay  of  worn-(iut 
 politicians." 
 
 26 
 
402  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 CHAPTER    XVII. 
 
 RECUSANT    SECTS   OF    MORMONS. 
 
 Repression  uol  unity — Great  break  up  at  Nauvoo— Sidney  Rigelon'B  Church 
 —J.  J.  Strang— Cutler,  Brewster,  and  Heddrick :  "The  Gatherers"— 
 The  "Truth-teller" — Lyman  Wight  in  Texas — San  Bernardino  Mor- 
 laons — Apostasy,  Spiritualism  and  insanity — Brigham  supreme  in  Utah 
 First  Secession,  the  "Gladdenites"— Persecution  and  murders— Blood- 
 atonement  introduced — Second  secession,  the  "Morrisites" — War  with 
 the  Sect— Massacre  of  the  "Morrisites"— Governor  Harding's  adven- 
 tm-e — General  Connor  protects  the  recusants — Soda  Springs— Anotlier 
 Prophet — The  "infant  Christ" — Beginning  of  the  Josephites— Emma 
 and  her  sons— The  "Reorganized  Church"— First  Mission — Mission  of 
 the  "Smith  Boys" — Excitement  at  SaltLake— Priestly  lying— The  God- 
 be  Schism — Liberal  principles — Hopeful  indications — After  Brigham, 
 ■^liQ  ?_Orson  Hyde  ?— Daniel  H.Wells  ?— George  A.  Smith  ?— Probable 
 future  of  the  Church. 
 
 But  all  this  hedging  about  with  officials,  and  double- 
 lock  of  civil,  ecclesiastical  and  secret  governments,  has 
 not  always  held  the  Mormons  in  perfect  unity  or  pre- 
 vented schism  and  revolt.  Perfect  conformity  in  re- 
 li<>ion  can  only  be  secured  by  the  rack,  the  stake, 
 and  the  dungeon  of  the  inquisition ;  Mormonism  carried 
 within  its  bosom  the  germs  of  disintegration,  long 
 latent  though  they  might  be,  and  the  original  organiza- 
 tion has  from  time  to  time  given  rise  to  no  less  than 
 twenty-five  sects,  ites  and  isms,  of  which  six  or  seven, 
 besides  the  main  branch  under  Brigham,  still  preserve 
 a  sort  of  moribund  existence.  Like  the  non-juring 
 bishops  of  Anglican  history,  secession  once  begun  con- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  403 
 
 staiitly  repeated  itself;  the  recusant  and  deposed 
 priests  in  turn  denounced  and  deposed  all  who  ques- 
 tioned their  prophetic  right,  and  each  of  the  sects 
 solemnly  points  to  all  the  others,  as  blind  and  erring 
 apostates,  whose  feet  are  treading  on  the  straight  line 
 to  hell.  During  the  life  of  Joe  Smith  there  seem 
 to  have  been  no  organized  secessions,  though  many 
 apostasies  The  living  oracle  could  be  consulted,  with 
 no  dispute  as  to  the  meaning  of  his  words ;  Joe  Smith 
 Mormonism  was  true  or  none  was,  and  there  was  no 
 other  alternative.  But  his  death  cut  off  the  source  of 
 infallible  interpretation,  and  opened  the  way  at  once 
 for  a  variance  in  doctrine.  Some  account  has  already 
 been  given  of  the  struggle  for  succession,  and  it  only 
 remains  to  briefly  note  the  course  of  the  diverging  sects, 
 in  the  ever  shifting  phases  of  their  pseudo-theology 
 and  protean  forms  of  error.  Of  all  the  scattering  sects 
 no  other  had  a  leader  with  the  executive  ability, 
 the  iron  nerve,  and  the  cruel,  remorseless  ambition  of 
 Brigham  Young ;  and,  in  consequence,  as  flist  as  they 
 came  in  contact  Avith  purer  faiths,  most  of  their 
 organizations  dissolved  and  fell  away. 
 
 Sidney  Rigdon  led  a  large  colony,  and  that  of  the 
 best  material,  to  Pennsylvania;  but  there  was  not 
 sufficient  ignorance  in  the  laity  or  secretive  cunning  in 
 the  leader,  and  little  by  little  they  scattered  among  the 
 Gentiles,  a  few  only,  with  Apostle  Wm.  Marks  at  their 
 head,  returning  to  the  Brighamite  Church,  from  which 
 they  afterwards  turned  away  to  young  Joe  Smith.  J. 
 J.  Strang  had  multitudmous  revelations,  that  Wisconsin 
 was  to  be  the  next  "  gathering  place  "  of  the  Saints, 
 
404  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 and  a  few  thousand  followed  him  to  the  unsettled  por- 
 tion of  that  new  State.  He  aftenvards  settled  the 
 remnant  on  Beaver  Island,  in  Lake  Michigan,  and 
 maintained  some  organization  till  his  death ;  no  prophet 
 arising  after  him,  some  of  his  flock  went  "  hunting  fbr 
 Zion  "  in  Iowa  and  Missouri,  some  went  to  Salt  Lake, 
 more  went  back  to  the  "re-organized  Church"  at  Piano, 
 Illinois,  and  many  went  crazy. 
 
 The  small  party  which  followed  William  Smith,  only 
 surviving  brother  of  the  Prophet,  to  Northern  Illinois, 
 soon  dissolved.  Elder  Brewster  took  another  party 
 to  Western  Iowa,  and  Bishop  Heddrick,  a  considerable 
 sect  into  Missouri,  both  of  which  fell  to  pieces  on  the 
 death  of  the  leaders  ;  but  the  remnants  have  lately  got 
 together  under  a  new  prophet,  and  formed  the  sect 
 known  as  "  Gatherers."  They  are  attempting  to  gather 
 and  settle  again  in  Jackson  County,  and  are  numerous 
 enough  to  have  an  organ  called  "  The  TruthteUer,''  a 
 weakly  periodical,  published  in  Western  Missouri. 
 Bishop  Cutler  also  led  off  a  small  party  in  Northern 
 Iowa,  and  after  his  death  most  of  them  returned  to  the 
 "  Re-organized  Church." 
 
 When  the  Church  set  out  from  Nauvoo,  the  Apostles 
 issued  orders  to  Elder  Sam  Brannan,  then  in  New 
 York,  to  proceed  with  a  party  by  sea  to  their  intended 
 destination  in  California.  He  accordingly  sailed  soon 
 after  in  the  ship  Brooklyn,  with  a  body  of  two  hundred 
 and  forty-six  foreign  converts,  and  $60,000  in  gold,  the 
 property  of  the  Church ;  but,  arriving  at  San  Francisco 
 (then  Yerba  Bu(mki),  when  the  country  was  first  at^ 
 tracting  attention,  lie,  ?.nd  most  of  his  party,  apostatized 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  405 
 
 and  remained  there.  He  invested  the  Church  funds  in 
 real  estate,  and  became  one  of  San  Francisco's  wealthi- 
 est citizens ;  but  has  since  repaid  the  money  to  the 
 Church  with  interest. 
 
 Soon  after,  Bishop  Lyman  Wight  led  another  large 
 party  to  Texas,  where  they  increased  greatly,  and  were 
 for  some  years  highly  prosperous.  They  at  first  ac- 
 knowledged allegiance  to  the  Twelve  Apostles,  but 
 when  Brigham  took  the  reins  they  grew  restive ;  when 
 polygamy  was  avowed,  Wight  solemnly  "cut-ofi""  the 
 Salt  Lake  Mormons,  and  no  long  time  after,  was  him- 
 self cut  off  by  death,  and  his  flock  scattered  for  want 
 of  a  shepherd. 
 
 Soon  after  the  founding  of  Salt  Lake  City,  a  large 
 colony  of  Mormons  was  also  established  in  San  Ber- 
 nardino County,  California ;  but  they  were  too  far  from 
 headquarters,  to  be  governed  either  by  Apostles  or  "  Dan- 
 ies,"  and  soon  became  entangled  in  the  politics  and  public 
 interests  of  the  State.  Orders  were  issued  for  their 
 return  to  Utah,  a  few  obeyed,  and  the  remainder  "  lost 
 the  spirit  and  fell  into  apostasy."  But  it  is  a  fixed  fact, 
 that  ninety-nine  out  of  a  hundred  who  have  believed 
 Mormonism  for  ten  years,  are  ever  after  unfit  for  any 
 sensible  faith ;  apostates  from  Mormonism  are  generally 
 infidels  or  visionaries,  Millenarians,  Adventists  or  Lu- 
 natics ;  and  the  San  Bernardino  schismatics,  in  a  body, 
 embraced  Spiritualism.  From  the  unseen  world  a  reve- 
 lation was  received,  that  a  youth  of  one  of  the  old  Mor- 
 mon families  would  in  time  be  called  as  a  prophet,  and 
 anite  the  whole  Chuch ;  but  unfortunately  the  young 
 man  died  soon  after,  and  San  Bernardino  was  left  with- 
 
406  LIFE    IN    UTAH;     OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 out  a  prophet.  A  few  returned  to  the  parent  organi- 
 zation, and  a  few  to  the  "  Re-organized  Church ;"  insanity 
 prevails  to  an  amazing  extent  among  the  remainder, 
 who  long  contributed  from  twelve  to  twenty  additions, 
 per  year,  to  the  insane  asylum  at  Stockton ;  and  it  is 
 reported,  that  institution  now  contains  a  hundred  of 
 the  sect,  and  would  have  five  hundred  more  if  it  were 
 not  full. 
 
 Deducting  all  preliminary  secessions,  nearly  20,000 
 followed  the  Twelve  Apostles  from  Nauvoo,  of  whom 
 less  than  10,000  ever  reached  Utah.  Throughout 
 their  Iowa  pilgrimage  bands  and  parties  fell  away  like 
 sparks  from  a  flying  meteor,  and  almost  every  "  stake  " 
 soon  became  a  village  of  recusant  Mormons;  Garden 
 Grove,  Mount  Pisgah,  Council  Blufis,  Florence  and 
 Columbus  were  originally  settled  by  these  apostates^ 
 and  considerable  bodies  gathered  to  Nebraska  City, 
 Omaha  and  other  river  towriR.  Dr.  Isaac  Galland  died 
 in  extreme  poverty  in  Iowa,  and  nearly  all  the  old 
 Nauvoo  allies  of  Joe  Smith  ended  their  days  in  the 
 gutter,  the  penitentiary  or  the  poor  house.  But  thou- 
 sands of  those  who  had  honestly  embraced  Mormonism, 
 and  abandoned  it  only  when  convinced  of  the  im- 
 posture, became  valuable  citizens  among  the  Gentiles. 
 
 In  all  these  branch  organizations  there  was  no 
 isolation  from  the  world,  no  repressive  power,  and  no 
 one  man  to  seize  the  reins  and  drive  ruthlessly  forward, 
 regardless  alike  of  the  sufferings  of  his  people  and  the 
 lives  of  his  enemies;  hence,  inherent  weakness  in- 
 creased, and  they  fast  decayed.  But  in  Utah  Brigham 
 was    absolute;    he    had   perfect   isolation,    and    talent 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  407 
 
 without  the  troublesome  adjunct  of  a  conscience,  and 
 there  despotism  has  been  a  success.  Nevertheless, 
 even  in  Utah  there  have  been  no  less  than  four  distinct 
 and  organized  attempts  to  throw  off  the  yoke  of  Brig- 
 ham,  and  "  return  to  a  more  perfect  faith."  None  of 
 these  bodies  have  professed  a  desire  to  break  up  the 
 Church,  only  to  purify  it. 
 
 The  first  was  by  the  sect  known  as  "  Gladdenites." 
 It  will  be  remembered  that  Gladden  Bishop  was  con 
 demned  at  Nauvoo ;  but  he  soon  after  came  back;  to 
 the  Church,  and  other  recusants  were  beginning  to 
 return,  when,  in  1852,  polygamy  was  avowed,  and  to 
 this  and  other  new  features  the  Gladdenites  were 
 opposed.  Their  mission  in  Salt  Lake  City  was  headed 
 by  one  Albert  Smith,  from  Saint  Louis,  and  seems  to 
 have  made  sufficient  progress  to  stir  up  the  Brighamites, 
 who  have  left  about  the  only  history  we  have  of  the 
 Sect  in  Utah.  The  following  extract  from  a  "sermon" 
 by  Brigham  will  clearly  indicate  how  this  movement 
 was  crushed : 
 
 "  I  will  ask.  What  has  produced  your  persecutions 
 and  sorrow  ?  What  has  been  the  starting-point  of  all 
 your  afflictions?  They  began  with  apostates  in  your 
 midst;  those  disaffected  spirits  caused  others  to  come 
 in,  worse  than  they,  who  would,  run  out  and  bring  in 
 all  the  devils  they  possibly  could.  That  has  been  the 
 starting-point  and  grand  cause  of  all  our  difficulties, 
 every  time  we  were  driven.  I  am  coming  to  this  place, 
 — I  am  coming  nearer  home.  .  .  .  Do  we  see 
 apostates  among  us  now  ?     We  do. 
 
 "  When  a  man  comes  right  out  like  an  independent 
 
408  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 devil,  and  says,  *  Damn  Mormonism  and  all  the  Mor- 
 mons,' and  is  oflf  with  himself  to  California,  I  say  he  is 
 a  gentleman  by  the  side  of  a  nasty,  sneaking  apostate, 
 who  is  opposed  to  nothing  but  Christianity.  I  say  to 
 the  former,  '  Go  in  peace,  sir,  and  prosper  if  you  can.* 
 But  we  have  a  set  of  spirits  here,  worse  than  such  a 
 character.  When  I  went  from  meeting  last  Sabbath, 
 my  ears  were  saluted  with  an  apostate,  crying  in  the 
 streets  here.  I  want  to  know  if  any  one  of  you  who 
 has  got  the  spirit  of  Mormonism  in  you,  the  spirit  that 
 Joseph  and  Hyrum  had,  or  that  we  have  here,  would 
 say,  '  Let  us  hear  both  sides  of  the  question.  Let  us 
 listen  and  prove  all  things.'  What  do  you  want  to 
 prove?  Do  you  want  to  prove  that  an  old  apostate, 
 who  has  been  cut  off  from  the  Church  thirteen  times 
 for  lying,  is  anything  worthy  of  notice  ?  I  heard  that 
 a  certain  picture-maker  in  this  city,  when  the  boys 
 would  have  moved  away  the  wagon  in  which  this 
 apostate  was  standing,  became  violent  with  them,  say- 
 ing, '  Let  this  man  alone ;  these  are  Saints  that  you  are 
 persecuting.'     [Sneeringly.] 
 
 "We  want  such  men  to  go  to  California,  or  anywhere 
 they  choose.  I  say  to  those  persons,  '  You  must  not 
 court  persecution  here,  lest  you  get  so  much  of  it  you 
 will  not  know  what  to  do  with  it.  Do  not  court 
 persecution.'  We  have  known  Gladden  Bishop  for 
 more  than  twenty  years,  and  know  him  to  be  a  poor, 
 dirty  curse.  Here  is  sister  Vilate  Kimball,  brother 
 Ileber's  wife,  has  borne  more  from  that  man  than  an}'' 
 other  woman  on  earth  could  bear ;  but  she  won't  bear 
 it  again.     I  say  again,  you  Gladdenites,  do  not  court 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  409 
 
 persecution,  or  you  will  get  more  than  you  want,  and 
 it  will  come  quicker  than  you  want  it. 
 
 "  I  say  to  you,  Bishops,  do  not  allow  them  to  preach 
 in  your  wards.  Who  broke  the  roads  to  these  valleys? 
 Did  this  little  nasty  Smith,  and  his  wife  ?  No.  They 
 stayed  in  St.  Louis  w^hile  we  did  it,  peddling  ribbons, 
 and  kissing  the  Gentiles.  I  know  what  they  have 
 done  here — they  have  asked  exorbitant  prices  for  their 
 nasty,  stinking  ribbons.  [Voices,  '  That's  true.']  We 
 broke  the  roads  to  this  country. 
 
 "  Now,  you  Gladdenites,  keep  your  tongues  still,  lest 
 sudden  destruction  come  upon  you.  I  say,  rather  than 
 that  apostates  should  flourish  here,  I  will  unsheathe 
 my  bowie-knife,  and  conquer  or  die.  [Great  commo- 
 tion in  the  congregation,  and  a  simultaneous  burst  of 
 feeling,  assenting  to  the  declaration.]  Now,  yon  nasty 
 apostates,  clear  out,  or  'judgment  will  be  laid  to  the 
 line,  and  righteousness  to  the  plummet.'  [Voices 
 generally,  *  Go  it,  go  it.']  If  you  say  it  is  all  right, 
 raise  your  hands.  [All  hands  up.]  Let  us  call  upon 
 the  Lord  to  assist  us  in  this  and  every  other  good 
 work."  * 
 
 It  must  be  remembered  that  all  these  sermons  are 
 quoted  exactly  as  reported  by  the  Mormons  themselves 
 and  printed  in  the  Church  paper,  that  Brigham  carefully 
 revises  them  before  they  are  printed ;  and  that  they  are 
 frequently  so  pared  down  and  modified,  with  most  of 
 the  oaths  and  obscenity  struck  out,  that  it  is  difficult 
 for  the  hearer  to  recognize  the  published  form.  In  an- 
 other part  of  the  above  harangue,  Brigham  warns  the 
 *  March  27,  1853.    Jour,  of  Dis.,  vol.  i,  p.  82. 
 
410  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 Gladdenites  that  they  "were  not  playing  with  shadows, 
 but  were  trying  to  fool  with  the  voice  and  hand  of  the 
 Almighty,  and  would  find  themselves  badly  mistaken." 
 The  effect  of  such  preaching  was  horrible,  and  that 
 some  of  the  Gladdenites  were  murdered  outright  is 
 beyond  a  doubt.  But  the  Church  authorities  seem  to 
 have  been  fearful  that  a  spirit  of  rebellion  might  still 
 lurk  in  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  determined  to 
 stamp  out  the  last  traces  of  apostasy.  To  this  end,  the 
 doctrine  of  "blood-atonement"  was  introduced  and 
 preached  regularly  for  many  years.  This  doctrine  was 
 urged  particularly  with  a  wild  and  savage  earnestness 
 by  Jedediah  M.  Grant,  who,  it  is  but  charity  to  suppose, 
 was  insane  on  the  subject ;  a  blood-crazy  wretch,  legit- 
 imately^ succeeded  by  Daniel  H.  Wells.  Like  the  latter 
 he  was  First  Counselor  to  Brigham,  Mayor  of  the 
 city  and  Chief  of  the  secret  police ;  and  like  him,  too, 
 he  regarded  murder  as  a  holy  act,  if  done  in  accordance 
 with  the  rites  of  the  Church ;  and  there  is  testimony 
 that  some  of  these  unfortunate  apostates  were  actually 
 sacrificed  in  the  Endowment  House,  "to  atone  for  their 
 sins  and  save  their  souls."  Young  Mormons,  who  were 
 children  then,  have  often  told  me  of  hearing  this  J.  M. 
 Grant  preach  his  favorite  doctrine  of  blood-atonement, 
 with  furious  mien  and  gestures,  and  actually  foaming  at 
 the  mouth  in  the  intensity  of  fanatic  rage.  If  any 
 should  doubt  the  possibility  of  men  going  to  such 
 lengths  in  a  bloody  doctrine,  let  them  peruse  this  ex- 
 tract from  one  of  Grant's  sermons,  delivered  March  12th, 
 1854,  as  recorded  in  the  Mormon pid)licat ion,  the  Deseret 
 News ;  and  remember,  too,  that  it  is  only  the  mildest 
 
AND  CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  411 
 
 possible  language  which  is  published,  compared  with 
 that  actually  used. 
 
 "  Then  what  ought  this  meek  people  who  keep  the 
 commandments  of  God  do  unto  them  ?  '  Why/  says  one, 
 *  they  ought  to  pray  to  the  Lord  to  hill  them.*  I  want 
 to  know  if  you  would  wish  the  Lord  to  come  down  and 
 do  all  your  dirty  work  ?  Many  of  the  Latter-day  Saints 
 will  pray,  and  petition,  and  supplicate  the  Lord  to  do  a 
 thousand  things  they  themselves  would  be  ashamed 
 to  do. 
 
 4:  4:  4:  ^  4:  ^ 
 
 ^'When  a  man  prays  for  a  thing,  he  ought  to  he  will- 
 ing to  perform  it  himself.  But  if  the  Latter-day  Saints 
 should  put  to  death  tlie  covenant-breakers,  it  would  try 
 the  faith  of  the  very  meek,  just,  and  pious  ones  among 
 them,  and  it  would  cause  a  great  deal  of  whining  in 
 Israel. 
 
 "  Then  there  was  another  odd  commandment.  The 
 Lord  God  commanded  them  not  to  pity  the  person  whom 
 they  hilled,  but  to  execute  the  law  of  God  upon  persons 
 worthy  of  death.  This  should  he  done  hy  the  entire  con- 
 gregation, SHOWING  NO  PITY.  I  have  thought  there 
 would  have  to  be  quite  a  revolution  among  the  Mor- 
 mons before  such  a  commandment  could  be  obeyed 
 completely  by  them.  For  instance,  if  they  can  get  a 
 man  before  the  tribunal  admmistering  the  law  of  the 
 land,  and  succeed  in  getting  a  rope  around  his  neck, 
 and  having  him  hung  up  like  a  dead  dog,  it  is  all  right." 
 But  if  the  Church  and  Kingdom  of  Gxxl  shoidd  step 
 forth  and  execute  the  laiv  of  Ood,  0,  what  a  burst  of 
 Mormon  sympathy  it  would  cause  !  I  wish  we  were  in  a 
 
412  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 situation  favorable  to  our  doing  that  which  is  justifiable 
 before  God,  without  any  contaminating  i7ifluence  of  Gen- 
 tile  amaIgamatio7i,  laws,  and  traditions;  that  tlie  People 
 of  God  might  lay  the  ax  to  the  root  of  the  tree,  and  every 
 tree  that  bringeth  not  forth  good  fruit  might  be  hewn 
 down. 
 
 "  What !  do  you  believe  that  people  would  do  right 
 and  keep  the  law  of  God  by  axitually  putting  to  death 
 tlie  tra7isgressors  ?  Putting  to  death  the  transgressors 
 would  exhibit  tlie  law  of  God,  no  matter  by  whom  it  was 
 done.     That  is  my  opinion. 
 
 "  You  talk  of  the  doings  of  different  Governments — 
 the  United  States,  if  you  please.  What  do  they  do 
 with  traitors  ?  What  mode  do  they  adopt  to  punish 
 traitors  ?  Do  traitors  to  that  Government  forfeit  their 
 lives  ?  Examine  also  the  doings  of  other  earthly  Gov- 
 ernments on  this  point,  and  you  find  the  same  practice 
 universal.  I  am  not  aware  that  there  are  any  excep- 
 tions. But  people  will  look  into  books  of  theology,  and 
 argue  that  the  people  of  God  have  a  right  to  try  people 
 for  fellowship,  but  they  have  no  right  to  try  them  on 
 property  or  life.  That  makes  the  devil  laugh,  saying: 
 I  have  got  them  on  a  hook  now ;  they  can  cut  them 
 off,  and  I  will  put  eight  or  ten  spirits  worse  than  they 
 are  into  their  tabernacles,  and  send  them  back  to  mob 
 them." 
 
 Brigham  follows  up  this  reasoning  with  a  plain 
 declaration  that  none  can  expect  finally  to  escape,  and 
 sooner  or  later  the  vengeance  of  the  Church  will  over- 
 take them.  But  he  uses  a  different  phraseology,  as 
 follows : 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  413 
 
 "There  is  not  a  man  or  woman  who  violates  the 
 covenants  made  with  their  God,  that  will  not  be  re- 
 quired to  pay  the  debt.  The  blood  of  Christ  will  never 
 wipe  that  out,  your  own  blood  must  atone  for  it ;  and 
 the  judgments  of  the  Almighty  will  come  sooner  or 
 later,  and  every  man  and  woman  will  have  to  atone  for 
 breaking  their  covenants." 
 
 With  these  plain  directions  to  an  ignorant  and  fanat- 
 ical people,  from  those  they  looked  upon  as  the  incar- 
 nate voice  of  God,  the  fate  of  the  Gladdenites  is  easily 
 foreseen.  Those  who  could,  escaped  to  California ;  the 
 others  recanted  or  "atoned,"  and  we  hear  no  more  of 
 them  after  1854. 
 
 Second  in  order  of  time  was  the  Sect  known  as 
 "  Morrisites,"  whose  history  is  substantially  as  follows  : 
 
 Joseph  Morris  was  a  native  of  Manchester,  England, 
 and  came  to  Utah  among  the  early  converts.  Like 
 thousands  of  others,  he  thought  that  the  pure  truth 
 dehvered  by  Joseph  Smith  had  been  corrupted,  and 
 conceived  the  design  of  effecting  a  grand  reformation 
 in  the  Church.  According  to  his  own  account,  while 
 engaged  in  reflection  on  the  subject,  he  was  one  day  in 
 the  pastures  beyond  Jordan,  when  he  was  favored  with 
 a  glorious  vision,  and  by  command  of  Christ,  Enos,  (son 
 of  Seth,)  John  the  Baptist,  and  the  archangel  Michael, 
 who  constitute  the  triune  mission  of  Mormonism,  ap- 
 peared and  endowed  him  with  the  holy  priesthood,  as 
 the  true  successor  of  Joseph  Smith. 
 
 On  announcing  his  mission,  he  was  at  once  an  object 
 of  interest  to  all  persons  at  South  Weber,  his  res- 
 idence, some  thirty  miles  north  of  this  city,  and  in  a 
 
414  LIFE    IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 short  time  had  converted  to  his  views  Bishop  Cook,  of 
 Weber  settlement,  his  brother,  John  Cook,  and  several 
 others. 
 
 Persecution  by  his  neighbors  soon  followed,  and  his 
 life  was  frequently  threatened ;  but  little  attention  was 
 paid  to  the  matter  by  the  regular  authorities,  as  Morris 
 was  an  exceedingly  simple  and  illiterate  man,  who  was 
 thought  incapable  of  giving  the  slightest  trouble. 
 Meanwhile,  he  continued  to  receive  voluminous  revela- 
 tions, and,  under  the  supposed  influence  of  the  Holy 
 Spirit,  composed  two  letters  directed  to  Brigham  Young 
 and  Heber  C.  Kimball,  which  he  took  to  the  city  and 
 delivered  in  person.  Brigham  treated  the  matter  lightly 
 at  first,  but  it  soon  grew  so  serious  that  John  Taylor 
 and  Wilford  Woodruff,  both  apostles,  were  sent  to  Weber 
 to  investigate  the  matter.  They  called  a  Church  meet- 
 ing, in  executive  session,  on  the  11th  of  February,  1861, 
 when  Taylor  rose  and  demanded  whether  there  was  a 
 man  in  that  ward  who  claimed  to  be  a  prophet,  and  if 
 so,  whether  he  had  any  followers  ?  To  the  consterna- 
 tion of  the  Brighamites  seventeen  persons,  with  Bishop 
 Cook  at  their  head,  arose  and  avowed  their  belief  that 
 "Joseph  Morris  was  sent  of  God,  and  was  the  true 
 priestly  successor  of  Joseph  Smith."  It  is  to  be  noted 
 that  the  Morrisites  never  denied  the  right  of  Brigham 
 to  be  First  President,  by  election,  and  temporal  head  of 
 the  Church  ;  but  they  claimed  that  he  was  "  neither  a 
 prophet,  nor  the  son  of  a  prophet." 
 
 A  violent  discussion  followed,  in  which  an  old  man 
 named  Watts  said  that  the  Morrisites  "  ought  to  be  cut 
 off  under  the  chin  and  laid  away  in  the  brush,"  foi 
 
A2n)   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  415. 
 
 which  he  was  sternly  rebuked  by  Bishop  Cook.  After 
 the  customary  "  admonition,"  by  Taylor  and  Woodruff, 
 all  the  adherents  of  Morris  were  formally  excommuni- 
 cated, and  "  delivered  over  to  the  buffetings  of  Satan 
 for  a  thousand  years."  Morris  established  his  church 
 by  baptizing  five  persons  in  the  Weber  River,  on  the  6th 
 of  April,  1861,  exactly  thirty-one  years  from  the  first 
 baptism  by  Joseph  Smith.  Converts  flocked  rapidly 
 from  all  parts  of  the  Territory,  and  the  new  sect  soon 
 numbered  three  hundred.  It  never  exceeded  five  hun- 
 dred. Morris  employed  two  scribes  to  take  down  his 
 revealed  gospel,  and  his  followers  now  have  six  volumes 
 of  them,  each  containing  two  or  three  hundred  manu- 
 script pages. 
 
 The  spring  review  of  1862,  of  the  Nauvoo  Legion, 
 the  Territorial  militia,  came  on,  and  the  Morrisites  re- 
 fused to  drill,  for  which  several  of  them  were  arrested 
 and  fined  $60  and  $80  each.  Other  troubles  arose  be- 
 tween them  and  the  surrounding  Mormons,  about  which 
 there  is  great  conflict  of  testimony.  I  have  the  story 
 from  those  of  the  Morrisites  now  at  Camp  Douglas, 
 from  various  Brighamites,  and  from  official  papers  and 
 testimony  left  by  Judges  Waite,  Drake,  and  Titus. 
 The  Sect  occupied  a  portion  of  the  Weber  Valley,  with 
 their  town  made  in  a  sort  of  encampment  in  a  circular 
 hollow,  below  which  was  their  cultivated  land.  They 
 had  all  things  in  common,  and  every  new  convert  divided 
 his  surplus  property  among  the  needy,  while  their 
 common  cow-herd  was  attended  by  a  detailed  herder 
 among  the  mountain  hollows.  Intelligent  Mormons, 
 then  resident  on  the  Weber,  tell  me  they  took  a  large 
 
416  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 number  of  cattle  from  their  neighbors,  and  committed 
 other  depredations ;  which  the  Morrisites  deny,  saying 
 that  they  only  retaliated  where  they  had  been  robbed 
 At  length  one  Jones  seized  a  load  of  flour  belonging  tc 
 the  Morrisites  at  a  mill  near  Salt  Lake,  and  detained  it 
 and  the  two  boys  in  charge,  as  he  alleged,  in  satisfaction, 
 for  injuries  done  him. 
 
 The  Morrisites  sent  out  a  strong  posse,  retook  the 
 load,  and  brought  Jones  and  two  confederates,  as  pris- 
 oners to  their  camp.  Meanwhile,  the  Sheriff  had  ap- 
 peared, and  purposed  to  arrest  all  those  who  could  not, 
 or  would  not  pay  the  fines  assessed  for  refusal  to  drill, 
 but  he  was  refused  admission  to  the  settlement.  Com- 
 plaint was  at  once  made  to  Chief  Justice  Kinney,  who 
 issued  writs  for  the  arrest  of  the  leading  Morrisites,  and 
 Robert  T.  Burton,Sheriff  of  Salt  Lake  County,  attempted 
 to  serve  them,  but  returned  to  the  city  unsuccessful. 
 The  Nauvoo  Legion  was  at  once  ordered  out,  with 
 several  cannon,  and  placed  under  Burton's  command. 
 On  their  way  they  were  joined  by  reinforcements  from 
 Ogden,  Kaysville,  and  Farmington,  till  early  on  the 
 morning  of  June  13,  1862,  they  arrived  before  the 
 Morrisitc  Camp,  with  a  thousand  well  armed  men,  and 
 five  pieces  of  artillery.  They  captured  the  Morrisites' 
 cow-herd,  killing  sucli  as  they  desired  for  beef,  and  sent 
 the  boys  attending  it  into  the  camp,  with  Burton's  procliv 
 mation,  calling  for  surrender.  The  camp,  or  fort,  consisted 
 of  a  few  houses  made  of  willows,  woven  together  and 
 plastered,  and  covered  wagons,  surrounded  by  some 
 rude  fortifications.  Morris  called  his  men  together, 
 when  they  received  another  note  to  remove  the  women 
 
AND   CRLMES   OF   MORMONISM.  417 
 
 and  children,  as  firing  would  begin  in  one  hour.  In 
 about  twent}^  minutes  a  cannon  was  fired,  of  which  the 
 ball  entered  the  fort,  killing  two  women,  and  carrjang 
 away  the  jaw  of  another. 
 
 Meanwhile,  Morris  had  donned  his  priestly  robe,  and 
 taken  his  divining  rod,  and  was  waiting  for  a  revelation 
 as  to  Avhat  course  should  be  taken.  After  an  hour  or 
 two  of  fanatic  supplication,  no  revelation  was  received  ; 
 and  as  the  Brighamites  had  begun  to  surround  the 
 camp,  the  Prophet  divided  his  forces,  placed  a  band  at 
 each  of  the  weak  points,  and  assumed  the  responsibility 
 of  fighting.  His  camp  was  upon  a  knoll  in  the  hollow 
 of  the  Weber,  a  mile  or  so  below  the  i^resent  railroad 
 station  of  Uintaii,  while  the  Brighamite  posse  occupied 
 the  adjacent  slopes.  The  latter  soon  opened  a  general 
 fire  upon  the  camp,  when  the  Morrisites  at  once  flew 
 to  arms  and  the  battle  began.  The  cannon  and  long- 
 range  rifles  of  the  Brighamites  completely  raked  the 
 fort,  to  which  the  Morrisites  could  only  reply  with 
 their  ducking-guns  and  a  few  Spanish  scopeetes,  which 
 inflicted  only  slight  wounds.  The  cannon,  too,  were 
 often  loaded  with  small  balls,  which  tore  down  the 
 wicker-work  and  pierced  the  sandy  hillocks,  wounding 
 the  women  and  children  who  had  taken  refuge  behind 
 them.  Still  these  deluded  people  would  not  surrender, 
 and  for  throe  days,  fighting  with  the  desperate  energy 
 of  religious  fanaticism,  maintained  the  unequal  battle. 
 At  intervals,  during  that  time,  they  often  called  on 
 Morris  to  intercede  with  the  Lord  for  f.lieir  deliverance, 
 to  which  he  made  reply :  "  If  the  Lord  will,  we  shall 
 be  delivered  and  our  enemies  destroyed ;  but  let  us  do 
 27 
 
418  LIFE    IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 our  duty."  On  the  evening  of  the  third  day,  some  one 
 raised  a  white  flag ;  when  Morris  saw  it,  he  said : 
 "  Your  faith  has  gone  and  the  Lord  has  forsaken  us. 
 I  can  now  do  nothing  more." 
 
 They  threw  down  their  arms  and  the  Legion  marched 
 in.  Amid  the  wildest  confusion  the  men  and  women 
 were  separated,  and  the  former  pLaced  under  guard.  Few 
 of  the  women  could  speak  English,  and  all  expected 
 nothing  but  destruction.  Burton  shot  Morris,  his 
 Lieutenant,  Banks,  and  two  women,  after  the  arms 
 were  given  up,  while  the  soldiers  plundered  the  houses, 
 took  all  the  watches,  jewelry  and  money,  and  destroyed 
 all  they  could  not  carry  away.  Here,  too,  there  is  great 
 conflict  of  testimony.  Some  of  the  boys  who  were  with 
 the  Brighamite  forces  say  that  Morris  ordered  his  men 
 to  take  their  arms  and  fight  again,  for  which  he  was 
 shot.  Still  others  say  that  Banks  was  only  slightly 
 wounded,  and  called  for  water,  when  a  cup  was  handed 
 him  by  the  Brighamite  surgeon.  Dr.  Jeter  Clinton ;  that 
 he  drank  of  it  and  expired  in  a  few  minutes.  The 
 Morrisites  are  confident  he  would  have  recovered,  if  he 
 had  not  been  poisoned.  The  following  affidavit  will 
 give  most  clearly  the  Morrisite  version  of  the  afliiir : 
 
 "  United  States  of  America,  Territory  of  Utah,  ss. 
 
 "  Alexander  Dow,  of  said  Territory,  being  duly 
 sworn,  says : 
 
 "  In  the  spring  of  1861,  I  joined  the  Morrisites,  and 
 was  present  Avhen  Joseph  Morris  was  killed.  The 
 Morrisites  had  surrendered,  a  white  flag  was  flying,  and 
 the  arms  were  all  grounded  and  guarded  by  a  large 
 number  of  the^osee. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  419 
 
 "  Robert  T.  Burton  and  Judson  L.  Stoddard  rode  in 
 among  the  Morrisites.  Burton  was  much  excited,  and 
 said  :  '  Where  is  the  man?  I  don't  know  him.'  Stod- 
 dard replied,  '  That's  him,'  pointing  to  Morris.  Burton 
 rode  his  horse  upon  Morris,  and  commanded  him  to 
 give  himself  up  m  the  name  of  the  Lord.  Morris  re- 
 plied: "No;  never,  never.'  Morris  said  he  wanted  to 
 speak  to  the  people.  Burton  said,  'Be  d — d  quicli 
 about  it.'  Morris  said,  '  Brethren,  I  have  taught  you 
 true  principles'— he  had  scarcely  got  the  words  out  of 
 his  mouth,  when  Burton  fired  his  revolver.  The  ball 
 passed  in  his  neck  or  shoulder.  Burton  exclaimed, 
 '  There's  your  Prophet.'  He  fired  again,  saying,  '  What 
 do  you  think  of  your  Prophet  now  ?' 
 
 "Burton  then  turned  suddenly  and  shot  Banks,  who 
 was  standing  five  or  six  paces  distant.  Banks  fell. 
 Mrs.  Bowman,  wife  of  James  Bowman,  came  running 
 up,  crying,  'Oh!  you  blood-thirsty  wretch!'  Burton 
 said,  '  No  one  shall  tell  me  .that  and  live,'  and  shot  her 
 dead.  A  Danish  woman  then  came  running  up  to 
 Morris,  crying,  and  Burton  shot  her  dead  also.  Burton 
 could  have  easily  taken  Morris  and  Banks  prisoners,  if 
 he  had  tried.  I  was  standing  but  a  few  feet  from  Bur- 
 ton all  the  time.     And  further  saith  not. 
 
 "Alexander  Dow." 
 
 "Subscribed  and  sworn  to  before  me,  this  18th  day 
 of  April,  A.  D.,  1863. 
 
 "Charles  B.  Waite. 
 "Associate  Justice,  Utah  Territory ^ 
 
 All  the  loose  property  of  the  Morrisites  having  been 
 "  confiscated,"  the  dead  bodies  of  Morris,  Banks  and 
 
420  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES  ^ 
 
 eight  others  were  thrown  into  a  wagon,  with  Morris'  robe, 
 crown  and  rod,  and  succeeded  by  the  captured  Morris- 
 ites,  they  were  guarded  to  the  city.  Young  and  old 
 turned  out  to  see  them,  with  mingled  emotions  of  glee 
 and  horror,  and  the  bodies  of  Morris  and  Banks,  lying 
 for  several  days  in  the  City  Hall,  were  visited  by  great 
 crowds,  eager  to  see  the  noted  "  schismatic."  The  vast 
 majority  of  these  people  regarded  it  simply  as  the  pro- 
 per punishment  due  to  one  who  had  "  set  himself  up  to 
 teach  heresy  in  Zion  and  oppose  the  Lord's  anointed." 
 During  the  entire  battle  two  Brighamites  and  ten  Mor- 
 risites  were  killed,  and  a  very  large  number  wounded. 
 
 Ninety-three  of  the  Morrisites  were  at  once  arraigned 
 before  Judge  Kinney,  but  there  was  so  much  popular 
 excitement,  and  as  it  was  probable  more  would  die  of 
 their  wounds,  he  proceeded  to  place  them  all  under 
 bonds  of  $1,500  each,  for  their  appearance  in  April, 
 1863.  Only  five  of  them  would  sign  the  bond;  few  of 
 the  rest  could  speak  English,  and  those  who  could  pro- 
 tested against  the  entire  proceedings,  and  announced 
 their  determination  "  to  lie  in  jail  till  the  Devil's  thou- 
 sand years  were  out,"  before  they  would  even  by  impli- 
 cation confess  that  they  were  treated  legally. 
 
 But  as  the  five  signers  still  owned  considerable  prop- 
 erty, Judge  Kinney  ruled  that,  as  in  a  sort  of  connnu- 
 nity,  they  could  bind  all  the  rest,  as  their  representatives. 
 When  the  April  term  (1863)  came  on,  twenty  of  them 
 .were  out  of  the  territory,  and  one  was  dead,  but  most 
 of  the  rest  appeared.  Kinney  said  that  "  their  absence 
 made  no  difference ;  he  was  glad  to  see  that  so  many 
 bad  appeared ;"  and  proceeded  to  enter  a  fine  of  one 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  421 
 
 hundred  dollars  each  against  the  present,  dead  and 
 absent.  In  addition,  several  leaders  were  put  on  trial, 
 and  sentenced  to  the  penitentiary  for  from  five  to  fifteen 
 years  each. 
 
 In  June,  1862,  Kinney  was  the  only  United  States 
 Judge  in  Utah,  and  the  compliant  tool  of  the  Brigham- 
 ites.  But  Governor  Harding  and  Judges  Waite  and 
 Drake  had  arrived  in  time  to  hear  the  trial  of  the  Mor- 
 risites,  and  were  convinced  that  great  injustice  had 
 been  done  them,  or  even  if  they  were  guilty  of  resistr 
 ance  to  legal  process,  the  law  had  been  strained  to  in- 
 flict a  cruel  and  unusual  punishment.  It  was  known, 
 too,  as  it  is  now,  that  sentence  to  a  long  imprisonment 
 in  Utah  simply  means  death,  if  the  keepers  in  charge 
 are  so  instructed.  Petitions  began  to  circulate  for  their 
 pardon,  signed  by  Gentiles  and  some  of  the  Mormons 
 who  relented  at  such  severity.  Quite  an  excitement 
 was  created  by  these  attempts,  and  Governor  Harding 
 was  warned  by  the  more  violent  Brighamites  not  to 
 interfere  with  the  sentence  of  law.  Bishop  Woolley 
 called  upon  the  Governor  with  an  earnest  remonstrance 
 against  the  proposed  pardon,  adding  in  conclusion, 
 "  Governor,  it  stands  you  in  hand  to  be  careful.  Our 
 people  are  much  excited ;  they  feel  it  would  be  an  out- 
 rage to  pardon  these  men,  and  if  it  is  done  they  might 
 proceed  to  violence"  etc.,  ete. 
 
 To  this  truly  Mormon  attempt  at  intimidation  the 
 Governor  responded  with  his  usual  firmness.  While 
 the  petition,  with  names  attached,  was  still  in  his  pos- 
 session, not  acted  upon,  the  Governor  was  aroused  from 
 sleep  one  night,  between  mid-night  and  morning,  by  a 
 
422  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 furious  knocking  at  the  door;  it  was  opened  by  his 
 son,  Attila,  who  acted  as  his  private  secretary,  and 
 there  presented  himself  a  stranger  of  rough  aspect,  who 
 demanded  peremptorily  to  "  see  the  Gov'n'r."  No  repre- 
 sentations of  the  unseasonableness  of  the  hour  appeared 
 to  move  him ;  he  insisted  that  his  business  was  too  im- 
 portant for  delay ;  he  had  ridden  thirty  miles  over  bad 
 roads,  could  not  arrive  sooner  and  must  return  at  once. 
 With  precautions  against  surprise  they  admitted  him  to  the 
 Governor's  room,  and  he  at  once  began  :  "  I  understand 
 that  you  have  a  petition  for  the  pardon  of  some  of  the 
 Morrisites — that  you  won't  act  on  it  because  you  don't 
 think  there  are  enough  o'  Mormon  names  on  it — or  Mor- 
 mons that  are  well  known.  An'  you  say  some  Mormons 
 want  to  sign  it,  want  'em  pardoned,  but  are  afeard  to  sign. 
 Gi'  me  that  paper  an'  I'll  show  you  one  Mormon  that's 
 not  afeard  to  sign — an'  one  that's  purty  well  known,  too. 
 An'  I've  rid  thirty  miles  this  night  on  purpose  to  sign  it." 
 The  petition  was  procured  and  handed  him,  and  after  a 
 rapid  survey  of  the  names,  he  seized  the  pen  and  in 
 broad,  sprawling  Roman  capitals,  extending  entirely 
 across  the  sheet,  inscribed  the  well  known  name, 
 BILL  HICKMAN. 
 It  was  indeed  the  redoubtable  "Danite"  captain. 
 "  There,"  said  he,  holding  it  off  at  arm's  length,  "  there 
 is  a  Mormon  name  they  all  know,  an'  they  can  read  it 
 without  specks.  Talk  o'  bein'  afeard  o'  Brigham 
 Young !  I  tell  you  Brigham  Young  is  a  good  deal  more 
 afeard  o'  Bill  Hickman  than  Bill  Hickman  is  o'  Brig- 
 ham Young."  Thus  speaking  he  departed  as  uncere- 
 moniously as  he  came,  nor  did  any  further  explanation 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  423 
 
 of  this  singular  affair  ever  reach  the  Governor.  After 
 a  short  imprisonment,  the  Morrisites  were  pardoned ;  no 
 violence  was  attempted  or  threatened  against  Governor 
 Harding,  but  another  singular  occurrence  took  place 
 soon  after. 
 
 One  beautiful  evening,  while  the  bright  sun  of  Utah 
 was  sinking  behind  the  Lake  island  hills,  into  a  "  sea 
 of  glass,  mingled  with  fire,"  tipping  with  a  golden  glory 
 the  gray  peaks  of  the  Wasatch,  two  women  might  have 
 been  seen  descending  the  hill  from  the  Morrisite  settle- 
 ment near  Camp  Douglas,  and  seeking  the  residence  of 
 the  Governor.  The  elder  was  a  brawny  and  sunburned 
 Danish  woman,  of  most  coarse  and  common  clay,  who 
 assisted  the  other's  steps  till  they  stood  before  the  Gov- 
 ernor. The  younger  woman  Avas  of  a  frail  and  delicate 
 aspect  that  indicated  either  long  sickness  and  privation, 
 or  a  nervous  organization  worn  to  exhaustion  by  excite- 
 ment ;  her  dark,  sunken  eyes  glowed  with  a  strange,  un- 
 earthly fire,  and  the  blue  veins  of  her  forehead  stood 
 out  from  a  skin  of  marble  whiteness,  while  her  long 
 delicate  fingers  clasped  and  intertwined  with  intense 
 earnestness  as  she  told  her  mission.  It  was  the  widow 
 of  Banks,  the  murdered  Morrisite.  She  had,  according 
 to  her  faith,  been  in  communion  with  the  soul  of  her 
 husband,  and  thence  received  knowledge  of  a  plot 
 against  the  Governor,  not  to  take  his  life  but  to  place 
 him  in  the  same  category  with  Steptoe  and  Dawson. 
 She  related  all  the  particulars  of  the  purposed  attempt, 
 with  that  convulsive  trembling,  that  dilation  and  up- 
 ward roll  of  the  eye  and  that  unearthly  hollow  tone  so 
 familiar  to  those  who  have  investigated  the  phenomena 
 
424  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 of  mesmerism  and  psychology,  in  their  purely  physical 
 eflfects  upon  the  nervous  female.  "  Oh,  Governor,  Gov- 
 ernor," she  exclaimed,  her  thin,  ■^jnritiieJIe  form  quiver- 
 ing with  intense  feeling,  "  friend  and  saviour  of  our  peo- 
 ple !  Beware,  beware.  The  spirit  of  the  Lord  and  his 
 martyred  prophet  is  upon  me,  to  warn  you  of  this  dan- 
 ger. It  will  come  to  you  in  the  form  of  a  beautiful 
 woman ;  but  be  guarded,  and  if,  within  a  fortnight  you 
 are  introduced  to  a  fair  woman  who  presents  a  great 
 temptation  to  you,  think  of  this  warning  and  do  not 
 yield."  The  Governor,  being  gallant  as  well  as  brave, 
 was  taken  somewhat  aback  by  the  fact  that  the  seer 
 had  so  well  anticipated  the  temptation  best  calculated 
 to  overcome  him ;  but  the  rest  of  the  story  is  best  re- 
 lated in  his  own  words  : 
 
 "  Well,  I  wondered  how  the  woman  got  her  informa- 
 tion, but,  as  the  boys  say,  I  '  wa'n't  afeard,'  I  rather 
 liked  the  idea.  A  few  days  after  the  'temptation'  came. 
 1  was  called  from  my  room  to  receive  some  company  in 
 the  parlor,  and  was  there  introduced  to  two  ladies  whose 
 beauty  exceeded  anything  I  had  seen  in  Salt  Lake. 
 They  remained  to  tea  with  my  landlady,  after  which 
 we  had  a  delightful  evening.  The  youngest  and  most 
 beautiful,  (I  withhold  the  name  given  by  the  Governor,) 
 made  herself  particularly  agreeable  to  me,  and  was  my 
 partner  in  several  games  at  cards.  When  the  time  for 
 starting  came,  it  was  pretty  plainly  intimated  by  my 
 landlady  that  I  was  to  see  the  lady  home. 
 
 ''But  this  was  not  my  programme.  As  she  stood 
 pulling  at  her  gloves,  evidently  waiting  for  me  o  'make 
 a  brciik,'  I  stepped  forward,  shook  hands  with  her  and 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  425 
 
 merely  said,  '  Ladies,  I  should  be  pleased  to  act  the 
 complimentary,  but  I  understand  it  is  not  the  custom 
 among  your  people  for  Gentiles  to  escort  the  women  of 
 the  Saints.  So  I  bid  you  good  evening.'  I  then 
 retired  to  my  room.  I  afterwards  learned  beyond 
 doubt  that  this  was  the  beginning  of  a  scheme  which, 
 if  carried  out,  would  have  seriously  compromised  me." 
 Whether  the  Governor's  virtue  or  his  astuteness  ena- 
 bled him  to  escape  the  evil,  the  writer  will  not  pretend 
 to  say;  but  it  is  rather  curious  how  the  Morrisite 
 woman  received  her  first  impressions  of  such  a  plot, 
 for  we  cannot  doubt  that  it  was  a  previous  mental 
 impression  acting  upon  her  peculiar  temperament  which 
 led  to  her  dream  or  "vision,"  whichever  it  was. 
 
 Meanwhile,  the  bonds  of  the  absent  Morrisites  were 
 declared  forfeited  by  Judge  Kinney,  and  execution 
 issued  against  the  property  of  those  still  in  Utah,  who 
 had  any,  to  collect  the  penalty.  Abraham  Taylor,  a 
 prominent  Morrisite,  had  his  property  in  the  city, 
 worth  $3000,  levied  upon  alid  announced  for  sale.  He 
 applied  to  Judge  Waite,  who  found,  on  examination, 
 that  the  records  of  the  court  showed  no  judgment 
 against  the  delinquents,  which  fact  he  represented  to 
 Judge  Kinney,  and  applied  for  an  injunction  against 
 the  officer.  The  application  was  refused  by  Judge 
 Kinne}',  who  stated  that,  "  if  there  was  no  judgment, 
 he  could  render  one,  as  the  Court  had  not  permanently 
 adjourned,  hut  only  to  meet  again  on  Jii's  oion  motion.^* 
 Taylor's  homestead  was  put  up  at  once  and  sold  to  one 
 Joseph  A.  Johnson,  Clerk  of  Judge  Kinney's  Court, 
 for  $200,  and  the  family  literally  forced  into  the  street. 
 
426 
 
 LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 I 
 
 o 
 
 > 
 
 U 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 M 
 
 u 
 
 w 
 
 o 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  427 
 
 They  remained  a  few  days  in  the  street  in  fiont  of  the 
 house,  then  took  refuge  at  Camp  DougUis. 
 
 After  General  Connor  arrived  with  two  regiments  of 
 CaUfornia  volunteers,  and  established  Camp  Douglas, 
 the  Morrisites  gathered  there;  and  in  May,  1863,  the 
 General  sent  eighty  families  of  them,  including  over 
 200  persons,  to  Soda  Springs,  Idaho,  where  they  now 
 have  a  flourishing  settlement.  Abraham  Taylor,  one 
 of  their  leaders,  remained  at  Camp  Douglas,  and  in 
 1866,  by  Major  Chas.  H.  Hempstead,  his  attorney,  filed 
 a  bill  in  the  United  States  District  Court,  Judge  Titus 
 presiding,  praying  for  restitution  of  his  property ;  and, 
 after  two  years  of  delay  and  chicanery  by  the  Mormon 
 lawyers,  and  some  of  the  hardest  swearing  that  ever 
 "  reeked  to  heaven,"  at  the  October  term,  1868,  a  decree 
 was  made  in  his  favor  by  Judge  Wilson,  giving  him 
 possession  of  his  old  homestead,  with  rents  for  five 
 years.  The  popular  Mormon  idea  of  justice  may  be 
 seen  from  the  fact  that  three-fourths  of  the  people 
 looked  upon  this  decree  as "  a  gross  outrage  on  a  Utah 
 citizen  by  a  United  States  Judge,  and  a  severe  act  of 
 "  persecution."  , 
 
 Taken  all  in  all,  the  Morrisites  deserved  a  better 
 fate.  True,  their  religion  was  a  wild  compound  of 
 materialism,  spiritism,  diabolism  and  deism  run  mad, 
 but  their  code  was  far  better  than  that  of  the  Brig- 
 hamites. 
 
 Another  prophet  named  Davis  arose  among  them  in 
 Idaho,  but  before  his  Church  was  well  established  he 
 had  a  revelation  that  all  the  rest  were  to  deed  their 
 
'128  LIFE    IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 property  to  him  as  trustee,  and  practice  communism, 
 which  soon  weakened  his  prophetic  hold.  Not  long 
 after,  they  got  some  sort  of  revelation  that  a  little  child 
 among  them  was  to  he  their  future  Christ,  and  kept 
 the  child  "set  apart"  and  dressed  in  white  for  some 
 time ;  but  lately  their  organization  has  broken  up,  and 
 many  of  them  removed  to  Nevada. 
 
 The  most  successful  of  all  the  recusant  and  anti- 
 polygamous  sects,  is  that  under  the  leadership  of  young 
 Joseph  Smith,  self-styled  the  "  Re-organized  Church  of 
 Latter-Day  Saints,"  but  generally  known  as  "  Joseph- 
 ites."  It  will  be  remembered  that  Joseph  Smith,  the 
 Prophet,  obtained  gratis  from  Dr.  Galland,  most  of  the 
 land  upon  which  Nauvoo  was  built.  After  the  reve- 
 lation for  his  people  to  gather  there,  he  sold  them  the 
 lots  at  high  prices,  and  realized  an  immense  fortune,  re- 
 ported as  high  as  one  million  dollars  by  the  best  in- 
 formed. With  this  he  paid  all  his  old  debts  in  Ohio, 
 lived  in  considerable  style,  supported  a  dozen  women, 
 and  still  left  a  considerable  fortune,  mostly  in  houses 
 and  lots  in  Nauvoo.  Spiritual  wdves  having  no  legal 
 rights  in  Illinois  as  in  Utah,  all  this  property  was  held 
 by  his  widow  Emma,  who  refused  to  emigrate  and  re- 
 mained with  her  three  sons,  Joseph  Jr.,  William  Alex- 
 ander and  David  Ilyrum,  in  Nauvoo.  The  oldest  and 
 youngest  had  been  in  turn  blessed  and  dedicated  to  the 
 leadership  by  their  father,  the  latter  before  his  birth ; 
 and  when  the  Strangites  organization  had  dissolved, 
 Strang's  successor  went  "  hunting  for  Zion  "  in  North- 
 ern Iowa,  where  he  met  the  renniants  of  the  Cutlerites, 
 and  together  they  decided  that  "  Young  Joe  was  the 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  429 
 
 man,"  formed  a  church  and  made  overtures  to  him  ac- 
 cordingly. He  responded  that  he  had  received  no 
 "  call "  but  expected  one ;  the  Church  rapidly  aug- 
 mented from  the  deh-is  of  the  scattered  sects,  and 
 finally,  in  1860,  Young  Smith  was  "called  as  a 
 Prophet "  and  the  "  Re-organized  Church "  was  set  up, 
 with  head-quarters  at  Piano,  Illinois.  They  number 
 twenty  or  thirty  thousand  in  the  West,  and  have  nour- 
 ishing missions  in  Great  Britain  and  Scandinavia.  In 
 July,  1863,  E.  C.  Briggs  and  Alex.  McCord,  their  first 
 missionaries  to  Utah,  reached  Salt  Lake  and  created 
 quite  a  sensation ;  Brigham  intimated  to  them  that  their 
 lives  were  in  danger,  and  refused  them  the  use  of  any 
 public  building  in  the  city.  But  General  Connor  was 
 then  in  command  at  Camp  Douglas,  with  a  small  pro- 
 vost guard  in  the  city,  and  the  Brighamites  dared  not 
 try  violence ;  Briggs  visited  the  people  at  their  homes 
 and  preached  wherever  Gentiles  would  open  their  houses 
 to  him,  and  soon  had  many  converts.  Nearly  two  hun- 
 dred of  these  left  the  Territory  in  1864,  under  a  mili- 
 tary escort  furnished  by  General  Connor,  and  since  that 
 time  many  more  have  left  Utah,  and  their  missions 
 there  include  over  five  hundred  members. 
 
 But  all  the  excitement  connected  with  Briggs'  visit 
 was  as  nothing  to  that  of  last  summer,  when  it  was 
 announced  that  William  Alexander  and  David  Hyrum, 
 "  sons  of  the  Prophet  and  Martyr,"  had  reached  Salt 
 Lake  to  advocate  the  reformed  faith.  They  obtained 
 Independence  Hall,  the  only  public  building  belonging 
 to  the  Gentiles,  for  their  meetings;  and  on  their  first 
 service  it  was  crowded  by  the  Mormons,  among  them 
 
430  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 most  of  the  widows  of  Heber  C.  Kimball  and  the  mvea 
 of  Brigham  Young.  Unable  to  dispute  the  revelation 
 in  favor  of  David,  the  Brighamites  maintain  that  he 
 "  is  now  in  apostasy,  and  when  he  embraces  the  true 
 faith  and  comes  in  the  right  way,  they  will  receive  him." 
 This  they  confidently  believe  he  will  yet  do.  The  evi- 
 dent absurdity  of  dictating  to  a  foreordained  Prophet,  in 
 just  what  way  he  shall  come,  does  not  seem  to  affect 
 their  views.  The  Brighamites  were  startled  clear  out 
 of  their  propriety,  abandoned  their  silent  policy  and 
 organized  a  series  of  meetings  in  opposition  to  the 
 "  Smith  boys."  But  Brigham  was  entirely  too  shrewd 
 to  take  the  lead,  and  put  forward  Apostle  Joseph  F. 
 Smith,  son  of  "  Hyrum  the  Martyr,"  to  manage  the  op- 
 position meetings.  The  writer  attended  most  of  the 
 meetings,  and  fully  realized  the  force  of  the  maxim  in 
 regard  to  gleaning  the  truth  from  the  disagreement  of 
 rogues.  The  controversy  was  one  of  that  peculiar  kind 
 where  both  parties  "know  they  are  right,"  and  can 
 prove  all  they  wish  by  abundant  testimony. 
 
 The  Brighamites  can  prove  beyond  a  doubt  that 
 Joseph  Smith  practised  polygamy,  while  the  Josephites 
 can  prove,  by  equal  personal  and  documentary  evidence, 
 that  he  denied  and  reprobated  the  doctrine  till  the  last 
 day  of  his  life.  Sixteen  women  swore  most  positively, 
 and  allowed  their  affidavits  to  be  published  in  the 
 "  Expositor,"  at  Nauvoo,  that  Joe  Smith  made  pro^wsals 
 to  them  to  become  his  concubines ;  twelve  women  now 
 in  Salt  Lake  City  make  affidavit  that  they  were  the 
 spiritual  wives  of  Smith  at  Nauvoo;  Joseph  F.,  son  of 
 Hyrum  Smith,  testifies  that  he  knew  certainly  of  his 
 
Am)  CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  431 
 
 father  having  more  than  one  wife,  and  hundreds  of  old 
 Mormons  testify  that  Joe  and  Hyrum  taught  them  the 
 doctrine,  and  sealed  them  to  extra  wives. 
 
 The  proof  on  the  other  side  is  equally  clear,  as  al- 
 ready detailed,*  making  the  question  one  which  can 
 never  be  settled  by  evidence,  which  means  eternal  con- 
 troversy. A  Gentile  would  find  an  easy  way  out  of  the 
 dilemma  by  considering  Joe  Smith  a  lying  impostor ; 
 but  that  would  never  do  for  these  sects,  each  of  which 
 claims  to  be  his  only  true  Church.  The  Brighamites, 
 however,  flatly  acknowledge  that  all  these  denials  were 
 made;  freely  admit  that  their  Prophet  often  found  it 
 necessary  to  lie  to  save  his  life,  and  generally  state  that 
 their  "religion  occasionally  makes  it  necessary  for  the 
 priesthood  to  lie,"  all  of  which  their  history  abundantly 
 proves  to  be  the  case.  But  the  "Smith  boys"  accomp- 
 lished little  in  Utah.  They  were  not  tlie  men  to 
 organize  a  revolution ;  they  were  in  no  respect  shrewd 
 enough  to  contend  with  the  leading  Brighamites,  nor 
 half  crazy  and  violent  enough  to  excite  the  people ;  they 
 were,  in  flxct,  hopelessly  mediocre.  Tlieir  position  was 
 weak  and  untenable ;  their  claims  for  tlieir  father  easily 
 disproved,  and  their  propositions  inherently  absurd. 
 The  writer,  from  personal  acquaintance  with  AVilliam 
 and  David,  is  disposed  to  esteem  them  highly  as  citizens, 
 and  respect  them  as  honest  in  their  aims ;  but  would 
 respectfully  ask:  If  you  "purify  the  Church,"  if  you 
 blot  out  polygamy,  incest,  blood-atonement,  "Adam- 
 worship,"  and  "  Danites,"  what  will  you  have  left  ? 
 How  much  jMormonism  will  there  be  in  3-our  Church  ? 
 
 The  "Re-organized  Church"  has  a  number  of  period- 
 *See  Chapter  XIV. 
 
432  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 icals,  and  a  lengthy  "  Confession  of  Faith,"  from  which 
 T  extract  those  tenets  disinguisliing  them  from  the 
 Brighamites  : 
 
 "  We  believe  in  being  subject  to  kings,  queens,  presi- 
 dents, rulers,  and  magistrates ;  in  obeying  and  honoring 
 the  law. 
 
 "We  believe  that  the  Church  in  Utah,  under  the 
 presidency  of  Brigham  Young,  have  apostatized  from 
 the  true  order  of  the  Gospel. 
 
 "We  believe  that  the  doctrines  of  polygamy,  human 
 sacrifice,  or  killing  men  to  save  them,  Adam  being  God, 
 Utah  being  Zion,  or  the  gathering  place  for  the  Saints. 
 are  doctrines  of  devils,  instituted  by  wicked  men,  foi 
 the  accomjjlishment  of  their  own  lustful  desires,  ai\C 
 with  a  view  to  their  personal  aggrandizement.        '' 
 
 "  We  believe  in  being  true  and  loyal  to  the  Govern- 
 ment of  the  United  States,  and  have  no  sympathy  or . 
 fellowship    for    the    treasonable    practices  or  wicked 
 abominations  endorsed   by   Brigham    Young  and    his 
 followers." 
 
 Young  Joe  has  had  but  two  revelations,  both  very 
 mild,  and  seems  to  be  slow  in  the  business  of  Prophet. 
 But  whoever  leads  off  the  ignorant  of  Utah  must 
 outbrigham  Brigham,  must  go  to  greater  lengths  of 
 fanaticism  and  have  copious  revelations  daily.  This 
 accounts  in  part  for  Morris'  success ;  he  was  as  craz} 
 as  any  of  his  followers. 
 
 The  last  revolt  against  the  power  of  Brigham  ia 
 headed  by  several  prominent  men  in  Salt  Lake  City, 
 among  tliem  Wm.  S.  Godbe,  Henry  Lawrence,  W.  IL 
 
 Shearman  and Tullidge.    This  sect  has  been  long  in 
 
 growing,  consisting  of  those  who  supported  the   UtaJi 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  433 
 
 Magazine  as  the  organ  of  independent  thought ;  but  it 
 was  not  till  last  autumn  that  the  leaders  boldly 
 announced  the  policy  of  opposition  to  the  excessive 
 temporal  government  of  the  priesthood.  The  First 
 Presidency  promptly  condemned  the  Utah  Magazine, 
 and  Brigham  issued  a  general  order  forbidding  all  true 
 Saints  to  patronize  or  read  it.  The  Editor  and  pro- 
 prietors were  cited  before  the  High  Council,  and  refusing 
 to  recant  and  ask  pardon  were  summarily  "  cut  off."  A 
 few  who  voted  against  this  excision  were  called  upon  to 
 explain  their  votes,  and  failing  to  do  so  were  also  "  cut 
 off."  The  schism  increased,  the  new  party  contained 
 some  wealthy  and  influential  men,  and  in  a  short  time 
 they  had  established  a  new  weekly  paper,  the  Mormon 
 Tribune,  to  promulgate  their  views.  They  call  their 
 new  organization  the  "  Church  of  Zion,"  and  at  last  ac- 
 counts numbered  nearly  five  thousand  in  the  Territory. 
 Their  platform  lays  down  the  principles,  that  the 
 Priesthood  are  only  teachers,  and  have  no  right  to  con- 
 trol the  people  in  all  their  social  and  business  relations; 
 that  the  mines  should  be  developed,  and  trade  free  and 
 unrestricted  with  all  classes ;  that  tithing  should  con- 
 sist of  a  tenth  of  all  one's  increase,  and  not  a  tenth  (f 
 his  yearly  proceeds,  and  many  other  liberal  principlcts. 
 This  is  so  far  the  most  sensible  and  promising  set  of 
 principles  from  any  of  the  recusant  sects.  They  still 
 claim  to  be  good  Mormons,  maintain  polygamj  and 
 every  man's  right  to  revelation.  Many  of  the  leaders 
 are  spiritualists ;  most  are  evidently  honest  in  their 
 views ,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  they  are  sufficiently  crazy 
 to  outdo  Brigham  in  fanaticism  and  carry  the  matter 
 
 28 
 
434  LIFE   IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 through.  The  present  year  will  probal^ly  witness 
 strange  changes  at  Salt  Lake.  Granted  that  Mor- 
 monism  is  to  work  out  its  own  destiny  without  govern- 
 mental interference,  the  question  at  once  arises  :  After 
 Brigham,  what  ?  Who  will  be  his  successor  ?  There 
 is  no  one  in  the  church  who  can  entirely  fill  his  place, 
 and  five  or  six  probable  aspirants,  of  whom  one  is  about 
 as  well  fitted  as  another.  According  to  precedent  in 
 the  case  of  Brigham  himself,  Orson  Hyde,  President  of 
 the  Twelve  Apostles,  would  succeed;  but  he  is  a 
 bl-undering  and  imjoulsive  scamp,  mean  enough  for  the 
 place,  but  lacking  in  discretion.  He  is  besides  rather 
 old,  and  has  apostatized  once.  Daniel  H.  Wells  is  next 
 in  rank,  but  his  bloodthirsty  fanaticism  would  involve 
 the  people  in  war  in  a  short  time.  Orson  Pratt  is  the 
 most  learned  of  the  Apostles,  but  is  a  dreaming  astron- 
 omer, quite  impractical.  George  A.  Smith  is  an  easy 
 going,  good-natured  sensualist ;  unscrupulous  enough  for 
 the  place,  perhaps,  but  without  executive  ability. 
 Should  Brigharm  die  at  an  early  day,  the  strong  prob- 
 ability is  that  the  Church  would  divide  into  at  least 
 three  bodies.  Many  of  the  English  and  Americans  would 
 follow  David  Hyrum  Smith ;  the  most  enlightened  and 
 liberal  would  enter  the  "  Church  of  Zion,"  and  the  ig- 
 norant mass  would  follow  the  lead  of  the  Twelve  Apos- 
 tles as  before,  eventually  coining  under  the  rule  of  one. 
 Having  brought  down  our  history  to  near  the  present 
 time,  let  us  take  a  brief  view  of  the  material  interests 
 and  resources  of  Utah.  The  notes  in  the  two  succeed- 
 ing chapters  are  the  result  of  a  year's  travel  and 
 residence  in  Utah,  aided  by  a  study  of  the  best  authori- 
 ties, to  which  due  credit  is  given  in  passing. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  435 
 
 CHAPTER     XVIII. 
 
 GEOGRAPHICAL   FEATURES. 
 
 / 
 
 Territorial  limits — "  Basins  " — "  Sinks  "—"Flats  " — Eain  and  evaporation 
 — Elemental  action  and  reaction — Potamology — Jordan — Kay's  Creek — 
 Weber — Bear  River — Cache  Valley — Timber — Blue  Creek — Promontory 
 — Great  Desert — Utah  Lake — Spanish  Fork— Salt  Creek — Timpanogos 
 — Sevier  River — Colorado  System — Fish — Thermal  and  Chemical 
 Springs — Healing  "Waters — Hotwater  plants— Analysis  by  Dr.  Gale — 
 Mineral  Springs— Salt  beds — Alkali  flats — Native  Salts  — Great  Salt 
 Lake— First  accounts — Fremont — Staksbury — Amount  of  salt — Val- 
 leys— Rise  of  the  Lake — Islands— Bear  Lake — "  Ginasticutis"— Utah 
 Lake — Climate — Increase  of  rain — Singular  phenomena — Fine  air — Re- 
 lief for  pulmonary  complaints. 
 
 Utah  is  included  between  the  37th  and  4 2d  parallels 
 of  North  latitude,  and  meridians  109  and  114  west 
 from  Greenwich ;  deducting,  however,  from  the  north- 
 east corner  a  section  of  one  degree  of  latitude  by  two 
 of  longitude,  lately  attached  "to  Wyoming.  Its  greatest 
 length  is  thus,  from  north  to  south,  five  full  degrees, 
 and  its  width  from  east  to  west,  five  of  the  shorter 
 meridional  degrees;  the  whole  area  divided  nearly 
 equally  between  two  geographical  sections,  viz. :  the 
 valley  and  drainage  of  the  Colorado  and  its  affluents, 
 the  Green  and  Grand  rivers,  and  the  district  known  as 
 the  Great  or  Interior  Basin.  This  remarkable  section, 
 containing  the  western  half  of  Utah,  all  of  Nevada, 
 and  a  part  of  southeastern  California,  includes  all  that 
 portion  of  the  continent  extending  north  and  south 
 between  the  parallels   37  and  42,  and  from  east  to 
 
436  LIFE    IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 west  from  near  the  meridian  111,  Greenwich,  to  *.lie 
 Sierra  Nevadas,  which  tend  northwesterly  from  the 
 meridian  of  116,  to  that  of  121 ;  an  irregidar  parallelo- 
 gram four  hundred  miles  in  extent,  from  north  to  south, 
 and  five  hundred  miles  from  east  to  west.  The  term 
 "  basin,"  is  only  applicable  to  the  whole  tract,  in  view 
 of  the  fact,  that  its  waters  have  no  outlet  to  the  ocean, 
 for  the  general  level  of  the  lower  tracts  is  as  high  as 
 average  mountain  ranges,  and  the  so-called  valleys  are 
 little  more  than  mountain  flats;  the  entire  section  is 
 thus  composed  of  a  succession  of  heights,  basins,  and 
 mountain  plateaus.  A  "  succession  of  basins,"  because 
 many  of  the  traverse  ranges  are  of  equal  height  Avith 
 those  on  the  borders ;  dotted  also  in  the  most  level  por- 
 tions with  detached  hills  and  knobs,  relieved  at  rare  in- 
 tervals by  fertile  vales,  spotted  again  by  vast  deserts  of 
 sand  and  alkali  or  brackish  lakes — a  region 
 
 "  Now  of  frozen,  now  of  fiery  alps, 
 Rocks,  fens,  bogs,  dens  and  shades  of  death." 
 
 Wherever  the  mountains  are  hi2;h  enouo;h  to  furnish 
 melting  snow  throughout  the  the  summer,  large  streams 
 flow  down  their  sides,  and  fertile  tracts  are  found  along 
 their  base,  caused  by  the  percolation  of  moisture  from 
 above  ;  but  in  general  at  any  great  distance  from  the  foot 
 of  the  mountains  we  And  barrenness,  and  throughout 
 the  Great  Basin  a  large  tract  without  mountains  is  in- 
 variably a  desert.  Most  of  the  mountain  streams  sink 
 before  connecting  with  any  other  body  of  water,  in 
 many  places  among  the  foot-hills  before  reaching  the 
 plain ;  others  spread  out  and  supply  natural  irrigation 
 to  a  mile  or  two  of  land,  producing  broad  savannas  of 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  437 
 
 coarse,  rank  grass,  little  oases,  quite  attractive  in  them- 
 selves and  delightful  in  comparison  with  the  sterility 
 beyond.  Along  the  foot  of  some  ranges  the  traveler, 
 every  mile  or  so,  crosses  a  considerable  stream,  rushing 
 clear  and  strong  from  the  mountain  hollows,  but  two  or 
 three  miles  down  the  plain  not  a  channel  or  trace  of 
 water  is  to  be  found,  the  thirsty  soil,  warm  sun,  and 
 drying  air,  having  exhausted  the  scant  liquid ;  and  it 
 is  only  in  very  wet  seasons  that  any  of  these  streams 
 form  lakes.  In  other  localities  a  more  plentiful  supply 
 and  the  cool  shadow  of  long  ranges  give  rise  to  streams 
 of  sufficient  size  to  be  called  rivers,  of  which  the  best 
 known  in  Utah  are  the  Jordan,  Bear  River,  Sevier, 
 Ogden  and  Weber ;  arid  bordering  these  larger  streams 
 are  valleys  of  great  fertility,  comprising  the  agricultural 
 wealth  of  the  Territory.  Many  of  the  smaller  streams 
 form  long,  shallow^  lagoons  or  marshes  near  the  centers 
 or  at  the  points  of  lowest  depression  in  the  basins, 
 generally  called  "  sinks,"  in  which  term  is  embodied  an 
 empirical  explanation  of  the  disappearance  of  the  water, 
 by  those  ignorant  of  the  fact,  that  in  nature's  laboratory 
 action  and  reaction  are  equal,  and  that  the  fiill  of  rain 
 and  snow  in  an  enclosed  basin  must  be  exactly  counter- 
 balanced by  evaporation.  In  most  cases  the  water  sup- 
 ply is  so  scant  that  these  "sinks"  become  entirely  dry 
 in  summer,  and  are  then  known  as  '*  mud  flats,"  of 
 which,  the  most  extensive  are  in  Western  Nevada.  A 
 smaller  number  contain  some  water  all  the  year,  of 
 which  a  few  rise  to  the  dignity  of  lakes.  With  no  out- 
 lets, and  receiving  all  the  chemical  material  brought 
 down  by  the  wash  of  their  "  feeders,"  they  are  of  neces- 
 
438  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 sity  either  very  saline  in  character,  or  brackish  and 
 impregnated  with  iron. 
 
 Throughout  the  Great  Basin  certain  general  features 
 are  observable ;  the  mountain  ranges  mostly  run  north 
 and  south,  and  the  longer  valleys  lie  in  the  same  direc- 
 tion. But  in  this  particular  man  has  not  been  able  to 
 accommodate  himself  to  nature,  and  the  course  of  civili- 
 zation as  well  as  empire  has  made  it  necessary  for  the 
 roads  to  run  east  and  west.  One  may  go  from  Montana 
 to  Arizona,  and  travel  in  valleys  nearly  all  the  way, 
 seldom  crossing  anything  more  than  a  low  "  divide," 
 but  from  east  to  west  each  range  must  be  crossed  at 
 certain  points,  for  which  cause  the  old  road  south  of  the 
 Lake  was  a  perfect  zig-zag,  selecting  the  most  feasible 
 valleys,  avoiding  the  mountains  wherever  possible,  or 
 "  canyoning"  up  one  side  and  down  the  other,  diverging 
 great  distances  from  the  direct  line,  and  running  to 
 almost  every  point  of  the  compass. 
 
 The  "  rim  of  the  Basin"  is  uncontinuous,  formed  by 
 various  ranges.  On  the  north  are  the  broken  chains  of 
 the  Oregon  system,  from  8,000  to  10,000  feet  high,  send- 
 ing out  many  spurs  and  traverse  ridges.  On  the  western 
 border  the  Sierra  Nevadas  average  10,000  feet,  and  some 
 peaks  tower  far  above  that  altitude.  On  the  south  are 
 the  lower  sub-ranges  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  mere 
 "divides,"  separating  the  waters  of  the  Basin  from 
 those  of  the  Colorado ;  and  on  the  east  is  the  main 
 Uintah  range,  known  by  various  names,  with  several 
 portions  rising  to  9,000  or  10,000  feet.  Thus  the  sur- 
 face configuration  of  Utah  is  a  great  depression  in  a 
 mountain  land,  a  trough,  so  to  speak,  elevated  4,000  or 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  439 
 
 5,000  feet  above  sea  level ;  subtended  on  all  sides  by 
 mountain  ranges  8,000  to  10,000  feet  high,  and  sub- 
 divided by  transverse  ranges;  in  the  geologic  age,  a 
 sweet  water  inland  sea,  in  aboriginal  times,  the  home 
 of  the  most  abject  savages — long  a  region  of  miscon- 
 ception and  fable — then  the  chosen  home  of  a  strange 
 religion,  and  but  yesterday  found  to  be  of  use  and  inter- 
 est to  the  civilized  world.  Leaving  the  mountain  ranges 
 which  bound  the  great  basin,  there  is  a  general  break- 
 ing down,  so  to  speak,  towards  the  interior ;  most  of  the 
 transverse  ranges  run  north  and  south,  terminating  in 
 bold  headlands  towards  the  south,  though  none  are 
 of  sufficient  length  and  continuous  height  to  constitute 
 a  well  defined  system.  Few  of  these  ridges  present 
 regular  slopes,  but  are  formed  of  acute  and  angular  cap- 
 pings,  superimposed  upon  flatter  j)risons ;  and  frequently 
 after  ascending  two-thirds  from  the  base,  the  upper  part 
 becomes  wall-like  and  insurmountable.  Of  these  interior 
 peaks,  or  terminal  headlands,  the  most  noted  are  the 
 Twin  Peaks,  southeast  of  Salt  Lake  City,  ascertained  by 
 Orson  Pratt  and  Albert  Carrington  to  be  11,660  feet  in 
 height;  Mount  Nebo,  8,000  feet;  the  Wasatch  spur, 
 near  Salt  Lake  City,  averaging  6,000  feet,  and  the 
 Oquirrh  range,  which  terminates  in  a  bold  headland  at 
 the  south  end  of  the  Lake,  locally  known  as  the  West 
 Mountain,  Ij^ing  twenty  miles  west  of  Salt  Lake  City. 
 
 Tlie  Salt  Lake  Basin,  including  many  adjacent  and 
 connecting  valleys,  was  evidently  an  inland  sea,  as 
 sho^^m  by  the  "  bench  formation,"  a  system  of  water- 
 marks along  the  mountains,  points  of  successive  subsi- 
 dence  of  the  waters;    while   many   of  the  detached 
 
440  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 mountain  peaks  were  as  evidently  islands,  similar  to 
 those  now  rising  above  the  surface  of  the  Lake.  Ac- 
 cording to  some,  the  dry  land  was  formed  by  successive 
 upheavals ;  according  to  others,  by  ages  of  evaporation. 
 If  the  latter  theory  be  correct,  it  must  have  been  through 
 a  "  dry  cycle  "  of  many  thousand  years,  and  if,  as  many 
 suppose,  the  "  dry  cycle  "  has  ended  and  the  rain  zones 
 are  changing  so  as  to  again  include  this  section,  we  may 
 look  for  a  still  greater  rise  in  the  Lake  surface  than 
 that  of  the  last  dozen  years. 
 
 The  river  system  of  Utali  is  curious,  but  unimportant 
 as  to  navigation.  The  noted  Jordan,  an  exact  counter- 
 part of  its  Eastern  namesake,  has  its  origin  in  Utah 
 Lake,  and  by  a  course  of  fifty  miles,  a  little  west  of 
 north,  discharges  the  surplus  waters  of  that  body  into 
 Great  Salt  Lake.  It  is  quite  evident,  however,  from 
 mere  inspection,  that  a  much  greater  quantity  of  water 
 is  poured  into  Utah  Lake  from  its  many  mountain 
 affluents  than  flows  out  through  the  Jordan  ;  a  small 
 portion  may  escape  by  percolation,  but  at  that  elevation 
 and  in  that  drying  air  more  is  accounted  for  b}'  evap- 
 oration. This  stream  has  an  average  width  of  eight  or 
 ten  rods ;  through  the  upper  part  of  its  course  and  in 
 Jordan  Canon  it  is  swift  and  shallow,  in  the  lower  val- 
 ley and  near  the  City  more  sluggish,  with  a  depth  of 
 ten  feet  or  more. 
 
 Passuig  around  the  Lake  eastwardly,  the  next  stream 
 of  any  note  is  Kay's  Creek,  furnishing  plentiful  irriga- 
 tion to  the  farms  of  Kay's  Ward,  besides  which,  therc 
 are  numerous  streams  of  smaller  size  which  break  out 
 of   the   Wasatch   range,    are  diverted    into   irrigating 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  441 
 
 canals,  and  by  a  thousand  rills  through  the  farms  find 
 their  way  to  the  marshy  lands  near  the  Lake. 
 
 The  main  stream  from  the  east  is  the  Weber,  which 
 has  its  rise  some  sixty  miles  east  of  Salt  Lake  City,  in 
 the  highest  valley  of  Summit  County ;  thence,  flowing 
 to  the  north,  is  swelled  by  the  waters  of  East  Branch, 
 Silver,  White,  Clay  and  Echo  Creeks,  then  turning 
 northwest  breaks  through  the  Wasatch  range,  gives  form 
 and  name  to  Weber  Canon,  enters  the  valley  thirty-three 
 miles  north  of  Salt  Lake  City,  and  forming  a  large  U, 
 with  the  bend  sharply  to  the  north,  enters  the  Lake. 
 Bear  River  rises  in  the  same  county,  and  but  a  little 
 east  and  north  of  the  Weber,  and  running  nearly  two 
 hundred  miles  down  a  northern  slope,  between  two 
 spurs  of  the  Uintah  Mountains,  forms  a  great  U  in 
 Idaho,  then  turning  southwest,  "canyons"  through 
 another  spur  of  the  Uintah,  into  Cache  Valley,  the 
 northeastern  section  of  the  Territory  and  home  of 
 12,000  Mormons;  then  "canyons"  downward  three 
 miles,  with  a  fall  of  1000  feet,  out  of  Cache  into  Bear 
 River  Valley,  through  which  it  runs  to  the  head  of 
 Bear  River  Bay,  the  last  twenty  miles  of  its  course  the 
 only  navigable  river  in  Utah. 
 
 From  the  mouth  of  Bear  River  CaHon  to  the  head 
 of  the  Bay  is  about  thirty-five  miles  in  a  direct  line, 
 the  valley  maintaining  an  average  width  of  fifteen 
 miles  down  to  Corinne,  where  it  widens  imperceptibly 
 into  Salt  Lake  Valley. 
 
 Bear  River  runs  through  the  finest  lumber  region  in 
 Utah,  of  which  it  is  the  natural  outlet,  and  many 
 thousand  logs  have  already  been  sent  down  to  Corinne, 
 
442 
 
 LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  443 
 
 where  a  saw-mill  and  sash  factory  are  now  in  opera- 
 tion. 
 
 The  Malad  joins  Bear  River  a  few  miles  above 
 Corinne,  between  which  place  and  the  promontory 
 there  are  a  few  springs  breaking  out  of  the  mountains, 
 constituting  but  one  stream  large  enough  to  have  a 
 name,  Blue  Creek.  West  of  the  promontory  a  few 
 springs  run  together  in  the  midst  of  a  horrible  desert 
 and  form  Indian  Creek,  which  sometimes  reaches  the 
 lake  in  wet  seasons.  Thence,  around  the  head  of  the 
 lake  and  down  the  entire  western  shore,  for  one  hun- 
 dred miles,  there  is  no  stream  large  enough  to  have  a 
 name,  and  but  one  furnishing  running  water  in  all 
 seasons. 
 
 On  the  southwest  a  small  creek  from  Tooelle  vallej 
 reaches  the  Lake,  completing  the  list  of  affluents  to  that 
 body.  Next  in  importance  are  the  feeders  of  Utah 
 Lake,  of  which  the  principal  are.  Salt  Creek  from  the 
 south,  Spanish  Fork  from  the  east,  and  Timpanogas 
 from  the  northeast,  which,  with  the  addition  of  several 
 smaller  streams,  furnish  at  least  twice  as  much  water  to 
 that  "gem  of  the  desert,"  as  the  Jordan  carries  off. 
 The  only  other  stream  of  any  importance  is  the  Sevier 
 River,  which  rises  near  the  southern  boundary  of  Utah, 
 in  Fish  Lake,  runs  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  to  the 
 north,  then  bends  to  the  west  around  the  point  of  L'on 
 Mountain,  receiving  the  small  supplies  of  Salt  Creek, 
 San  Pete,  Chicken  Creek,  and  Meadow  Creek,  then 
 taking  a  southwest  course,  is  lost  in  the  "  big  sink  "  of 
 Sevier  Lake  Desert.  West  of  the  Iron  Mountain  range 
 are  a  score  of  "  sinking  creeks,"  among  them  Pioneer, 
 
444  LIFE    IN    UTAH  ;    OR.    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 Chalk,  Cove  and  Corn  Creeks,  which  are  fed  bj  the 
 melting  snows  of  the  mountains,  furnish  scant  irriga- 
 tion to  a  small  strip  of  land,  and  are  "  lost "  in  the 
 Great  Desert  of  southwestern  Utah. 
 
 Below  the  "  divide,"  the  only  streams  of  note  are  the 
 Rio  Virgen  and  its  affluents,  which  belong  to  the  Colo- 
 rado system.  Most  of  the  larger  streams  abound  in  fish, 
 among  which  mountain  trout  are  particularly  worthy 
 of  note  ;  their  waters,  on  issuing  from  hills,  are  of  great 
 clearness  and  purity,  and  it  is  only  where  small  streams 
 have  run  some  distance  across  the  plain  that  they  are, 
 in  local  phrase,  *'  alkalied." 
 
 The  rivers  depend  for  their  existence  upon  the  moun- 
 tains, and  without  those  gorges,  which  suppl}^  melted 
 snow  during  the  spring  and  summer,  there  would  be  no 
 running  water. 
 
 Next  to  the  "  sinking "  rivers  of  Utah,  the  therm:d 
 and  chemical  springs  constitute  a  remarkable  feature. 
 They  are  found  in  almost  every  part  of  the  Territory, 
 but  principally  along  the  road  from  Salt  Lake  City 
 northward.  All  along  the  foothills  of  the  Promontory 
 range,  in  the  mountains  soutliAvest  of  Utah  Lake,  and 
 between  the  city  and  Bear  River,  are  fountains  of  strong 
 brine,  discharging  in  many  instances  large  volumes  of 
 water ;  there  are  sulphurous  pools  at  the  southern  ex- 
 tremity of  Salt  Lake  Valley;  in  one  of  the  islands  in  the 
 lake  are  springs  of  every  character,  and  in  places  along 
 the  Wasatch,  hot,  cold  and  chalybeate,  are  found  side 
 by  side. 
 
 First  in  fame,  and  probably  in  medical  value,  are  the 
 Warm  Springs  hi  Salt  Lake   City.     Issuing  in   large 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  445 
 
 volume  from  the  mountain  side,  the  water  is  conveyed 
 in  pipes  to  a  regular  bathing  house  on  one  side,  and  to 
 a  plunge  jdooI  on  the  other,  constituting,  in  my  opinion, 
 the  most  praiseworthy  of  Mormon  institutions. 
 
 The  following  analysis  is  by  Dr.  Gale,  assistant  of 
 Captain  Stanbury,  in  1850.  One  hundred  parts  of  the 
 water,  whose  specific  gravity  was  7.0112,  gave  solid 
 contents  of  1.068,087,  divided  as  follows : 
 
 Sulphuretted  hydrogen 0.038,182 
 
 Carbonate  of  lime 0.075  000 
 
 "  magnesia 0.022,770 
 
 Chloride  of  calcium 0.00.5  700 
 
 Sulphate  of  soda 0.064,835 
 
 Chloride  of  sodium 0.861  600 
 
 mi  ,  1,068,087 
 
 Ihe  usual  temperature  is  102°. 
 
 Three  miles  north  of  the  city  the  Hot  Springs  boil 
 
 out  from  a  rock  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  formin"-  a 
 
 hot  pool  two  or  three  rods  in  circumference,  whence  the 
 
 branch  runs  westward  and  forms  the  Hot  Spring  Lake 
 
 a  body  of  sulphurous  water  some  two  miles  long,  and 
 
 about  half  as  wide,  having  an  outlet  into  the  Jordan. 
 
 At  several  places  around  the  margin  of  this  singular 
 
 lake,  small  jets  of  hot  water  boil  up  with  great  force ; 
 
 the  air  in  the  neighborhood  is  loaded  with  the  vapors, 
 
 and   immediately  over   the    spring   is  almost   stifling. 
 
 Gazing  into  the  small  pool,  formed  by  the  spring,  the 
 
 eye  is  charmed  by  the  variety  of  fanciful  growths,  the 
 
 coufervae   on    the    rocky   bottom.     Every   conceivable 
 
 form  of  vegetation  is  to  be  seen ;  leaves,  plants,  flowers 
 
 and  fernlike  stems,  all  of  the  purest  emerald.     But  all 
 
 are  deceptions,  mere  imitations  of  plants  formed  by  the 
 
446  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 chemical  material  on  the  points  of  stone.  The  temper- 
 ature of  this  spring  is  128°;  its  specific  gravity  1.0130, 
 and  one  hundred  parts  yield  solid  contents  1.0602, 
 divided,  according  to  Dr.  Gale,  as  follows : 
 
 Chloride  of  sodium 0.8052 
 
 "         magnesia 0.0288 
 
 "  calcium 0.1096 
 
 Sulphate  of  lime 0.0806 
 
 Carbonate  of  lime 0.0180 
 
 Silica 0.0180 
 
 1.0602 
 The  most  noted  mineral  springs  are  seventy  miles 
 north  of  Salt  Lake  City,  near  the  north  crossing  of 
 Bear  River ;  they  are  hot  and  cold,  impregnated  with 
 iron  or  with  sulphur,  some  twenty  in  number,  and  all 
 rising  within  a  few  feet  of  each  other.  Three  springs. 
 the  first  very  hot  and  sulphurous,  the  second  moder- 
 ately warm  and  tasting  of  iron,  the  thiixi  of  cold,  pure 
 water,  rise  within  a  space  of  three  feet.     The  waters, 
 
 all  flowing  into  the  same  channel,  do  not  mix  at  once, 
 but  run  apparently  in  separate  strata  for  several 
 hundred  yards,  the  hot  metalic  water  often  running 
 under  the  clear,  cold  water;  nor  is  it  until  the  sudden 
 bends  in  the  channel  have  thrown  the  streams  violently 
 from  side  to  side,  that  they  mingle  in  a  fluid  of  uniform 
 temperature.  South  of  Salt  Lake  City,  along  the  Jor- 
 dan, are  found  hot  pools  which  send  out  very  little 
 water,  and  in  other  places  are  chalybeate  springs, 
 coating  the  earth  and  rocks  with  oxide  of  iron.  There 
 are  also  chemical  springs  on  one  or  two  of  the  islands  in 
 the  lake. 
 
 The  great  salt  beds  of  the  Basin  are  in  Nevada,  but 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    xAIORMONISM.  447 
 
 in  southern  Utah  is  a  peak  known  as  the  "Salt  Moun- 
 tain," from  which  that  mineral  can  be  cut  in  solid 
 blocks,  in  its  pure  crystalized  state. 
 
 Of  the  mud  flats,  impregnated  with  soda,  and  the 
 alkali  deposits,  there  is  a  decided  surplus,  particularly 
 as  man  has  been  unable  to  devise  any  use  for  such  a 
 quantity  of  those  chemicals  in  that  shape.  It  is 
 thought  the  presence  of  alkali  increases  the  cold,  nor 
 does  it  seem  possible  to  eradicate  it  from  the  soil.  A 
 slight  admixture  is  thought  to  be  beneficial  to  vegeta- 
 tion, but  wherever  there  is  enough  to  "  flower  out " 
 upon  the  surface,  it  is  death  to  all  vegetation— even 
 the  hardy  sage  brush.  Saltpetre  is  found,  though 
 rarely ;  sulphur  is  rather  too  common ;  borax  is  found 
 in  moderate  amount;  petroleum  has  lately  been  dis- 
 covered "in  paying  quantities,"  and  the  native  alum 
 was  analyzed  and  pronounced  good  by  Dr.  Gale.  From 
 his  report  a  hundred  grammes  of  the  freshly  crystalized 
 salt  gave : 
 
 Water ; 70  3 
 
 Protoxide  of  manganese ogg 
 
 Alumina 04  o 
 
 Sulphuric  acid ]^g  0 
 
 Of  the  vast  chemical  wealth  of  the  Territory  but 
 little  is  known,  and  next  to  nothing  has  been  utilized, 
 but  in  a  general  view  the  entire  Basin  seems  a  vast 
 laboratory  of  nature,  where  all  the  primitive  processes 
 have  been  carried  out  on  a  scale  so  extensive  as  to 
 make  man's  dominion,  at  first  sight,  seem  forever  im- 
 possible. 
 
 First  in  interest  among  the  large  bodies  of  water,  is 
 
448  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 the  Great  Salt  Lake,  the  "  Dead  Sea  of  America,"  which 
 lies  toward  the  northwest  corner  of  Utah  Territory, 
 4,200  feet  above  sea-level,  and  twelve  miles,  at  the 
 nearest  point  from  Salt  Lake  City.  It  is  in  the  form 
 of  an  irregular  parallelogram,  of  which  the  major  axis, 
 running  N.  W.  by  N.,  is  seventy  miles  in  length,  and 
 the  minor  axis  forty  miles;  the  different  projections, 
 however,  greatly  increase  the  area,  which  is  laid  down 
 by  Captain  Stansbury  at  90  by  40  miles,  in  round 
 numbers.  The  first  mention  in  history  of  this  w^onder- 
 ful  Lake  is  by  Baron  Hontan,  French  Governor  of  New- 
 foundland, who  made  a  voyage  west  of  the  Mississippi, 
 in  tlie  year  1690,  and  sailed  for  six  weeks  up  a  river, 
 probably  the  Missouri,  according  to  his  description. 
 Here  he  found  a  nation  of  Indians  called  the  "  Gnacsi- 
 tares,"  probably  one  of  the  now  extinct  Mandan  tribes. 
 These  Indians  brought  to  him  four  captives  of  a  "  na- 
 tion, far  to  the  west,  whom  they  called  Mozeemleks," 
 of  whom  the  Baron  says  : 
 
 "  The  Mozeemlek  nation  is  numerous  and  puissant. 
 These  four  captives  informed  me  that  at  a  distance  of 
 one  hundred  and  fifty  leagues  from  where  I  then  w^as, 
 their  principal  river  empties  itself  into  a  salt  lake  of 
 three  hundred  leagues  in  circumference,  the  mouth  of 
 which  is  two  leagues  broad;  that  there  are  a  hundred 
 towns,  great  and  small,  around  that  sort  of  sea,  and 
 upon  it  they  navigate  with  such  boats  as  you  see  drawn 
 on  the  map,  which  map  the  Mozeemlek  people  drew  me 
 on  the  bark  of  trees ;  that  the  people  of  that  country 
 made  stuffs,  copper  axes,  and  several  other  manufac- 
 tures, which  the  Outagamis  and  other  interpreters  could 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  449 
 
 not  give  me  to  understand  as  being  altogether  unac- 
 quainted with  such  things,"  etc.,  etc.,  etc. 
 
 These  captives  may  have  been  of  the  Ute  nation,  or 
 more  probably,  the  semi-civilized  races  of  Mexico  had 
 colonies  there  at  that  time,  as  indicated  by  the  ruins 
 found  south  of  the  Lake.  The  next  mention  of  the 
 Lake  is  in  a  work  published  in  America  in  1772,  en- 
 titled "A  description  of  the  Province  of  Carolana,  by 
 the  Spaniards  called  Florida,  and  by  the  French  called 
 Louisiane,"  in  which  are  recited  the  native  accounts  of 
 "a  lake  many  leagues  west  of  the  mountains,  in  which 
 there  is  no  living  creature,  but  around  its  shore  the 
 spirits  inhabit  in  great  vapors,  and  out  of  that  lalze  a 
 great  river  disemhogues  into  the  South  SeaJ' 
 
 The  "  spirits"  will  be  readily  recognized  in  the  Hot 
 Springs,  but  it  is  singular  that  both  accounts  should 
 give  the  Lake  an  outlet.  Not  long  afterwards  the  Lake 
 became  well  known  to  hunters  and  trappers,  and  in 
 1845  Colonel  Fremont,  then  on  his  second  expedition, 
 made  a  sort  of  flying  survey,  which  was  scientifically 
 completed  in  1849-50,  by  Captain  Howard  Stansbury. 
 In  sreoloGfic  aQ;es  the  Lake  was  doubtless  an  inland  sea, 
 which  has  declined  to  its  present  limits ;  but  it  is  sin- 
 gular that  since  Stansbury's  survey  the  lake  surface  has 
 risen  at  least  twelve  feet,  of  which  eight  feet  were 
 gained  in  the  years  1865-66  and  '67.  The  natural 
 result  has  been  to  greatly  weaken  the  saline  character 
 of  the  water.  There  is  a  wide-spread  misapprehension 
 on  this  subject,  it  being  customary  for  Eastern  lecturers 
 to  state  that  "  three  gallons  of  the  water  will  make  one 
 of  salt"  The  highest  estimate,  however,  that  by  Fre- 
 29 
 
450  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 mont,  only  gave  twenty-four  per  cent,  of  salt,  and  the 
 water  was  taken  from  the  northwest  corner,  the  most 
 saline  portion  of  the  lake.  Dr.  Gale  found  one  hundred 
 parts  of  the  water  to  contain  solid  contents  22.282,  dis- 
 tributed as  follows : 
 
 Chloride  of  sodium,  (common  salt) 20.196 
 
 Sulphate  of  soda 1.834 
 
 Chloride  of  magnesium 0.252 
 
 Chloride  of  calcium a  trace 
 
 22.282 
 
 But  it  is  quite  evident  that  an  analysis  at  this  time 
 would  show  much  less,  probably  not  more  than  18  per 
 cent,  of  solid  matter,  perhaps  even  less  in  the  Eastern 
 part,  and  not  over  12  or  14  per  cent,  in  Bear  River 
 Bay,  the  least  saline  arm  of  the  Lake.  Those  engaged 
 in  making  salt  on  Spring  Bay,  certainly  the  most 
 saline,  state  that  in  1869  it  required  six  gallons  of 
 water  to  make  one  of  salt.  Even  with  this  reduction, 
 it  has  no  superior  but  the  Dead  Sea  water,  of  which 
 one  hundred  parts  give  solid  contents  24.580,  while 
 the  Atlantic  ocean  only  averages  three  and  a  half  per 
 cent,  of  its  weight,  or  about  half  an  ounce  to  the  pound. 
 At  the  spring  floods  the  Lake  often  rises  several  feet,  and 
 retiring  in  the  summer,  leaves  vast  deposits  of  crystal- 
 ized  salt.  Li  places,  large  bayous  could  easily  be  filled 
 during  the  summer  by  wind-mills  upon  the  Lake  shore, 
 making  millions  of  tons  of  salt  at  a  trifling  outlay. 
 Considering  the  area  of  the  Lake,  90  by  40  miles,  and 
 its  average  depth  ten  feet,  this  would  give  a  little  over 
 a  thousand  billion  solid  feet  of  water,  or  at  the  rate 
 above  mentioned,  4,800,000,000  tons  of  salt !    Estimat- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  451 
 
 ing  the  population  of  the  earth  at  1200  millions,  thi-s 
 would  be  enough  to  supply  them  all,  as  well  as  domestic 
 animals,  for  a  thousand  years.  All  through  the  slopes 
 northwest  of  the  lake  and  down  the  western  shore, 
 are  a  number  of  springs  running  pure  brine,  and  east 
 of  the  Promontory,  all  the  wells  dug  within  five  miles 
 of  the  Lake  have  yielded  salt  water  at  a  short  depth. 
 
 If  any  one  doubts  the  statement  that  the  waters  of 
 the  Lake  are  taken  up  by  evaporation,  and  inclines  to 
 the  hypothesis  of  an  underground  outlet,  he  can  easily 
 convince  himself  by  dipping  a  basin  of  the  water  and 
 exposing  it  for  a  few  moments  to  the  action  of  sun  and 
 wind;  the  drying  air  and  the  direct  rays  of  the  8un 
 will  evaporate  it  in  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time. 
 
 Very  beautiful  effects  are  produced  by  taking  shrubs 
 of  dwarf  oak  or  pine,  and  dashing  the  salt  water  over 
 them  at  intervals  of  a  few  minutes,  allowing  the  salt  to 
 form  on  the  leaves  in  thin  filmy  crystals.  The  ingenu- 
 ity of  man  seems  in  a  fair  way  to  utilize  even  the  im- 
 mense saline  deposits  in  and  near  the  Lake.  The  newly 
 discovered  process  of  reducing  native  ore,  in  which  salt 
 is  extensivel}"  used,  bids  fair  to  be  generally  adopted, 
 and,  as  there  is  valuable  ore  all  over  Nevada  and  three- 
 fourths  of  Utah,  the  day  may  not  be  distant  when  we 
 will  need  all  of  this  useful  preservative,  which  is  poured 
 out  here  in  such  profusion  as  to  seem  a  waste  on  the 
 part  of  nature.  Whence  comes  this  salt  ?  The  mount- 
 ain rains  and  melting  snows  carry  the  washings  of  the 
 "salt  mountains"  of  southern  Utah  to  Utah  Lake, 
 where  they  are  imperceptible  to  the  taste,  but  are  car- 
 ried down  by  the  Jordan ;  united  with  the  contributions 
 
452  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 of  Bear  River  and  the  brine  springs  of  Promontory, 
 they  are  subjected  to  the  condensing  process  of  nature 
 in  Grealt  Salt  Lake.  If  there  were  an  underground 
 outlet,  a  few  months'  discharge,  with  the  constant  re- 
 ception of  fresh  water,  would  make  it  as  fresh  as  Utah 
 Lake.  Standing  on  the  shore  of  Great  Salt  Lake,  one 
 may  observe  the  whole  process  of  nature  in  rain  forma- 
 tion, he  may  see  the  mist  from  the  lake  rise  to  a  certain 
 height,  then  form  in  light  fleecy  clouds  which  sail  away 
 to  the  mountains,  where  they  are  caught  by  projecting 
 peaks  and  higher  currents  of  air,  and  forced  mto  denser 
 masses,  and  at  times  he  may  observe  them  pouring 
 upon  the  heights,  the  water  which  will  run  back  and 
 mingk  with  the  mass  at  his  feet,  completing  thus  the 
 cycle  of  moisture  which  Solomon  remarked  in  the  ex- 
 actly similar  phenomena  of  the  Dead  Sea :  "All  the 
 rivers  run  into  the  sea,  yet  the  sea  is  not  full;  to  the 
 place  whence  they  came,  thither  the  waters  return." 
 
 The  country  bordering  Great  Salt  Lake  presents  al- 
 most every  possible  variety  of  soil,  but  little  or  no 
 change  in  climate. 
 
 First  to  the  south  lies  Jordan  Valley,  which  is  gen- 
 erally meant  when  the  people  speak  of  Salt  Lake  Val- 
 ley, forty  miles  long  by  about  twelve  in  breadth ;  all 
 the  eastern  half  is  valuable  for  agriculture,  and  most 
 of  the  western  for  grazing.  Proceeding  northward  a 
 strip  of  salt  marsh  and  low  pasture  land,  near  the  Lake, 
 is  bounded  on  the  cast  by  a  strip  of  fertile  land  from 
 one  to  five  miles  wide,  back  of  which  are  considerable 
 pastures,  even  some  distance  up  the  mountain  side.  The 
 same  is  true  of  Bear  Kiver  Valley  and   the  eastern 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  453 
 
 slope  of  the  Promontory,  the  former  consisting  of  a  fer- 
 tile tract  from  ten  to  fifteen  miles  in  width ;  but  crossing 
 Promontory  to  the  west  the  change  is  sudden,  and  we 
 find  at  the  northwest  corner  of  the  Lake  a  valley  of  al- 
 kali flats  and  saH>beds  of  indescribable  barrenness.    The 
 entire  western  shore  is  a  perfect  desert;  a  salt  and  arid 
 waste  of  clay  and  sand,  of  the  consistency  of  mortar  in 
 wet  weather  and  a  bed  of  stifling  dust  in  dry ;  not  even 
 the  sage  brush  and  greasewood  find  life  in  the  poisonous 
 soil,  and  near  the  Lake  thousands  of  acres  lie  glistening 
 in  the  sun,  bare  white  with  salt  and  alkali.     Running 
 water  is  found  in  but  one  place,  and  even  the  scant 
 springs  are  separated  by  journeys  of  fifty  miles.     It  is 
 comfortable  to  reflect  that   a  further  rise  of  five  feet  in 
 the  Lake  surface  would  bring  it  upon  this  desert,  with 
 an  area  of  seventy  miles  square  to  cover,  and  requiring 
 at  least  ten  times  as  much  water  for  a  rise  of  one  foot 
 as  it  did  ten  years  ago.    Along  the  shore  the  atmosphere 
 is  bluish  and  hazy,  and  Captain  Stansbury  observes 
 that "  it  is  a  labor  to  use  telescopes  for  geodetic  purposes, 
 and  astronomical  observations  are  very  imperfect."     In 
 the  body  of  the  Lake  are  several  islands  and  projecting 
 rocks,  designated  in  the  order  of  their  size,  as  folloM's  T 
 
 1.  Antelope,  also  called  Church  or  Mormon  Island, 
 having  been  appropriated  by  the  corporation  or  Church 
 of  Latter-day  Saints,  for  their  stock,  a  sort  of  consecra- 
 ted cattle-coT-mZ  "  for  the  Lord  and  Bro.  Brio-ham." 
 
 At  the  nearest  point  it  is  about  twenty  miles  north- 
 west of  Salt  Lake  City ;  for  many  years  the  channel 
 between  it  and  the  eastern  shore  was  fordable,  and  is 
 still  occasionally  ;  it  contains  a  number  of  green  valleys, 
 and  some  springs  of  pure  water. 
 
454  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 In  the  shape  of  an  irregular  diamond,  with  a  sharp 
 western  projection  from  the  northern  point,  it  is  sixteen 
 miles  long  with  an  extreme  width  of  seven  miles ;  it 
 contains  many  ridges  and  detached  peaks,  the  highest 
 3,000  feet  above  the  lake,  and  consequently  7,200  above 
 sea-level.  Near  the  northeastern  coast  is  a  rock  called 
 Egg  Island,  and  on  the  most  eastern  cliff,  "  they  say  " 
 there  is  a  cave,  with  remarkable  blue  grottoes,  of  which 
 "  monstrous  stories  "  have  been  told. 
 
 2.  Stansbury  Island  is  the  second  largest  in  the  Lake, 
 lying  southwest  of  Antelope,  near  the  western  shore, 
 with  which  it  is  connected  at  rare  intervals  of  low 
 water  by  a  sand-spit.  It  is  about  half  the  size  of  Ante- 
 lope Island,  and  consists  of  a  single  ridge,  twelve  miles 
 in  length,  and  rising  three  thousand  feet  above  the 
 lake.  It  is  of  some  use  for  grazing  purposes,  and  is 
 frequented  by  ducks,  geese,  plover,  gulls  and  pelicans. 
 
 3.  Carrington  Island,  so  named  from  the  Mormon 
 enghieer,  Albert  Carrington,  who  assisted  Captain  Stans- 
 bury in  his  survey,  is  an  irregular  circle  with  a  single 
 central  peak ;  it  contains  no  springs,  but  abounds  in  a 
 great  variety  of  plants  and  flowers.  It  lies  a  little 
 northwest  of  Stansbury,  and  west  of  the  north  point  of 
 Antelope  Island,  near  the  western  shore. 
 
 4.  Fremont  Island  lies  between  Antelope  and  Prom- 
 ontory Point,  nearer  the  last,  and  just  below  the  point 
 wdiere  Bear  River  Bay  opens  into  the  central  part  of 
 the  lake.  It  is  shaped  somewhat  like  a  half  moon — 
 abounds  in  plants,  particularly  the  wild  onion,  but  is 
 destitute  of  wood  and  water.  Colonel  Fremont  named 
 it  Disappointment  Island,  having  been  led  to  believe, 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  455 
 
 before  visiting  it,  that  it  abounded  in  "  trees  and  shrub- 
 bery, teeming  with  game  of  every  description ; "  Stans- 
 bury  gave  its  present  name,  and'  it  is  sometimes  locally 
 known  as  "  Castle  Island,"  suggested  probably  by  the 
 turreted  formation  of  its  principal  peak. 
 
 5.  Dolphin  Island  lies  far  up  towards  the  northwest- 
 ern corner,  a  mere  rocky  knoll. 
 
 6.  Hat  Island,  southeast  of  Gunnison,  and  another 
 small  island  in  the  vicinity  are  probably  part  of  the  same 
 reef.  The  deepest  sounding  in  the  Lake,  forty  feet,  is 
 found  between  Stansbury  and  Antelope  Islands.  The  lat- 
 ter is  also  rich  in  minerals,  marble  of  the  finest  quality  and 
 roofing  slate,  being  readily  obtained  in  large  quantities. 
 Boats  could  run  directly  alongside  of  the  quarries  and 
 load  with  the  greatest  convenience.  A  considerable 
 boating  interest  will  yet  be  built  up  on  the  Lake,  in 
 which  these  islands  will  play  an  important  part.  On  the 
 eastern  shores  of  the  Lake  are  cultivated  farms,  populous 
 towns,  mines  of  all  valuable  metals ;  on  the  island  are 
 valuable  tracts  for  pasturage,  and  at  the  foot  of  the  sur- 
 rounding mountains  are  medicinal  springs,  hot  and  cold, 
 sulphur,  iron  and  soda.  The  summer  air  of  the  Lake 
 is  light,  saline  and  health-inspiring;  the  scenery  un- 
 surpassed, and  abounding  in  views  of  memorable  l)eauty. 
 The  romance  of  this  Mare  Mortuum  has  survived  the 
 investigations  of  science,  and  from  a  region  of  miscon- 
 ception and  fable,  the  vicinity  of  the  Great  Salt  Lake 
 has  become  the  Switzerland  of  America. 
 
 Besides  the  noted  "  Dead  Sea,"  the  Great  Basin  is 
 well  provided  with  lakes,  such  as  they  are,  of  which 
 those  in  Utah  constitute  an  irregular  chain  from  north 
 to  south. 
 
456  LIFE    iX    UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 Bear  Lake,  a  mere  "  tarn "  among  the  mountains, 
 extending  from  Cache  Valley  into  Idaho,  is  chiefly 
 notable  as  the  home  of  the  "  Bear  Lake  Monster,"  a 
 nondescript  with  a  body  half  seal,  half  serpent,  and  a 
 head  somewhat  like  a  sea  lion,  which  has  often  been 
 seen  and  described  by  Indians  and  Mormons,  but  never 
 by  white  Christians,  that  I  have  heard  of  It  has 
 never  been  properly  classified  or  named,  as  it  is  invisi- 
 ble when  scientific  observers  are  at  hand,  but  from  the 
 descriptions  current  among  the  latter-day  Philosophers, . 
 I  judge  it  to  be  a  relic  of  that  extinct  species  generally 
 denominated  the  "  Ginasticutis." 
 
 The  Sweetwater  reservoir,  Utah  Lake,  is  fed  by  large 
 streams  from  the  western  slopes  of  the  Uintah  range, 
 its  circumference,  exclusive  of  offsets,  being  estimated 
 at  eighty  miles.  This  singular  analogue  of  the  Sea  of 
 Galilee  receives  the  waters  from  the  southern  moun- 
 tains, containing  a  few  grains  of  salt  to  the  gallon,  and 
 after  furnishing  space  for  considerable  evaporation,  dis- 
 charges them  by  way  of  Jordan  into  Great  Salt  Lake. 
 Sevier,  Preuss,  Nicollet,  and  Little  Salt  Lake  in  like 
 manner  receive  and  furnish  "  sinks "  for  the  waters 
 from  the  Iron  Mountain  range,  and  the  southern  branch 
 of  the  Wasatch,  none  of  these  lakes  communicatirg 
 with  any  other,  but  each  dependent  on  a  distinct  water 
 system.  Only  the  larger  streams  form  lakes,  the 
 smaller  are  either  evaporated  or  sink  in  ponds  and 
 puddles  of  black  mire ;  the  waters  in  places  reappear 
 or  pass  underground  to  feed  the  larger  lakes. 
 
 The  deserts  of  Utah  consist  of  alkali  flats,  barren 
 sand  or  red  earth,  resulting,  in  most  instances,  merely 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  457 
 
 from  the  lack  of  water,  for  where  this  can  be  supplied 
 in  sufficient  abundance,  the  alkali  is,  in  no  long  time, 
 washed  away ;  and  many  of  the  sandy  districts,  once? 
 thought  to  be  irreclaimably  barren,  have  been  proved 
 quite  fertile  by  irrigation.  It  is  quite  evident,  also, 
 that  a  change  has  been  going  on  for  many  years,  re- 
 claiming large  tracts  in  the  vicinity  of  the  mountains. 
 Tracts,  entirely  barren  a  score  of  years  ago,  after  re- 
 ceiving the  wash  of  higher  lands,  present  a  scant  growth 
 of  grease-wood,  which  is  succeeded  in  time  by  whitesage 
 brush,  and  that  in  turn  by  the  ranker  growth  of  blue 
 sage-brush,  each  step  marking  an  increase  of  fertility  in 
 the  soil.  Large  tracts  are  found  entirely  barren  of  vege- 
 tation, others  that  have  advanced  to  the  grease-wood 
 stage,  still  others  to  the  growth  of  sage-brush.  In  many 
 places  the  transition  is  evident,  and  from  the  testimony 
 of  early  explorers,  certain  tracts  have  completed  the 
 entire  circuit  of  increasing  fertility  within  the  memory 
 of  man. 
 
 Utah  is  in  the  parallel  of  the  Mediterranean,  but  the 
 elevation  renders  it  more  bleak,  though  not  liable  to 
 sudden  vicissitudes  of  temperature ;  the  changes  in  any 
 one  winter  are  quite  moderate,  but  the  difference  be- 
 tween successive  winters  is  often  much  greater  than  in 
 any  other  part  of  the  United  States.  Cattle  have  been 
 wintered  in  Cache  Valley,  Ogden  Hole,  and  other  sec- 
 tions, entirely  upon  the  range  and  without  shelter ;  on 
 tlie  other  hand,  there  have  been  winters  in  which  all 
 the  settlements  were  isolated,  when  snow  fell  ahnost 
 every  da^^,  with  a  high  westerly  wind,  sometimes  so 
 high  that  spray  was  carried  from  the  lake  into  the  city. 
 
458  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 The  first  two  winters  the  Mormons  spent  m  the  val 
 ley  were  unusually  mild,  cattle  living  along  the  streams 
 Vithout  feed;  the  third  winter,  and  that  of  1854-55, 
 were  exceedingly  harsh,  and  the  people  being  unused 
 to  make  provisions  therefor,  many  hundred  cattle  per- 
 ished in  the  snow. 
 
 Twenty  years  ago,  rain  very  seldom  fell  between  May 
 and  October;  in  1860  it  continued  quite  showery,  even 
 to  the  first  of  July,  and,  at  present,  some  rain  may  be 
 counted  on  with  certainty  every  month  in  the  season. 
 The  change  is  attributed  by  one  class  of  philosophers 
 to  a  gradual  change  of  the  rain  zones ;  by  the  Mormons 
 to  their  prayers  and  piety,  and  the  favor  of  Heaven,  but 
 is  probably  due  to  cultivation  and  planting.  The  same 
 phenomenon  is  observed  in  western  Nebraska  and 
 Kansas,  and  in  upper  Egypt.  The  Indians  say,  "  the 
 pale  face  brings  his  rain  with  him."  The  summer,  as 
 marked  by  the  thermometer,  is  hot,  but  the  great  eleva- 
 tion, the  lightness  and  dryness  of  the  air,  the  cool  winds 
 from  the  canons  and  the  complete  absence  of  malaria, 
 render  it  delightful  and  wholesome. 
 
 At  the  north  end  of  the  lake  they  have  the  sea- 
 breeze,  the  mountain  air  and  the  refreshing  zephyrs 
 from  the  phxins.  During  the  last  summer  the  ther- 
 mometer usually  rose  eight  or  ten  degrees  from  sun-rise 
 till  noon ;  the  greatest  mid-day  heat  was  not  oppressive, 
 and  the  mornings  and  evenings,  cooled  by  the  moun- 
 tain airs,  were  deliciously  soft  and  pure. 
 
 The  most  disagreeable  feature  of  this  section  is  the 
 dust-storms  and  thunder-storms,  which,  during  the  last 
 season,   though   not  frequent,  were  severe.      Showers 
 
AND  CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  459 
 
 are  expected  when  the  clouds  come  from  the  west  and 
 southwest ;  from  the  east  they  will  cling  to  the  hills. 
 Cultivation  and  irrigation  giving  greater  facilities  for 
 evaporation,  the  process  of  nature  in  the  cycle  of  mois- 
 ture is  quickened,  the  particles  of  water  make  the 
 circuit  oftener,  and  more  frequent"  showers  are  the  re- 
 sult. It  is  evident  this  climate  of  cool,  dry  air  in  the 
 winter,  moderate  dryness  and  extreme  tenuity  in  the 
 summer,  and  stimulating  rarity  at  all  seasons,  is  suited 
 to  all  healthy  and  most  sickly  constitutions.  Paralysis  is 
 rare,  consumption  almost  unknown — the  climate  lacks 
 that  humidity  which  develops  the  predisposition — 
 asthma  and  phthisis  meet  with  immediate  relief,  and 
 from  my  personal  experience,  it  is  evident  the  air  tends 
 to  expand,  strengthen  and  give  tonic  force  to  the  lungs. 
 But  rheumatism  and  neuralgia  are  by  no  means  uncom- 
 mon ;  as  in  other  bracing  climates,  they  effect  the  poor, 
 and  those  from  any  cause,  insufficiently  fed,  housed  or 
 clothed  during  the  winter.  For  all  who  would  avoid 
 humidity,  either  in  soil  or  air;  who  seek  relief  from 
 pulmonary  diseases  or  dyspepsia,  the  climate  is  unsur- 
 passed ;  but  for  inflammatory  diseases  the  good  effects 
 of  this  cKmate  are  still  open  to  debate. 
 
460  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 CHAPTER  XIX. 
 
 MATERIAL   RESOURCES   OF   UTAH. 
 
 Amount  of  arable  land — Its  nature  and  location — Increased  rainfall — Causes 
 — Probable  greater  increase— Mode  of  irrigation — Aquarian  Socialism — 
 No  room  for  competition — Alkali — Some  advantages — Yield  of  various 
 crops — "Beet-sugar" — Sorghum  syrup— Mormon  improvements  (?) 
 — Grossly  exaggerated — True  Wealth  of  Utah — Mining  and  grazing — 
 Bunch-grass — Mountain  pastures — Sheep  and  goats — "Fur,  fin  and 
 feather  " — Trapping  and  hunting — Carnivora — Ruminants — Buffalo — 
 None  in  the  Basin — Shoshouec  tradition — Game,  fowl — Amphibia — 
 "Sandy  toad" — Serpents — Fish— Oysters  in  Salt  Lake — Insects — 
 "Mormon  bedbugs" — Advantages  from  the  dry  air — Insectivora — 
 Crickets — Grasshoppers  or  locusts  ? — Indians  of  Utah — Rapid  extinction 
 — "  Diggers  " — "  Club-men" — Utes — Shoshonees  — Their  origin— Mor- 
 mon theory — Scientific  theory— Chinese  annals — Tartans  in  America — • 
 Mormon  settlers — Twenty-three  years  of  "gathering" — Much  work, 
 slow  progress — Reasons — Inherent  weakness  of  the  system — Great 
 apostasy — Their  present  number — Exaggeration — Enumeration  of  set- 
 tlements and  population — Nationality — Total  military  force — Future 
 of  the  Territory. 
 
 Of  the  entire  area  of  the  Great  Basin,  probably  one 
 half  is  a  complete  desert  to  begin  Avith ;    one-third  is 
 of  value  for  grazing  purposes,  and  the  remaining  one- 
 sixth  agricultural  land. 
 
 Most  of  the  complete  desert  is  in  Nevada,  and  at 
 least  three-fourths  of  the  fertile  land  in  Utah.  In  the 
 entire  basin  are  numbered  thirty-five  considerable  val- 
 leys containing  cultivable  land,  of  great,  or  at  least 
 average  fertility,  of  which  the  best  known  are  the 
 Jordan  or  Salt  Lake,  Bear  River,  Sevier,  Cache  Tovelle. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  461 
 
 Ruby,  Malad  Carson,  and  Humboldt  Valleys.  Of  these, 
 all  those  in  Utah  are  fully  occupied  by  the  Mormons, 
 except  Bear  River,  on  which  they  have  but  a  few  set- 
 tlements, and  those  along  the  mountains  eastward. 
 The  entire  basin  thus  contains  about  as  much  good 
 land  as  the  State  of  Indiana,  and  three  or  four  times 
 as  much  of  little  or  no  value. 
 
 Even  the  most  fertile  valleys  contain  occasional 
 desert  tracts,  generally  of  small  extent,  of  which  tracts, 
 Bear  River  and  Cache  Valleys  contain  the  least.  The 
 Sevier  VtiUey  is  peculiar  in  its  features;  the  fertile 
 tracts  are  apparently  richer  than  in  the  more  northern 
 valleys,  but  the  deserts  much  more  barren  and  desolate 
 in  appearance ;  the  traveler,  in  places,  traversing  an 
 arid  waste  five  or  ten  miles  in  width,  the  bare,  gray 
 sand  unrelieved  even  by  white  sage-brush,  and  then  at 
 a  sudden  turn  of  the  road  into  a  mountain  cove,  or  a 
 depression  in  the  land,  finding  a  few  thousand  acres  of 
 beauty  and  fertility. 
 
 Towards  the  upper  part  of  its  course,  that  valley 
 presents  a  rare  picture  of  romantic  beauty.  Wood  and 
 water  are  abundant,  game  plenty,  and  the  soil  very  rich 
 along  the  foot  of  the  mountains.  The  agricultural 
 system  of  Utah  would  present  many  novel  features  to 
 an  eastern  farmer,  and  at  first  view  the  difficulties  would 
 seem  to  him  insurmountable. 
 
 The  most  marked  feature  of  the  interior  plains  is 
 the  scarcity  of  timber ;  for,  with  the  exception  of  a  few 
 scant  willows  along  two  or  three  of  the  streams,  the 
 whole  valley  of  Salt  Lake  was  originally  as  bare  of 
 trees  as  if  blasted  bv  the  breath  of  a  volcano. 
 
462  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 The  nearest  timber  to  Salt  Lake  City,  fit  for  fuel,  is 
 fifteen  miles  distant,  and  that  up  City  Creek  Canon, 
 which  belongs  to  Brigham  Young,  by  act  of  Territorial 
 Legislature  ;  and  he  requires  every  third  load  to  be  left 
 at  his  corral.  So,  most  of  the  fuel  used  in  the  city 
 comes  from  canons  twenty  or  twenty-five  miles  distant, 
 and  ranges  from  twelve  to  thirty  dollars  per  cord. 
 
 This  evil  has  been  greatly  increased  by  their  strip- 
 ping the  heights  more  bare  every  year,  and  many 
 conjecture  that  this  prevents  the  former  heavy  ac- 
 cumulations of  snow,  which,  in  turn,  blows  into  the 
 valley  worse  each  winter,  and  may  in  time  even  lessen 
 the  source  of  the  streams,  which  are  chiefly  supplied 
 by  the  melting  snow. 
 
 Planting  trees,  except  in  orchards  or  along  the  streets, 
 has  been  entirely  neglected.  Unlike  the  farmers  of 
 Iowa  and  Nebraska,  who  purpose  to  grow  their  own 
 fire-wood,  there  is,  not  to  my  knowledge,  an  artificial 
 grove  in  the  entire  valley. 
 
 True,  the  trees  would  require  occasional  irrigation, 
 but  with  the  facilities  afibrded  by  the  many  little  streams 
 crossing  the  "  bench,"  one  man  could  easily  attend  to 
 several  thousand  acres,  and  though  his  returns  would 
 be  slow,  they  would  in  time  be  ample.  The  suggestion 
 may  sometime  be  found  practicable. 
 
 The  second  drawback  is  want  of  water,  or  rather  of 
 rain,  for  there  is  plenty  of  the  article  in  streams  which 
 are  the  source  of  supply. 
 
 At  the  first  settlement  of  Utah  there  were  periods  of 
 five  or  six  months  without  rain,  but  of  late  years  there 
 has  been  a  great  change  in  that  respect,  and  last  sum- 
 
AND   CRIMES    OF   MORMONISM.  463 
 
 mer  rains  were  so  frequent  along  the  streams  that  many 
 tracts  required  no  irrigation  at  all.  This  is  probably 
 due  to  the  same  cause  as  the  similar  phenomenon  in 
 other  places ;  but  the  change  has  probably  been  greater 
 here,  as  irrigation,  distributing  the  water  so  generally 
 over  the  land  in  ditches  and  through  fields,  has  presen- 
 ted a  greater  scope  for  solar  evaporation,  the  great 
 right  hand  of  "  cloud-compelling  Jove." 
 
 This  has  increased  the  fall  of  rain,  which  must,  in 
 turn,  add  to  the  productive  force  of  nature,  till  in  time 
 irrigation  will  be  needless  for  the  small  grains  and 
 cereals. 
 
 Under  the  present  system,  each  settlement  becomes  a 
 sort  of  "  socialistic  community  "  as  to  its  water  supply. 
 Enough  of  families  must  make  a  settlement  together  in 
 some  convenient  valley,  to  construct  a  dam  further  up 
 the  caiion,  from  which  reservoir  a  main  canal  is  carried 
 through  the  settlement,  and  from  this  side  canals  and 
 ditches  convey  the  water  among  the  farms,  and  thence 
 into  fields,  and  by  tiny  rivulets  between  the  rows  of 
 vegetation. 
 
 The  various  crops  are  watered  from  one  to  three 
 times  per  week,  according  to  their  nature,  during  the 
 dry  season.  The  greatest  labor  is  in  establishing  a  set- 
 tlement, and  opening  these  sources  of  public  supply,  but 
 thereafter,  the  whole  settlement  turns  out  each  spring, 
 at  the  call  of  the  Water-Marshal,  and  a  few  days'  work 
 gets  all  in  order. 
 
 Hence  the  settlement  must  move  as  a  unit  in  this 
 case,  and  every  man  claims  a  supply  of  water  according 
 to  the  money  or  labor  contributed  to  the  first  construc- 
 tion. 
 
464  LIFE    IN    UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 For  many  years,  in  certain  settlements,  the  Water- 
 Marshal  turned  the  supply  to  different  districts  at  dif- 
 ferent hours,  and  the  proprietors  in  each  district  further 
 divided  the  time  when  each  might  take  water ;  day  and 
 night  during  the  dry  season,  being  devoted  to  the  work. 
 In  some  settlements,  and  in  the  city,  fines  as  high  as 
 sixty  dollars  were  imposed  for  "  stealing  water,"  that  is, 
 for  turning  it  on  one's  fields  out  of  the  prescribed  time. 
 But  with  the  increase  of  rain  and  heavy  dews  whicli 
 now  water  "  the  garden  of  the  Lord  and  modern  Zion," 
 this  aquatic  penuriousness  has  ceased  to  be  necessary, 
 and  there  are  but  few  if  any  localities  where  one  may 
 not  "  take  water  "  at  any  hour. 
 
 The  great  expense  is  in  getting  the  system  started ; 
 after  that  it  need  not  be  as  great  as  the  losses  attendant 
 on  waiting  for  rain  in  other  regions,  or  having  too  much 
 of  it  at  a  time.  Herein  also  is  an  important  politico- 
 religious  feature  of  the  system ;  no  Gentile  can  start  in 
 with  a  new  settlement,  formed  as  it  is  by  a  "  call "  from 
 the  Church  authorities,  and  he  cannot  of  course  go  it 
 alone.  Gentiles  could  only  settle  by  entire  neighbor- 
 hoods together,  or  in  some  place  buy  out  a  Saint  whose 
 water-rights  are  already  established,  and  run  with  the 
 land.  For  these  and  other  reasons,  one  rarely  meets 
 with  a  Gentile  outside  of  the  towns. 
 
 Alkali  is  another  enemy  of  the  Utah  farmer.  A 
 moderate  infusion  is  thought  to  be  an  advantage,  but 
 in  many  places  it  is  so  thick  as  to  "flower  out''  like  a 
 heavy  frost  or  light  snow  on  the  surface ;  there  it  is 
 fiital  to  most  crops,  and  many  think  it  will  not  yif  Id  to 
 the  longest  continued  cultivation.      Some  crop?   will 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  465 
 
 flourish,  where  it  is  abundant,  others  are  ruined  by  the 
 slightest  sprinkle.  The  common  pie-plant  entirely 
 loses  its  acidity,  and  the  sorghum  cane  is  completely 
 "  alkahed." 
 
 But  the  principle  of  compensation  in  nature  applies 
 even  here,  and  the  Utah  farmer  has  some  marked  ad- 
 vantages. There  are  neither  droughts  nor  freshets — 
 both  considerable  items  to  an  Illinois  fanner ;  the  latter 
 are  unknown,  and  the  former  of  no  consequence  in  the 
 practice  of  irrigation.  In  the  summer  of  1866,  there 
 occurred  a  furious  wind  and  rain  storm  in  the  locality 
 of  the  writer's  residence  in  the  States,  which  destroyed 
 corn,  wheat,  and  fruit,  to  the  value  of  fifty  thousand 
 dollars  in  one  township.  This  amount  would  have  ir- 
 rigated for  many  years,  a  tract  in  Utah  as  large  as  that 
 township. 
 
 Wheat  for  many  seasons  has  required  but  one  or 
 two  waterings,  and  in  1867  the  average  yield,  accord- 
 ing to  Mormon  statistics,  was  seventeen  bushels  per 
 acre.  With  flour  at  eighteen  dollars  per  barrel,  and 
 last  year  it  was  sometimes  above  that,  this  would  pay 
 well  for  irrigation. 
 
 Barley  and  potatoes  yield  very  heavily,  and  have 
 heretofore  sold  at  enormous  prices.  But  the  last  year 
 tliere  has  been  a  great  decline  in  prices.  The  land  pro 
 duces  all  the  small  grains,  especially  wheat,  oats  and 
 barley,  in  great  abundance ;  a  little  Indian  corn  is 
 raised,  but  the  climate  is  not  favorable ;  nearly  all  the 
 fruits  and  vegetables  of  the  temperate  zone,  pumpkins, 
 beets  and  carrots — in  Gentile  slang,  "  Mormon  currency" 
 — in  great  size  and  plenty.     Peaches  of  fine  flavor,  and 
 
 30 
 
466  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 in  great  quantity,  are  grown  in  almost  ever}^  valley. 
 Salt  Lake  Valley  and  the  lower  tracts  adjacent  being  most 
 favorable.  But  I  do  not  fully  appreciate  the  apples  of 
 Salt  Lake ;  they  seem  insipid,  stunted  in  some  places  and 
 ov^ergrown  in  others,  and  decidedly  "  pithy."  The  lower 
 part  of  Bear  River  Valley  and  the  slopes  leading 
 thereto,  have  all  the  natural  indications  for  one  of  the 
 finest  fruit  countries  in  the  world,  the  easy  changes 
 of  the  winter  and  spring  being  peculiarly  favorable. 
 
 Beets  and  onions  grow  to  an  unusual  size,  which  sug- 
 gested, in  1853,  the  idea  of  maldng  beet  sugar.  The 
 "  inspired  priesthood,"  headed  by  "  Brother  Brigham," 
 entered  into  the  matter  with  zeal ;  one  hundred  thou- 
 sand dollars  were  expended  upon  the  building  and 
 machinery,  but  the  Lord  must  have  "spoken  to  the 
 Prophet  with  an  uncertain  voice ;"  for  the  experiment 
 failed  utterly ;  on  account  of  the  alkali,  the  Mormons 
 say ;  for  want  of  good  management,  say  the  perverse 
 Gentiles,  who  sometimes  add  that  the  Saints  made  a 
 fiery  article  of  "  Valley  Tan  "  whiskey  out  of  the  useless 
 material.  But  other  sweets  abound ;  there  is  great 
 profit  in  sorghum,  and  one  farmer  near  Kaysville  reports 
 that  last  year  he  made  one  hundred  and  five  gallons 
 from  one-third  of  an  acre,  and  two  hundred  gallons  per 
 acre  throughout  his  field.  At  the  low  price  of  one  dol- 
 lar per  gallon,  this  will  pay  for  irrigation.  But  cane 
 farmers  nmst  avoid  the  alkali  lands.  Of  farm  improve- 
 ments there  is  little  to  be  said.  The  impression  prevails 
 quite  generally  that  the  Mormons  are  remarkably  in- 
 dustrious. I  have  impartiallj-  endeavored  to  find  the 
 evidence,  but,  with  due  regard  for  others'  opinions,  I 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MOEMONISM. 
 
 467 
 
 fail  to  see  it.     They  have  built  houses,  barns  and  fences, 
 but  such  as  they  were  absolutely  forced  to  have  in  order 
 
 ^       ,/<• 
 
 MORMON   "  IMPROVEMENTS  "—A  WILLOW   CORRAL. 
 
 to  live  at  all.  If  there  is  a  single  farm-house  between 
 Salt  Lake  City  and  Bear  Eiver,  which  shows  an  ad- 
 vanced idea  of  architecture,  I  do  not  remember  it. 
 
 If  there  is  any  particular  development  of  taste,  out- 
 side a  few  of  the  cities,  any  adornment  which  shows  an 
 aspiration  for  the  higher  and  more  beautiful,  or  any  im- 
 provements indicating  comprehensive  grasp  and  energy 
 of  thought,  I  have  missed  them  in  my  travels.  The 
 MoiTTion  converts  are  drawn  from  the  most  industrious 
 races  of  Europe  ;  it  was  impossible  for  even  Mormonism 
 to  entirely  spoil  them,  and  they  have  done  nearly  as 
 well,  perhaps,  as  any  other  people  would  have  done  under 
 the  same  circumstances. 
 
 Compared  with  the  same  races  in  the  Western  States, 
 the  Swedes,  Norwegians,  Danes  and  English,  of  Iowa 
 or  Minnesota,  the  latter  have  made  as  much  progress  in 
 five  years  after  settlement  as  the  Mormons  in  ten  or 
 
468  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 twenty.  But  on  the  credit  side  of  the  estimate  for  the 
 latter,  we  must  set  down  the  fact  of  their  great  distance 
 from  civilization,  the  natural  barrenness  of  much  of  their 
 country,  the  grasshoppers,  crickets,  wild  beasts  and 
 Indians  with  which  they  had  to  contend ;  the  spiritual 
 despotism  under  which  they  labor ;  their  poverty  and 
 their  ignorance  of  this  mode  of  farming ;  on  the  debit 
 side,  the  advantages  from  overland  travel,  and  neigh- 
 boring mming  regions,  which  enabled  them  to  obtain 
 fabulous  prices  for  their  grain,  the  general  advantages 
 of  a  new  country  in  "  fur,  fin  and  feather,"  the  rare 
 healthfulness  of  their  climate,  the  unlimited  range  for 
 stock  and  the  benefits  of  unity  in  their  labor  system. 
 
 The  wonder  is  that  they  settled  there  at  all ;  having 
 settled  there  they,  have  done  less  in  the  way  of  im- 
 provement than  their  countrymen  in  other  sections  in 
 half  the  time. 
 
 But  the  true  wealth  of  the  Territory  is  in  grazing 
 and  mining.  The  range  is  practically  unlimited  and 
 the  mountain  bunch-grass  is  the  best  in  the  world  for 
 cattle.  This  valuable  and  rather  anomalous  provision 
 of  nature  seems  to  be  indigenous  to  the  interior  plains 
 of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  is  first  found,  I  believe, 
 on  the  western  slope  of  the  Black  Hills,  and  extends  to 
 the  eastern  slope  of  the  Sierra  Nevadas.  West  of  that 
 boundary  it  gives  place  to  other  seeded  grasses  of  the 
 Pacific  slope,  and  to  the  "  wild  oats "  of  California, 
 which  are  supposed  to  have  been  introduced  by  tlie 
 Spaniards.  Millions  of  acres  are  rendered  valuable  by 
 tlie  presence  of  bunch-grass,  which,  without  it,  could 
 hardly  be  traversed  by  cattle.     As  the  name  indicates 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  469 
 
 it  grows  in  clumps,  and  to  an  eastern  eye  would  appear 
 as  if  it  sought  the  most  barren  spots,  flourishing  even 
 upon  slopes  of  sandy  and  stony  hills.  Like  winter 
 wheat  it  remains  green  and  juicy  under  the  snow ;  it 
 usually  commences  growing  in  February  or  March,  and 
 continues  till  May  or  June,  when  it  dries  up  and  ap- 
 pears to  die,  but  in  the  form  of  a  light  straw  contains 
 abundant  nutriment.  In  places,  during  autumn  and 
 after  shedding  the  seed,  it  puts  forth  a  green  shoot, 
 apparently  within  the  old  withered  stalk;  with  the 
 advance  of  summer  the  best  is  found  higher  up  the 
 mountains,  and  it  thus  furnishes  food  the  year  round. 
 
 It  yields  a  small  pyriform  seed,  which  is  greedily  de- 
 voured by  cattle,  and  has  remarkable  fattening  proper- 
 ties, giving  an  excellent  flavor  to  the  beef  It  is  often 
 a  subject  of  remark,  how  little  food  will  fatten  cattle 
 upon  the  elevated  prairies,  and  interior  plateaus  of  the 
 West ;  the  exceeding  purity,  dryness  and  rarity  of  the 
 air,  by  perfecting  the  processes  of  digestion  and  assimi- 
 lation, no  doubt  accounts  for  this. 
 
 The  same  has  been  observed  of  the  highlands  of 
 Central  Asia.  From  the  same  causes  cattle  endure  a 
 greater  degree  of  cold  without  shelter,  and  the  plains 
 can  be  made  to  produce  abundant  forage  for  winter. 
 The  finest,  jucicst,  tenderest  steaks  of  home  growth, 
 appear  daily  upon  the  tables  of  the  Utah  publicans,  and 
 there  is  scarcely  a  limit  to  the  possible  supply.  By 
 greater  improvement  in  irrigation,  and  by  the  increase 
 of  rain,  Utah  will  in  time  have  great  agricultural  wealth, 
 but  stock  raising  will  be  her  best  paying  interest. 
 
 Facilities  for  grazing  are  practically  unbounded,  the 
 
470  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 valleys  supply  plentiful  pasturage  in  winter,  and  aa 
 spring  advances  and  the  snow  line  recedes  up  the  hills, 
 cattle  will  find  fresh  pastures. 
 
 In  the  valleys  of  Green,  Grand  and  Colorado  rivers, 
 are  many  thousand  square  miles  of  the  finest  country 
 in  the  world  for  wool  growing ;  on  all  the  mountain 
 slopes  west  of  Bear  River  grass  grows  luxuriantly,  and 
 the  higher  portions  of  Sevier  Valley  contain  millions  of 
 acres  of  grazing  land,  the  natural  home  of  the  Merino 
 sheep  and  Cashmere  goat ;  the  climate  and  elevation  are 
 exactly  suitable  for  the  production  of  the  finest  wools; 
 all  the  facilities  for  manufacturing  exist  along  the  lower 
 course  of  the  mountain  streams,  and  the  day  luill  come 
 when  the  finest  of  shawls  and  other  fabrics  will  be  pro- 
 duced in  Utah,  rivalling  the  most  fixmous  productions 
 from  the  highlands  of  Persia  and  Hindoostan. 
 
 Of  "  fur,  fin  and  feather,"  the  Great  Basin  is  rather 
 deficient,  in  an  economical  view.  There  are  minks, 
 ermines,  American  badgers,  wolverines,  woodchucks, 
 musk-rats,  beavers  and  otters,  the  last  two  rare  in  other 
 parts,  but  still  found  in  such  plenty  on  the  upper  tribu- 
 taries of  Bear  River,  as  to  make  trapping  profitable. 
 The  principal  carnivora  are  the  cougar,  cat-o-mountain, 
 large  and  small  w^olf,  and  a  variety  of  foxes.  Of  the 
 ruminants  we  find  the  antelope,  deer,  elk,  and  Rocky 
 Mountain  sheep.  The  buftalo  is  seldom  found  west  of 
 Laramie  plains,  not  at  all  in  the  Great  Basin,  though 
 the  Indians  have  a  tradition  that  they  were  once  very 
 numerous  even  to  the  Sierra  Nevadas,  and  old  hunters 
 and  travelers  speak  of  finding  traces  of  their  former 
 existence  there.     The  Shoshonees^  give  the  following 
 
3  3  8  0  0 
 
 E                      A  AJI  AW                  U 
 
 long  long  long  long  long 
 
 0  I  vl  k  vl 
 
 00                   E                    A  AH  AW 
 
 long  slioit  short  short  short 
 
 J       9-  ^  4  ^ 
 
 0  no                  i  01  0\V 
 
 short  :^lioi-t 
 
 (!>  IsJ  V  f  7 
 
 U  WUU                YK  11  P 
 
 a   1    0  c    ^ 
 
 1)  cii  E  a 
 
 0  0  P  6  / 
 
 K  (JA  ^       F  V  ETH 
 
 ^  S  6  D  § 
 
 THE  S  Z  K>ll  ZIlKE 
 
 h  I  =)  I  M 
 
 N  :<{•. 
 
 Mormon  Alphabet.     Invented  by  0.  Pratt  and  W    Phelps 
 to  be  used  in  Mormon  Literature. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  471 
 
 account  of  their  banishment:  When  the  buffaloes 
 herded  in  great  numbers  in  these  valleys,  the  crickets 
 were  less  in  number  than  now,  but  being  the  weakest 
 of  all  the  animals,  they  had  the  ear  of  the  Great  Spirit 
 when  oppressed.  The  buffaloes,  in  crowding  to  the 
 rivers  to  drink,  trampled  upon  the  crickets  and  did 
 not  heed  their  cries,  upon  which  the  latter  complained 
 to  the  Great  Spirit,  who  by  a  sweeping  decree  changed 
 all  the  buffaloes  to  a  small  race  of  crickets,  leaving  no- 
 thing of  the  buffalo  but  the  milt !  It  is  a  singular  fact 
 that  the  crickets  found  in  the  basin  contain  a  "milt" 
 or  spleen,  exactly  similar  in  shape  to  that  of  the  bovine 
 (jenus. 
 
 Of  game  birds  there  are  several  varieties  :  quail  or 
 partridges;  two  varieties  of  grouse,  the  most  common 
 called  the  sage-hen  ;  the  mallard  duck  is  found  in  great 
 plenty  on  the  lower  part  of  Bear  River  and  Jordan, 
 and  is  particularly  abundant  on  the  Sevier ;  while 
 brant,  curlew,  plover  and  wild  geese  are  much  more 
 numerous  than  the  appearance  of  the  country  would 
 indicate.  Of  useless  animals  and  reptiles  there  are 
 quite  enough  to  give  variety  to  animated  nature.  That 
 purely  western  American  phenomenon,  half  toad,  half 
 lizard,  locally  known  as  the  "  horned  toad  "  or  "  sandy 
 toad,"  scientifically  ranked  Phrynosoma,  is  found  on  all 
 the  high,  dry  plains.  Its  scaly  body  and  inability  to 
 jump  prevents  it.s  ranking  strictly  among  "  batrachi- 
 ans."  It  is  found  on  the  highest  and  driest  ridges,  is 
 calloused  on  tlie  belly  like  an  alligator,  its  back  is 
 thickly  studded  with  horny  points  about  a  quarter  of  an 
 inch  in  length,  it  has  legs  like  a  common  toad,  but  runs 
 swiftly  like  a  lizard. 
 
472  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 Of  serpents,  there  are  rattlesnakes,  water  snakes  and 
 swamp  adders,  and  a  few  others,  all  very  rare.  The 
 fishes  are  perch,  pike,  bass,  cliub,  mountain  trout,  and 
 a  species  of  salmon  trout,  of  which  thirty-pound  speci- 
 mens have  been  caught.  There  are  very  few  molluscs, 
 |)eriwinkles  or  snails.  There  has  been  much  discussion 
 of  a  project  to  plant  oysters  in  Salt  Lake  at  the  various 
 river  mouths,  but  the  scheme  seems  to  have  been  aban- 
 doned. Probably  it  would  not  succeed,  from  the  ex- 
 treme density  of  the  lake  water,  which  is  often  driven 
 some  distance  up  the  rivers  by  high  winds. 
 
 Tn  view  of  the  desirableness  of  any  country  as  a  place 
 of  residence,  the  entomology  is  no  inconsiderable  item. 
 Utah,  in  regard  to  insect  life,  is  subject  to  great  extremes. 
 On  entering  tlie  Territory  from  the  east,  the  visitor's 
 first  impression  would  be  that  both  animal  and  insect  life 
 were  rare.  On  the  road  from  Green  River  to  Salt  Lake 
 City,  particularly  in  the  early  part  of  the  season,  there 
 are  few  stock  flies,  few  scavengers  and  few  large  birds ; 
 troublesome  insects  are  rare,  even  in  the  valleys,  and 
 unknown  on  the  upland  desert ;  but  in  other  localities 
 there  is  a  surplus,  and  after  longer  residence  one  finds 
 enough  of  them  to  be  troublesome. 
 
 In  Salt  Lake  City  the  flies  are  probably  worse,  both 
 as  to  number  and  peculiarities,  than  in  any  other  city 
 in  America,  but  fortunately^  their  time  is  very  short. 
 During  the  spring  and  early  summer  they  are  rarely 
 seen ;  in  August  they  begin  to  multiply,  "  coming  in 
 with  the  emigration,"  according  to  local  phrase,  moan- 
 ing the  Mormon  emigrants,  who  formerly  completed  the 
 journey  across  the  plains  by  the  latter  part  of  July. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  473 
 
 From  the  middle  of  August  till  cool  weather  they  are 
 perfectly  fearful,  certainly  much  worse  than  they  need 
 be  if  proper  cleanliness  were  practised ;  large,  flat-headed, 
 light- winged  and  awkward,  they  light  and  crawl  over  the 
 person  in  the  most  annoying  manner,  not  yielding,  like 
 "  Gentile  flies,"  to  a  light  brush  or  switch,  but  requiring 
 literally  to  be  swept  off.  No  other  part  of  the  Territory 
 I  have  visited,  is  half  so  bad  in  this  respect  as  Salt 
 Lake  City,  and  the  southern  valleys  seem  peculiarly 
 free  from  this  pest. 
 
 Fleas  are,  in  western  phrase,  "tolerable  bad,"  but 
 bed  bugs  are  intolerable;  both  in  numbers  and  voracity 
 those  of  Utah  beat  the  world,  particularly  in  the  coun- 
 try towns,  and  among  the  poorer  classes  of  foreign-bom 
 Mormons.  In  certain  settlements  their  ravage  is  incred- 
 ible, and  Mormon  bed-bugs  seem  as  much  worse  than 
 others  as  their  human  companions.  Like  the  latter, 
 too,  they  seem  to  regard  the  Gentile  as  fair  prey.  More 
 than  once,  in  some  secluded  valley,  has  the  writer  re- 
 tired to  rest  (intentionally)  with  reckless  confidence, 
 and  after  an  hour  of  fierce  resolution  to  hold  out 
 against  any  amount  of  blood  letting,  has  risen  from  his 
 couch  with  a  full  appreciation  of  Byron's  beautiful  line  : 
 
 "No  sleep  till  morn — " 
 
 I  have  given  the  worst  side  of  affairs  first,  and  in 
 other  respects  the  resident  is  rather  free  from  annoy- 
 ance. Mosquitoes  are  bad  in  very  few  places ;  three- 
 fourths  of  the  country  is  entirely  exempt,  lacking 
 humidity  enough  to  produce  them.  With  stock  flies 
 the  case  is  much  the  same  j  in  places  along  Bear  River, 
 
474  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 and  other  streams  where  the  current  is  sluggish  they 
 are  troublesome,  though  such  places  are  rare.  In  places 
 around  the  Lake  gnats  are  troublesome,  and  Captain 
 Stansbury  speaks  of  encountering  on  the  western  shore 
 dense  swarms  of  small  black  flies,  of  which  he  says : 
 "  An  incredible  number  perfectly  covered  the  white 
 sand  near  the  shore,  changing  its  color  completely — a 
 fact  only  revealed  as  the  swarms  rose  upon  being  dis- 
 turbed by  our  footsteps.  They,  too,  had  apparently  been 
 driven  in  by  the  storm;  for  I  afterwards  discovered 
 that  they  were  as  thick  upon  the  water  as  the  land, 
 moving  over  its  surface  with  great  ease  and  swiftness. 
 In  the  shallows  left  by  the  receding  waters,  I  noticed 
 also  quite  a  number  of  ants  (the  first  I  had  seen) 
 drowned  seemingly  by  the  over-flow.  Both  of  these 
 insects  furnished  food  for  the  gulls  and  snipes,  which 
 are  almost  the  only  birds  found  along  this  shore. 
 Across  the  little  bay  ran  a  broad  streak  of  froth  or 
 foam,  formed  by  the  meeting  of  counter  currents,  and 
 driven  in  by  the  wind.  Passing  through  it  I  found  it 
 filled  with  the  small  black  flies,  in  the  midst  of  which 
 were  flocks  of  gulls,  floating  upon  the  water  and  in- 
 dustriously engaged  in  picking  them  up,  precisely  as  a 
 cliicken  would  pick  up  grains  of  corn,  and  with  the 
 same  rapidity  of  motion." 
 
 With  the  exceptions  noted,  the  whole  of  Utah  is  re- 
 markably free  from  insects ;  there  are  few,  if  any,  of 
 the  thousand  varieties  of  wood-borers,  aplncles,  tere- 
 bi-ce,  curculio,  Aveevil,  wheat-fly,  and  the  numberless  in- 
 sects that  infest  the  grass  and  the  bark  of  trees  in  lower 
 altidudes  j  they  are  either  totally  wanting,  or  found  so 
 
AND   CKIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  475 
 
 seldom  as  to  be  innoxious.  In  consequence  there  are 
 very  few  birds  of  the  insect-eating  kinds,  and  no  par- 
 ticularly dangerous  reptiles.  Of  insects  destructive  to 
 vegetation  the  cricket  was  once  very  troublesome,  but 
 ceased  to  be  so  at  least  ten  years  ago,  though  the  grass- 
 hopper still  makes  occasional  visits,  as  in  all  the  Terri- 
 tories. The  question  has  been  raised  in  Utah,  whether 
 this  insect,  localty  known  as  grasshopper  is  not  really  a 
 locust — perhaps  the  locust  mentioned  in  Scripture.  But 
 an  examination  shows  it  to  be  congeneric  with  the  in- 
 sect scientifically  designated  the  oedipoda  migratoria, 
 which  is  certainly  of  the  grasshopper  species,  though 
 known  in  the  East  by  the  English  name  of  "  migratory 
 locust." 
 
 The  grasshopper-  of  Utah  is  not  so  long  and  thin, 
 light-bodied  and  "clipper  built"  as  that  of  Nebraska 
 and  Kansas,  but  fully  as  destructive  to  vegetation; 
 though  of  late  years  its  ravages  have  been  confined  to 
 certain  limited  localities.  Though  numerous  enough  in 
 Salt  Lake  City  the  past  season  to  constitute  a  "visita- 
 tion," they  did  very  little  damage — "poisoning  the  skin 
 of  apples"  to  a  slight  extent. 
 
 From  grasshoppers  to  Indians  may  seem  to  the  East- 
 ern mind  an  abrupt  transition ;  but  the  original  in- 
 habitants of  Utah  merit  a  brief  notice.  All  the  old 
 accounts  represent  the  Indians  of  the  Great  Basin  as 
 tlie  lowest  and  most  degraded  of  their  race,  and  one  is 
 surprised  in  the  chronicles  of  only  thirty  years  ago  to 
 read  of  tribes,  or  rather  bands  and  parts  of  tribes,  now 
 totally  extinct. 
 
 The  "  Club-men,"  a  race  of  savage  and  filthy  cannibals 
 
476  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,    TEE   MYSTERIES 
 
 were  once  quite  numerous  in  all  the  central  and  western 
 valleys,  but  are  now  entirely  extinct ;  and  many  of  the 
 races  mentioned  by  M.  Violet,  w^ho  lived  among  the 
 Shoshonees  tliirty-five  years  ago,  are  no  longer  to  be 
 found. 
 
 From  these  and  other  facts,  it  is  very  probable  that 
 all  the  Indians  known  as  "diggers"  were  mere  outcasts 
 from  other  tribes,  or  the  remnants  of  more  noble  trites 
 conquered  in  war,  which  had  been  forced  into  the  Basin 
 as  a  place  of  refuge. 
 
 Their  tribal  organization  broken  up;  their  former 
 hunting  grounds  forbidden  them;  and  themselves  com- 
 pelled to  subsist  only  on  the  meanest  and  least  nourish- 
 ing fare,  they  degenerated  rapidlyin?7ior«?e  and  physique, 
 at  the  same  time  that  they  decreased  in  number. 
 
 They  subsisted  chiefly  upon  roots  dug  from  the 
 gi'ound,  the  seeds  of  various  plants  indigenous  to  the 
 soil,  ground  into  a  kind  of  flour  between  flat  stones; 
 and  upon  lizards,  crickets,  and  fish  at  some  seasons  of 
 the  year.  Thus  lacking  the  food  which  furnishes 
 proper  stimulus  to  the  brain  and  muscles,  each  succeed- 
 ing generation  sank  lower  in  the  scale  of  humanity ; 
 the  generative  powers  declined  under  a  regimen  of 
 exposure  and  scant  nourishment;  few  children  were 
 born  and  fewer  reared  to  maturity,  and  the  kindness  of 
 nature's  law  forbade  increase  where  life  promised  naught 
 but  exposure  and  misery.  Of  such  races  the  numerical 
 decline  must  have  been  steady  and  rapid,  and  their 
 numbers  only  maintained  b}-  the  successive  additions 
 from  the  superior  races  north  and  east.  A  little  above 
 these,  in  the  scale  of  humanity,  are  the  Utes  or  Utahs, 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  477 
 
 inhabiting  nearly  all  the  southern  part  of  the  Great 
 Basin,  and  extending  into  Colorado  as  far  as  the  bound- 
 ary of  the  Arapahoes,  with  whom  they  are  almost  con- 
 tinually at  war.  The  word  Ute  or  Utah  signifies,  in 
 their  language,  "man,"  "dweller,"  or  "resident,"  and  by 
 tlie  additions  of  other  syllables,  we  have  the  three  grand 
 divisions  of  that  race  :  Pi-Utes,  Gosha-Utes,  Pah-Utes, 
 which  may  be  freely  translated  "mountaineers,"  "val- 
 ley men,"  and  "dwellers  by  the  water,"  those  prefixes 
 respectively  indicating  "mountain,"  "valley,"  and  "wa- 
 ter." Of  all  these  the  bravest  are  the  mountain  Utes, 
 among  whom  we  might  ill  elude  the  Uintah  s ;  but  the 
 Lidians  of  the  lower  countries  are  rather  cowardly,  and 
 dangerous  only  by  theft  or  treachery.  Far  superior  to 
 any  of  these  are  the  Shoshonees  or  Snakes,  found  all 
 along  the  northern  border  of  Utah,  and  extending 
 tlience  northeast  to  the  Bannacks  and  westward  mto 
 Idaho  and  Nevada. 
 
 They  have  a  complete  tribal  organization,  and  some- 
 tliing  like  government  and  council  among  themselves ; 
 own  horses  and  cattle,  and  display  some  ingenuity  in 
 tlieir  dwellings,  and  in  the  construction  of  fish  weirs  and 
 traps  of  willow  bushes.  They  feel  also  something  like 
 pride  of  race,  and  to  call  a  Shoshonee  a  "  digger,"  is 
 more  of  an  insult  than  to  stigmatize  a  very  light  mu- 
 latto as  a  "  nigger," 
 
 The  origin  of  the  Indians  has  been  a  subject  of  fre- 
 quent inquiry  among  American  antiquarians.  Some 
 forty  years  ago,  an  idea  was  broached,  and  for  awhile 
 prevailed  quite  extensively,  that  they  were  the  descend- 
 ants of  the   "'  lost  tribes "  of  ancient  Israel,  and  that 
 
4 78  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    TUE    MYSTERIES 
 
 veracious  chronicle,  the  "  Book  of  Mormon,"  has  traced 
 their  descent  from  a  Jewish  family,  who  left  Jerusalem 
 gix  hundred  years  before  Christ.  But  if  we  are  to 
 to  draw  our  arguments  from  any  recognized  human 
 source,  from  language,  features,  customs,  habits  or  trar 
 ditions,  there  are  no  two  races  on  earth  of  whose  kin- 
 ship there  is  so  little  proof 
 
 The  features  may  be  greatly  altered  by  climate,  cus- 
 toms may  change  with  circumstances,  and  two  thousand 
 years  ma}^  be  long  enough  to  pervert  the  radical  princi- 
 ples of  a  people's  religion ;  but  language,  not  as  to  single 
 w^ords  but  as  to  grammatical  construction  and  derivation, 
 has  ever  been  considered  the  surest  test  of  ethnological 
 relationship ;  and  every  flict  in  the  language  of  the 
 Jews  and  those  of  various  Indian  tribes,  disproves  the 
 theory  of  a  common  origin.  To  cite  but  one  :  languages 
 are  divided  into  primitive,  and  derivative  or  compound ; 
 the  latter  showing  by  their  combinations  a  derivation 
 from  older  tongues,  and  the  former  maintaining  their 
 simple  formation,  consisting  of  a  certain  number  of 
 radical  syllables. 
 
 A  primitive  language  is  never  derived  from  a  com- 
 pound one,  the  latter  is  from  the  former. 
 
 The  Indian  languages  are  all  primitive,  showing  no 
 derivation  from  any  older  language,  even  the  occasional 
 words  of  similar  sound  being  evidently  accidental,  and 
 not  nearly  so  numerous  as  those  of  the  same  form  in 
 the  Greek  and  the  language  of  the  South  Sea  canni- 
 bals. The  Hebrew,  on  the  contrary  is  a  derivative 
 language,  tlic  outgrowth  of  older  Semetic  dialects,  and 
 by  its  finish  and  complex  structure,  the  language  of  the 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  479 
 
 Psalms  shows  that  mankind  had  even  then  at  least  two 
 thousand  years  of  progress  and  cultivation  in  language. 
 Such  a  speech  may  be  corrupted  in  the  mouths  of  a 
 barbarous  people,  but  can  never  return  to  its  primitive 
 type ;  through  a  thousand  variations  and  centuries  of 
 corruption  and  foreign  intermixture,  though  constantly 
 debased,  it  will  become  more  complex  and  flirther  from 
 its  radical  formation.  In  all  other  branches  of  the  in- 
 quiry, a  parallel  between  the  Jews  and  Indians  is  found 
 only  in  two,  or  at  most,  three  points  of  their  religion ; 
 both  believe  in  One  God,  an  all  prevading  Spirit,  and  in 
 sacrifices ;  the  latter  belief  they  share  with  nearly  all 
 the  races  of  men,  and  the  former  with  many  of  them. 
 M.  Violet,  a  Frenchman  who  came  to  California  forty 
 years  ago,  and  spent  many  years  among  the  Shosho- 
 nees,  investigated  their  language  and  traditions  with 
 much  care,  and  came  to  the  conclusion  that  they  were 
 descendants  of  the  Mantcheux  Tartars.  His  reasons 
 are  good,  and  subsequent  discoveries  confirm  the  prob- 
 able truth  of  his  theory.  The  lately  discovered  Chinese 
 annals,  which  give  an  account  of  the  expeditions  sent 
 out  by  the  Tartar  Kublai  Khan,  about  the  year  1280, 
 A.D.,  w^hicli  visited  California,  Mexico,  Central  America 
 and  Peru,  show  that  they  then  recognized  the  fact  that 
 the  country  had  been  previously  settled  by  men  of 
 another  branch  of  their  race.  But  it  is  not  necessary  to 
 suppose  all  the  Indians  descended  from  one  branch  of 
 the  Tartars :  the  passage  of  the  North  Pacific  being  a 
 proved  fiict,  no  doubt  several  different  invasions  of  our 
 western  coast  took  place,  dating,  perhaps,  even  as  far 
 back  as  the  fourth  generation  after  Noah,  who,  it  is 
 
480  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;    OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 generally  agreed  settled  China,  and  who  may  be  sup- 
 posed to  have  known  somethmg  about  navigation. 
 
 Of  the  first  discovery  and  exploration  of  the  Great 
 Basin  this  is  not  the  proper  place  to  treat ;  but  after  the 
 Indians,  in  the  order  of  time,  came  the  Mormons.  They 
 were  the  first  white  residents,  and  their  history  is  the 
 history  of  the  Territory.  Since  July  24th,  1847,  this 
 has  been  their  gathering  place,  the  Territory  of  "  the 
 Lord  and  Bro.  Brigham ; "  a  consecrated  land  of  salt, 
 alkali  and  religious  concubinage;  where  their  morals 
 were  to  be  cured,  and  their  spiritual  interests  j^reserved. 
 
 When  we  consider  how  many  million  people  there 
 are  in  the  world  to  whom  Mormonism  is  the  natural 
 religion,  how  full  modern  society  is  of  the  material  for 
 such  a  church,  that  it  promises  a  heaven  exactly  after 
 the  natural  heart  of  man,  and  witli  the  least  sacrifice  of 
 human  pride,  lust  and  passion ;  when  we  add  to  this 
 tlieir  vast  and  comprehensive  missionary  system,  com- 
 passing sea  and  land  to  make  one  proselyte ;  and  the 
 still  more  powerful  fact  that  Mormonism  comes  to  the 
 poor  of  the  old  world  not  merely  with  the  attractiveness 
 of  a  new  religion,  but  with  the  certainty  of  assisted 
 emio-ration  to  America,  a  land  described  to  them  as 
 flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  we  would  naturally  ex- 
 pect their  recruits  to  1  e  numbered  by  tens  of  thousands 
 annually. 
 
 That  Utah  has  not  filled  up  and  overflowed  half  a 
 dozen  times  with  the  scum  of  Europe,  can  only  be  ac- 
 counted for  by  some  inherent  weakness  in  the  system 
 ■  it.sclf 
 
 This  weakness  shows  itself  in  two  ways  :  inability  to 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISJf.  481 
 
 secure  a  class  who  would  add  real  dignity  and  strength 
 to  a  new  commonwealth,  and  the  constant  loss  through 
 a  steady  and  ever  increasing  apostasy.  Unfettered 
 American  enterprise  planted  half  a  million  people  in 
 Iowa  in  ten  years ;  the  vast  machinery  of  the  Mormon 
 emigration  system,  the  excitement  of  religious  fanati- 
 cism, the  utmost  zeal  of  a  thousand  missionaries  preach- 
 ing temporal  prosperity  and  eternal  salvation  to  an  ig- 
 norant people,  backed  by  the  assurance  of  a  speedy  pas- 
 sage to  a  new  country,  and  aided  by  the  advantages  of 
 an  organization  at  once  ecclesiastical  and  secular,  have 
 succeeded  in  twenty-three  years  in  fixing  an  uncertain 
 population  of  a  hundred  thousand  in  Utah.  The  Mor- 
 mon system  of  exaggerating  their  numbers  is  well 
 known.  At  the  death  of  Joe  Smith,  they  numbereb 
 nearly  200,000  throughout  the  world ;  their  own  sta- 
 tistics showed  half  a  milUon — [Times  and  Seasons,  Mil 
 lennial  Star,  etc.) 
 
 K  they  have  half  the  latter  number  now,  it  is  not 
 shown  by  their  published  statistics. 
 
 Their  missionaries  in  the  Eastern  States  give  their 
 strength  in  Utah,  in  round  numbers,  at  200,000.  When 
 Brigham  Young  was  last  questioned  on  that  point,  by  a 
 well-known  politician  last  summer,  he  put  the  number 
 at  120,000. 
 
 A  Judge  of  the  U.  S.  Court  who  has  traveled  exten- 
 sively through  the  Territory,  with  good  opportunities 
 for  judging,  estimates  the  total  population  of  Utah  at 
 85,000,  probably  a  little  too  low.  Tourists  usually 
 state  tlie  population  of  Salt  Lake  City  in  round  num- 
 bers, at  25,000.     There  are  in  that  city  a  little  less 
 
 31 
 
482  LIFE    IN    UTAH;     OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 than  1,800  houses,  of  all  sizes,  counting  the  barely  hab- 
 itable ;  allowing  ten  persons  to  the  dwelling,  we  have 
 18,000,  a  very  full  estimate.  Gentile  communities 
 average  five  persons  to  the  dwelling,  but  in  Utah  we 
 must  double  to  allow  for  infants  and  extra  wives.  The 
 population  of  the  Territory  may  be  estimated  with 
 tolerable  certainty  from  the  census  of  former  years,  and 
 well-known  facts.  By  reference  to  the  U.  S.  census  of 
 1860,  it  appears  there  were  then  in  Utah,  20,255  males 
 and  20,018  females;  total  40,273. 
 
 The  rate  of  increase  in  ten  years  throughout  the 
 United  States  is  less  than  40  per  cent.;  if  we  allow 
 the  excessive  ratio  of  150  per  cent,  in  Utah,  it  would 
 make  the  population  this  year  100,000.  It  will  not 
 escape  observation  in  passing  that  the  males  slightly  out- 
 number the  females,  not  exactly  indicating  polygamy  as 
 the  natural  law.  The  latest  report  we  have  at  hand  is 
 that  of  Mr.  Campbell,  Mormon  superintendent  of  com- 
 mon schools,  for  the  year  1863,  in  which  appears  tlie 
 following : 
 
 Number  of  boys  between  six  and  eighteen 3,950 
 
 Number  of  girls  between  four  and  sixteen 3,662 
 
 Total 7,612 
 
 We  cannot  suppose  from  any  known  law  of  popu- 
 lation that  the  children  between  four  and  eighteen  ivere 
 less  than  one-sixth  of  the  whole  people.  This  would 
 give  us  46,000,  nearly,  for  1863,  a  very  moderate  in- 
 crease over  1860.  It  is  hardly  reasonable  to  suppose 
 tlial  the  Mormons  have  increased  more  than  100  per 
 cent,  in  seven  years.  Here  again  we  see  that  the  boys 
 slightly  outnumber  the  girls,  which  will  make  it  rather 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM,  483 
 
 difficult  for  some  of  them  to  get  wives,  if  polygamy  lasts 
 through  that  generation.  From  personal  observation, 
 and  the  best  information  obtainable,  I  sum  up  the  Mor- 
 mon population  of  Utah,  beginning  on  the  north,  as 
 follows : 
 
 Cache  and  Bear  Lake  Valleys 13,000 
 
 Thence  to  Brigham  City 2,000 
 
 Brigham  City 2,000 
 
 West  of  Bear  Eiver 1,000 
 
 Thence  to  Ogden 1,000 
 
 Ogden  and  vicinity 4,000 
 
 Kaysville  and  vicinity 1,500 
 
 Farmington  and  vicinity 2.500 
 
 Centre  ville 1,500 
 
 Bountiful  (Session's  Settlement) 2,000 
 
 Weber  Valley  to  Echo 2,500 
 
 Coalville,  Wanship  and  Upper  Weber 4,000 
 
 Total  north  of  Salt  Lake  City 37,000 
 
 Salt  Lake  City  and  near  vicinity 20,000 
 
 Thence  to  Utah  Lake 7,000 
 
 Provo 4,000 
 
 Remainder  of  Utah  Lake  district 8,000 
 
 Sevier  and  San  Pete  Valleys 3,000 
 
 Provo  to  St.  George 6,000 
 
 St.  George  and  vicinity 3,000 
 
 Southern  settlements 7,000 
 
 Tooille  and  Ruby  Valleys 4,000 
 
 West  of  the  last  named  (?) 1,000 
 
 Grand  total 100,000 
 
 This  population  extends  along  an  irregular  line,  or 
 rather  arc,  five  hundred  miles  from  north  to  south ;  a 
 band  fifty  miles  wide  would  include  all  the  settlements, 
 except  a  few  immediately  west,  east  and  northeast  of 
 Salt  Lake  City ;  nor  have  I  made  any  deductions  on 
 
484  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 account  of  the  southern  settlements,  now  known  to  be 
 in  Nevada  and  Arizona,  or  the  few  in  the  southern  edge 
 of  Idaho. 
 
 Of  the  entire  population,  the  adult  portion  is  made 
 up  very  nearly  as  follows:  from  Great  Britain,  one-half; 
 from  Sweden,  Norway  and  Denmark,  one-third ;  a  dozen 
 or  twenty  each  from  Ireland,  Italy,  France  and  Prussia ; 
 a  few  Orientals ;  five  Jews ;  a  score  or  two  of  Kanakas; 
 and  the  remaining  one-seventh  or  eighth,  American. 
 The  children,  of  course,  are  nearly  all  natives.  While 
 the  foreigners  are  as  seven  or  eight  to  one  in  the  body 
 of  the  Church,  the  Americans  are  about  six  to  one  in 
 the  Presidencies,  Quorum  of  Apostles,  leading  Bishops 
 and  Elders,  showing  pretty  conclusively  the  "ruling 
 race."  We  are  bound  to  say  that  our  fellow-country- 
 men are  smart,  if  they  are  rascally. 
 
 The  entire  Mormon  people  probably  include  nearly 
 ten  thousand  men  capable  of  bearing  arms,  of  whom 
 those  in  the  northern  settlements,  and  the  American 
 portion  generally,  know  something  of  drill  and  the  use 
 of  fire-arms ;  of  the  Scandinavians,  their  skill  may  be 
 judged  from  the  fact  that  a  thousand  or  more  of  them 
 were  driven  out  of  Sevier  Valley  by  three  hundred 
 Mountain  Utes,  twenty-two  of  the  latter  in  one  battle 
 defeating  a  hundred  and  fifty  militia.  But  the  English 
 and  American  Saints  in  the  north  displayed  consider- 
 able bravery  under  Lot  Smith,  and  other  leaders,  in 
 1857,  when  Buchanan  "  crushed  the  Mormons." 
 
 Whether  they  are  still  confident  of  their  ability  "  to 
 thrash  the  United  States,"  cannot  well  be  known. 
 After  a  careful  statement  of  its  resources,  Lieut.  J.  W 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  485 
 
 Gunnison,  assistant  to  Capt.  Stansbury,  estimates  that 
 the  entire  Territory  is  capable  of  sustaining  a  popula- 
 tion of  one  million  persons,  entirely  by  grazing  and 
 agriculture. 
 
 The  area  is  but  half  as  large  as  at  that  time,  and 
 from  my  knowledge  of  fertile  land  still  unoccupied,  I 
 am  convinced  that  his  estimate  will  apply  proportion- 
 ably  at  present.  Thus,  within  the  present  limits  of 
 Utah  may  be  developed  a  State,  with  a  population  of 
 half  a  million  engaged  in  agriculture,  grazing,  and  do- 
 mestic manufacture,  and  a  quarter  of  a  million  more 
 engaged  in  mining.  But  long  before  that  occurs,  the 
 Territory  must  undergo  a  political  and  social  change, 
 and  Mormonism  give  way  to  Christianity,  progress  and 
 enterprise. 
 
486  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 CHAPTER    XX. 
 
 MORMON"   MYSTERIES THEIR   ORIGIN. 
 
 The  Endowment — Actors — Scenery  and  dress — Pre-requisites — Adam  and 
 Eve,  the  Devil  and  Michael,  Jehovah  and  Eloheira — A  new  version — 
 Blasphemous  assumptions — Terrible  oaths— Barbarous  penalties — Origin 
 —Scriptures  and  Paradise  Lost — Eleusinian  mysteries—"  Morgan's 
 Free-masonry  " —  The  witnesses  —  Probabilities  —  Their  reasonsi  -  - 
 Changes. 
 
 THE  ENDOWMENT. 
 
 Dramatis  Personae. 
 
 Eloheim,  or  Head  God Brigham  Young, 
 
 Jehovah George  A.  Smith, 
 
 Jesus Daniel  H.  Wells, 
 
 Michael George  Q.  Cannon, 
 
 Satan W.  W.  Phelps, 
 
 Apostle  Peter Joseph  F.  Smith, 
 
 Apostle  James John  Ta^dor, 
 
 Apostle  John Erastus  Snow, 
 
 Eve Miss  Eliza  R.  Snow. 
 
 Clerk,  Washers,  Attendants,  Sectarians,  Chorus  and  Endowees. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE   FIRST  (pRE-EXISTENT)  ESTATE. 
 
 The  candidates  present  themselves  at  the  Endow- 
 ment House,  provided  with  clean  clothes  and  a  hnich ; 
 they  are  admitted  to  the  outer  office,  and  their  accounts 
 with  the  Church  verified  by  a  clerk.  Their  names, 
 agCvS  and  the  dates  of  their  conversion  and  baptism  are 
 
SCFNK^    IV    THE     ENDOWMKXT    CEUEMOKIKS. 
 
 to  Avenge  the  Death  of  Joseph  Smith.    5.  The  "Blood  Atonement. 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF    MORMONIS.M.  4S7 
 
 entered  in  the  register ;  their  tithing  receipts  are  care- 
 fully inspected,  and  if  found  correct  an  entry  thereof 
 is  made.  This  last  is  an  indispensable  before  initiation. 
 Evidence  is  also  presented  of  faithful  attendance  on 
 public  service  and  at  the  "  School  of  the  Prophets."  If 
 an}^  husband  and  wife  appear  who  have  not  been  sealed 
 •  for  eternity,  a  note  is  made  of  the  fact,  the  ceremony  to 
 be  performed  in  the  initiation.  They  then  remove  their 
 shoes  and,  preceded  by  the  attendants,  who  wear  slip- 
 pers, with  measured  and  noiseless  step  enter  the  central 
 ante-room,  a  narrow  hall  separated  by  wdiite  screens 
 from  two  other  rooms  to  the  right  and  left ;  the  right 
 one  is  for  men,  and  the  left  for  w^omen. 
 
 Deep  silence  prevails,  the  attendants  communicating 
 by  mysterious  signs,  or  very  low  whispers;  a  dim  light 
 pervades  the  room,  mellowed  by  heavy  shades;  the 
 faint  plash  of  pouring  water  behind  the  screens  alone 
 is  heard,  and  the  whole  scene  is  calculated  to  cast  a 
 solemn  awe  over  the  ignorant  candidates,  waiting  with 
 subdued  but  nervous  expectancy  for  some  mysterious 
 event.  After  a  few  moments  of  solemn  waiting,  the 
 men  are  led  to  their  washing-room  on  the  right,  and 
 the  women  to  the  left.  The  female  candidate  is 
 stripped,  placed  in  the  bath  and  washed  from  head  to 
 foot  by  a  woman  set  apart  for  the  purpose.  Every 
 member  is  mentioned,  with  a  special  blessing. 
 
 "AVasiier:  —  Slfiter,  I  wash  you  clean  from  the 
 blood  of  this  generation,  and  prepare  your  members 
 for  lively  service  in  the  way  of  all  true  Saints.  I 
 wash  your  head  that  it  may  be  prepared  for  that 
 crown  of  glory  awaiting  you   as  a  faithful  Saint,  and 
 
488  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 the  fruitful  wife  of  a  priest  of  the  Lord ;  that  your 
 brain  may  be  quick  in  discernment,  and  your  eyes  able 
 to  perceive  the  truth  and  avoid  the  snares  of  the 
 enemy ;  your  mouth  to  show  forth  the  praise  of  the 
 immortal  gods,  and  your  tongue  to  pronounce  the  true 
 name  which  will  admit  you  hereafter  behind  the  veil, 
 and  by  which  you  will  be  known  in  the  celestial 
 kingdom.  I  wash  your  arms  to  labor  in  the  cause  of 
 righteousness,  and  your  hands  to  be  strong  in  building 
 up  the  kingdom  of  God  by  all  manner  of  profitable 
 works.  I  wash  your  breasts  that  you  may  prove  a 
 fruitful  vine,  to  nourish  a  strong  race  of  swift  witnesses, 
 earnest  in  defence  of  Zion ;  your  body,  to  present  it  an 
 acceptable  tabernacle  when  you  come  to  pass  behind 
 the  veil ;  your  loins  that  you  may  bring  forth  a  numer- 
 ous race,  to  crown  you  with  eternal  glory  and  strengthen 
 the  heavenly  kingdom  of  your  husband,  your  master 
 and  crown  in  the  Lord.  I  wash  your  knees,  on  which 
 to  prostrate  yourself  and  humbly  receive  the  truth 
 from  God's  holy  priesthood ;  your  feet  to  run  swiftly 
 in  the  ways  of  righteousness  and  stand  firm  upon  the 
 appointed  places ;  and  now,  I  pronounce  you  clean  from 
 the  blood  of  this  generation,  and  your  body  an  accepta- 
 ble temple  for  the  indwelling  of  the  Holy  Spirit." 
 
 A  similar  washing  is  performed  upon  the  male  can- 
 didate in  his  own  room,  and  a  blessing  pronounced  upon 
 his  body  in  like  manner. 
 
 He  is  then  passed  through  a  slit  in  the  curtain  to  the 
 next  compartment  forward;  as  he  passes,  an  ajxtstle 
 whispers  in  his  ear  "a  new  name,  by  which  he  will  l)e 
 known  in  the  celestial  kingdom  of  God." 
 
AND    CRIMES   OF    MORMOXISM.  489 
 
 Reaching  the  second  room,  the  candidate  is  anointed 
 with  oil,  which  has  been  previously  blessed  and  conse- 
 crated by  two  priests,  poured  upon  his  head  from  a  horn, 
 or  from  a  mahogany  vessel  shaped  to  resemble  one. 
 The  oil  is  rubbed  into  his  hair  and  beard,  and  upon  each 
 of  his  limbs,  which  are  again  blessed  in  order.  At  tlie 
 same  time  the  women  are  anointed  in  their  own  wash- 
 ing room.  The  candidate  is  then  dressed  in  a  sort  of 
 tunic,  or  close-fitting  garment,  reaching  from  the  neck 
 to  the  heels.  This,  or  a  similar  one,  blessed  for  the 
 purpose,  is  always  to  be  worn  next  to  the  body,  to  pro- 
 tect the  wearer  from  harm  and  from  the  assaults  of  the 
 devil.  Many  Mormons  are  so  strenuous  on  this  point, 
 they  remove  the  garment  but  a  portion  at  a  time  when 
 changing,  partly  slipping  on  the  new  before  the  old  is 
 entirely  off.  It  is  generally  believed  that  Joe  Smith 
 took  off  his  tunic  the  morning  he  went  to  Carthage,  to 
 avoid  the  charge  of  being  in  a  secret  society ;  and  that 
 he  would  not  have  been  killed,  if  he  had  retained  it. 
 Over  the  tunic  comes  the  ordinary  underclothing,  and 
 above  a  robe  used  only  for  this  purpose;  it  is  made  of 
 fine  linen,  plaited  on  the  shoulders,  gathered  around  the 
 waist  with  a  band,  and  falling  to  the  floor  behind  and 
 before.  On  the  head  is  placed  a  cap  of  fine  linen,  and 
 on  the  feet  light  cotton  slippers. 
 
 At  this  point  begins,  in  the  adjoining  room,  the  pre- 
 paratory debate  m  the  grand  council  of  the  gods,  as  to 
 whether  they  shall  make  man.  Eloheim,  Jehovah. 
 Jesus  and  Michael  intone  a  drama  m  blank  verse,  repre- 
 senting the  successive  steps  in  the  creation  of  the  world. 
 Kloheim  enumerates  the  works  of  each  day,  and  com- 
 
490  LIFE   IN    UTAH  ;    OE,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 mends  them  all;  at  the  close  of  each,  all  the  others 
 unite  in  a  responsive  chorus  of  surprise  and  praise  at 
 the  glory  and  beauty  of  the  work,  concluding  : — 
 
 "  Eloheim.  Now  all  is  done,  and  earth  with  animate  life  is  glad.  The 
 stately  elephant  to  browse  the  forest,  the  ramping  lion  in  the  moun- 
 tain caves,  gazelles,  horned  cattle  and  the  fleecy  flocks  spread  o'er  the 
 grassy  vales ;  behemoth  rolls  his  bulk  in  shady  fens  by  river  banks, 
 among  the  ooze,  and  the  great  whale  beneath  the  waters,  and  fowl  to 
 fly  above  in  the  open  firmament  of  heaven.  Upon  the  earth  behold 
 bears,  ounces,  tigers,  pards,  and  every  creeping  thing  that  moves  upon 
 the  ground.  Each  after  his  kind  shall  bring  forth  and  multiply  upon 
 the  earth  ;  and  yet  there  lacks  the  master  work,  the  being  in  the  form 
 and  likeness  of  the  gods,  erect  to  stand,  his  Maker  praise,  and  over  all 
 the  rest  dominion  hold." 
 
 *  Jehovah,  Jesus,  Michael  and  Eloheim.  Let  us  make  man,  in  image, 
 form  and  likeness  as  our  own  ;  and  as  becomes  our  sole  complete  repre- 
 sentative on  earth,  to  him  upright,  dominion  give  and  power  over  all 
 that  flies,  swims,  creeps,  or  walks  upon  the  earth." 
 
 The  attendants  have  meanwhile  placed  the  candidates 
 on  the  floor  and  closed  their  eyes,  when  the  gods  enter 
 and  manipulate  them  limb  by  limb,  specifying  the  office 
 of  each  member,  and  pretending  to  create  and  mould. 
 They  then  slap  upon  them  to  vivify  and  represent  the 
 creative  power,  breathe  into  their  nostrils  "  the  breath 
 of  life,"  and  raise  them  to  their  feet.  They  are  then 
 supposed  to  be  "as  Adam,  newly  made,  completely 
 ductile,  mobile  in  the  maker's  hand." 
 
 II. 
 
 SECOND    ESTATE. 
 
 Men  file  into  the  next  room,  with  paintings  and 
 scenery  to  represent  the  Garden  of  Eden.  Tiiere  are 
 gorgeous  curtains  and  carpets,  trees  and  shrubs  in  boxes, 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  491 
 
 paintings  of  mountains,  flowers,  and  fountains,  all  sliown 
 in  soft  light  and  delicate  tints,  together  presenting  a 
 beautiful  and  impressive  scene.  While  they  move 
 around  the  garden  to  measured  music,  another  discussion 
 ensues  between  the  g(xls;  Michael  proposes  various  an- 
 hnals,  in  turn,  to  be  the  intimates  of  man,  which  are 
 successively  rejected  by  Jehovah,  Jesus  and  Eloheim. 
 The  men  are  then  laid  recumbent,  with  closed  eyes,  in 
 pantomime  a  rib  is  extracted  from  each,  out  of  which, 
 in  the  adjoining  room,  their  waives  are  supposed  to  be 
 formed ;  the  men  are  then  commanded  to  awake,  and 
 see  their  wives  for  the  first  time  since  parting  in  the 
 entry,  dressed  nearly  like  themselves.  They  walk 
 around  the  garden  by  couples,  led  by  the  officiating 
 Adam  and  Eve,  when  Satan  enters.  He  is  dressed  in 
 a  very  tight-fitting  suit  of  black  velvet,  consisting  of 
 short  jacket  and  knee-breeches,  with  black  stockings 
 and  slippers,  the  last  with  long  double  points ;  he,  also, 
 wears  a  hideous  mask,  and  pointed  helmet.  He  ap- 
 proaches Eve,  who  is  separated  from  Adam,  and  begins 
 to  praise  her  beauty;  after  which  he  proffers  the 
 "temptation."  (Here  there  is  a  difference  in  the  testi- 
 mony. John  Hyde  says,  the  "fruit  offered  consisted 
 of  some  raisins  hanging  on  a  shrub ; "  one  lady  states 
 that  the  temptation  consists  of  gestures  and  hints  "not 
 to  be  described  ;"  while  another  young  lady,  after  imply- 
 ing that  Adam  and  Eve  were  nearly  naked,  merely 
 adds:  "I  cannot  mention  the  nature  o^  the  fruit,  but 
 have  left  more  unsaid  than  the  imagination  held  with 
 the  loosest  possible  rein  would  be  likely  to  picture  . . .  the 
 reality  is  too  monstrous  for  human  belief,  and  the  moral 
 
492  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 and  object  of  the  whole  is  socially  to  unsex  the  sexes." 
 A  third  lady  states  that  the  fruit  consisted  merely  of 
 a  bunch  of  grapes,  and  adds:  "Those  conducting  the 
 ceremonies  explained  to  us  beforehand  that  this  por- 
 tion of  the  affair  should  be  conducted  with  the  men  and 
 women  entirely  naked ;  but  that,  in  consequence  of  the 
 prejudice  existing  in  the  minds  of  individuals  against 
 that  method  of  proceeding,  coupled  with  the  fact  that 
 we  were  not  yet  sufficiently  perfect  and  pure-minded, 
 and  that  our  enemies  would  use  it  as  a  weapon  against 
 us,  it  was  considered  necessary  that  we  should  be 
 clothed."  It  is  quite  probable  the  ceremony  is  fre- 
 quently changed.) 
 
 Eve  yields  and  partakes  of  the  "  fruit ;"  soon  after 
 she  is  joined  by  Adam,  to  whom  she  offers  the  same ; 
 he  first  hesitates,  but  overcome  by  her  reproaches,  also 
 eats.  They  grow  delirious  from  its  effects,  join  hands, 
 embrace,  and  dance  around  the  room  till  they  sink 
 exhausted. 
 
 A  loud  chorus  of  groans  and  lamentations  is  heard 
 behind  the  curtain,  followed  by  a  sudden  crash  as  of 
 heavy  thunder;  a  rift  opens  in  a  curtain  painted  to 
 represent  a  dense  wood,  and  in  the  opening  appears 
 Eloheira,  behind  him  a  brilliant  light;  he  is  clothed 
 with  a  gorgeous  dress,  bespangled  with  brilliants  and 
 brights  stripes  to  dazzle  the  eyes. 
 
 **  Elohdm.  Where  art  thou,  Adam, 
 
 Erst  created  first  of  all  earth's  tribes, 
 And  wont  to  meet  with  joy  thy  coming  Lord  ?" 
 "  Adam.  Afar  I  heard  Thy  coming. 
 
 In  the  thunder's  awful  voice, 
 Thy  footsteps  shook  the  earth, 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  493 
 
 And  dread  seized  all  my  frame, 
 
 I  saw  mj'sclf  in  naked  shame, 
 
 Unfit  to  foce  Thy  Majesty." 
 "  Eloheini.  How  knew'st  thou  of  thy  shame  ? 
 
 My  voice  thou  oft  has  heard, 
 
 And  feared  it  not.     What  has  thou  done  ? 
 
 Hast  eaten  of  that  tree 
 
 To  thee  forbid  V" 
 "  Adam.  Shall  I  accuse  the  partner  of  my  life 
 
 Or  on  myself  the  total  crime  avow  ? 
 
 But  what  avails  concealment  with  earth's  Lord  ? 
 
 His  thoughts  discern  my  inmost  hidden  sense. 
 
 The  woman  Thou  gav'st  to  be  my  help 
 
 Beguiled  me  with  her  perfect  charms, 
 
 By  Thee  endowed,  acceptable,  divine. 
 
 She  gave  me  of  the  fruit,  and  I  did  eat." 
 '"''Eloheim.  Say,  woman,  what  is  this  that  thou  hast  done  ?" 
 "  Eve.  The  serpent  me  beguiled  and  I  did  eat.'' 
 
 Elolieim  then  pronounces  a  curse — literally  copied 
 from  the  Scripture — upon  the  serpent,  or  rather  Sat^n, 
 who  fell  upon  the  ground,  and  with  many  contortions 
 wriggles  out  of  the  room.  A  curse  is  next  pronounced 
 upon  Eve,  and  then  upon  Adam,  paraphrased  from  the 
 Scripture.  They  fall  upon  the  ground,  beat  their 
 breasts,  rend  their  clothes,  and  bewail  their  lost  and 
 sinful  condition. 
 
 '■'•  Elolieim.  Now  is  man  fallen  indeed.  The  accursed  power  which 
 first  made  war  in  Heaven,  hath  practiced  fraud  on  earth.  By  Adam's 
 transgression  should  all  be  under  sin  ;  the  moral  nature  darkened, 
 and  none  could  know  the  truth.  But  cries  of  penitence  have  reached 
 my  ears,  and  Higher  Power  shall  redeem.  Upon  this  earth  I  place 
 My  holy  priesthood.  To  them  as  unto  Me  in  humble  reverence  bow. 
 Man,  fallen  by  Satan's  wiles,  shall  by  obedience  rise.  Behold,  the 
 AVoman's  Seed  shall  bruise  the  Serpent's  head  ;  from  her  a  race  pro- 
 ceed endowed  on  earth  with  power  divine.  To  them  shall  man  sub- 
 mit, and  regain  the  paradise  now  lost  through  disobedience.  With 
 power  divine  the  priesthood  is  endowed,  but  not  in  fulness  now.   Obey 
 
494  LIFE    IX   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 them  as  the  Incarnate  Voice  of  God,  and  in  time's  fullness  "Woman's 
 Seed  shall  all  that's  lost  restore  to  man.  By  woman,  first  fallen,  Adam 
 fell ;  from  Woman's  Seed  the  priesthood  shall  arise,  redeeming  man  ; 
 and  man  in  turn  shall  Eve  exalt,  restoring  her  to  the  paradise  by  her 
 first  lost.  Meanwhile  go  forth,  ye  fallen  ones,  with  only  nature's  light, 
 and  seek  for  truth." 
 
 The  attendants  now  place  upon  each  of  the  initiates 
 a  small  square  apron,  of  white  linen  or  silk,  with  cer- 
 tain emblematical  marks  and  green  pieces  resembling 
 fig  leaves,  worked  in  and  handsomely  embroidered. 
 
 The  candidates  then  kneel  and  join  in  a  solemn  oath, 
 repeating  it  slowly  after  Adam :  That  they  will  pre- 
 serve the  secret  inviolably,  under  penalty  of  being 
 brought  to  the  block,  and  having  their  blood  spilt  upon 
 the  ground  in  atonement  for  their  sin ;  that  they  will 
 obey  and  submit  themselves  to  the  priesthood  in  all 
 things,  and  the  men  in  addition,  that  they  will  take  no 
 woman  unless  given  them  by  the  Presidency  of  the 
 Church.  A  grip  and  a  key-word  are  then  communi- 
 cated, and  the  First  Degree  of  the  Aaronic  Priesthood 
 is  conferred.  Man  is  now  supposed  to  have  entered 
 into  life,  where  the  light  has  become  as  darkness.  They 
 pass  through  a  narrow  opening  into  the  next  room, 
 which  is  almost  dark,  heavy  curtains  shutting  out  all 
 but  a  few  rays  of  light.  Here  they  stumble  about,  fall 
 against  blocks  and  furniture ;  persons  are  heard  calling, 
 "  here  is  light,"  "  there  is  light,"  etc.,  and  a  contest  goes 
 on  among  those  who  call  themselves  Methodist,  Bap- 
 tist, Presbyterian,  Catholic,  etc.  The  curtains  are  con- 
 stantly agitated,  and  being  darkly  painted  with  hideous 
 figures,  discover  a  thousand  chimerical  shapes.  The 
 sectarians  seize  hold  of  the  initiates  and  pull  them  vio- 
 Ipnt.lv  nbont.  till  the  latter  are  quite:  exhanst^nl.     Sat^in 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  495 
 
 now  enters,  commends  the  sectarians,  laughs,  chuckles 
 and  is  quite  delighted;  the  latter  recommence  their 
 struggle  for  the  initiates,  when  a  sudden  fall  of  curtains 
 throws  in  a  full  blaze  of  light,  and  Peter,  James  and 
 John  descend  into  the  room.  They  order  the  devil  to 
 withdraw :  he  falls  upon  the  ground,  foams,  hisses  and 
 wriggles  out,  chased  and  kicked  by  the  Apostle  Peter. 
 The  initiates  are  then  ranged  in  order  to  listen  to  a 
 lecture — 
 
 '■'Peter.  Brethren  and  Sisters, light  is  now  come  into  the  world,  and 
 the  way  is  opened  unto  men  ;  Satan  hath  desired  to  sift  you  as  wheat, 
 and  great  shall  be  his  condemnation  who  rejects  this  light. — (The 
 ceremony  is  explained  up  to  this  point.) — The  holy  priesthood  is  once 
 more  established  upon  earth,  in  the  person  of  Joseph  Smith  and  his 
 successors.  They  alone  have  the  power  to  seal.  To  this  priesthood 
 as  unto  Christ,  all  respect  is  due  ;  obedience  implicit,  and  yielded 
 without  a  murmur.  He  who  gave  life  has  the  right  to  take  it.  His 
 representatives  the  same.  You  are  then  to  olnjy  all  orders  of  the 
 priesthood,  temporal  and  spiritual,  in  matters  of  life  or  death.  Sub- 
 mit yourselves  to  the  higher  powers,  as  a  tallowed  rag  in  the  hands 
 of  God's  priesthood.  You  are  now  ready  to  enter  the  kingdom  of 
 God.  Look  forth  upon  the  void  and  tell  me  what  ye  see."  (Curtain 
 Is  raised.) 
 
 "  Adam  and  Eve.  A  human  skeleton." 
 
 "  Peter.  Rightly  have  ye  spoken.  Behold  all  that  remains  of  one 
 unfaithful  to  these  holy  vows.  The  earth  had  no  habitation  for  one 
 so  vile.  The  fowls  of  the  air  fed  upon  his  accursed  flesh,  and  the 
 fierce  elements  consumed  the  joints  and  the  marrow.  Do  ye  still 
 desire  to  go  forward  ?  " 
 
 ''Adam.     We  do." 
 
 The  initiates  then  join  hands  and  kneel  in  a  circle, 
 slowly  repeating  an  oath  after  Peter.  The  penalty  is 
 to  have  the  throat  cut  from  ear  to  ear,  with  many 
 agonizing  details.  The  Second  Degree  of  the  Aarcmic 
 Priesthood  is  then  conferred,  and  the  initiates  pass  into 
 the  third  room  in  the  middle  of  which  is  an  altar. 
 
496  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 III. 
 
 THIRD   ESTATE. 
 
 Emblematic  of  celestialized  men. 
 
 "  Michael.  Here  all  hearts  are  laid  open,  all  desires  revealed,  and 
 all  traitors  are  made  known.  In  council  of  the  gods  it  hath  heen 
 decreed  that  here  the  faithless  shall  die.  Some  enter  here  with  evil 
 intent  ;  hut  none  with  evil  intent  go  beyond  this  veil  or  return  alive, 
 if  here  they  practice  deceit.  If  one  among  you  knows  aught  of 
 treachery  in  his  heart,  we  charge  him  now  to  speak,  while  yet  he 
 may  and  live.  Brethren,  an  ordeal  awaits  you.  Let  the  pure  have 
 no  fear  ;  the  false-hearted  quake.  Each  shall  pass  under  the  Search- 
 ing Hand,  and  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  decide  for  his  own." 
 
 The  initiates  are  placed  one  bj  one  upon  the  altar, 
 stretched  at  full  length  upon  the  back,  and  the  officia- 
 ting priest  passes  an  immense  knife  or  keen-edged  razor 
 across  their  throats.  It  is  understood  that  if  any  are 
 false  at  heart,  the  Spirit  will  reveal  it,  to  their  instant 
 death.  Of  course,  all  pass.  They  again  clasp  hands, 
 kneel  and  slowly  repeat  after  Jehovah,  another  oath. 
 The  penalty  for  its  violation  is  to  have  the  bowels 
 slit  across  and  the  entrails  fed  to  swine — with  many 
 horrifying  and  disgusting  details.  Another  sign,  grip 
 and  key  word  are  given,  and  the  First  Degree  of  the 
 MelcJiizedek  Priesthood  is  conferred,  beino:  the  third 
 degree  of  the  Endowment.  Copies  of  the  Bible,  "  Book 
 of  Mormon  "  and  "  Doctrine  and  Covenants  "  are  placed 
 upon  the  altar,  and  another  lecture  delivered.  The 
 initiates  are  now  instructed  that  they  are  in  a  saved 
 condition,  and  are  to  go  steadily  on  in  the  way  of 
 salvation ;  but  that  temporal  duties  demand  their  first 
 care,  chief  among  which  is  a  positive,  innnediate  duty 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMONISM.  497 
 
 to  avenge  the  death  of  the  Prophet  and  Martyr,  Joseph 
 Smith.  Tlie  account  of  his  martyrdom  is  circumstan- 
 tially related,  after  which  the  initiates  take  a  solemn 
 oath  to  avenge  his  death ;  that  they  will  bear  eternal 
 hostility  to  the  Government  of  the  United  States  for 
 the  murder  of  the  Prophet;  that  they  renounce  all 
 allegiance  they  may  have  held  to  the  Government, 
 and  hold  themselves  absolved  from  all  oaths  of  fealty, 
 past  or  future ;  that  they  will  do  all  in  their  power 
 towards  the  overthrow  of  that  Government,  and  in 
 event  of  failure  teach  their  children  to  pursue  that 
 purpose  after  them.  Another  oath  of  fidelity  and 
 secresy  is  administered,  of  which  the  penalty  is  to  have 
 the  heart  torn  *  out  and  fed  to  the  fowls  of  the  air. 
 The  initiates  are  now  declared  acceptable  to  God, 
 taught  a  new  form  of  prayer,  "  in  an  unknown  tongue," 
 and  the  Second  Degree  of  the  MelcMzedeh  Priesthood  is 
 conferred.  They  are  then  passed  "  behind  the  veil," 
 a  linen  curtain,  to  the  last  room. 
 
 IV. 
 
 FOURTH   ESTATE. 
 
 The  kingdom  of  the  Gods. 
 
 The  men  enter  first,  and  the  officiating  priest  cuts 
 certain  marks  on  their  garments  and  a  slight  gash  just 
 above  the  right  knee.  Then,  at  the  command  of 
 Eloheira,  they  one  by  one  introduce  their  women  to 
 the  room.  Very  few  instances  have  occurred  of  women 
 being  admitted  to  these  rites  before  marriage.  "  Seal- 
 ing for  eternity  "  is  then  performed  for  all  who  have 
 previously  been  only  "  married  for  time." 
 32 
 
498  LIFE   IN   UTAUJ   OR,   TUE   MYSTERIES 
 
 The  initiated  then  retire,  resume  their  regular  dress, 
 get  a  lunch  and  return  to  hear  a  lengthy  address,  ex 
 plaining  the  entire  allegory,  and  their  future  duties 
 consequent  on  the  vows  they  have  taken.     The  entire 
 ceremony  and  address  occupy  about  ten  hours. 
 
 Such  is  the  Endowment,  as  reported  by  many  who 
 have  passed  through  it.  The  general  reader  will 
 readily  recognize  that  portion  which  is  paraphrased 
 from  the  Scriptures  and  Milton's  Paradise  Lost.  The 
 general  outline  is  evidently  modeled  upon  the  Mysteries 
 or  Holy  Dramas  of  the  Middle  Ages,  with,  perhaps,  an 
 attempt  to  reproduce  portions  of  the  Eleusinian  Mys- 
 teries of  Ancient  Greece.  Much  of  it  will  be  recognized 
 as  extracted  from  "  Morgan's  Free-masonry  Expose," 
 by  those  familiar  with  that  work ;  and  the  origin  of 
 this  is  quite  curious.  When  Smith  and  Rigdon  first 
 began  their  work  they  were  in  great  doubt  what  to 
 preach ;  a  furious  religious  excitement  was  prevalent  in 
 the  West,  and  portions  of  argument  in  regard  to  all  the 
 isms  of  the  day  may  be  found  in  the  "  Book  of  Mor- 
 mon." But  Anti-Masonry  was  just  then  the  great 
 jDolitical  excitement  of  New  York,  and  the  infant 
 Church  was  easily  drawn  into  that  furious  and  baseless 
 crusade,  which  already  ranks  in  history  as  one  of  those 
 unaccountable  popular  frenzies  which  occasionally  dis- 
 turb our  politics,  rising  from  no  one  knows  where,  and 
 subsiding  as  apparently  without  cause.  Smith's  '"New 
 Translation"  of  the  Old  Testament  is  full  of  Anti- 
 Masonry  ;  the  fifth  chapter  of  Genesis  as  he  has  it, 
 '.vhicli  is  added  entire  to  our  version,  is  devoted  entirely 
 to  the  condemnation  af  secret  societies,  and  sets  forth 
 
AND   CRLAIES   OF   MORMONISM.  499 
 
 particularly  how  they  were  the  invention  of  Cain  after 
 he  "  fled  from  '  the  presence  of  the  Lord/'  But  the 
 Brighamites  declare  the  time  has  not  yet  come  to  pub- 
 lish or  circulate  this  Bible ;  and  it  is  only  quoted  by 
 the  Josephites,  who  use  this  chapter  to  condemn  the 
 Endowment.  Some  years  after,  however,  the  Mormons 
 all  became  Masons,  and  so  continued  till  they  reached 
 Nauvoo;  there  Joseph  Smith  out-masoned  Solomon 
 himself,  and  declared  that  God  had  revealed  to  him  a 
 great  key-word,  which  had  been  lost,  and  that  he  would 
 lead  Masonry  to  far  higher  degrees,  and  not  long  after 
 their  charter  was  revoked  by  the  Grand  Lodg^e.  How 
 much  of  Masonry  proper  has  survived  in  the  Endow- 
 ment, the  writer  will  not  pretend  to  say ;  but  the  Mor- 
 mons are  pleased  to  have  the  outside  world  connect 
 the  two,  and  convey  the  impression  that  this  is  "  Celes- 
 tial Masonry." 
 
 But  the  experience  of  the  Mormons  has  fully  proved 
 — ^if  any  proof  were  needed — that  among  so  many  ready 
 to  take  vile  and  abominable  oaths,  some  would  be  found 
 equally  ready  to  violate  tliem.  Of  those  apostate  Mor- 
 mons who  communicated  some  portions  of  the  matter 
 to  the  writer,  he  is  convinced  their  account  is  correct, 
 and  is  at  liberty  to  say  no  more ;  but  it  may  be  of  in- 
 terest to  i\ie  reader  to  know  how  others  justify  the 
 breaking  of  such  solemn  vows,  even  at  considerable  risk 
 to  themselves.  John  Hyde,  the  most  noted  of  all  apos- 
 tates, and  esteemed  a  "very  honorable  man,  gives  his 
 reasons  at  length,  summing  up  as  follows : 
 
 First,  As  no  one  knew  what  were  the  oaths  previous 
 to  hearing  them,  and  no  one  after  hearing,  could  re/use 
 
500  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 to  take  them,  they  are  not  binding  in  justice.  Secondly, 
 As  the  obligations  also  involved  other  acts  of  obedience 
 as  well  as  secrecy,  and  as  I  do  not  intend  to  obey  those 
 other  obligations,  it  can  be  no  more  improper  to  break 
 the  oath  of  secrecy  than  the  oath  of  unlimited  obedi- 
 ence. Thirdly,  As  the  obligations  involved  treason 
 against  the  United  States,  it  becomes  a  duty  to  expose 
 them.  Fourthly,  The  promise  of  Endo-wmient  being  a 
 principal  bait  held  out  to  the  Mormons,  to  get  them  to 
 Salt  Lake,  it  is  well  they  should  know  what  it  is  worth. 
 Fifthly,  It  is  better  to  violate  a  bad  oath,  than  to 
 keep  it. 
 
 In  ethics  Mr.  Hyde's  first  reason  is  worth  all  the 
 rest ;  the  third  can  hardly  be  admitted,  as  he  was  a 
 resident  of  England,  unnaturalized  in  America,  and  the 
 last  would  apply  with  equal  force  to  any  oath,  and  in 
 the  mouth  of  any  man.  But  Elder  Hyde  has  only 
 exemplified  the  usual  course  of  apostate  Mormons ; 
 from  a  material  and  gross  extreme  he  has  blundered  to 
 the  opposite  ultimate  of  vague  mysticism,  and  is  now 
 preaching  Swedenborgianism  in  England.  If  he  live 
 twenty  years,  he  will  probably  again  recant,  relapse  into 
 complete  infidelity,  or  become  a  Millenarian,  Spiritualist 
 or  lunatic. 
 
 Are  we  to  believe  the  testimony  of  apostates,  and  do 
 these  things  really  occur  ? 
 
 My  own  opinion  is,  that  the  account  is  substantially 
 correct,  for  many  reasons :  that  the  witnesses  agree  where 
 collusion  is  impossible ;  the  relation  is  in  many  in- 
 stances by  persons  utterly  incapable  of  inventing  or 
 constructing  such  a  plot  j  apostates  universally  have  a 
 
AND  CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  501 
 
 horror  or  fear  of  speaking  about  it,  and  never  do  until 
 they  are  safe  beyond  the  power  of  the  Church;  all 
 that  can  be  observed  by  outsiders  corresponds  with 
 these  accounts,  and  particularly  the  fact  that  there  is 
 a  close  agreement  and  perfect  analogy  between  the 
 known  doctrines  of  the  Church  and  the  outHnes  of  the 
 drama. 
 
 Such  is  one  of  the  means  employed  by  the  Mormon 
 leaders  to  weld  their  people  into  perfect  unity ;  and  to 
 such  a  feast  of  blasphemy  and  horrors  do  they  invite 
 the  world,  in  their  seductive 
 
 Missionary  Hymn 
 
 "  Lo  !  the  Gentile  chain  is  broken  ; 
 Freedom's  banner  waves  on  high  ; 
 List,  ye  nations  !  by  this  token 
 Know  that  your  redemption's  nigh. 
 
 "  See,  on  yonder  distant  mountain, 
 Zion's  standard  wide  unfurl'd  ; 
 Far  above  Missouri's  fountain, 
 Lo !  it  waves  for  all  the  world. 
 
 "  Freedom,  peace,  and  full  salvation 
 Are  the  blessings  guaranteed  ; 
 Liberty  to  every  nation, 
 Every  tongue,  and  every  creed. 
 
 **  Come,  ye  Christian  sects  and  Pagan, 
 Pope,  and  Protestant,  and  Priest ; 
 "Worshippers  of  God  or  Dagon, 
 Come  ye  to  fair  Freedom's  feast 
 
 *'Come,  ye  sons  of  doubt  and  wonder, 
 Indian,  Moslem,  Greek,  or  Jew  ; 
 All  your  shackles  bui-st  asunder. 
 Freedom's  banner  waves  for  30U. 
 
502  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 "  Cease  to  butcher  one  another, 
 Join  the  covenant  of  peace  ; 
 Be  to  all  a  friend,  a  brother, 
 This  will  bring  the  world  release. 
 
 "Lo  1  our  King,  the  great  Messiah, 
 Prince  of  Peace,  shall  come  to  reign ! 
 Sound  again,  ye  heavenly  choir, 
 Peace  on  earth,  good-will  to  men." 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  503 
 
 CHAPTER   XXI. 
 
 PRESENT    CONDITION    AND   PROSPECTS. 
 
 Co-operation — The  "bull's  eye"  signs — Inherent  weakness  of  the  system 
 — Immediate  effects  on  the  Gentiles— Final  result  to  the  Saints — Found- 
 ing of  Corinne — Its  bright  pros])ects — Trip  to  Sevier — The  deserted 
 city — New  Silverado — !Mines  and  mining — A  new  interest  in  Utah- 
 Rich  discoveries — Hindrances — Grant's  Administration  in  Utah — Bet- 
 ter men  in  the  Revenue  Department— Experience  of  Dr.  J.  P.  Tag- 
 gart— More  "persecution" — The  Judges — The  Governor — Congres- 
 sional Legislation — "  Cullom  Bill" — Probable  effects — Guesses  at  the 
 future — Another  exodus — "Zion"  in  Sonora. 
 
 Early  in  October,  18G8,  the  writer  took  up  his  resi- 
 dence in  Salt  Lake  City,  and  the  hitter  part  of  the 
 same  month,  took  editorial  control  of  the  Salt  Lake 
 Reporter,  the  only  Gentile  paper  in  Utah.  But  the 
 hostility  of  the  Church  had  become  so  great,  that  the 
 trade  of  Gentiles  was  ruined,  and  one  by  one  they  were 
 forced  to  sell  out  and  leave  the  city.  As  already  noted, 
 the  October  Conference  of  1868,  passed  a  wholesale  de- 
 cree of  non-intercourse  with  resident  Gentiles,  forbid- 
 ding any  Monnon  to  buy  of,  emplo}^  or  in  any  way 
 countenance  them.  The  da}^  of  assassinations  was 
 thought  to  be  past,  but  Brigham  still  hoped  to  keep 
 out  the  Gentiles  and  their  hated  principles  by  ruining 
 their  trade.  But  as  the  Gentile  merchants  generally 
 sold  the  cheapest,  hundreds  of  the  Saints  found  it  ini- 
 possilile  to  distinguish  one  store  from  another,  to  remedy 
 which  difficulty  came  another  "  decree  "  from  Brigham, 
 
504  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 and  soon  after,  over  every  Mormon  store  was  seen  in 
 flaming  blue  and  gold, 
 
 "HOLINESS  TO  THE  LORD 
 
 (The  All-seeing  Eye) 
 
 ZION's   CO-OPERATIVE   MERCANTILE   ASSOCIATION." 
 
 This  effectually  "  corraled  "  the  trade  for  a  time,  but 
 with  that  strange  fatality  observable  in  men  accustomed 
 to  having  their  own  way,  which  in  the  very  nature  of 
 things  compels  them  to  go  further  and  further,  till  they 
 at  last  reach  a  point  beyond  popular  endurance,  Brigham 
 determined  that  the  Mormon  firms  should  yield  also, 
 and  the  entire  business  of  the  Territory  become  co-ope- 
 rative in  fact.  Measures  were  taken  to  establish  a 
 store  in  each  ward  and  settlement,  while  the  entire 
 community  combined  in  a  large  wholesale  establishment 
 with  a  stated  capital  of  $1,000,000.  It  was  purposed 
 to  have  an  agent  constantly  residing  in  the  eastern 
 cities,  with  surplus  cash  in  his  safe,  to  be  ready  to  watch 
 tlie  markets  and  buy  always  at  the  best  advantage.  Li 
 many  of  the  settlements  co-operative  stores  were  soon 
 started,  and  as  the  people  there  do  whatever  the  bishops 
 tell  them,  it  was  easy  to  get  the  scheme  in  operation. 
 By  their  religion  and  habits  of  unreasoning  obedience 
 without  a  Avhy  or  wherefore,  the  Mormons  were  as  well 
 prepared  for  co-operation  as  any  people  could  be ;  and  it 
 was  reasonable  to  suppose  the  new  scheme  would  be 
 almost  a  perfect  success,  that  two  or  three  years,  at 
 least,  would  be  required  for  it  to  wear  out.    But  it  soon 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  505 
 
 developed  an  inherent  weakness.  The  Mormon  mer- 
 chants were,  of  course,  no  better  pleased  than  the  Gen- 
 tiles to  have  their  business  ruined,  and  there  were  still 
 a  few  of  the  laity  who  would  not  "jump  as  the  bell 
 wether  jumped,"  and  risk  their  necks  in  the  operation. 
 The  history  of  co-operative  movements  shows  that 
 where  applied  to  manufacturing  purposes  they  have,  in 
 the  majority  of  cases,  succeeded ;  but  in  merchandizing, 
 nine  times  out  of  ten  they  have  failed.  And  the  reason 
 is  obvious.  In  the  case  of  the  manufacturers,  a  few  men 
 combine  their  skill  and  labor  to  create  wealth ;  every 
 man  knows  something  of  the  business,  and  has  an  under- 
 standing eye  on  its  management :  if  one  can  do  nothing 
 but  drive  pegs,  he  understands  that,  all  that  he  has  to 
 do,  and  contributes  his  share  to  the  success  of  the  con- 
 cern. Every  member  knows,  at  a  glance,  the  intrinsic 
 value  of  the  company's  articles,  ready  at  a  moment's 
 notice  to  turn  salesman,  and  as  their  business  is  all  sell- 
 ing and  no  buying,  except  procuring  the  rude  materials, 
 they  have  but  half  the  opportunity  for  mistakes.  All 
 tliese  features  are  lacking  to  the  merchant  co-operators. 
 Their  business  must  be  done  by  agents ;  not  one  in  a 
 hundred  of  the  partners  understands  the  principles  in- 
 volved. Merchandizing  requires  the  unity  and  con- 
 trolling energy  of  one  directing  mind ;  one  average  mer- 
 chant or  two  can  show  a  better  set  of  books  than  a 
 committee  of  fifty  first-class  merchants ;  a  debating 
 society  cannot  centralize  its  energies.  They  do  not 
 create,  they  only  manipulate  wealth ;  the  buying  of  ne- 
 cessity equals  tho  selling,  giving  twice  the  opportunity 
 for  mistakes.     If  there  is  but  one  vote  to  each  member, 
 
506  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;   OR.   THE   AfTSTERIES 
 
 a  small  aggregate  of  capital  overrules  a  very  large  in- 
 terest; if  there  is  a  vote  to  every  share,  the  small 
 holders  are  partially  disfranchised,  and,  of  course,  dis- 
 satisfied ;  dissensions  must  naturally  result,  and  a  thou- 
 sand men  cannot  reasonably  be  expected  to  have  less 
 than  a  dozen  plans,  either  one  of  which  would  be  good 
 by  itself  And  herein  the  Brighamites  showed  their 
 strict  consistency,  by  maintaining  that  the  business  ojuist 
 be  managed  by  an  inspired  priesthood,  that  there  must 
 be  no  dissension  or  difference  of  opinion,  and  that  it 
 "  luas  apostasy  to  dissent "  from  the  business  plans  of 
 that  priesthood;  for  if  such  a  business  ever  becomes  a 
 success,  it  must  be  by  direct  inspiration  from  the  Al- 
 mighty, requiring  prompt  obedience  and  without  ques- 
 tion ;  it  must  be  "  yea  and  amen,"  without  an  attempt 
 to  piece  it  out  with  mere  human  wisdom.  When  the 
 Lord  condescends  to  run  a  "  dollar  store,"  we  may  expect 
 co-operation  to  be  a  perfect  success.  The  end  is  not  yet, 
 but  enough  has  transpired  to  show  that  co-operation  in 
 Utah  is  not  exempt  from  the  usual  weaknesses. 
 
 It  was  on  this  principle  of  business  management  by 
 the  priesthood,  that  the  Godbeites  first  took  their  stand 
 in  opposition  to  Brigham  Young.  They  maintained 
 that  the  priesthood  should  only  guide  in  spiritual  mat- 
 ters, wljiile  every  man  should  manage  his  private  busi- 
 ness to  suit  himself  To  this  the  First  Presidency 
 jointly  made  reply:  "It  is  our  prerogative  to  dictate  to 
 this  people  in  everything,  even  to  the  ribbons  the 
 women  shall  wear.  It  is  apostasy  to  oppose  or  differ 
 with  the  plans  of  tlie  priesthood  in  temporal  matters." 
 
 Of  course  the  immediate  eflects  of  the  "decree  of 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  507 
 
 non-intercourse"  were  to  produce  greater  bitterness  be- 
 tween Saint  and  Gentile.  Legally  it  was  a  move  which 
 they  had  a  sort  of  right  to  make,  but  it  was  decidedly 
 against  good  neighborhood ;  no  particular  violence  was 
 for  a  while  attempted,  and  both  parties  contented  them- 
 selves with  a  little  quiet  cursing.  Social  ostracism 
 seemed  to  be  complete;  the  "  loyal"  Brighamite  and  the 
 straight-out  Gentile  seldom  met,  except  in  enforced 
 cases,  and  when  they  did  either  sat  in  sullen  silence,  or 
 their  conversation  was  a  mixture  of  the  "rile"  and 
 "  knagg,"  both  exasperating  and  unprofitable.  During 
 the  winter  of  1868-69  the  Gentile  residents  of  Salt 
 Lake  City  numbered  nearly  eight  hundred,  of  all  ages 
 and  sexes,  among  whom  we  include  that  portion  of  the 
 apostates  who  fully  associated  with  and  were  recog- 
 nized as  Gentiles.  This  estimate  I  make  from  an  in- 
 spection of  the  subscription  list  of  the  Daily  Repoi'ter, 
 the  roll  of  membership  of  the  Gentile  (Episcopal)  Church, 
 the  members  of  St.  Mark's  Grammar  School  and  Sabbath 
 School,  the  roll  of  the  Hebrew  Benevolent  Society, 
 including  every  Jew  in  the  city,  and  the  membership 
 of  the  Masonic  and  Odd  Fellow  Lodges,  besides  having 
 been  personally  acquainted  with  almost  every  one  of 
 tliem.  Besides  these,  there  were  one  day  with  another 
 several  hundred  transients  in  the  city,  consisting  of 
 visitors,  railroad  men  temporarily  out  of  employment, 
 teamsters,  miners  and  travelers,  stopping  from  one  week 
 to  three  months.  Early  in  March  the  number  began 
 to  decrease  rapidly ;  Gilbert  &  Sons  departed  for  other 
 points;  Ransohoft'  &  Co.  sold  out  to  the  co-operative 
 institution;  Coriune  was  laid  out  on  the  25th  of  March, 
 
508  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 and  in  two  months  thereafter  received  a  large  accession 
 of  Salt  Lake  men,  and  by  the  1st  of  June  there  were 
 probably  less  than  three  hundred  Gentiles  in  the  city. 
 The  arrival  of  the  newly  appointed  officials,  their 
 families  and  deputies  increased  the  number  a  little ;  but 
 the  general  depression  in  business  has  acted  upon  all, 
 and  there  is  no  encouragement  for  new  comers  either 
 Saint  or  Gentile.  The  Gentile  power  seems  to  have 
 consolidated  in  the  northern  counties,  along  the  rail- 
 road, and  though  the  process  may  be  slow  will  even- 
 tually liberalize  that  section  of  Mormonism. 
 
 CoRiNNE  stands  forth  in  fame  as  the  first  and  only 
 Gentile  town  in  Utah ;  though  the  progress  of  the  rail- 
 road has  caused  settlements,  of  a  hundred  or  so  each, 
 at  Bear  River,  Wasatch,  Echo  City,  Uintah,  and  Indian 
 Creek.  Corinne  is  sixty  miles  north  and  twelve  west 
 of  Salt  Lake  City,  occupying  the  same  relative  place 
 on  Bear  River,  the  other  does  on  the  Jordan.  It  is  at 
 the  railroad  crossing  of  Bear  River,  midway  between 
 the  Wasatch  Mountains  and  the  spur  known  as  Pro- 
 montory, some  eight  miles  from  the  lake,  and  in  the 
 centre  and  richest  portion  of  Bear  River  Valley.  The 
 western  half  of  this  valley,  unoccupied,  except  by  one 
 small  village  of  three  hundred  Danish  Mormons,  con- 
 tains half  a  million  acres  of  the  very  finest  farming 
 land;  of  this  one-fourth  is  cultivable  without  irrigation, 
 and  the  rest  could  be  made  fruitful  by  moderate  water- 
 ing, while  an  extensive  stock  range  of  the  richest  kind 
 extends  westward  and  northward.  The  elevation  is 
 4300  feet  above  sea-level,  1000  feet  less  than  that  of 
 Denver,  2000  less  than  Cheyenne,  3300  greater  than 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF    MORMOXISM.  509 
 
 Omaha,  surrounded  north,  east  and  west  by  lofty  moun- 
 tain ranges,  and  on  the  south  by  the  Great  Salt  Lake. 
 It  is  thus  the  central  point  of  a  beautiful  valley,  fifteen 
 by  twenty  miles  in  extent,  with  a  location  unsurpassed 
 for  natural  beauty. 
 
 The  City  was  laid  out  March  25th,  1869,  by  Mr. 
 John  O'Neill,  Engineer  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad ; 
 at  the  first  sale  of  lots  by  General  J.  A.  Williamson, 
 Land  Agent  of  the  Railroad  Company,  the  sales  amounted 
 to  $21,000,  and  in  a  few  weeks  a  flourishing  town  had 
 sprung  up.  Corinne  is  the  natural  centre  of  the  Rocky 
 Mountains;  the  most  convenient  spot  on  the  railroad  for  a 
 point  of  departure  to  Helena  and  Virginia  City,  Montana, 
 and  the  point  of  supply  for  Idaho  and  Northern  Utah. 
 Bear  River  is  navigable  thence  to  the  lake  for  steamers 
 of  a  hundred  tons ;  and  Salt  Lake  and  Jordan  equally 
 so  to  within  three  miles  of  Salt  Lake  City.  North  and 
 east  of  Corinne,  in  Utah,  is  already  a  resident  popular 
 tion  of  fifteen  or  twenty  thousand,  whose  natural  trad- 
 ing point  is  at  that  place ;  the  constant  efforts  of  the 
 Church  authorities  are  directed  to  preventing  that  trade 
 from  reaching  there ;  but  it  is  already  coming,  to  some 
 extent,  and  must  steadily  increase  as  liberal  ideas  pre- 
 vail in  that  section.  Corinne  is  an  anomaly  in  politics, 
 a  government  within  a  government,  a  little  republic  in 
 the  midst  of  a  theocracy ;  a  free  city  in  the  Territory 
 of  an  absolute  monarch.  For  a  few  months  the  town 
 was  governed  by  Councilors  chosen  without  a  charter ; 
 this  organization  was  allowed  to  lapse,  and  the  Mormon 
 County  authorities  were  acknowledged ;  finally,  within 
 the  last  few  weeks,  the  Territorial  Legislature  granted 
 
510  LIFE    IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 a  regular  charter,  and  the  city  is  now  fully  organized 
 under  it.  Corinne  has  a  little  of  the  "wickedness" 
 incident  to  new  railroad  towns,  but  thus  far  of  a  re- 
 markably peaceful  character;  morally  slip  is  an  exception 
 to  railroad  towns ;  the  pohtical  and  religious  antipodes 
 of  Salt  Lake  City,  she  is  on  her  good  behavior.  A 
 church  and  school  have  been  successfully  established, 
 and  this  gem  of  the  mountains.  Queen  city  of  the  Lake, 
 has  started  with  a  good  reputation. 
 
 While  sojourning  pleasantly  at  Corinne,  last  August, 
 rumors  reached  me  of  an  immense  silver  district  on 
 the  Sevier  River,  two  hundred  miles  south  of  Salt  Lake 
 City.  Little  was  known  for  a  certainty  of  that  region ; 
 the  spot  was  far  beyond  the  settlements  in  the  edge 
 of  the  Indian  country,  and  the  route  thither  lay 
 through  the  most  benighted  region  of  Polygamia.  For 
 these  and  other  reasons,  I  felt  that  the  Sevierites 
 needed  a  historian.  The  man  was  ready  and  the  hour 
 was  propitious.  Peace  had  been  made  the  preceding 
 year  with  the  Uintahs,  and  the  route  was  just  safe 
 enough  to  not  quite  destroy  the  spice  of  a  slight 
 danger.  Messrs.  Salisbury  &  Gilmer,  successors  in 
 fame  to  Wells,  Fargo  &  Co.,  had  just  established  a  tri- 
 weekly line  of  coaches  to  Fillmore,  running  within  a 
 hundred  miles  of  the  new  Silverado,  and  on  the  morn- 
 ing of  September  1st,  I  took  a  seat  in  their  best 
 "  outfit "  and  was  soon  rolling  southward  through  the 
 richest  portion  of  Jordan  Valley.  Twenty-five  miles 
 south  of  the  city  a  spur  of  the  Wasatch  juts  out  from 
 the  east,  almost  joining  the  West  Mountain,  leaving  a 
 smill  gap  known  as  the   "Narrows,"  or  caiion  of  the 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  511 
 
 Jordan;  here  the  stage  road  follows  a  "dug-way" 
 around  the  hill,  several  hundred  feet  above  the  river, 
 where  there  is  never  two  feet  to  spare  between  the 
 wheels  and  a  slope  almost  perpendicular.  Thence  we 
 descend  over  a  long  slope,  with  a  succession  of  beauti- 
 ful views,  into  the  valley  east  of  Utah  Lake,  the  Galilee 
 of  modern  Saints ;  we  pass  the  flourishing  settlements 
 of  Lehi,  Battle  Creek,  and  American  Fork  to  the  city 
 of  Provo,  second  oldest  town  in  the  Territory.  From 
 there  a  night  stage  brought  us  to  Levan  or  Chicken 
 Creek,  a  hundred  and  fifteen  miles  south  of  the  city, 
 where  the  main  road  bears  off  to  the  right  of  Iron  Moun- 
 tain, while  to  the  left,  a  trail  through  a  high,  uninhab- 
 ited valley,  leads  to  the  Sevier,  near  the  head  of  which 
 are  the  mines.  We  were  now  out  of  even  Mormon 
 civilization,  and  the  remaining  ninety-five  miles  were 
 necessarily  divided  into  two  stages,  thirty  miles  to 
 Old  Fort  Gunnison,  now  a  small  Mormon  settlement, 
 and  sixty-five  through  the  valley  formerly  settled  but 
 deserted  during  the  Indian  war.  The  miners  have 
 established  an  express  over  this  route,  making  one  trip 
 per  week,  and  the  driver  and  myself  were  soon  on  the 
 way,  traveling  for  the  rest  of  the  day  through  a  region 
 literally  alive  with  small  game ;  jack-rabbits,  sage- 
 hens,  and  small  fowl  were  abundant  on  the  high  plain, 
 and  ducks  fairly  swarmed  about  every  pond  in  the 
 lower  valleys.  We  spent  the  night  at  Fort  Gunnison, 
 a  veritable  walled  town  and  city  of  refuge.  The  place 
 is  a  square  of  some  thirty  acres,  surrounded  by  a  stone 
 wall  with  huge  gates  on  the  four  sides ;  within  is  an 
 awkward  collection  of  dobie  and  log  houses,  mud  huts, 
 
512  LIFE    IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 stone  stables,  "  dug-outs,"  and  willow  corrals,  inhabited 
 by  English,  Danes,  cattle,  dogs  and  fleas,  the  latter 
 predominating.  It  may  have  been  that  the  poor  peo- 
 ple could  do  no  better  on  account  of  Indian  troubles, 
 but  as  I  walked  about  this  singular  town  it  seemed  to 
 me  the  place  rested  under  the  curse  and  shadow  of  a 
 barbaric  superstition.  The  stone  walls  with  houses 
 built  against  them  and  towers  for  sentinels ;  the  dirty 
 children  resembling  Arabs  more  than  Caucasians  ;  the 
 heavy  gates  thrown  open  to  receive  the  "  evening 
 herd  "  of  cattle,  and  the  general  air  of  desert  life  per- 
 vading the  place  seemed  so  unlike  any  American  scene, 
 that  I  almost  expected  to  find  I  was  in  the  midst  of 
 that  Oriental  life  from  which  Mormonism  has  drawn 
 so  many  of  its  features. 
 
 From  Gunnison  a  few  hours  brought  us  to  the  noted 
 "  Salt  Mountain,"  a  series  of  ridges  from  which  crystal- 
 ized  salt  can  be  cut  in  immense  blocks ;  around  the 
 points  rise  numerous  springs  of  pure  brine,  and  a  little 
 further  on,  where  a  stream  of  pure  water  gushes  out 
 of  a  rugged  cailon,  is  the  city  of  Salina,  now  com- 
 pletely deserted. 
 
 From  this  point  we  traversed  an  unbroken  desert  for 
 ten  miles,  its  bare,  gray  surface  unrelieved  save  by  an 
 occasional  clump  of  scant  grease-wood  or  cactus.  Be- 
 yond this  a  spur  of  the  mountains  runs  out  nearly  to 
 the  river,  and  turning  this  point  we  w^re  delighted  at 
 sight  of  Glenn's  Cove,  a  semi-circle  of  beauty  and 
 fertility  extending  back  into  an  opening  in  the  moun- 
 tains, containing  at  least  six  miles  square  of  land,  well 
 watered     and     fruitful.       Moving    through    the     low 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  ol3 
 
 meadows  where  the  natural  grass  grew  to  the  height 
 of  a  man's  head,  and  then  over  a  tract  of  farm-land,  we 
 entered  the  beautiful  town  of  Glenn  City.  Situated  in 
 such  a  place,  with  the  water  of  a  dozen  mountain 
 springs  coursing  through  the  streets,  this  had  evidently 
 been  a  town  of  considerable  pretensions.  The  streets 
 were  laid  off  with  the  cardinal  points ;  the  houses  were 
 well  constructed  of  lumber,  stone  and  dobies ;  the  gar- 
 dens had  been  enclosed  with  stone  walls  of  extra  finish, 
 and  the  ditches  lining  the  streets  paved  with  that  care 
 and  beauty  which  marks  the  settlements  of  the  better 
 English  Mormons ;  wdiile  the  cool  shade  and  agreeable 
 rustle  of  the  rows  of  trees  lining  the  walks,  seemed  to 
 invite  the  desert-weary  traveler  to  repose  in  coolness 
 and  comfort.  But  there  were  none  to  enjoy  this  beauty; 
 tall  "  pig-weed  "  and  rank  wheat-grass  filled  the  streets, 
 the  stone  walls  were  broken  down  and  overran  by  wild 
 vines,  the  irrigating  ditches  in  places  overflowed  and 
 rippled  unchecked  through  front  yards  and  gardens, 
 and  the  cool  winds  from  the  cartons  sighed  mournfully 
 through  the  deserted  habitations. 
 
 Involuntarily  I  looked  for  the  cemetery,  for  it  seemed 
 that  a  plague  must  have  smitten  the  city ;  but  there 
 was  no  unusual  record  of  death  there.  Beyond  the 
 city  lay  untilled  fields,  with  plows  in  places  rusting  in 
 the  furrows,  and  still  further  deserted  ranches  and 
 meadows,  apparently  sleeping  in  the  hazy  air  of  au- 
 tumn. AVhile  the  driver  rested  his  team  for  an  hour, 
 I  looked  through  the  place,  for  it  almost  seemed  to  me 
 the  people  were  hidden  in  the  houses ;  but  when  I 
 entered  the  largest  residence  I  found  the  floor  broken 
 
 33 
 
514  LIFE    IN   UTAH  ;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 through  and  an  Indian  arrow  sticking  in  the  wall.  In 
 another  well  built  house,  I  observed  a  child's  cradle, 
 still  unbroken,  near  the  fire-place,  and  beside  it  the 
 mildewed  remnants  of  a  dress  and  bonnet  and  baby's 
 shoes ;  melancholy  traces  of  the  attack  and  flight,  when 
 the  fearful  mother  caught  up  her  child  and  fled  before 
 the  avenging  arrows  of  the  "  Lamanites." 
 
 Fifteen  miles  further  we  passed  Alma ;  a  town  cover- 
 ing thirty  acres  in  a  square;  enclosed  by  a  massive 
 stone  wall,  with  towers  at  the  corners,  arranged  with 
 port-holes  and  sentry  posts.  But  walls  and  towers 
 were  useless  without  skillful  men  to  man  them ;  the 
 savages  drove  away  the  cattle  of  the  settlement  in 
 broad  day  light,  and  soon  after  the  place  was  aban- 
 doned. The  whole  number  of  Black  Hawk's  band  of 
 Mountain  Utes,  who  drove  the  whites  out  of  this  valley, 
 is  reported  to  have  been  less  than  five  hundred ;  and 
 though  peace  had  been  made  with  him  for  a  year,  the 
 Saints  were  slow  to  return. 
 
 At  Marysvale,  the  last  town  on  the  route,  we  found 
 three  returned  families ;  and  here  we  left  the  river  and 
 traveled  six  miles  up  a  gulch  to  the  westward,  which 
 brought  us  to  Bullion  City  and  the  mines.  I  spent 
 several  days  in  this  strange  mountain  community,  con- 
 sistino;  of  some  two  hundred  miners  isolated  from  the 
 world,  and  made  a  thorough  examination  of  the  district. 
 I  found  an  awkward  condition  of  afl'airs.  There  are, 
 without  doubt,  immense  quantities  of  silver  ore  there ; 
 the  facilities  for  working  the  mines,  in  the  way  of  tim- 
 ber and  water,  are  unequaled ;  but  there  are  no  placer 
 diggings,  all  quartz;  and  the  miners  were  men  of  limited 
 
AXD   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  515 
 
 means  who  had  rushed  in  from  Nevada,  each  workins: 
 enough  "  to  hold  his  two  hundred  feet,"  but  none  able 
 to  buy  and  bring  in  a  quartz-mill.  The  various  leads 
 extend  for  some  miles  along  both  sides  of  the  gulch, 
 "cropping  out"  in  some  instances  for  three  or  four 
 thousand  feet.  That  there  is  immense  mineral  wealth 
 in  this  district  is  beyond  a  doubt ;  but  it  is  far  from 
 transportation,  and  no  bullion  returns  have  yet  been 
 made  to  convince  capitalists  of  its  richness,  or  create  a 
 "rush."  The  Mormons  manage  to  hinder  progress 
 there  in  various  ways,  and  development  is  slow.  But 
 I  think  it  highly  probable  these  will,  in  time,  be  among 
 the  most  valuable  mines  in  the  West. 
 
 Gold  mining  has  been  successfully  established  in 
 Bingham  Canon,  twenty  miles  west  of  Salt  Lake  City, 
 and  in  Rush  Valley  some  farther  west ;  within  the  last 
 few  months  rich  deposits  have  been  discovered,  and 
 these  places  are  attracting  great  attention.  Other 
 valuable  discoveries  have  been  made  in  Cottonwood 
 Canon,  and  with  the  opening  of  the  present  season  the 
 mining  interests  of  Utah  become,  for  the  first  time,  im- 
 portant. 
 
 The  accession  of  General  Grant  to  the  Presidency 
 was  looked  forward  to,  with  great  interest  by  the  Gen- 
 tiles, in  the  expectation  that  some  reform  would  be  in- 
 augurated in  Utah ;  nor  were  these  hopes  entirely  with- 
 out realization. 
 
 The  new  Administration  hastened  to  remove  the  of- 
 ficers who  had  disgraced  the  Revenue  Service  for  four 
 years,  appointing  0.  J.  HoUister,  Esq.,  Collector,  and 
 Dr.  J.  P.  Taggart,  Assessor,  in  place  of  Burton  and 
 
616  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    uR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 Clietlaine  removed.  Of  Burton,  I  have  already  spoken ; 
 of  Clietlaine  it  need  only  be  said  that  he  was  the  personal 
 friend  and  rather  intimate  associate  of  Brigham  Young, 
 often  accompanying  him  in  his  trips  about  the  Territory, 
 and  that  he  made  no  attempt  whatever  to  assess  the 
 Church  income.  I  am  of  opinion,  however,  that  the 
 serious  charges  against  him  in  other  respects  are  untrue. 
 
 Chief  Justice  Wilson  had  been  appointed  some  time 
 before  by  President  Johnson,  and  retained  his  position. 
 The  Mormon  Associate  Justice,  Hoge,  was  succeeded 
 by  Hon.  0.  F.  Strickland,  who  had  resided  several  years 
 in  Utah  and  Montana,  and  is  eminently  qualified  for  the 
 position.  The  Judge  has  had  great  practice  in  the  pe- 
 culiar technicalities  of  Mormon  law,  and  enters  upon 
 his  duties  endowed  with  valuable  experience.  The 
 veteran.  Judge  Drake,  who  had  served  seven  years  in 
 Utah,  gave  place  to  Hon.  C.  F.  Hawley,  of  Illinois,  as 
 Associate  Justice,  who  has  already  taken  a  high  position 
 among  the  few  United  States  officials  who  have  upheld 
 the  dignity  and  maintained  the  honor  of  the  Govern- 
 ment even  in  Utah. 
 
 Tlie  opinion  of  Associate  Justices  Strickland  and 
 Hawley,  lately  delivered,  dissenting  from  Chief  Justice 
 Wilson,  in  the  case  of  Howard,  Brannigan  and  La 
 Valle,  has  attracted  great  attention  in  the  Territories, 
 and  is  regarded  as  an  authentic  exposition  of  Federal 
 law  in  Territorial  courts. 
 
 But  it  was  in  the  Revenue  Department  that  the  fii'st 
 collision  arose  with  Brigham.  The  following  extract  from 
 the  correspondence  of  an  Eastern  Journal,  exhibits  the 
 clearest  view  of  all  the  facts  and  deductions  therefrom : 
 
 "  An  attempt  has  recently  been  made  in  Salt  Lake 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  517 
 
 Cit  j  by  Dr.  Taggart,  the  new  Assessor  of  Internal  Rev- 
 enue, to  assess  a  tax  upon  the  income  of  the  Mormon 
 Church,  which  is  known  to  amount  to  a  large  sum  an- 
 nually. In  this  effort  he  has  met  with  the  most  deter- 
 mined and  persistent  opposition  from  Brigham  and  his 
 subordinates.  Singular  as  it  may  seem,  the  wealthy 
 *  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of  Latter-Day  Saints'  has 
 never  yet  paid  the  Government  tax  upon  its  income. 
 The  former  Assessor,  Chetlaine,  was  known  by  the 
 'Gentiles'  of  Salt  Lake  City  to  be  the  mere  tool  of 
 Brigham  Young. 
 
 "He  accompanied  Brigham  upon  his  royal  progress 
 through  the  Territory,  and  upon  one  occasion,  when 
 attending  an  evening  meeting  of  the  Mormons,  accepted 
 an  invitation  to  a  seat  upon  the  platform,  with  the 
 Bishop  and  his  two  counselors,  kno^vn  violaters  of  the 
 anti-Polygamy  law.  When,  however,  he  is  removed 
 and  a  man  like  Dr.  Taggart  steps  into  his  position,  de- 
 termined to  discharge  the  duties  of  his  office  without 
 fear  or  favor,  the  Mormons  salute  him  with  howls  of 
 rage,  and  threats  of  persecution. 
 
 "The  first  act  of  Assessor  Taggart,  upon  assuming 
 office,  was  to  assess  the  Government  tax  upon  the  total 
 amount  of  scrip  issued  by  the  Corporation  of  Salt  Lake 
 City,  $190,000.  The  Treasurer  of  the  Corporation  had 
 made  his  returns  regularly  to  the  former  Assessor  each 
 month,  with  the  tax  calculated  at  one-twelfth  of  one 
 per  cent,  upon  the  circulation,  as  required  of  bankers, 
 and  General  Chetlaine  accepted  them  as  proper  and 
 correct.  Section  6,  of  the  Internal  Revenue  act  of 
 March  3, 1865,  requires  the  assessment  of  10  per  cent. 
 
518  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 upon  the  issue  of  all  corporations  of  cities,  &c.,  the  act 
 not  recognizing  those  bodies  as  legitimate  bankers. 
 The  tax  upon  $190,000  at  10  per  cent,  is  $19,000; 
 the  tax  upon  $190,000  at  one-twelfth  of  one  per  cent, 
 is  $158.83,  leaving  the  sum  of  $18,841.69,  of  which 
 the  Government  would  be  defrauded,  did  not  the  present 
 Assessor  enforce  payment.  The  profits  made  upon  this 
 issue  of  $190,000  are  really  a  part  of  the  revenues  of 
 the  Mormon  Church,  the  members  of  the  Corporation 
 of  Salt  Lake  City  being  nominated  by  Brigham,  and 
 their  election  being  secured  by  him  under  the  present 
 anti-republican  form  of  voting  in  Utah.  In  the  early 
 part  of  last  August,  Dr.  Taggart  forwarded  to  Brigham 
 Young  a  set  of  blanks,  at  the  same  time  requesting 
 him,  as  Trustee  of  the  Church,  to  make  a  proper  return 
 of  its  income  for  1868.  Brigham  became  greatly  in- 
 censed at  this,  and  at  first  flatly  refused  to  comply,  but 
 sent  in  reply  the  following  document :  '  We,  the  Gov- 
 ernment of  the  United  States,  do  not  recognize  any 
 such  organization  as  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  of 
 Latter-day  Saints,  or  any  such  ofiicer  as  the  Trustee-in- 
 Trust  of  said  Church.  We,  the  Government  of  the 
 United  States,  have  obliterated  such  church  and  officer 
 from  existence  by  legislative  enactment  of  July  1st, 
 1862.'  No  signatm'e  was  appended  to  this.  The 
 meaning  intended  to  be  conveyed  was  doubtless  this : 
 That  the  anti-Polygamy  act  was  theoretically  intended 
 to  wipe  the  Trustee-in-Trust  and  'Church  of  Jesus 
 Christ  of  Latter-day  Saints'  out  of  existence,  although 
 practically  it  had  failed  in  its  object;  and  therefore  the 
 Government  could  not  assess  and  collect  a  tax  upon  the 
 
AND   CRIMES  OF   MORMONISM.  519 
 
 income  of  that  ecclesiastical  corporation.  This  commu- 
 nication from  Brigham  was  treated  with  the  contempt 
 which  it  deserved — no  notice  being  taken  of  it.  The 
 Assessor  declared,  however,  that,  if  proper  and  correct 
 returns  were  not  made  within  the  time  limited  by  law, 
 he  should  proceed  to  make  the  assessment  himself  from 
 tlie  best  information  which  he  could  obtain,  and  should 
 also  hand  the  affair  over  to  the  United  States  District 
 Attorney.  Upon  the  last  day  allowed  by  law,  Brigham 
 made  a  return  stating  the  total  income  of  the  Church 
 for  1864  to  be  $440.  The  return  was  signed  by  Brigham 
 Young  in  his  private  capacity.  The  blank  oath  was 
 filled  up  and  purported  to  have  been  sworn  to  before 
 the  Deputy  Assessor,  a  Mormon,  though  Brigham  had 
 been  in  the  habit  of  having  his  private  income-returns 
 sworn  to  by  one  of  his  clerks,  who,  he  said,  knew  more 
 about  it  than  he  did  himself. 
 
 "The  papers  were  immediately  turned  over  to  the 
 United  States  District  Attorney,  who  prepared  an  ela- 
 borate opinion,  demonstrating  that  the  Mormon  Church 
 corporation  was  as  much  liable  to  have  its  income  taxed 
 as  Trinity  or  any  church  corporation,  subject,  of  course, 
 to  the  legal  exemptions.  The  various  sources  of  reve- 
 nue of  the  Mormon  Church  were  also  clearly  and  suc- 
 cinctly given.  The  papers  were  then  forwarded  to  the 
 Commissioner  at  Washington  to  await  his  opinion  and 
 instructions,  and  there  they  now  remain. 
 
 "The  Mormon  Church  corporation  has  dealt  exten- 
 sively in  the  buying  and  selling  of  horses  and  cattle. 
 For  years  this  business  has  been  carried  on  by  its 
 agents,  but  no  license  was  taken  out  by  any  of  them  as 
 
520  LIFE   IN    UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 c<attle  brokers  until  the  new  Assessor  informed  them  of 
 his  intention  to  prosecute,  if  they  were  not  immediately 
 obtained.  The  authorities  own  and  run  a  distillery  and 
 a  wholesale  and  retail  liquor  store,  which  are  carried 
 on  ostensibly  in  the  name  of  the  corporation  of  Salt 
 Lake  City,  but  really  are  part  of  the  Church,  and 
 the  profits  all  go  into  the  Church  treasury.  By 
 means  of  this  distillery  the  Government  has  been  de- 
 frauded of  thousands  of  dollars,  which  should  have  been 
 paid  in  the  shape  of  $2  upon  every  gallon  of  whiskey 
 manufictured.  Brigham  gives  as  the  reason  for  not 
 including  the  tithing  in  the  income  returns,  that  the 
 payment  of  it  is  voluntary  and  optional,  and  therefore 
 is  merely  a  gift  and  not  taxable.  Unfortunately,  how- 
 ever, for  Brigham,  the  facts  do  not  bear  out  his  asser- 
 tion. A  few  months  past  a  laboring  man  obtained  work 
 on  the  grade  of  the  Utah  Central  Railroad,  now  being 
 built  by  Brigham.  After  earning  $50  he  concluded  to 
 leave  work,  and  accordingly  asked  for  his  time,  which 
 was  given  to  him.  Upon  arriving  in  Salt  Lake  City  he 
 hastened  to  Brigham's  office  to  obtain  his  money.  The 
 clerk  hunted  over  the  Church  books,  and  found  that  the 
 man  owed  $48  tithing  for  1868.  That  amount  was 
 accordingly  deducted,  and  the  balance,  $2,  handed  over 
 to  him,  notwithstanding  his  earnest  protestations  that 
 his  family  were  actually  in  need  of  the  money  to  pur- 
 chase food.  Non-payment  of  tithing  is  visited  upon  the 
 offending  members  with  all  the  prosecutions  which  the 
 resources  of  the  Mormon  Cliurch  enable  it  to  employ. 
 The  Mormons  estimate  the  total  population  of  Utah  at 
 130,000  souls.    These  figures  include  only  the  Mormons. 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  521 
 
 Of  this  number  at  least  30,000  are  required  by  the  rules 
 of  the  Church  and  undoubtedly  do  pay  tithing.  Aver- 
 aging their  earnings  at  $500  a  year,  a  low  estimate,  we 
 have  $15,000,000  as  the  agregate.  This,  of  course,  is 
 not  in  money  exclusively,  but  in  produce.  The  tithing 
 on  this  would  be  $150,000.  At  least  five  of  the  leading 
 Mormon  merchants  pay  a  tithing  of  $10,000  each  a 
 year.  The  income  from  the  whiskey  distillery  and 
 liquor  store  cannot  fall  short  of  $100,000 ;  the  rents 
 and  profits  of  real  estate  are  about  $25,000  more,  be- 
 sides other  sources  of  revenue  not  to  be  ascertained, 
 
 RECAPITULATION. 
 
 Tithing  from  30,000  people ^150,000 
 
 Five  Mormon  merchants 50,000 
 
 Church  distillery  and  liquor  store 100,000 
 
 Kents  and  profits  of  real  estate 25,000 
 
 Total •••• $325,000 
 
 Deduct  exemption 50,000 
 
 S-275,000 
 
 "  This  leaves  upward  of  a  quarter  of  a  million  of  dol- 
 lars subject  to  the  Government  tax,  and  the  probabilities 
 are  that  the  Church  income  is  more  than  double  this 
 amount,  as  many  sources  of  revenue  are  not  stated. 
 Out  of  this  and  other  taxes  upon  the  private  incomes 
 of  the  Mormon  leaders,  the  Government  has  been  sys- 
 tematically defrauded  year  after  year,  through  the  con- 
 nivance of  an  Assessor  who  executed  his  duties  in  the 
 mterests  of  Brigham  Young.  The  present  officer  has 
 commenced  with  a  determination  to  do  his  whole  duty, 
 and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  he  will  receive  the  support 
 of  the  Government  in  his  efibrts  to  collect  the  public 
 revenues." 
 
622  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 Dr.  Taggart  proceeded  to  collect  the  evidence  fehow- 
 ing  the  amount  of  tithing,  and  the  fact  that  it  was  a 
 requirement  of  Mormon  discipline  and  the  great  test  of 
 standing  and  fellowship  in  the  Church;  and  at  the 
 present  writing,  he  is  in  Washington,  to  lay  the  whole 
 before  the  Department.  It  now  begins  to  look  as  if 
 Brigham  Young  would  be  compelled  to  pay  his  income 
 tax,  the  same  as  any  other  speculator.  Of  course,  all 
 this  is  regarded  as  "  rank  persecution  "  by  the  Mormons ; 
 as  is  the  enforcement  of  any  law  which  does  not  happen 
 to  suit  their  convenience. 
 
 It  is  sufficient  comment  on  the  "  wonderful  industry 
 of  the  Mormons,"  of  which  we  have  heard  so  much,  to 
 state  the  plain  facts,  that  there  is  no  other  community 
 of  a  hundred  thousand  in  America  but  has  paid  twice  as 
 much  revenue  as  Utah ;  the  Territories  of  Colorado  and 
 Montana,  with  half  the  j^opulation,  have  each  paid 
 nearly  twice  as  much  to  the  Treasury,  and  added  from 
 ten  to  forty  times  as  much  to  the  national  circulation, 
 and,  notwithstanding  the  fearful  demoralization  of 
 mining  camps,  have,  in  the  end,  produced  a  better  race 
 of  men  and  women. 
 
 General  J.  Wilson  Shaeffer  was  appointed  Governor, 
 to  succeed  Durkee  ;  he  was  formerly  the  Quartermaster 
 in  General  Butler's  department,  and  is  reputed  in  every 
 respect  well  qualified  for  the  difficult  and  delicate  posi- 
 tion. Thus  far,  however,  he  has  not  shown  his  adminis- 
 ti-ative  talents  in  Utah,  but  remains  in  Washington, 
 awaiting  the  action  of  Congress  in  regard  to  Utah. 
 
 The  history  of  "  Federal  relations"  in  Utah  presents 
 a  strange  mixture  of  the  sad  and  ludicrous.     The  fxrat 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  523 
 
 law  against  polygamy,  that  of  July,  18G2,  was  utterly 
 inoperative,  as  the  Act  of  Congress  failed  to  provide 
 any  means  of  enforcing  it.  Two  years  ago,  Senator 
 Cragin  introduced  a  much  better  bill,  providing  for  all 
 needed  reforms  in  the  Judiciary  and  voting  system ;  but 
 it  was  "  referred  and  smothered  in  Committee."  Next 
 was  Hon.  James  Ashley's  bill,  introduced  in  January, 
 1869,  providing  for  a  division  of  the  Territory,  and  an- 
 nexing half  or  more  to  Colorado,  one-third  to  Nevada, 
 and  a  small  portion  each  to  Idaho  and  Wyoming.  This 
 would  have  been  the  merest  political  quackery,  a  vir- 
 tual backing  down  on  the  part  of  the  Government. 
 Nature  makes  the  boundaries  of  future  states  in  the 
 New  West,  and  this  is  peculiarly  the  case  with  Utah ; 
 it  is  exactly  fitted  for  one  State,  and  has  the  area  and 
 resources  for  the  comfortable  support  of  half  a  million 
 people.  Nevada  is  already  as  large  as  New  England, 
 and  between  it  and  the  habitable  valleys  of  Utah  are 
 interposed  broad  deserts  and  rugged  mountains,  forming 
 a  ten-fold  greater  natural  boundary  than  the  Mississippi 
 or  the  Hudson.  Equally  plain  is  the  natural  di^•ision 
 between  Utah  and  Colorado,  and  criminals  from  Southern 
 Utah,  if  an  attempt  were  made  to  execute  the  law, 
 would  have  to  be  dragged  eight  hundred  miles,  around 
 three  sides  of  a  mountainous  parallelogram,  to  reach  the 
 Federal  court  at  Denver.  This  bill,  too,  was  justifi- 
 ably "  smothered  in  committee."  Last  is  the  bill  intro- 
 duced by  Hon.  S.  M.  Cullom,  Chairman  of  the  House 
 Committee  on  Territories,  pending  before  Congress  as 
 this  work  goes  to  press.  It  provides  for  giving  the 
 United  States  Marshal  his  appropriate  power ;  for  re- 
 
524  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;   OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 stricting  the  Mormon  Probate  Courts  to  Probate  and  a 
 limited  civil  jurisdiction  as  in  other  Territories;  for 
 dividing  the  Territory  anew  into  Judicial  districts,  and 
 for  the  proper  support  and  protection  of  the  Courts ; 
 that  only  citizens  of  the  United  States  shall  serve  as 
 jurors,  that  none  who  uphold  or  practice  polygamy 
 shall  sit  on  the  trial  of  that  crime,  and  for  many  other 
 needed  reforms.  It  is  reasonably  certain  this  bill  will 
 pass  both  Houses,  and,  by  the  time  this  meets  the  eye 
 of  the  reader,  become  a  law. 
 
 The  first  effect  will  in  all  probability  be,  that  the 
 actual  polygamists  will  at  once  retire  from  the  northern 
 sections  and  concentrate  in  the  South ;  below  the  Utah 
 Lake  region  the  bill  could  not  probably  be  enforced  by 
 the  courts,  for  many  years  ;  but  the  northern  section 
 would  shortly  be  relieved  of  the  only  class  who  cause 
 any  trouble,  for  the  practical  polygamists  there  do  not 
 exceed  one  in  six. 
 
 The  writer  will  not  attempt  to  forecast  the  future  of 
 Mor monism.  It  is  evidently  on  the  decline,  and  with- 
 out interference  could  hardly  outlast  thirty  years  ;  but 
 with  its  immense  local  power,  could  do  much  harm  in 
 that  period.  On  account  of  this  decline,  many  have 
 argued  that  the  Government  should  take  no  further 
 measures  to  enforce  its  laws  in  Utah ;  but,  with  due 
 deference  to  their  opinions,  this  seems  to  me  a  very 
 un statesman-like  view  of  any  subject.  What  would 
 be  thought  of  a  court  which  should  decide  against  pun- 
 ishing a  thief  or  murderer,  "  because,  if  left  to  himself, 
 he  will  die  in  twenty  or  thirty  years  anyhow !"  If  a 
 church  is  a<"  liberty  to  violate  the  laws  for  religion's 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  525 
 
 Bake,  which  an  individual  may  not  do;  and  if  the 
 Government  has  no  resource,  in  this  case  or  any  other 
 •which  may  arise  m  the  future,  but  to  wait  until  time 
 and  internal  corruption  have  worn  out  the  criminal 
 organization,  it  is  certainly  a  novel  principle  in  politi- 
 cal ethics. 
 
 The  opportune  death  of  Brigham  Young  would  sim- 
 plify matters  somewhat ;  but  there  is  still  a  mass  of 
 thirty  or  forty  thousand  who  would  stick  together 
 under  new  leaders,  and  continue  the  Church  for  another 
 quarter  of  a  century.  Or,  in  case  the  Government  at- 
 tempts to  enforce  its  laws  and  the  Mormon  Presidency 
 gives  the  command  to  move,  at  least  one-third  of  the 
 people  would  follow  them  into  Arizona  and  Sonora ; 
 but  the  really  valuable  portion  would  remain  in  Utah 
 and  become  first-rate  citizens.  The  Church  is  constantly 
 planting  settlements  further  south  in  Arizona;  they 
 now  control  one  county  in  that  Territory,  and  are 
 within  three  hundered  miles  of  Sonora,  which,  it  is 
 popularly  believed  among  them,  would  be  their  desti- 
 nation, if  compelled  to  abandon  Utah.  The  Hierarchy 
 could  take  at  least  thirty  thousand  devoted  followers 
 with  them,  and  between  the  Mexicans,  Apaches  and 
 Mormons,  we  should  have  little  to  choose. 
 
 The  history  of  all  the  diverging  sects  has  clearly 
 demonstrated  one  fact :  wherever  the  Mormons  have 
 come  in  close  contact  with  considerable  numbers  of 
 Gentiles,  it  has  invariably  resulted  in  a  great  apostasy, 
 a  iight  or  an  exodus.  By  the  usual  rule  we  should 
 expect  in  Utah,  first  a  little  flurry  of  war,  then  an 
 exodus  of  one-third  or  more  of  the  people,  and  general 
 
526  LIFE   IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 apostasy  of  the  rest ;  and  to  this  conclusion  do  present 
 indications  point. 
 
 Meanwhile,  various  redeeming  agencies  are  power- 
 fully, though  somewhat  quietly,  at  work  in  Utah, 
 which  are  of  sufficient  importance  to  merit  a  separate 
 chapter. 
 
AKD   CRIMES   OF   MOEMOXISM.  527 
 
 CHAPTER    XXII. 
 
 REDEEMING  AGENCIES. 
 
 The  Church— First  attempt— Rev.  Norman  McLeod— Dr.  J.  K,  Robinson 
 —Second  attempt,  Father  Kelley— Last  attempt— The  Episcopal  Mis- 
 sion, success  and  progress— Sabbath  School— Grammar  School  of  St 
 Marks— A  building  needed— Mission  of  Rev.  George  W.  Foote— Difficul- 
 ties of  the  situation — Number  and  occupation  of  Gentiles — Political  pros- 
 pects—Gentile newspapers— The  Valley  Tan — The  Vedette — The  Utah 
 Reporter — S.  S.  Saul,  the  founder — Messrs.  Aulbach  and  Barrett — The 
 author's  experience— Principles  advocated — Courtesy  of  the  Gentiles — 
 Conclusion. 
 
 The  Christian  Church,  the  school  and  the  newspaper 
 are  but  just  established,  with  fair  prospects  in  Utah ; 
 but  already  they  have  accomplished  considerable.  It 
 is  somewhat  surprising  that  such  a  field  for  missionary 
 labor  was  neglected  so  completely  and  so  long.  For  at 
 least  fifteen  years  the  voice  of  the  Christian  ministei 
 was  never  heard  in  Salt  Lake  City. 
 
 If  there  were  Chaplains  among  the  troops  of  John- 
 ston's army,  they  seem  to  have  left  no  record  of  their 
 presence,  or  made  any  attempt  to  work  among  the 
 Monnons.  The  first  missionary  efibrt  was  by  the  Rev. 
 Norman  McLeod,  Chaplain  of  the  California  volunteers, 
 at  Camp  Douglas.  Late  in  1863  he  began  to  preach 
 in  a  room  on  Main  Street,  and  afterwards  raised  money 
 to  build  Independence  Hall.  A  large  part  of  the  funds 
 was  advanced  by  a  literary  society  then  existing  among 
 the  Gentiles,  and  that  building  has  never  been  con- 
 
528  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 sidered  so  much  a  church  as  a  lecture  and  assembly 
 room ;  it  is,  however,  held  by  trustees  for  "  The  First 
 Congregational  Church  of  Utah."  It  is  still  burdened, 
 I  believe,  by  a  debt  of  near  $2,000.  Rev.  McLeod  es- 
 tabUshed  a  Sabbath  School,  of  which  Dr.  J.  K.  Robin- 
 son was  for  some  time  Superintendent ;  he  also  delivered 
 a  series  of  lectures  on  various  subjects,  particularly 
 polygamy,  which  excited  great  interest.  The  bent  of 
 Mr.  McLeod's  mind  seems  to  have  been  towards  con- 
 troversy, and  many  of  his  lectures  and  sermons  were 
 highly  polemic  in  character,  exciting  no  little  wrath 
 iraong  the  Mormons  and  some  discussion  among  the 
 Gentiles.  Whether  this  aggressive  policy,  or  one  more 
 mild  and  persuasive,  would  better  reach  the  case,  is  still 
 a  debatable  question.  In  the  autumn  of  1866,  Mr. 
 McLeod  went  east  to  raise  funds  for  building  a  church ; 
 during  his  absence  Dr.  Robinson  was  assassinated,  and 
 as  McLeod's  life  was  openly  threatened,  he  deemed  it 
 best  not  to  return. 
 
 The  second  attempt  to  found  a  mission  was  by  Father 
 Kelly,  a  Roman  Catholic,  in  the  summer  of  1866.  He 
 spent  some  time  in  Salt  Lake  City,  managed  to  keep  on 
 good  terms  with  the  Mormons  and  from  various  sources 
 raised  money  enough  to  purchase  a  lot,  which  is  still 
 owned  by  the  Catholic  Church;  but  he  found  few 
 Catholics  in  the  district,  formed  no  church  and  left 
 little  permanent  record. 
 
 The  third  and  last  missionary  effort  was  under  the 
 auspices  of  Bishop  Tuttle,  in  charge  of  the  Diocese,  in- 
 cluding Utah.  In  April,  1867,  at  his  request,  Reverends 
 George  W.  Foote  and  Thomas  W.  Haskins  set  out  for 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  •  529 
 
 Salt  Lake  City,  where  they  arrived  in  May  and  com- 
 mented services  at  once.  They  found  but  two  communi- 
 cants of  their  own  faith — Episcopal — and  only  twenty 
 of  all  other  Christian  denominations.  From  that  day  to 
 this  regular  services  have  been  held  in  Independence 
 Hall,  and  a  jflourishing  church  established.  During  the 
 two  and  a  half  years  of  their  ministry  a  hundred  and 
 one  persons  have  been  baptized  by  them,  of  whom 
 thirty-four  were  adults,  and  many  of  Monnon  antece- 
 dents. Ninety  communicants  have  been  admitted  as 
 regular  members,  of  whom  sixty-six  still  retain  their 
 standing  in  Salt  Lake  City ;  the  others  have  either 
 removed  or  died.  All  denominations  have  uwited  to  a 
 great  extent  in  support  of  this  Church  and  Sabbath- 
 school  ;  the  Jews  also  attend  and  contribute,  probably 
 the  only  place  in  America  where  such  is  the  case. 
 
 The  Sabbath-school  was  begun  with  a  few  members, 
 and,  in  consequence  of  orders  from  the  authorities  of 
 the  Mormon  Church,  some  of  this  small  number  were 
 soon  after  withdrawn.  But  others  soon  took  their  place, 
 and,  in  spite  of  open  hostility  and  private  malice,  the 
 school  increased  and  spread,  a  powerful  lever  for  good. 
 At  different  times  a  little  over  three  hundred  children 
 have  been  instructed  in  the  school,  and  the  teaching, 
 whether  in  the  caso  of  Mormon  or  Gentile  youth,  has 
 been  attended  with  marked  and  beneficent  results. 
 This  school  is  still  growing,  and  its  light  of  Christian 
 knowledge  is  a  bright  spot  in  the  centre  of  polygamic 
 heathenism. 
 
 The  Grammar  School  of  St.  Mark's  Associate  Mission, 
 the  first  Gentile  school  in  Utah,  was  opened  in  July, 
 
 34 
 
530  LIFE    IN   UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 1867,  by  Rev.  Thomas  W.  Haskins  and  Miss  Foote, 
 sister  of  the  minister,  with  sixteen  scholars.  The  Mor- 
 mon leaders  again  forbade  their  people  to  allow  their 
 children  to  attend,  but  the  attractions  of  free  tuition 
 prevailed  with  many;  the  school  has  steadily  increased, 
 both  in  numbers  and  scholarship,  till  it  now  has  a  hun- 
 dred and  forty  pupils,  and  is  compelled  to  refuse  all 
 others  until  enlarged  accommodations  can  be  secured. 
 From  first  to  last  four  hundred  children  have  been  in- 
 structed in  the  school.  It  is  now  purposed  to  provide 
 more  teachers,  and  steadily  raise  the  grade  of  scholar- 
 ship until  young  men  can  take  a  regular  collegiate,  or 
 at  least  a  regular  academic,  course.  A  fixed  rate  of 
 tuition  is  charged,  but  all  unable  to  pay  are  received  as 
 free  pupils,  of  whom  there  are  sixty  in  the  school. 
 This  is  the  nearest  approach  to  a  free  school  at  present 
 in  Utah. 
 
 As  yet  there  is  no  Christian  church  edifice  erected  in 
 Salt  Lake  City ;  but  it  is  hoped  there  soon  will  be  a 
 building  worthy  of  the  cause,  with  ample  accommo- 
 dations for  a  school,  and  Rev.  Geo.  W.  Foote  is  now  in 
 the  East  raising  funds  to  that  end.  The  mission  and 
 school  have  also  had  the  assisting  care  of  Rev.  Henry 
 Foote,  who  has  lately  removed  to  Boise  City,  Idaho. 
 The  gentlemen  in  charge  of  this  mission  have  thought 
 it  best  to  raise  no  personal  controversy.  Whether  it 
 was  an  outgrowth  of  their  personal  disposition,  or  of  the 
 conservative  policy  of  their  Church,  or  that  they  hoped 
 to  avoid  the  bitter  animosity  which  existed  against 
 Rev.  McLeod,  they  have  steadily  refrained  from  aught 
 like  personal  controversy  or  a  direct  attack  upon  the 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  531 
 
 Mormon  leaders,  contenting  themselves  with  "  preach- 
 mg  Christ  and  Him  crucified,"  and  pLanting  principles 
 which  should  in  the  hearts  of  hearers  work  out  in  a 
 love  and  desire  for  the  truth.  It  was  but  reasonable  to 
 suppose  such  a  policy  would  at  least  disarm  personal 
 hostility,  and  that  men  M^ould  not  curse  though  they 
 might  not  agree.  But  vainly  would  one  hope  by  fair 
 words  to  neutralize  the  venom  of  the  serpent's  fang ; 
 the  blind  adder  will  strike,  simply  because  it  is  his 
 nature,  though  charmed  " never  so  wisel},"  and  Mor- 
 monism  when  opposed  flies  to  weapons  of  slander  and 
 vituperation,  as  well  as  against  the  persuasive  reasoner 
 as  the  fierce  polemic.  If  these  gentlemen  hoped  to  be 
 spared  McLeod's  experience,  they  have  been  disap- 
 pointed ;  every  epithet  a  vile  fancy  could  suggest  has 
 been  heaped  upon  them  from  the  Momion  press  and 
 pulpit,  and  the  madness  of  bigotry  has  not  hesitated  at 
 slandering  the  ladies  who  assisted  at  their  noble  work. 
 It  was  perhaps  as  well  that  this  should  be  so;  Christian 
 ladies  of  such  character  could  receive  no  stain  from  such 
 a  source,  and  this  action  merely  made  plain  the  inherent 
 blackness  of  the  real  Mormon  heart.  But  surely,  if  there 
 be  one  deep,  dark  pit  in  the  regions  of  the  damned, 
 which  Divine  Justice  has  reserved  as  too  awful  for  the 
 fate  of  common  sinners,  it  is  in  waiting  for  those  who 
 have  used  the  priestly  profession  to  attack  the  reputa- 
 tion of  woman. 
 
 Preaching  was  begun  at  Corinne  early  in  18C9,  earn- 
 est endeavors  were  made  to  secure  funds  for  a  building, 
 which  was  completed  and  dedicated  in  July  of  the  same 
 year.     Neat  and  unpretentious,  not  large  but  commo- 
 
532  LIFE   IN    UTAH;    OR,    THE    MYSTERIES 
 
 dioiis,  it  is  an  ornament  to  the  city  and  worthy  of  note 
 as  the  first  Christian  church  edifice  in  Utah.  Sabbath- 
 school  has  been  established  and  regularly  continued, 
 while  a  day  school,  as  a  branch  of  the  Salt  Lake  Gram- 
 mar School,  was  established  last  autumn  and  continued 
 during  the  winter,  to  be  resumed  at  an  early  day.  It 
 is  taught  in  the  Church,  by  Miss  Nellie  Wells,  formerly 
 an  assistant  in  the  Salt  Lake  City  School ;  it  numbers 
 some  forty  scholars,  and  as  the  first  entirely  Gentile 
 school  in  Utah,  deserves  a  place  in  history. 
 
 The  residence  and  occupation  of  the  Gentiles  are  not 
 such  as  to  encourage  either  schools  or  churches,  they 
 being  miners,  herders,  scattered  traders,  or  transient 
 residents. 
 
 The  mines  of  Utah  develop  slowly,  but  it  is  reason- 
 ably certain  there  is  mineral  wealth  there,  if  they  can 
 find  it  or  properly  get  at  it.  Utah  is  in  the  mineral 
 belt,  there  are  paying  mines  all  around  it,  the  formation 
 of  the  country  corresponds  exactly  with  those  where 
 immense  wealth  of  gold  and  silver  is  found ;  some  im- 
 portant discoveries  have  been  made,  and  more  will  be. 
 Sevier,  Bingham,  Cottonwood,  Rush  Valley  and  Stock- 
 ton mines  have  not,  altogether,  developed  enough  as  yet 
 to  create  a  "  rush,"  or  make  any  one  suddenly  rich ;  but 
 in  several  places  steady  industry  has  been  found  profit- 
 able, and  with  better  facilities  for  transjDorting  ore  and 
 machinery,  with  more  experience  and  further  dis- 
 coveries, the  latter  will  come  in  time. 
 
 Any  present  estimate  of  the  number  of  Gentiles  in 
 Utah,  is  necessarily  somewhat  conjectural.  As  they 
 are  practically  disfranchised,  they  run  no  ticket  and  re- 
 
AND  CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  533 
 
 cord  no  vote;  they  have  but  one  organized  church 
 society,  and  very  few  are  within  reach  of  that ;  they 
 have  never  held  a  convention  en  masse,  or  had  an  effi- 
 cient organization  to  give  us  any  data;  and  finally,  they 
 are  scattered  over  half  the  Territory,  with  very  imper- 
 fect understanding  or  communication.  From  the  best 
 evidence  at  hand,  I  estimate  as  follows  : 
 
 Corinne 1,000 
 
 Ogden,  Uintah,  Echo,  "Wasatch  and  Bear  River, 
 
 (100  each) 500 
 
 Salt  Lake  City 500 
 
 Camp  Douglas 400 
 
 Bingham,  Cottonwood  and  Rush  Valley  (100  each)  300 
 
 Sevier  mining  district 300 
 
 Scattering 500 
 
 Total 3,500 
 
 Deducting  soldiers  and  U.  S.  officials,  this  would  leave 
 three  thousand  citizens.  Of  the  entire  number,  at  least 
 two-thirds  are  voters,  nearly  all  the  non-voters  being  in 
 Corinne  and  Salt  Lake  City.  With  the  lowest  increase 
 we  may  reasonably  expect  in  the  coming  summer,  with 
 the  least  settlement  of  railroad  men  absolutely  neces- 
 sary at  the  Junction,  with  no  increase  among  the 
 miners,  and  with  little,  perhaps  very  little,  help  from 
 those  of  the  Josephites,  and  other  recusant  Mormons 
 who  dare  say  their  souls  are  their  own,  the  Liberals 
 ought  to  cast  a  vote  of  at  least  four  thousand  at  the 
 coming  August  election.  They  will  do  so,  if  a  proper 
 organization  is  effected. 
 
 As  to  the  legal  vote  of  the  Mormons,  it  is  beyond  the 
 power  of  statistics  to  determine.  At  the  last  election 
 of  Hooper  their  vote  amounted  to  15,068 ;  it  could  just 
 
634  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 as  well  have  amounted  to  1,500,068.  It  was  only  a 
 question  of  a  few  cyphers,  which  do  not  amount  to  much 
 anyhow.  Deducting  all  those  who  were  under  age,  all 
 voted  for  by  proxy,  all  unnaturalized  or  illegally  natu- 
 ralized by  the  Probate  Court,  all  those  disqualified  by 
 the  Act  of  Congress  of  July  1st,  1862,  all  the  double 
 voting  and  false  ballots,  and  the  cypher  would  be  moved 
 the  other  way,  leaving  a  legal  vote  of  1,568. 
 
 There  have  been,  at  different  times,  three  Gentile 
 papers  published  in  Utah. 
 
 With  Johnston's  army  came  one  Kirk  Anderson,  who 
 soon  after  established  a  weekly  paper  called  the  Valley 
 Tan.  It  ran  through  1858  and  all  or  nearly  all  of  1859, 
 then  failed  for  want  of  support.  Little  is  known  of 
 this  paper,  except  from  the  bound  files  still  in  the  Re- 
 l)orte7'  office  ;  but  it  seems  to  have  been  edited  a  portion 
 of  its  existence  by  Mr.  Anderson,  and  at  another  time 
 by  a  Mr.  McGuire. 
 
 The  first  daily  paper,  the  Union  Vedette,  was  estab- 
 lished at  Camp  Douglas  late  in  1863,  with  Gen.  P.  E. 
 Connor  as  proprietor.  At  the  beginning,  the  work  was 
 done  by  enlisted  men  of  the  California  and  Nevada  vol- 
 unteers, and  the  editing  by  various  officers  of  that  com- 
 mand. The  main  object  of  the  Vedette  seems  to  have 
 been  to  give  daily  telegraphic  reports  from  the  seat  of 
 war,  which  were  eagerly  sought  after  by  all  the  Gen- 
 tiles. The  Mormons  then  had  but  one  paper,  the 
 Weehhj  Deseret  News,  almost  as  old  as  the  Territory,  but 
 much  too  dull  and  prosy  to  meet  the  new  demand  for 
 intellectual  stimulus.  The  Vedette  was  established  with 
 the  concurrence  of  Gen.  Wright,  then  in  command  of 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISil.  535 
 
 the  Department,  with  a  view  to  the  publication  of  offi- 
 cial orders,  and  in  the  hope  of  disseminating  more  cor- 
 rect information  on  the  military  and  civil  policy  of  the 
 Government  among  the  Mormons. 
 
 In  addition  to  the  old  feeling  between  Mormon  and 
 Gentile   the    Vedette   had   to   deal   with   questions   of 
 loyalty,    the   Volunteers    being    intensely   devoted   to 
 American  institutions,  and  the  Mormons  only  differing 
 from  Southern  rebels  in  the  fact  that  they  were  not 
 openly  in  arms.     The  paper  soon  became  quite  popular 
 and  obtained  a  wide  circulation  in  Montana  and  Idaho, 
 as  well  as  Utah.     In  the  autumn  of  1865  it  was  re- 
 moved into  Salt  Lake  City  and  enlarged.     Some  of  the 
 officers  still  wrote  occasionally  for  it,  but  the  editorial 
 control  was   in  the  hands  of  civilians.  Rev.  Norman 
 McLeod  and  0.  J.  Goldrick.     The  controversial  spirit, 
 which  was  of  questionable  benefit  in  Mr.  McLeod's  ser- 
 mons, was  much  more  fitting  in  the  columns  of  the 
 Vedette,  which  increased  in  popularity  and  ran  well  for 
 one  year.     Several  other  persons  contributed  also  to  its 
 pages  during  that  time.  The  office  then  changed  hands, 
 and    Mr.   Shoaff",    a    printer   from   California,  became 
 nominal    owner    and    editor.      But    the    Vedette   had 
 passed  the  height  of  its  prosperity  and  in  five  months 
 was  reduced  one-half  in  size,  receiving  but  indifierent 
 support  at  that.     Shoaff  soon  after  left,  handing  over 
 the  paper  to  Judge  Daniel  McLaughlin  and  Mr.  Adam, 
 Aulbach,  who  again   enlarged  it  to  the  former  size. 
 For  a  short  time  the  concern  flourished;   but  Judge 
 McLaughlin  departed  for  Cheyenne,  after  which   the 
 paper   rapidly   declined   and    soon   was   compelled   to 
 
536  LIFE   IN   UTAH  ;   OR,    THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 suspend.  During  ShoafF's  administration  the  financial 
 embarrassment  of  the  concern  had  increased  to  such 
 an  extent  that  all  the  surplus  material  was  sold,  and 
 two  other  offices  were  mainly  outfitted  therefrom,  viz, : 
 .The  Utah  Magazine  and  the  Sweetwater  Mines. 
 
 Early  in  1868  Mr  S.  S.  Saul  arrived  from  California 
 and  deeming  the  location  favorable  purchased  the 
 remaining  material,  and  on  the  11th  of  May  the  same 
 year,  issued  the  first  number  of  the  Salt  Lake  Reporter, 
 daily  only.  The  first  five  months  of  its  existence  the 
 paper  was  very  small  and  but  poorly  supported ;  it  was 
 edited  hap-hazard  by  several  different  persons,  and 
 regularly  by  no  one.  A  newspaper  more  than  any 
 other  enterprise  requires  the  controlling  energy  of  one 
 directing  mind ;  steady  mediocrity  is  better  than  vari- 
 able talent ;  above  all  it  must  have  a  fixed  policy,  and 
 one  common  place  worker,  a  mere  plodder  though  he 
 be,  is  far  better  than  half  a  dozen  brilliant  but  irregular 
 geniuses.  But  it  is  doubtful  if  any  newspaper  could 
 have  succeeded  during  that  period,  no  matter  what 
 talent  might  have  been  employed. 
 
 On  the  10th  of  September,  1868,  the  writer  entered 
 Salt  Lake  City,  and  on  the  19  th  of  October  took  edi- 
 torial charge  of  the  Reporter,  in  which  position  he 
 continued  for  eleven  months,  until  September  1869. 
 On  the  first  of  December  he  joined  with  Messrs.  Adam 
 Aulbach  and  John  Barrett  in  the  purchase  of  the  entire ' 
 office,  which  partnership  continued  for  eight  months, 
 with  real  pleasure  to  the  writer,  but  with  little  pecuniary 
 profit.  A  weekly  edition  was  commenced  in  February 
 1869,  which  is  still  continued,  with  increasing  circu- 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  537 
 
 lation  and  popularity.  In  the  spring  of  1869,  the  office 
 was  removed  to  Corinne  and  Utah  substituted  in  the 
 title  for  Salt  Lake.  Early  in  September  the  writer  re- 
 tired, and  soon  after  the  office  passed  into  the  hands  of 
 Messrs.  Huyck  and  Merrick,  the  present  proprietors. 
 
 During  my  editorial  labors  I  frequently  had  occasion 
 to  discuss  the  action  of  Mormon  Courts,  and  particularly 
 after  our  removal  to  Corinne.  Our  County  Judge  was 
 the  Bishop  Smith,  already  mentioned  as  the  husband 
 of  two  of  his  nieces ;  in  an  article  on  county  affiiirs  I 
 alluded  to  that  fact  with  considerable  severity,  more, 
 perhaps,  than  strict  equity  in  journalism  would  allow. 
 Soon  after  quitting  the  editorial  position  I  was  sum- 
 moned to  attend  court  at  Brigham  City,  and  while 
 passing  from  the  court  room  to  the  street  received  a  vi- 
 olent blow  on  the  back  of  the  head,  which  prostrated 
 me  almost  senseless  upon  the  ground.  Whether  more 
 than  one  took  part  I  do  not  know ;  all  I  distinctly 
 remember  is  a  confused  rush  and  trampling  of  heavy 
 boots,  and  when  I  revived  I  was  being  raised  by  my 
 friends,  who  were  taking  stock  of  my  condition  gen- 
 erally. My  collar  bone  was  broken  in  two  j^l^ces, 
 and  my  scalp  badly  torn,  besides  minor  injuries;  alto- 
 gether, it  was  a  narrow  escape.  There  were  but  half  a 
 dozen  Gentiles  present,  from  whom  I  learned  that  the 
 principal  assailant  was  a  son  of  the  Judge;  but  I  did 
 not  see  and  could  not  now  identify  him.  The  attack 
 was  probably  caused  by  my  strictur-es  upon  his  father 
 and  the  Probate  Courts.  There  was  nothing  to  be  done 
 about  it,  however ;  it  was  one  of  those  incidents  to 
 which  newspaper  men  are  liable  anywhere,  which  are 
 
538  LIFE   IN   UTAH;   OR,   THE   MYSTERIES 
 
 of  frequent  occurrence  to  Gentiles  in  Utah,  and  for 
 which  there  is  no  remedy  there. 
 
 Shortly  before,  a  young  apostate  Mormon  in  Bear 
 Lake  Valley,  acting  as  clerk  for  Mr.  Frederick  Kiesel, 
 a  Gentile  merchant,  was  killed  outright  in  a  way  th?.t 
 pretty  clearly  indicated  the  direction  of  the  Church 
 authorities;  and  not  long  after  a  Mr.  Phelps,  a  young 
 Gentile  in  Salt  Lake  City,  was  attacked  at  night  by  the 
 secret  police,  shot  through  the  shoulder,  and  narrowly 
 escaped  with  his  life.  He  had  the  good  fortune,  how- 
 ever, to  kill  one  of  his  assailants.  Such  occurrences  are 
 rare  now,  as  compared  with  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago, 
 still  they  happen  often  enough  to  make  Gentiles  appre- 
 hensive and  not  anxious  to  remain,  which  is  doubtless 
 the  effect  desired.  The  most  efficient  government  could 
 not  altogether  prevent  this,  but  much  more  might  be 
 done  than  is. 
 
 I  was  wounded  on  the  1st  of  November,  but  in  that 
 healthful  air  recovered  sufficiently  to  travel  by  Decem- 
 ber 1st,  when,  after  fifteen  months'  residence,  I  left  the 
 Territory,  for  a  short  time  at  least.  As  editor  for  one 
 year  of  the  only  Gentile  paper  in  Utah,  in  closing  these 
 sketches  a  few  words  may  be  pardoned  to  one  speaking, 
 it  may  be  egotistically,  of  himself,  while  occupying  a 
 delicate  and  difficult  position. 
 
 Of  my  intercourse  with  the  Gentiles  of  Utah,  I  have 
 none  but  the  most  pleasant  recollections.  An  utter 
 stranger,  quite  an  invalid,  and  in  a  condition  where  per- 
 sonal friendship  was  almost  a  necessity,  I  received  from 
 the  first  at  their  hands  the  most  courteous  and  respect- 
 ful attentions.     My  keenest  sympathies  were  enlisted 
 
AND   CRIMES   OF   MORMONISM.  539 
 
 for  a  people,  exiled  as  it  were  in  the  very  centre  of  their 
 country,  claiming  the  name  and  protection  of  American 
 citizens  but  subject  to  a  worse  than  Russian  despotism ; 
 practically  disfranchised  and  without  representation  in 
 any  Legislative  bod}'.  My  social  intercourse  with  them 
 has  been  of  the  most  pleasant  character,  and  if  at  any 
 time  I  have  complained  of  an  inefficient  pecuniary  sup- 
 port for  my  work,  I  now  perceive  that  it  was  due  to  the 
 pressure  of  adverse  circumstances  beyond  their  control. 
 It  is  a  source  of  pride  and  deep  satisfaction  that  my 
 editorial  management  met  with  the  hearty  approval 
 of  those  in  whose  judgment  I  most  confided,  and  that 
 the  Reporter  is  now  upon  a  footing  that  renders  its 
 continuance  reasonably  certain ;  for  I  shall  ever  feel  a 
 •pride  that  I  once  directed  its  policy. 
 
 As  for  the  Mormons,  I  came  among  them  with  but 
 few  ideas  about  them,  and  my  first  impressions  were 
 rather  favorable.  My  first  friends  were  all  Mormons, 
 with  whom  I  journeyed  across  four  hundred  miles  of 
 the  plains ;  and  those  persons  are  still  my  friends ;  they 
 have  extended  me  courtesies  which  I  duly  appreciate ; 
 I  have  "  eaten  their  salt  and  warmed  at  their  fires." 
 But  not  all  their  kindness  or  personal  friendship  could 
 blind  me  to  the  monstrous  defects  of  their  social  system, 
 or  the  odious  features  of  a  church  tyranny ;  and  if  my 
 feelings  soon  changed  towards  the  hierarchy,  it  was 
 only  frcfm  the  best  of  evidence.  That  evidence  has 
 constantly  accumulated  until  language  fails  me  to  con- 
 vey my  utter  detestation  of  their  system.  That  the 
 people  are  frugal,  industrious  or  honest  will  avail  them 
 but  little,  while  fimatically  devoted  to  such  a  power 
 
540  LIFE   IN   UTAH. 
 
 If,  in  the  bitterness  of  heated  controversy,  injustice  has 
 inadvertently  been  done  to  any  private  person,  none 
 will  regret  it  more  or  be  more  ready  to  make  amends, 
 and  though  some  uiipleasant  exj^eriences  have  fallen  to 
 my  lot,  I  am  not  conscious  of  special  animosity  against 
 the  body  of  the  people.  And  when  a  score  of  years 
 shall  have  passed  and  the  principles  for  which  we  have 
 contended  are  seen  in  their  fruition,  I  am  quite  sure 
 many  who  have  cursed  the  writer  w^ill  at  least  give 
 him  credit  for  sincerity;  and  though  there  still  be  some 
 who  dissent  from  the  measures  he  has  advocated,  when 
 the  fierce  alembic  of  time  has  proved  which  was  cor- 
 rect, and  the  test  of  experience  has  shown  what  was 
 really  best  for  the  Territory  and  the  people,  I  trust 
 they  will  not  remember  their  wrath  forever. 
 
 THE  END. 
 
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LIFE  IN  UTAH; 
 
 OR,    THE 
 
 MYSTERIES  Am  CRIMES  OF  MORMOAISM. 
 
 BEIFG  AN"  EXPOSE 
 
 OF    THEIR    SECRET    RITES    AND    CEREMONIES;   WITH   A   FULL  AND  AU- 
 THENTIC HISTORY  OF  POLYGAMY  AND  THE  MORMON  SECT 
 FROM   ITS  ORIGIN    TO  THE    PRESENT  TIME. 
 
 By  J.  H.  BEAlDLE, 
 
 EDITOR    OF    THE    SALT    LAKE    REPORTER,    AND     UTAH    CORRESPONDENT    OF    THE 
 CINCINNATI     COMMERCIAL. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED  WITH  34  FINE  ENGRAVINGS, 
 
 For  more  than  thirty  years  the  world  has  been  horrified,  startled  and  perplexed  by  the 
 audacity  and  success  of  a  sect  calling  themselves  Mormons.  Though  founded  in  fraud, 
 this  sect  has  succeeded  in  spite  of  all  opposition,  until  it  is  to-day  the  standing  reproach 
 of  our  country. 
 
 Several  works  have  appeared,  purporting  to  be  exposures  of  the  secret  rites  and  myste- 
 ries of  this  strange  sect,  but  none  have  been  complete,  and  few  authentic.  At  present  the 
 demand  for  a  work  of  this  kind  is  greatly  increased  by  the  determination  of  the  General 
 Government  to  put  in  force  active  and  decisive  measures  against  those  people  who  calling 
 themselves  Saints  have  violated  every  law  of  God  and  man. 
 
 The  Author's  long  residence  in  Utah  ;  his  position  as  editor  of  the  leading  journal  of 
 that  Territory;  his  spirited  defence  of  the  cause  of  morality  against  Mormon  treason  and 
 licentiousness,  and  his  own  sufferings  at  their  hands,  peculiarly  qualify  him  for  this  task. 
 Mormonism  has  becjii  productive  of  so  many  dark  and  strange  mysteries — so  many  terrible 
 crimes  that  few  can  comprehend,  without  an  intimate  knowledge  of  it,  how  much  wicked- 
 ness it  has  to  answer  for,  and  what  a  standing  menace  to  order  and  society  it  is. 
 
 Mormonism ;  its  origin  and  history,  and  shows  how,  founded  on  imposture,  it  has  grown 
 by  deceit  and  crime.  It  shows  how  Joe  Smith  was  enabled  to  deceive  and  cheat  his 
 followers;  how  by  leading  them  on  from  crime  to  crime,  and  enticing  them  with  licen- 
 tious baits,  ho  succeeded  in  maintaining  his  influence  over  them. 
 Of  crime  and  lawlessness  in  Utah ;  showing  the  Mormon  leaders  in  their  true  light,  aa 
 thieves,  murderers  and  assassins ;  how  human  life  is  every  day  taken  in  Utah  ;  explain- 
 ing and  illustrating  the  infamous  doctrine  of  killing  a  man  to  save  his  soul ;  and  pre- 
 senting a  catalogue  of  crimes  and  horrors  at  which  even  the  coolest  and  calmest  reader 
 will  turn  pale.  It  tells  of  frightful  massacres  of  whole  trains  of  emigrants,  how  they  are 
 murdered  for  their  property,  and  how  that  property  thus  obtained,  is  seen  daily  in  the 
 possession  of  the  Mormon  leaders. 
 Of  the  Mormon  religion,  its  infamous  and  heathenish  character,  its  multitude  of  gods,  its 
 abominable  doctrines  and  practices,  revealing  many  strange  mysteries  and  outrageous 
 ceremonies. 
 Of  the  Endowment  or  initiation  ceremonies,  showing  how  obscene  and  disgusting  they  are; 
 how  female  modesty  is  outraged  in  them,  and  how  licentiousness  is  taught  as  a  part  of 
 their  religious  creed. 
 Of  the  spiritual  wife  doctrine,  showing  how  a  woman  may  have  more  than  one  living  hus- 
 band and  accord  to  each  the  same  privileges ;  how  women  are  debauched  and  degraded  ; 
 how  they  are  roi(uired  to  prostitute  themselves  "for  religion's  sake;"  showing  the  terri- 
 ble results  of  polygamy  and  sin. 
 
 The  high  praise  which  this  work  has  received  from  members  of  Congress,  and  Govern- 
 ment officials  to  whcun  it  was  submitted,  and  by  whom  its  publication  was  urged  as  a  duty 
 to  the  country,  stamps  it  as  no  ordinary  work,  but  us  one  of  the  most  powerful  and  thrilling 
 books  ever  published.  It  is  comprised  in  one  largo  octavo  volume  of  540  pages,  illustrated 
 and  ombellishcJ  with  ."Jt  fine  engravings,  and  furnished  tu  subscribers, 
 
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 Yours,  Respectfully, 
 
 MATTHEW  FREEMAN. 
 
 Rev.  R.  J.  Kellloo  writes  : — I  have  carefully  examined  the  "  New  Illustrated  Family 
 Bible,"'  published  by  the  Natioxai.  PrBLisiiiNG  Co.,  and  have  no  hesitation  in  pronounc- 
 ing it  the  best  edition  of  the  Bible  I  ever  saw. 
 
 Its  numerous  marginal  references,  tables  and  treatises,  definitions  nnd  explanations. 
 Scriptural  illustrations  and  descriptions,  Bible  emblems  and  .symbols,  make  it  of  great 
 worth  and  unbounded  interest  and  value  to  every  reader  of  the  inspired  word. 
 
 Mr.  J.  Barnes,  our  Agent  at  St.  James,  Phelps  Co.,  Mo.,  writes  us  under  date  of 
 March  25,  1870  : — "The  Bibles  you  sent  me  surprise  the  people.  Thej'  say  they  are  the 
 finest  ever  brought  into  this  County." 
 
 Bibles  are  alwags  in  demand,  and  you  can  often  sell  a  really 
 valuable,  handsome  and  cheap  one  to  2>ersons  who  will  buy  no 
 other  book. 
 
 AGENTS  WANTED.    Address,  NATIONAL  PUBUSHINfi  CO., 
 
 Philadelphia,  Pa.,  Chioago,  111.,  St.  Louis,    Mo.,  or  Atlanta,  Ga. 
 
Paris  by  Sunlight  and  Gaslight. 
 
 A  WORK  DESCRIPTIVE  OF  THE  MYSTERIES  AND  MISERIES, 
 
 THE    VIRTUES,  VICES,    SPLENDORS,    AND    CRIMES 
 
 OF  THE  CITY  OF  PARIS. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED  WITH  OVER  150  FINE  ENGRAVINGS. 
 
 ♦•• 
 
 It  may  be  safely  asserted  that  every  man  and  "woman  in  the  world  would  like 
 to  visit  the  beautiful  and  wondekfui.  City  op  Paris,  were  an  opportunity 
 offered.  Thousands  annually  find  their  way  to  the  gay  city,  to  taste  its 
 pleasures  and  enjoy  its  unequalled  displays,  but  these  are  only  a  very  small 
 part  of  the  millions  who  long  for  such  a  privilege.  Naturally  most  persons 
 must  pass  their  days  without  ever  realizing  their  wish  to  see  PARIS.  Thia 
 Book  supplies  the  want  which  they  feel,  and  gives  them  a  truthful  and  complete 
 picture  of  the  Beautiful  City  without  requiring  them  to  undertake  the  expense 
 or  fatigues  of  a  journey  to  it. 
 
 It  Tells  How  Paris  has  become  tlie  Gayest  and  most  Beautiful 
 
 City  in  the  World. 
 How  its  Beauty  and  Splendor  are  purchased,  at  a  Fearful  Cost  of 
 
 Misery  and  Suffering. 
 How  Virtue  and  Vice  go  arm-in-arm  in  the  Beautiful  City. 
 How  Visitors  are  Swindled  by  Professional  Adventurers. 
 How  the  most  Fearful  Crimes  are  Committed  and  Concealed. 
 How  Money  is  Squandered  in  Useless  Luxury. 
 
 Of  Paris,  its  People,  its  Society,  its  Rich,  its  Poor;   their  Lives,  their  Habits,  their  Ilauiits, 
 
 and  their  Peculiarities. 
 Of  the  Magnificent  Public  Buildings  of  the  City,  with  their  countless  treasures  of  art  and 
 
 history. 
 Of  Palaces,  Prisons,  Statues,  Paintings,  Fortifications,  Gardens  and  Parks. 
 Of  the  Emperor  and  Empress  of  the  French  ;  their    Public  and   Private   Life ;  with  many 
 
 Startling  and  Curious  Reminiscences  of  the  Domestic  Life  of  Napoleon  and  Eugenie; 
 
 introducing  the  Story  of  the  Emperor  and  the  Italian  Countess. 
 Of  the  Nobility;  their  vast  Wealth  and  Influence;  their  Virtues  and  Vices;  showing  how 
 
 great  is  the  prevalence  of  crime  among   the   Privileged   Classes,  and  how  terrible  are 
 
 some  of  the  means  resorted  to  for  concealing  their  crimes. 
 Of  Suicides;  of  the  Morgue  and  its  inmates;  Kevealing  many  a  Terrible  History  of  Pov- 
 erty, Love,  and  Crime. 
 Of  the  Grisettcs  of  Paris;  their  History;  their  Follies  and  Extravagances;  their  Loves 
 
 and  Lovers  ;  their  Jealousies  and  Revenges. 
 Of  Fashion,  Luxury,  Dissipation,  and  Extravagance  in  Paris. 
 Of  the  Famous  Balls  of  Paris;  oi  Jar  din  Mahille;  Closerie  det  Lilaa ;  of  the  Carnival;  its 
 
 Masquerades  and  Revelries. 
 Of  the  Tuileries,  the  Louvre,  Versailles,  St.  Cloud,  Fontainebloau,  and  St.  Germain. 
 Of  the  Catacombs  ; — those  Wonderful  Cities  of  the  Dead  that  underlie  the  Gay  Capital  jf 
 
 France. 
 Of  the  Domi-Mondo,  with  Sketches  of  its  Famous  Characters. 
 
 Of  Swindlers,  Gamblers,  Thieves,  Adventurers,  Beggars,  Street  Characters,  Ac,  <tc. 
 Of  all   that   is   great,  noble,   gcneroua,   magnificent,  vicious,  brilliant,  startling,  genteel  or 
 
 shabbj-,  and  of  nil  that  is  interesting  and  worthy  of  notice  in  the  Beautiful  City. 
 In  one  large  volume  of  over  800  pages,  embellished  and   illustrated  with  more  than  150 
 fine   Engravings  of  noted  places,  life  and  scenes  in  Paris,  and  furnished  to  Subscribers 
 
 Elegantly  Bound  in  Fine  Morocco  Cloth at  83.50  per  Copy 
 
 "  "  "  Leather,  (Library  Style,) at  $4.00 
 
 AGENTS  WANTED.    Address,   NATIONAL  PUBLISHING  CO., 
 
 Philadelphia,  Pa.,  Chicago,  111.,  St.  Louis,  Mo.,    or  Atlanta,  Ga. 
 
DATE  DUE 
 
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