Washington telegraph., 1849-10-24
From the st. LoWss ReueaIIe.
THE STATE OF DESEREE.

s,.currences of the age in which we live
= the settlement. organization, and build
;uo up of the Mormon State of Deseret.
-Four wears ago not solitary white man
h.d fixed his abode in this State, and
nov more than sixty thousand people.
:, ;th city and towns, manufactures,
ond all the needful elements of comfort
and happiness are collected and organized
into a sovereign State, with well-order-
ed constitutions regular system OF lu-
d;cia tribunals, and an efficient executive
authority. Surely the foundation and
the growth of such community. in such
, space of time, is one Of the wonders OF
modern times Warred upon, prosecuted
and treated with contumely and contempt
ubereyer they set their feet within the
hounds of our Union, these enthusiastic
neople. despairing of peace and quiet
within our borders, sacrificed their prop
ertv and severed all the ties of home and
kindred to seek out, in the midst of de-
sert wilderness, an oasis whereon they
MIGHT hope to live undisturbed, and in the
free exercise of their natural rights, A
little over three years ago the first OF
their parties crossed the Missouri river.
Since that time each spring has opened
with thousands of their families and wag-
,ous traversing the vast plains which
stretch from the line of the State to the
Rocky Mountains. Patiently and perse-
veringly hard they toiled onward and
onward, beset by poverty, harassed ny
the ferocious savage, and prosecuted by
their brethren Of the white race, until,
/ issuing into narrow but rich valley in
terposed between the Utah Lake and the
Timpanogos chain of mountains, they re-
turued tina nks to that God who watcheth
over the forlorn and the afflicted, and
fixed their solitary home. Here their lit
tie community has continued to augment
until it has grown into powerful State.
with all the attributes Of political power
and sovereignty.
A strange, wild place is this home of the
Mormons. On the east stupendons
chain of mountains stretches from North
TO South as far as the eye eau reach,
crowned with gltterlng coronet OF snow
from the SUBMITS of which numerous
streams pour their pellucld waters-now
winding through deep gorges. and again
leaping in dash:ng cascades with myrlads
of raiubows trembling over tnem. 10
the north, sterile plains, east of the great
Salt Lake, expand III solitary desolatlon.
Towards the west, the Great Lake itself,
in the bosom Of which no living thing
moves or breathes, fills the mind with
melancholy awe; aud far beyond it vast sa-
vannahs of land, with saline etf1oresences
are intersected by rugged ridges aud beet
inc cliffs. Aud south aud southwest
rich bench OF soil follows the base of the
Tmpanogos and Wasatch mour tains,
until it unites with the broad, rich valley
of the Joaquin. The valley itself, in
which they have laid out their central city,
villages and farms. has a deep fertile soil,
which covers itself every spring with
rich profuslon o. grasses, shrubs and flow
ers.
In the preamble of their constitution
the Mormous claim the territory "cOm-
mencing at the thirty-third deg. north lat.
itude where it crosses the one hundred
and eigth deg. longitude. west of Green
wich: thence running south and west to
the northern boundary of Mexico; thence
west to and down the main channel of
the Gila river, on the northern line of
Mexico, and on the northern boundary
of Lower California to the Pacific ocean;
thence along the coast north-westerly to
the one hundred and eighteenth deg.
thirty minutes of west longitude; thence
north to where said line intersects the
dividing ridge of the Sierra Nevada noun
talns, thence north, along the summit of
the Sierra Nevada mouutalus, to the di-
vldlng range OF mountains that separates
the waters lowing into the Columbia
river from the waters running into the
Great Basin thence easterly along the
dividing range ui mountains that separates
said waters flowing into the Columbia
river OIL the north from the waters flow
ing into the Great Basin on the south, to
the summit of the Wind river chain of
mountains; thence southeast and south,
by the dividing range of mountains that
separates the waters flowing into she Gulf
OF Mexico from the waters flowing into
the Gulf OF California, to the place of be.
ginning, as set forth in map drawn by
Charles Preuss, and published by order of
the Senate of the United States, in l84S"
We think it probable that the Congress
OF the Union will not admit of these
boundaries. For ourselves, we think the
natural boundaries for the Mormon COM
munlty are those watered by the streams
which flow into the Great Basin, This
boundary is distinctly marked by the di-
vldIug ridge between the Bear and Cola
Iado on the east, the ridge between the
basin aud the waters of the Columbia Oh
the north. the ridge between the waters
OF the Pacific and the Basin on the south
aud southeast, and the Sierra Nevada on
the west