Weekly national intelligencer., 1850-03-02

We very much doubt, however, whether Congress
would have granted such petition. II is entirely
against the spirit Of our legislation to besow any
such favor on large organized secfs 1t never mas
been done, and it may be doubted whether 1t ever
ought to be. There are about twenty thousand
Shakers in New York and the Eastern States; they
own valuable tracts of land, honestly bought and
paid for. acquired by gift. Suppose they should
with or without reason) become odious to their
neighbors, be the subjects of general persecution,
and finally be driven by violence from their present
homes does any man suppose for moment that
Congress would grant them an ample tract out OF
the public domain! Would such grant be made
to ana sect--to Mennonites, Morayians, Rapplsts,
to Trnitarans or Untarians, Orthodox or Liberal
Is there any one of the hundred sects that fill the
dictionary OF denominations, to which Congress
would grant an acre of land, or even charter OF
incorporation? We think not.
But Congress is asked to make to this sect, not
of Christians but of Mormons of believers not in
Jesus Christ but of Joe Smith, more than impe-
rial grant to bestow upon them, not a township,
but region as large as Great Britain not an act
of Incorporation but an act of admission, on terms
of equal membership, to this Union of States
The name by which the Mormons have begun
to call their new settlement and propose ocall their
new State, is Deseret and if there were no other
objection to this name, it would be sufficient and
fatal objection that it's adoption by Congress would
be direct recognition of the wretched fraud called
the Book of Mormon. The following is the ac-
count which we find cited from the frontier
Guardian {" The name selected for that country
+ is borrowed from the Book Of Mormon, where
i description is given of a voyage OF the ancient
Jaredites, from the tower Of Babel to the Amerl
can Continent, more than four thousand years
ago. 1t is said that they brought with them seeds
Ill I,lc xvhi hxyi infar
pretation is the " honey-bee." The bee and the
hive being emhlems of industry, the citizens there,
wishing ever to exhibit those qualifications, Have
chosen The above name, as being adapted to the
character which they ever wish to sustain.
It is unnecessary to state that this whole attempt
to connect the history of the Mormons-a sect of
fanatics formed in our own day-with the disper-
sion of mankind at the tower Of Babel is pure fc-
ton. 1t is part of the romance to which we
alluded above, and which Joe Smith adopted as his
revelation. There is not the slightest reason for
thinking that the word Deseret means Honey Bee
in any language ever spoken by man. We have
seen it stated, and that in respectable journal, that
Deseret is the ancient Egyptian word for Bee. Of
this we have seen no proof. Sir GARDNER VIII
KINsoN does not appear TO have known the ancient
Egyptian. name of the bee, (see his Manners and
Customs, second series, vol. l, p Sl,) and if not
known to him, it is not likely to have been known
to any one else. 1t fact, we understand that the
Mormons do not themselves pretend that Deseret
is the ancient Egyptian word for bee J; but that a
certain ancient race called Jaredes (eXisting only
in the imagination of Joe, Smith and his foowers)
brought from the tower Of Babel something which
| they called Deseret, and which is, by Mormon in
depreciation, honey bee. The entire Book of Nor
mon being forgery out of the whole cloth, it is of
course idle to discuss the meaning of any thing
tanned in it. But we protest against the incorpo-
ration Of any of this argon into the statutebook of
the United States.
We have lately seen in the Washington papers
handsome testimonials to the moral character of the
Mormons in their present location; to their thrift,
good conduct, and consequent general prosperity.
4 How far these testimonials are well-founded we do
not know. We do not at all enter into the question
Of the morality of the Mormons, nor in the slightest
degree apologize for the treatment which they re-
ceived in Missouri and Illinois. At the same time,
however, there isreason for believing that they hold
some dangerous principles of practical morality,
which should make Congress pause before they
constitute them coequal sovereign member of this
Union. If their future history is to resemble the
past Congress, in taking steps to organize them into
permanent political community, will be laying the
foundation Of convulsions of most dangerous
character. ii they were, or were believed to be, a
community which neither Missouri nor Illinois
would tolerate, even to the number of few thou
sands, is it likely that they live in peace and
harmony with neighboring States, when they them
selves have grown into powerful State, welded
by artfu chiefs who pretend to add Divine to human
power!
1t has been publicly stated by seeding members
Of the Mormon body that their leaders already
threaten vengeance for the wrongs they have suffer-
ed; and among the wild visions of Joe Smiths
heated brain that of acting over again the part
of Mahomet, and founding new Mormon caEphate
on this continent We may smile at the egregious
absurdity of these deusions, and yet not think it
prudent to assist his followers, already Boosting
Of their tens Of thousands, to plant themselves on
the high-road to California, and give them complete
control of our line of communication between the
Atlantic assd Pacific oceans. FRANKhfN
| FROM IRELAND.