New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1851-01-30

Correspondence OF the National Era
GREAT SALT LAKE CITY, Sept 20, 1850.
The general term Desert may with much pro-
priety be applied to all the country included In the
Great Interior Basin and all lying between the
Great b asin and the Missouri and Arkansas NV
ers, embracing nearly all Of our recent purchase
from Mexico and much OF our former territory
There is here and there fertile valley which Is
an exception
Perhaps of all this vast country, one twentieth
part is arabic land. The largest tract of fertile
land lies Just within the eastern rim of the Great
Basin, Nobsatch mountains, and the Utah and
Great Salt Lakes. This is about 200 miles long,
and varies from ) to 40 miles in breadth, bat
even in this valley there is much barren land, and
much that requires artificial irrigation.
Beside this great valley, there are several
small valleys and GASES in the Great Basin, but
they are mostly SO small so far apart, and so bad
ly timbered that they will never be settled while
there is any unoccupied land in the valley Of the
Mississippi.
Even the Great Salt Lake valley would in all
probability have remained unsettled for years to
come, had not the Mormons been compelled by
persecution to seek within the limits OF Catholic
Mexico that freedom Of conscience which was de-
MED them in our own country.
But this persecution, like that which drove the
Pilgrim Fathers to the shores OF New-England,
was destined in the course Of events to work 6
great good. .
Having felt thu yoke themselves, Liberty, with
them. is something more than a cOrd and, IN or
eapizing their infant State, their first care as to
guarantee 10 every one who shall choose TO settle
within their borders, the most perfect liberty OF
person and conscience.
And believing that those who are sent tat0 the
world have q right to live on the world, they al
low every one as much of the earths surface as
he can occupy subject only TO the expense OF sur
vey and registry, and such regulations as are ne
ceEsary 10 prevent fraud.
There has been no legislation on the subject Of
Slavery as their Constitution declares, and the
people believe, that all men are created free and
equal and they very sensibly conclude that
Slavery can have no legal existence where II has
never been legalized.
There are indeed q few black persons perhaps
hundred, in the valley, who have been sent IN
by and who still live with their former masters,
but they are not considered as SiGres and have
been told by Brigham Young who is Governor OF
the State President of the Church, high Priest,
Revelator, &c. that the idea OF property III men
would not be entertained moment by any Court
in the State-snd with the Mormons' tsnd the
people here are nearly all Mormonsl the voice OF
Brigham is the voice of GoG.
This is a singular community consistency and
inconsistency, light and darkness, olgotry and
liberation are strangely Blended
Reasoning clearly and logically, as they 90, re-
speeding mans natural rights and duties ana nav
ing established the largest liberty for others tney
are themselves the UefeSt SGU6S OF the priesthood
Over religious and protesting an Snooanded
reverence for all things sacred, believing lhst
they are the chosen people, and have dlFeet com
munication with God himself, they maze the oaO-
bath day OF amusement and recreation, OF 4AlIs
and fGndangoes; and profanity Is as common mere
as pray ers are at Oberlin Even the priests can,
many OF them, utter oaths that would make an
ordinary Christian mans hair stand up
Collected as they are from al parts OF the
world, and having been mobbed anu peIaeoo ts
and driven from Ohio 10 Missouri, and from MIS-
sour 20 Illinois and from Illinois 70 the deserts
and mountains, they are still deyotediy attached
TO the American Union, and would stand oy II,
and defend il 10 the very last. In isct the! De-
heve that the Constitution OF the nlted states
Was written by Inspiration and Whatever DINERS
may do, they intend 10 defend It, aud support H.
till the final contamination Of all things. Ihey
saw that our Government is the best that the
world ever has produced, or ever rHt produce I'll
Jesus Christ shall cone and claim the + afth as his
Inheritance and reign over II himself
There is but little known respecting their rell-
giOus creed BY the world a. large, ana even the
more ignorant saints, as they call themselves,
have never penetrated the sublime srcana OF their
religion.
A belief that 10 Smith and his successors were
prophets, and held intercourse wiki the other
world, aud possessed sll the gifts bestowed upon
the Disciples, and that the book OF Mormon vas
discovered and translated by Inspiration, is usually
bat this is by no means the case. Though COM
meneed In ignorance, they have faAlly perfected
grand theory, in the construction Of which the
my sto lore OF the Brshmins and the traditions OF
the Jews, and the precepts Of M&homet, and the
vsgsries OF SwedeRborg, all seem to have been
pressed into the service and having sifted culled
and abridged. al these different systems TIL they
in some measure coalesce, they have cemented
them together with a few ideas Of their own, and
this is Mormonism.
/ believe that no one who has witnessed the
friendship and harmony that prevail here, and
shared the hospitality OF these people, and seen
their industry, and tragalty, and 1enevolence,
viii Quarrel with them about their religion. how
ever strange or absurd il may seem.
l assure you it is a pleasant sight, after having
travelled twelve hundred miles across the deserts
and mountains. to look down upon this beautiful
valley, with its lakes and mountains, and noun
tans and lakes, and dotted all over with the little