Daily Nashville patriot. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1857-1858, 1857-11-25
N NASHVILLE:
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1857.
The mOrmOns, and The General GOV eTn"

The MOrmOns, and sb e General Govern"
ment.
The rise and progress Of the Mormons at
the time and in the midst of the general
intelligence which prevails every where
around them, presents an anomaly in the
| general history of our times and our go
vernment as dsagreeable to the political
powers that be as it is interesting to the
| mere casuist. Professedly a religious sect
| in the outset, basing their faith on new
revelation and the institution of a new mes
senger of the Divine will, combining the
two characters Of apostle and prophet,
book of doctrine and ceremonial has grown
up, ten times more absurd than the Alec
ran Of the Moslem of a dozen centuries
ago. In its very inception its tenets as
sumed all the airs of the most restless and
| intolerant fanaticism. But few years
! elapsed before the prime Prophet had
marked out a line of civil policy which was
Immediately engrafted into his religious be-
| liefs, and at once became part and par
| eel of it. 1t was in direct conflict with the
laws Of the country in which he was born,
! and which assured him and his followers
| the right of worship as their consciences
dictated He established hierarchy in
! the midst of the Republic, openly defying
I the laws and authority of the latter. He
met with opposition by necessity, but in
proportion to this opposition did his own
arrogance and assumption and the zeal and
/ violence of mis- followers, increase. So
fractions and defiant he became, that he
openly threatened to seize the Office of
chief magistrate of the Union, and make
the people and the government subservient
to his dictation. Collision and conflict
were inevitable, and while the sefsuffcient
! prophet was prOclaiming himself invulnera-
! bic ard Omnipotent, he was struck down
and died. This was 10. SMITH. Other
leaders and prophets sprang up to fill his
place-the temple was abandoned, and this
infatuated people pitched their tents farther
toward the West. And finally under the
pressure of the laws for the preservation of
good order and good government, they fed
beyond the limits of organized society, and
took up their habitation in the wilderness
of the Territory of Utah.
They now proclaim themselves sovereign
aud independent. They refuse to recog-
Mise the authority or superiority Of the Uni
ted States over them. They have assert
ed their opposition aud proclaimed their
defiance. They have spurned the officers
sent out by the President to manage the
affairs of the territory; they have denoun-
ced the Judges and destroyed the records
of the Federal Courts, they have sent in
! fiammatory messages to the government
authorities, they have thrown themselves
! in the pathway Of communication between
the Atlantic and Pacific States, burnt
trains of wagons freighted with munitions
| and stores, which were for government
| purposes, merely for entering their terri
tory, and GtiIl more recently, they have
set upon and murdered peaceful citizens
! of Arkansas and Missouri while emigra-
ting to California. The government has
hitherto pursued a course of treatment to-
wards them, such as was fitting from
community of sane men, to a community
of lanatics-that of fOrbearance and ten
der remonstrance. This they have spurn-
ed, and are growing every day more and
more refractory and insolent Tie time
seems to be approaching when it is prop
er to assert the paramount authority of
the general government, and to coerce
obedience to the civil law of the land
With this view the President has ordered
a military force to the territory. Brig
ham Young, however, meets the comman-
ding officer with peremptory command
that he shall not enter the territory-and
intimates that if he comes he comes at
the hazard Of blood. That this will be
the final result, the present aspect of af-
fairs leaves room for little doubt. The
MormOns seem possessed with the idea
that the Government has set itself up in
hostility to them, and if we are to take
the proclamation of Young, as any evil
dence of the serious intentions of his peo-
! pie, they are resolved to resist to the last
extremity. We have no reliable data up
on which to rest an estimate of their
numbers; but it is stated that they claim
to have sixty thousand fighting men.
/ They are certainly strong enough to give
| the government much trouble; and they
may be able to prolong the struggle far
beyond what most people are inclined to
suppose 1t is certain that the force al
ready sent by the President is wholly in
adequate to accomplish the end desired
1t will require much more formidable
array OF numbers, and vigor Of action, than
he seems to have calculated The season
is now so far advanced, as that nothing
decisive can be done until the opening of
the next Spring-when we suppose the
ball will be opened in earnest.
T,ha