New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-06-10
shipping Of our Gold to pay for. We cannot
| dDnhf II


ter TO The Ian Buren, (Ark.) InteLIigenoer, which
only preves the depth Of her deusiOn ard the hope
less nsture Of her insanity. She stil persists IN
Der adherence TO foolish faith which has de-
stroyed her domestic peace, and in regarding the
worthless impOster whO has been sent TO his ac-
count as prophet and martyr. The letter Is ev-
identity the production of lunatc who should at
once be sent for medical treatment to hospital.
Nor are We able to see why other unfortunate We
tins Of this astonishing mania might not
legally and humanely be treated as acknow-
ledged madmen and mad women are treated
Certainly, there could be no objection to COM
batting promptly and stringenty such hid
eOus talucinatiOD. The case Of Mrs. Mclean,
although it is not by any means singular one,
affords striking Illustration Of the pernicous and
demoralizng effect Of fanaticsm. She fancied that
,he was converted by the gospel Of Joseph Smith.
She Immediately commenced 6 series of attempts
10 worry her husband into the same faith. She
managed to have her children candestlnely bap-
tied by I. T. Pratt. She taught their young lips
TO utter blaspbemous nonsense, which she called
PRAYER. She abscOnded from her husbands house,
and finally stole her offspring that she might take
them TO Utah. Her insanity is perfect and abso.
lutte. She writes incOherently and absurdy. She
compares Elder Pratt with our Savior and adj
mits that she washed his feet and combed his hair.
She hardly seeks to disguise the fact that she had
been for some time living with him adulterOusly.
When, after tie perusal of letter so lament
able, We pause TO consider the nature Of the pre-
tension which has mised this unfortunate
woman, we are astoni,hed to find it so utterly
fimsy and meaningless. We have taken some
pains to investigate the subject; we have read
few Mormon sermons, and we have peeped into a
Mormon "Bible." We confess that we have
never met with faith SO utterly without fOunda-
ton, so purposeless and so senseless We are able
TO trace the origin of MAN. -elglou. aciusi0fs.
Tie followers Of Joanna SOuth.Ote and Of Mother
Lee, seem really to have believed in something
definite. MCbammedism aud Buddhism have a sort
Of fixed creed. The idolaters of the Southern Sea
can boast a certain theology, nor is a thread want
ING By VII CD we can trace their excuses to dis
torted and perverted truth But Mormonism is
puzzle. 1t began in the freak of sick man, who
amused himself by writing an imitation Of
the Holy Scriptures. Its originator was black
guard without intelligence, learning or cultivation.
Its prominent supporters since that time have been
men Of the same class. The sermons which are
preached in its temples are merely incoherent
arragOes of slang, smut and nonsense. Its profess
sors assume to be saints, without vouchsafng even
a nominal proof of their saintliness In truth, the
scoundrels W no have deluded so many people prove
nothing teach nothing, and come to no conclusion.
The Mormon religion is all comprised in an asserted
sanctity.
1t is clearly evident that such scheme, so empty
and nane must soon have exhausted its materials
of deluson in spite of the dabolcal ingenuity ofts
inventors had not pains been taken to graft upon
something which, if not religious was at least tan
eible. The doctrine of polygamy gave to the Salt
Lake faith that which it so sibnaly lacked-an in
element temptation and stimulus-and this is,
in fact the length and breadth and thickness of it
ALL Take out the plurality of wives and the whole
scheme becomes markedly nothing, that all the
religious fanatcism in the world would hardly
it a convert But there is th. low temptation, this
appeal to unbaowed lust, this play upon curiosl-
ty, this practice upon the morbid minds of men
and women. Its main strength is in its novelty
and oddity. Bad men think that it must be very
fine thing to have seventy wives, aud weak women
long to know by actual experience what 1t IS to
be the inhabtant of harem. And It is this promise
Of Paradise, infinitely more sensual than that OF
Mobsmmed. which has besotted the male and Sc
duced the female converts to MormOnsm. It's by
taking strange and bcwilderiDg step toward bar
barsm, that Brigham Young has secured so many
followers.
OF course crime so alien to the spirit OF the
age and to civilized customs would have Dut snors
existence if il were committed in locality acces-
sible to ordinary influences. Unfortunately, II Is
practced thousands of miles from the places IN
which it is preached, and that distance winch lends
enchantment TO the view precudes effective e1er-
ton for its abolition. 1t must, then, either be
taken in hand by the Government, "hch mas
clear right to interfere with it, so far as 1t rebels
against federal authority or else it must be allowed
to remain and work out its own explosion Inc
Government has thus far done nothing, nor IS there
any certainty that anything viii be done But we
may safely assume that, even without such inter-
ference such an establishment as that az Salt Lake
cannot long endure in the nlneteenIh century on
the American continent.
The Richmond Enquirer, in an article on The deg
iirv e. ENGLAND INDUCES in some preliminary specu-