True American. [volume] (Steubenville [Ohio]) 1855-1861, 1857-12-09
VOL. 3.NO. 3. il!l 40.


succeeded very well, his decisions upon
the bench were generally just and impair
tal and we have seen him. not unlrequent-
ly, render decision in favor Of Geu-
tile--as they term outsiders--against
Mormon, but rather suspected that this
was stoke Of policy. AS a landlord,
we never knew one more affable, obliging'
and gentlemanly, and as we stayed at his
hotel with other Gentle travellers, we
had goodopportunity 10 know i was
very rare that we could get him to speak
about his religion. and when we intro.
duced the subject, he usually turned it
aside with Jest. We never heard him
preaching, as he usually left that to 9TH
ers, Rigdon, Farley, and Orson Pratt,
Miller and Strong, were the principal
preachers. We heard him prophecy sew
eral times, His prophecies were usually
rhapsodies, without any point, He gave
several revelations, which he said were
directly received from God; they were
usually about some improvement in the
city, or orders to tax boats. or to The
people to supply him with provisions.--
Iii person, he was large and stout, inclin.
ed to be corpulent. stoop.shouldered,
rather jolly face, large nose, receding
forehead, with the animal Of his brain
largely predominant. Altogether, we
would sooner look on him as Jolly,
boon companion in drinking bout than
the founder of a new religion. Il is not
our intention here TO give a history Of
the Mormons as that has been often done
but merely to relate what we know.
After close reading Of their books, es.
pecially the book Of Mormon, which
treats very little about religious matters,
and conyersing with their chief men, we
concluded as follows: that the mormon
religion was compound Judaism, which
was shown by their sometimes offering
sacri fees, and .la,terly-but not then
by the plurality Of wives, and the doc
trine of Baptists from their always i'm
mersing, and Methodism, from their doc
trine Of free will and other points, Of
Catholicism, from their belief in an inter-
mediate state after death, similar to pur-
gatory, from which release could only be
obtained by some one volunteering 10 be
baptised for the dead we saw one man
. immersed in two days twenty-six times
Q for different relatives, who had died; as
it was pretty cold weather and he was
immersed in the Mississippi river, we
] gave him the credit Of being sincere in
q his belief. He was an Englshman, had
f been very wealthy, but had sacrificed all
0 10 the promotion Of his faith.
i, Each member of the church was bound
; to give the one.tenlh of the increase of
s his productions to the support Of the
/. church, and the one-tenth Of his time ia
e the building Of the temple, and such other
= purposes as the head of the church might
t. require. All were bound at all times and
without question, to obey any order given
II by the prophet, no matter what might be
g its import, as every such order was sup
D, posed to emanate from the Almighty
ID through the Prophet. This gave him al
unlimited and dangerous power. AL
ID we're required to abstain from liquors o
1t every kind, and from tea, coffee and su
" gar, as useless super lauities, this they did
Sc indeed, as 10 the exte rna! forms of thei
IN religion, we never saw a more rigid peo
pie. They believed in miracles, such a
n. healing the sick, etc. We saw some at
ad tempts at this imposture, but they wer'
&all transparent failures. They believes
ID in the speaking Of unknown tongues
in this we also saw, but what language wa
er spoken we could not tell, we believe
nd the words 10 be coined for the purpose
mt having no meaning. In conduct and be
en- havior, they were exemplary, and
more orderly and better governed cit
than Nauvoo we never saw. Their ra
cality was all outside and in secret. Th
or system Of polygamy was not then Intro
~ duced, but from what we observed, thel
" ~ is no doubt that Joe Smith was then COZ
vo W. cocting some such idea, but not as no
,ro established among them. He ahad b,
ho M one vile, and devotedly attached to her
!, she was not Mormon and does not z
;ro side with them.
Tvs We have thus given an outline Of Il
he Mormons as we saw them personally, al
es although we saw nothing but what vi
sss orderly among them, and believed th
ble they were badly treated in many thing
e a vet we then considered that they we
all laying the germ Of a dangerouSpeople.-
q a We have no faith in any such commun
lie. lies, and do not believe they should
ent permitted in any country, as they will |
nti always running counter to Governme
GUS in their private CONTROL particularly
they are religious community. HC
the the matter will terminate with them
ha. the present quarrel, time only will te
Joe but most likely there will be much bio
and shed, this might have been prevented
fed energetic, timely action. but it is TOO !
Ieu,. now for temporizing.
have So far as we observed, naliys kms
and cans were BY no means majority amC
\ them. 'rhe majority we're Eugli.
VOC, there wero many Nvrweeiaus
gion Swedes, with some from all parts
WOO EuroneI axcank Scoiland and Ireland