St. Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (St. Charles City [Charles City], Iowa) 1857-1861, 1858-07-15
G6t gntelligentrr.
The Mormon Exodus.

ih'h cAouuS lIoiIl INC DCSCrct, south
ward to northern Mexico. We sec nc
reason why he should do SO. except
the, TO him, very strong one that, II
they leave altogether, he will have a
desert to govern. The very best
thing for the United States would be
to make the same concession TO thc
Saints as is said, a st. Louis Jury
once made to criminal on trial,
when they gave as their verdict not
guilty, if he'll leave these parts |! "
Let them GO whittier they will, any
where out of our territory, "witlI all
their virtues, all their errors :" and
we shall have good radiance. 1t will
be well, as it would be just, to arrest
and punish the tratorous ringlcaders
who have deluded the people into re-
sistance to Federal authority. These
have committed treason, and should
suffer for it. But the body of the pco-
pie have been mere silly victims, and
should be considered sufficiently pun
ishcd by their present dcstitution, if
they will only go away and stay
away. Bad pennies and i'll deeds
would not be near so bad as they are,
had they not the disagrccablc quality
of returning to plague us. Deprive
sins of their retributive power, and
they would be far easier to be borne
by the tender conscience. So, could
we have n guarantee Of the final end
of troubles from the Mormons by their
unimpcdcd departure, in the name of
peace let them depart. We think we
may safely trust to the quiet OF our
future relations with them after they
shall have left our soil.
1t has been suggested by New
York paper that it would be proper
for our Government to make some
provision for the MormOns in their
flight, in order to save them from the
miseries of starvation and dcstitution
on the plains, in their wild march over
five hundred miles of waste country,
before they can reach the ella river,
and their further journey of hundred
miles beyond, to Mexico. This would
be indeed vast strain Of the quality
of mercy. Rather let us say, in the
language Of Scripture in regard to
matrimonial dcscrtcrs from duty, "if
the mbclieving depart, let him de-
part" In such cases, the deserted
care not under bondage" to aid in
the desertion. Our Government does
not deny the right of cxpatriaton
but, at the same time, it does not lend
aid i'll reducing its working population.
Z Besids, by lending aid, we should
doubtless disappoint them in their
eagerness to gain the crown Of martyr
dom, by duplicating, in their expert
encc, the wandering of the Israclites
in the Wilderness before reaching the
promised land. Happy would it be if
their wandering could last for like
period of forty years for, at the end
of that time, they would be as a drop
in the ocean when compared with the
vast population that will then people
the shores of the Pacific, and could no
longer disturb lis with their puny
treason.
1t is thought probable that Young
has fixed on Sonora as the final place
of refuge for his people 1t remains
to be seen how agreeable this may be
to the authorities of Mexico, who, how
ever, could offer but little resistance
to these members of the Church mill
tant Itmay be that this movement
is to be the means of separating So
nora from Mexico, and making it an
independent State. In that case, as
the Mormons would hardly seek for
union with us, their Government
might remain a separate sovereignty,
presenting the strange spectacle of an
absolute religious despotism, sur
rounded by States wherein is perma-
nently established, more fully than cv-
er before on earth, the great principle of
the independence and the total sepa-
ration of Church and State. Yet such
a political and religious anomaly can
not exist, or at least cannot last The
ingress of the freer element of our en-
lightened people would soon leavcn
the whole lump of Mormonism, that its
inentity would be lost, and it wonld
finally be forever merged, purified,
and forgotten in the universal, allper-
vading principles Of our modern sys-
TEN of free democracy. Should Nor
monism continue to cling to our CONT
nent, its life must rapidly wanc, and
soon perish totally. 1t would CON
tinue for while longer its doomed
existence, let it repair to some distant
island of the far-off ocean, where,
among savages, and with savage
practices that civilization can never
cpuntenance, it might quietly "spend
the respite of that day that must be
mortal" to it and its devotees before
many generations shall have passed
from the earth.
ANOTHER New CENr-Thc Govern
ment, very properly Disguised with
that most atrocious Of coinages, the